Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

New beginnings... that's the theme for this report. After a weekend of rain, Table Rock rising almost 3 feet, the Corp has changed it's format on generation, at least for now. On May 1st, they ran water from 5 am till 10 pm at one unit, 3 feet or about 1200 cfs steady. It pushed all the warm, murky water clear down to Branson and left us with cold, clear water. Tonight they are running one unit again-- they have said they are going to run one unit for an hour every day. We'll see.

What did it do to the fishing? Made it a bit easier at least. All the crud floating on the surface has thinned out- not dissappeared altogether but it is better. I fished a bit this evening and the trout seemed to be fairly responsive to my jig and certianly to the zebra midges I threw. I threw a 1/16th oz white jig for an hour before dark tonight--started at Andy's house and worked the channel, working the jig slowly, close to the bottom. I love using a white jig with the water so clear. You can see the jig even 7-8 feet deep and when it dissappears you set the hook. Most of the time I didn't feel a thing but they were there. I caught a dozen rainbows, no browns, on the jig. Caught about the same on a zebra before I switched to a jig- was hoping for a bigger trout on a jig which I didn't really get. Nothing over 14 inches. They were aggressive on the zebra and slow on the jig.

Rolan Duffield, our photo forum leader, fished Sunday and Monday and caught alot of rainbows- Sunday in the wind, no generation, he did the best on a 1/100th oz orange headed sculpin jig under a float 5 feet fishing right on the bottom. He fished from Andy's house to the Narrows. On Monday he said the best was a 1/100th oz pink jig drifted under a float in the same water.

We are forecasted to get more rain in the next 3 days. We'll see how much and how far TR will come up. The more the better for generation this summer. We need about 8 nore inches.