Wonderful, Wet Morning On Taneycomo

[Phil Lilley]

Got up to play basketball this morning early only to find out they weren't playing... so I went fishing. I play basketball with a bunch of guys at the college a few times a week.

Boated up- made my way past Fall Creek and the Narrows almost to Lookout. The water was as shallow as 2.4 feet getting past the bar at Fall Creek and 1.8 feet at the Narrows. There's also a couple of big rocks in the channel just past the over hanging tree there at the Narrows so you have to go slow unless you have a jet. It had rained during the night- I checked the radar before I left and it looked clear to the west so I didn't take a rain jacket. Yes I got wet!

I wanted to throw some jigs while the water was down. Even though the boards are still off at Powersite and the lake is abnormally low, there was plenty of water to work in the stretch between the Narrows and Lookout- up to 12 feet deep in places.

I started with a 3/32nd oz scuplin jig, 4 lb line, 6 ft spinning rod. At first they didn't want it but as soon as it started raining, game on.

It showered for about 10 minutes and I caught rainbows on every cast. When it stopped raining, the fish kept biting. Not sure how many I caught. Took pics of some of them. These were beautiful rainbows- pics don't do them justice.

I hooked one rainbow while I was praying for my fishing buddy, Vince. He has brain cancer and not doing well. I've been confused how exactly to pray for him lately. Ask for healing, ask for grace, ask for direction... as I was talking about grace and peace and His presence to envelop their house, I set the hook on a large trout that immediately jumped out of the water. I thought, "that must have been the right thing to ask!" Now I don't take things happening as the "gospel" or confirmation of direction and I'm not big on signs. This was a neat thing that happened while I was having a special conversation with my God. Thought I'd share it.

BTW- the rainbow was a very heavy 24 inch trout. He had a huge girth, not out of proportion but just big. But he had no snout. His upper face to the eyes was flat, I'm sure by birth. His eyes were actually looking forward, not to the side. His mouth was very small because of the defect. I didn't have a net and as I lifted him by the jig out of the water, the jig came lose and he fell back in the water. No pic. But man did he fight!

Here are some pics of the morning -

Looking downstream at the Narrows showing the gravel bar.

House that had the wall that fell - lots of rock!!