Phil Lilley

Been doing well stripping cracklebacks and soft hackles the last few days. Need either some current and/or chop on the water. I haven't thrown them but woolies should work too. They've been wanting to chase. Scud/midge combo rig - scud on the bottom always. Or if you're fishing a soft hackle over a scud, fish the soft hackle on the bottom and swing it. I like current when fishing a san juan. The Mega... I haven't no opinion really. I haven't done well using it but others have.

Under our dock. We've had several guests lose their fish to otters the last few days. Some funny stories too. Duane had a hold of the stringer while I stuck the Gopro under the water. They were spooky cause they could see us. Will try to get more video of them when we hear them around. There were 5 of them.

@Jennifer Kornblum I'll leave this up for a day or so because it is related to Stockton Lake - and may be someone here wants a nice house close to Stockton. But we really don't allow someone to join this fishing forum and post advertisements without some history here on the site. It is spelled out in the rules you agreed to when you signed up.

We have a lot of water snakes on the bank but this one is very light and the markings aren't the same as this one. I've called most of them diamond back water snakes because that's what we called them in Kansas - looked the same. But I'll take your word for it. And yes we have had both copperheads and moccasins on property in the past.

What kind of snake? There's some disagreement on Facebook. This is on our bank... so it's a local snake. We thought it was an albino corn snake.

With the cool down in our weather this past week, generation patterns had changed a bit on Lake Taneycomo. Dam operators were only running water in the afternoon for a couple of hours and then less than a full unit. And then the weather changed again. With warmer temperatures, they ran all four units on Wednesday late afternoon for three hours. That really was a good thing because it cleaned out the upper end of the lake of floating dead algae which has built up over the past week. What they are going to do now with generation is anyone's guess. Water temperature is holding at 49-50 degrees, up just slightly from a month ago. Water clarity is more than 12 feet, very clear, which is normal for this time of year. Trout fishing has been very good all summer. We've witnessed no periods of slow fishing, which we normally see at some point in the summer. The average size of rainbows stocked by the Missouri Department of Conservation has been very good, too. I'm going to run through the obvious techniques that are working right now, and have been working all summer. Of course, the number one choice is the pink Powerworm on a small jig head, two-pound line fished under a float five- to eight-feet deep. Also doing well is the a jig-and-float using a 1/100th-ounce jig, two-pound line under a float from four- to six-feet deep. Colors: Best is the sculpin or brown with an orange head, but other earth colors are working okay, such as black, olive and ginger. If you watch One Cast, you know the sculpin/ginger 1/32nd- or the 1/16th-ounce jig with a brown head, two-pound line is catching trout like crazy. The black/olive and plain sculpin are also producing, too, but not as much as the sculpin/ginger jig. If dam operators do start heavy generation again, go for big browns by throwing stick baits! If you didn't see Duane's article, read how throwing these "bass baits" can land you a trophy brown trout. Here's another article by Ryan Miloshewski. Fly fishing: Some say it's not a "fly," but the 1/100th-ounce jig under a float with a fly rod is a lot of fun. I've been taking advantage of the low water to fish with it. I found a lot of rainbows on the bluff channel side of the lake from Fall Creek's dock down to Short Creek Tuesday morning this week. They also took a #16 red Zebra Midge under a float five-feet deep using 6x tippet. No dry fly action to report, but a few people have ventured out at night to fly fish below the dam, wading and throwing leaches and streamers. Angler have also skated mice across the surface below the dam and below Lookout Island along the bluff down to Fall Creek. I've been fishing some in the trophy are below Lookout Island and doing okay on the Zebra Midge but better on the 1/100th-ounce brown jig with an orange head. Scuds are working fine. Try a brown or tan, #14 or #16 if the water is off and larger if the water is running. If you find a chop on the surface, strip an olive or brown wooly bugger, a 56'er, a crackleback or a soft hackle. Bait fishing off the dock has also been pretty consistently good this summer. Night crawlers have been good, but Powerbait has been a bit better with pink and orange the best colors. And an old favorite has made a comeback... Pautzsky's Balls of Fire salmon eggs are doing very well, plain and gold label with gold glitter. Again, two -pound line is best for catching more fish. I've mentioned a couple of things in my report that are important if you want to catch more trout. First, our water is very clear right now and, second, use two-pound line. Every year about this time, our water becomes gin clear and the trout can see our lines, especially when there's no water running and the lure or bait is just sitting there motionless. That's why two-pound line catches more fish. Here's a Tip: When you catch a small rainbow and the hook is deep in its mouth, if your intention is to release it, simply hold the fish up by the line and cut the line close to the fish's mouth, letting it drop back in the water. DO NOT touch the fish, especially with a dry rag or hand. DO NOT carry it around out of the water. If you do, hold your breath the entire time because that's what the fish is doing. DO NOT try to dig the hook out of its mouth . . it will die. RELEASING A FISH YOU KNOW WILL DIE DUE TO BLEEDING AND/OR MISHANDLING IS CALLED "WANT AND WASTE" AND IS A VIOLATION OF THE WILDLIFE CODE. IT'S ALSO UNETHICAL. View full article

I looked at it. Was posted in the wrong place and I moved it. But I have another new member who just registered that looks suspect. I’m watching...

“It was in harm’s way so I put it back in the water”

That's Frank. And then there's Frankie too.

Tame it down a bit... or I could say thanks for not saying what you really think. I've had my run-ins with Larry too.

Tonight the water is still high at 7:40 so you'll be around the outlets till it starts dropping out. Have to warn you... I'm not an authority on fishing the outlets but scuds would be my guess. Try bigger scuds and then drop in size - from #12's and 14's to #20's and 22"s. If you want to catch the warm water fish, throw a big streamer at the cable when the water is dropping and after it's down. Lots of walleye and bass up there. Should be a trout mixed in too. May be someone else has an idea of others flies...

Fly Fishing?

https://fox59.com/2018/07/20/several-members-of-indiana-family-among-those-killed-in-branson-duck-boat-crash/

JULY 27th and 28th, 2018 Friday 9 am – 5 pm Saturday 9 am – 4 pm Lions Community Building 1015 E State Highway 76, Branson, MO 65915 Food and Drinks served by the Branson/Hollister Lions Club Admission - $5.00 per person (children accompanied by adult – Free) Fly Casting Demos - Fly Tying Demos Raffles and Silent Auctions - Many Local Exhibitors Files attached. Branson Fly Fishing Expo Press Release.pdf BRANSON FLY FISHING EXPO 2018 (1).pdf

Are those spawning colors? Incredible.

Wow. What a pretty cutt. On a dry no less.

After an event like this, we are reviewing our policy on boats on the water with a storm approaching. Now, we call the customer on his mobile phone if he's out and warn him of an approaching storm. We may ask him to come back to the marina, we may ask him to seek shelter till it passes or just to use good judgement, depending on the severity of the system. We'll get together and talk about it in light of what has happened. I would think the Duck company has something in place, some protocol they follow when a storm is approaching. They have phones and I'd think they'd have some sort of radio to talk to each other and/or home base. If they don't, that doesn't say much for their foresight. If they do, protocol wasn't followed, by at least 2 Captains. We had resort guests on a Duck yesterday during the storm. They had launched on to Taneycomo and were headed towards the fountains at the Landing. He said he told, insisted to the Captain that they not go, turn back and the Captain said no - they were going to watch the light show. Said he'd never had an accident before so... It could have been #2 down - they were lucky. As for changing course on Table Rock, those boats are SLOW and I bet they were hit with a head wind so fast they had no time to do anything except take it head on. In the video, it looked like the quickest place to go to get out of the wind was to get behind the Belle but they didn't have time to veer one way or the other I bet. Bottom line, they took a chance on the severity of the weather and got beat.

At first, most people are taking it easy fighting these... then after a day or two, they're horsing them in and breaking them off. Gotta find that middle ground.

One More sockeye video. Dancing with the sockeye toward the last.

Fun sockeye fishing.