Lilley's Landing Mid-Week

[knuck]

Just back from a few days of much needed down time and lots of fishing action, thanks to Phil & all of the staff at Lilley's for another relaxing & care free trip. I have to say there is nothing better than an early to mid-week fishing excursion. We shared the lake from the dam to the Landing with the same 7 or 8 boats (3 of which were in our party) Sunday,Monday,Tuesday all thanks to Lilley's fisherman special. It's so inexpensive I almost feel guilty when settling up. Three boats in our group and all had their own preferences as to fishing methods. This was our boats best for the trip, a 20 1/2" hook caught just below the upper island and on the bluff side in the trophy area on a floating (being cranked) 4" black & gold Rapala. Released ASAP after a few photos. We caught too many fish to keep track of in our three days with quite a few Browns from 13-17" and at times Rainbows one after another. My bait of choice were 2 1/2" countdowns in either the Rainbow or Brown coloration and my partner stuck with his lucky Rapala, lucky right up until he embedded a hook past the barb underneath the nail in his index finger (A special thanks goes out to Curtis who popped that hook out of my buddies finger, a true man of all trades.) We made a lot of dam runs which provided some of our best action, focused on both Fall Creek & Short Creek in addition to drifting inflated crawlers from Short Creek to Powerline when our arms felt like they could not throw one more crankbait. We threw some jigs but just did'nt have the patience to stick with them, some of the guys in our party fished jigs almost exclusively and had very good results with them. Just to mix it up a little bit we fished around the landing and wound up catching 2 chunky largemouth & a black crappie on the crankers, you just never know what you might catch on Taney. All in all a perfect trip, we even dodged a bullit with the rain that was forecast. Once again thanks to Phil, his family & staff for the welcoming & responsive service we always experience there.

Steve in STL

[Gatorjet]

Thanks for the report. I'll be heading down to Lilley's next week for New Year's Eve in Branson, and the OA get together on New Year's Day. Not mid week, but I am planning to get the Gator wet a little while there.

After retiring a couple years ago I have been able to make some mid-week trips, and you are right. Nothing like fishing with boats all over the place!

Thanks for the tips on what worked. Not as good as you guys did, but when I was there a couple weeks ago I did do better on the Rapala than my usual jigs. I'll keep one rigged next trip.

Now Curtis has another title....Dr. Curtis! LOL

[boz]

This is another mid-week report to add to knucks report.We arrived at Lilleys sunday afternoon.After getting squared away,we put the boat in and headed up to the dam.It was a great day,temp. was in the 50's with a light wind.We reached theam and started fishing 1/8 oz. jigs.Fishing was good and we picked up 10 fish down to the clay banks.All were good size with the largest being a fat 15 incher.We fished down to Fall Creek and failed to pick up more fish.With darkness coming on,my partner and I headed back to the cabin to eat dinner and compare notes with the rest of our group.Monday morning was overcast but dry,a perfect day to fish.They were running 2 units so it was back up to the dam.Again we picked up decent fish using jigs all the way down to lookout.We started picking up more fish between Fall Creek and Short Creek.After lunch we motored down to the bridges and tried our luck there.The trout were not hitting the jigs,so we trolled for a couple of hoursand picked up a few fish.It doesn't seem like the lower lake is holding many fish.The rain came in Monday night and moved out by morning.We were blessed by good weather and great hospitality by Phil and Curtis and the rest of the gang.Again it was up to the dam Tues. morning.They were really hitting the jigs and my biggest was a nice 18 inch rainbow.As you all heard from knuck,his partner hooked a keeper over 20 inches.Fishing was good until we drifted down to Lookout.The stretch between Lookout and Fall Creek was slow all week which surprises me.Iguess that area isn,t holding fish at this time.Sadly, we had to come home on wednesday.The weather wasreat for our trip and the fishing experience was excellent as usual at Lilleys.I cant wait to go and do it again.