Phil Lilley

All the lakes in the White River Chain of Lakes are almost to their seasonal power pool levels, but we have some rain forecast for the whole basin this weekend that might prolong generation below each dam. Right now, we're looking at three to four inches Thursday through Saturday morning with some snow mixed in. But I'm wondering how accurate this forecast is and hoping, of course, that it's wrong. What's nice about fishing below a dam is that you experience a variety of different conditions. We've seen three units or 9,500 cubic feet per second of water flowing for the past month, and while fishing has been pretty good, we're wanting a change, preferably less is better. We did get a small change this morning -- operators have dropped the flow from Table Rock Dam from 9,500 to 6,800 c.f.s. for a few hours, signaling that a change is about to happen. But we'll see what the rains bring this weekend. Most of our normal fishing techniques are working, but nothing is working to the degree I would call "hot." We catching trout on jigs, jerk baits, the pink worm, night crawlers, Powerbait, scuds, egg flies and San Juan worms. We're drifting and dragging the bottom, casting and working a jig or jerk bait and fishing a pink worm or scud under a float. The Landing area is producing a lot of small rainbows ,probably freshly stocked. But I've also seen some pictures of big rainbows caught down there, so you never know. Monkey Island is fishing decent. Drifting the area from our resort through Cooper Creek has been just okay, but we have seen some bigger rainbows come off the bluff bank. The best area to catch nice rainbows below the trophy area has been from Fall Creek to Short Creek using night crawlers and drifting small jerk baits on the bottom. Our guides, the few trips they are taking, have done well fishing the pink worm under a float, but they fish it deep -- up to 11 feet deep according to Guide Bill Babler. But that technique is producing good rainbows. In the trophy area, Guide Steve Dickey is drifting #12 - #14 gray or tan scuds on the bottom and catching good numbers with some rainbows pushing 18 inches. Guide Duane Doty is throwing his custom-painted jerk baits at the crack of dawn for a couple of hours and doing fairly well, although he hasn't caught any big trout longer than 20 inches lately. Dock hand Blake has been throwing a jig most days, faring the best on black/gray, white/gray and sculpin/ginger (brown head.) He's throwing a 3/32nd- or an 1/8th-jig using four-pound line if he's fishing the trophy area. But we've been switching to two-pound line and smaller 1/16th- and 1/32nd-ounce jigs working the slower water from above the resort down through the Branson Landing. I've been doing well on black/yellow, black/fl. flame and white/black. One other thing I'll mention. When Table Rock Lake turns over in late fall, it kicks up silt on the big lake then we get the silt. The turn over usually happens the first or second week of December but this year it happened almost 30 days early. It takes about a month for the silt to settle out at which time our water becomes very clear again. So, our lake water is already clear when it usually is silty so we're going to 2-pound line now over 4-pound in a lot of instances. Food for thought. View full article

Years ago, I ran a 90 prop on a 20' shawnee... front stick stirring too. Felt like I was flying over the water. Yeah it was scary... at first.

I’m sure Duane and Blake will be around too

There’s a couple coming down staying in a separate unit. Your crew, Seth and Les. That’s it far as I know. I have salmon and smoked chicken. Anytime is needed

Generation has stayed the same all week so there's no change in my report for Lake Taneycomo as far as water release. Beaver has dropped a couple of feet but weekend rains have kept it from dropping even more. Table Rock's level has risen a bit but they will all start going down as run off water slows down. We should see this flow at least through this week. One of the hot lures is the small jerk baits Duane and Blake have been demonstrating on One Cast. There's a variety of baits you can use just as long as they are floating and anywhere from 4 to 5.5 inches long. Duane, and now Blake, custom paint their baits to look like shad, rainbows or sculpin but there again, there are baits out there that you can buy that look pretty close to what they're making. Here's a video Duane did explaining how he fishes them. We have some knock-off baits in our shop for sale and I've ordered several hundred due to come in next week. As Duane says, you lose a lot of these baits due to snagging on the bottom so don't go out and spend a lot of money on them. But they have been working very well! I got out the other day and drifted some PowerEggs with the grandkids down close to Monkey Island. Ended up catching a half dozen rainbows in the short time we were out. You have to use pretty small weights, even with the 3 units running, if you're fishing down lake because the current is pretty slow. I was using a #4 split shot but a 1/8th ounce bell weight would be fine. I've also heard there's a lot of rainbows to be caught doing the same thing from Scotty's Trout Dock down through the Branson Landing area. You just have to be careful of the wind in that area. View full article

If you're not coming because of the "double occupancy" just come on. I'm putting DJ in a 4 bedroom so there's plenty of room.

Gentlemen. People are calling my office and asking about this weekend. They don’t know anything about it because no one has contacted me, as asked. So I haven’t told them anything. So who’s coming?

Looks like a small crew. We still have a lot of rooms open so lodging and boats are no problem. Just let me know what day you’re arriving so I can tell the office. Water isn’t going to slow down for a while.

They opened up Beaver Dam and increased Table Rock's outflow today. They're really dropping Beaver too... be interesting how fast it'll get down to power pool. Dropped .2 feet in 8 hours. They increased flow at Taneycomo from 2 to 3 units steady. This will all delay Bull Shoals drop. I read where they've forecasted the gates will be shut there January 4th. I'm really glad to see they're getting serious about moving some water through although I was liking the 1-2 units here on Taney.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last report for Lake Taneycomo, and that's because there hasn't been much change. Generation is holding steady at about two units, or 7,000 cubic feet per second of flow, but we're about to see a change, I think. Table Rock Lake's level is now 914.8 feet, a few inches below its seasonal power pool which is 915 feet. Monday's flow dropped slightly, maybe because Table Rock is at power pool. The question now is what is the plan since no rain is forecast in the next week to 10 days. Beaver Lake is still pretty high but dropping slightly at 1,127.5 feet. That's 7.5 feet above the seasonal power pool. It's dropping about an inch per day. I would think officials would need to drop Beaver's level to power pool, but there seems to be no hurry. Bull Shoals, on the other hand, is still dropping about a foot a day and should be down to seasonal power pool by the end of the week. So what's next for Taneycomo and generation? I would think slower releases or no generation -- or both. We're starting to see more midge hatches, especially towards evening. Trout are hitting the surface, taking both dries and emergers. I haven't tried them yet, but I'd think zebra midges should be working, fished under an indicator 12 to 24 inches deep. Also, if the fish are rising, strip a soft hackle, crackleback or even a wooly, and you should get some chasers. Fishing Monday under a blue bird sky and high sun there were no clouds and very little wind. About 6,000 c.f.s. of water was running, which is a nice flow for fishing about anywhere. I drifted from Lookout Island to the Narrows twice, trying the spin and fly rods. I threw a small 1/32nd -ounce black/yellow jig with two-pound line but had no luck. With a #12 gray scud under an indicator about six-feet deep, I caught two rainbows; with a #14 brown zebra midge under a float four- to five-feet deep, three small rainbows were netted. That was almost two hours of hard fishing, which, in my book,isn't that good. Flat water, I thought, was my problem. I could see fish but nothing was moving; they weren't feeding. I decided to drift on through the Narrows where the current picks up and the surface is broken. Plus I picked a 1/32nd-ounce black/olive jig to try. It worked. I caught several nice rainbows in short order. It was time to video One Cast, and I knew what I needed to do. I switched to a 1/16th-ounce black/olive jig and started through. The first fish was a nice 17-inch rainbow that ran me ragged. Because of my two-pound line, this guy had an advantage. He bull-dogged me, and it took a lot of the Narrows to land him. But I ended up with several before calling it quits and heading home. But that was definitely the hot spot. Blake Wilson said he had fished Sunday evening and caught nothing but saw nice rainbows against the shallow bank from Lookout down through the Narrows. He said he thought they were females spawning because a lot of them were dropping eggs. I did see quite a few reds, or spawning beds, when drifting down but none with fish on them. I speculated that there were a couple of reasons -- the lessened generation and increased sun. More water was running when Blake fished, and it was cloudy and later in the day. For the rest of my report, I'm going to wait and get more information in the next day or two. I want to see how anglers fare in the coming days, especially below Fall Creek using bait. And we'll see what changes in generation happen. Stay tuned. View full article

Come on! I'll show you how to catch trout. Or Duane will.

Blake caught this rainbow late this afternoon. He caught it close to the dam throwing a jerk bait he custom painted - he's been taking lessons from Duane. It was the first fish caught on his baits. 23.5 inches. Released. Duane had a trip this morning. I'll steal his pics off his facebook page. Most were caught on his jerk baits I think.

I sounded a little stern - sorry. Shouldn't have said "last warning" cause everyone knows I'm just a pushover. Merry Christmas!

I didn't delete anything.

Last warning... This site isn't like others where there's no rules against pretty much anything. We've said we want a place where kids can go and read about fishing - where they don't have to wade through cussing and lewd remarks. We usually don't allow politics or religion discussions either but this hasn't gotten out of hand... and I for one have learned a few things. But as I give an inch - some have taken a mile. Don't ruin it.

Set of World Books....

This post isn't helpful Come on guys

Not taking sides or making any judgement... Like I've said before - go have a cup of coffee and talk about it. Conversations go much different face to face.

I've been following this and have been pleased with the conversation until now. Too bad it's gotten personal. If it doesn't stop, I'll lock the thread.

Man, I'm sure tempted to head up there for some winter crappie... Kris Nelson, Tandem Fly Outfitters, is posting some nice looking crappie on his Facebook Page.

Jig Fest isn't just for the usual Jig Fest people - it's for anyone who wants to come. Anyone and everyone are invited.

We're going to have a fairly slow weekend Jan 3-4 so I thought I'd offer to hold a JigFest here that weekend. Not sure when I could do it later in the winter/spring. And it hasn't been too cold so far this winter. So we can do $25 per person per night, double occupancy (minimum), 2- night minimum. We could do one night but won't know that until closer to the event (depends on availability). At Riley's, everyone piled in to 2 big houses. We could do the same thing here... or we do have smaller rooms for just 2 people. We're going to waive stall charges. 50% off on boat rentals. Unless we get some rain between now and then, we should see really good water for jigging... although there's a lot of jerk baitin' going on at JigFest now. Right now, I'll take reservations. Let's see who's interested. Going to be hard to beat the White River weekend sounds like. But we still have Frank lurking around