kelly

So a few weeks ago my son and I and two others were rocketing upstream in one of Lilleys Landings jon boats when I absent mindedly piloted the craft over the inlet by the roundhouse just above Lilleys. Now, I never go there because I have this fear of death by water and I had seen the plume of bubbles hit the surface several times and I had always wondered if it would sink a boat. Well I am here to tell you it did not. Well it boiled up right in front of the boat and we hit it at a blistering 13 MPH (GPS onboard) I yelled like I was hog bit (that's another story) but the boat only sunk slightly when the fat boy at the outboard end of the surfboard had his turn at the pipeline. We all had a good scare and later a good laugh and it was quite a show for the other boats close by.

Yes! S&W Sigma .40 cal. Retired cop.

Four nice Flatheads all on a white jig, intended for Wipers below the Chetopa dam. These river rats in the making took them home.

Twelve guys ventured forth to Lilleys Landing for the 22nd straight year of the Parsons Nazarene Church's annual Men's Ministries trout trip. We arrived at noon on Thursday and fished until noon on Sunday. ( It only falls on Mothers day weekend every few years) Anyway, aside from enjoying the usual great time at Phil's place we caught a ton of trout. All in all we caught more than 1200 trout with an even 30 of them being Browns (19 inches was the largest-Brown and Rainbow) Just about any jig we threw caught trout with the best numbers hitting a 1/16 oz black and white, with sculpin and white coming in second and third. The water was on at about one full unit the whole time. We fished from Short Creek to the last dock below the public ramp at Cooper Creek and found the biggest trout in the deeper water right on the bottom. The South bank below Short Creek provided the fastest action with three trout on at the same time practically the norm. Watching white jigs disappear in the clear water ('cause a fish bit it) and setting the hook was a fair amount of amusement also. We had guys that had never fished a jig for trout before completely swear off their Power Eggs and dragging the bottom because they found it so easy and fun once they tried it, plus they liked being able to release the trout and keep their hook. Not knocking Power Bait here folks, I have a whole bag full of the stuff but if you have never tried jig fishing for trout just throw one in the deep water and wait 20 seconds then reel two cranks and stop. If you get any sort of reaction set the hook. It's that easy Night fishing was also fun off the upper end of Lilleys dock. We used the dark water dark jig rule moving them SLOWLY downstream and found the trout plenty hungry. Big shout out to Lilleys Landing and the crew there for making the weekend seamless and relaxing. And above all thanks to God for allowiing us to enjoy what he has created one more time.

Video?

Lets see now bigfoot, man eatiing cats... I agree all we need now is a squid show

Great report! Usually long reports are boring but you my man did away with that.

I don't know about your particular situation but bear in mind that storm sirens are not designed to be heard inside a buildinig. They are instead designed to alert people who are outside to go inside.

Awesome fish, thanks for the pic.

If you get a video of it it may run on the history Channel under Ozark Loggers. Of course there won't be any fighting or swearing or fit throwing or delimma so...forget the video.

I figured it out

Why can I not View New Content? For about a month now I have not been able to either see any new content or just see a few items. Any idea what I did now?

Man, I hate it when that happens.

Expect some down water after the boards are back up. What is down water?

Linnet and I will be there next weekend.

We stayed there in 1973. Boy my dad really wanted to buy the place. He and the owner stayed up so late talking it over I was sure we werent going home.

Definitely looks like a Bruce to me. Or maybe George. I just knew someone would really name it. Well, I have never seen one before and neither had anyone else there at the time. They all marveled at it and hooted like it was a cheerleader poster or something.

Flatheads kept getting in the way of our Wiper fishing. This was the best one.

Caught in the neosho river at the Chetopa, KS dam on a yellow grub (snagged under the lip is more like it)

Our group came down thursday the 12th and fished everyday all day long till 2pm on Sunday. We did catch fish although not the kind of numbers we have in the past. But then that's why it's called fishing and not catching. Egg patterns worked for us above Fall creek, (thank you bill Babler) and the Gold floating and Gold/Black Countdown Rapalas in the mile below the dam. I noticed when I made my retrieve, with a Rapala slooowly straight acoss the lake I picked up more fish and generally about the time the lure began it's accent near the boat. I also noticed the fish came out of the slower water near eddies and along the North bank near the MDC boatramp. All Rainbows too, not a single Brown. Of course with the water running fast the majority of the fish were hiding behind some sort of structure and only darted out to grab a meal. I did not see many fish holding on the bottom in open water. All in all it was a great trip. Our 21st group trip to Lilleys Landing in as many years, not to mention the five or six or...ten yearly day trips. The gang at Lilleys took care of us again as usual and as we really appreciate it.

The Corp of engineers has reported the flood gates has been raised to a record high of 4 feet CFS is holding at 68,000 Leonard will that great of a flow push out a bigger pool below the dam and wash away that rock pile above the cable on the bluff side? I would think since this is a record event we should see a Taneycomo like we have never seen before, when it is finally over.

Hows the top of Powersite dam holding up, being wood and all?

Oops, I forgot to say I left my camera at home so, sorry no pics.

What a day on the water. My friend Sam and I hit Lilleys Landing around 8AM Friday from Parsons. Went right to it at Short Creek but didn't like the color of the water so we went on up to Fall Creek. Fall creek was still running muddy water into Lake T at a pretty good rate so we went on up to the first flats above there and started throwing olive and olive orange jigs in 3/32 oz. The water was much better there as it was just cloudy. The first two fish came fast then we both scored on super fat Rainbows 18 and 19 inches and three pounds or so each. The rest of the day went much the same with about fifty fish boated and four in the three pound range just short of 20 inches and most of them in the 15 to 17 inch range. We remarked to each other quite a bit about how big the fish were. I even bragged about how hard the eight incher(s) fought. We worked the jigs off the bottom with a quick jerk until that stopped producing. We then went SLOOOWWW off the bottom, which worked very well too. I tied on a 32nd ounce brown jig and drifted it with the wind straight down stream. They loved that too but mainly two feet deep and on the drop. I don't know why, but I lost several fish on that small jig. The fish hit the larger jigs pretty soft but they slammed the small one, probably because they had to swim up to it but, I think they were just faster than me. The wind blew hard, all day out of the South so we mainly fished where we could drift with it for a long stretch. The cold was managable until the clouds thickend and hid all the sunshine and when it started to rain, about 3PM we decided we were too far away from Lilleys to fight it all the way back. Thanks to Phil, Marsha and Meagan for always taking care of us and going out of their way to make a good trip a great one. And Curtis...You da Man.

Whites are in the creek. 47 in my first hour. nothing but good reports from everyone I spoke to.