Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Quickly- leaving for Lawrence in minutes.

Bill called me at 10:15 and said they were tearing up the trout below the dam. I was going up to pick up his camera, rob some pics for my presentation, but I had to fish too! I caught a dz trout, most 15 inches and up on white 1/8th oz jig. He can tell you more about the morning later when he gets in... and more pics cause I didn't have a cord for his camera.

Here are my pics- I could have taken a bunch more but I didn't want to stop fishing (catching).

[MrDucky]

Nice Phil , Well if it works out i will be fishing Taney tommarow , Friday and with Mrs Ducky and our son Saturday . Realized something bad yesterday Since Jan 23rd this year to today i will have worked 30 or more days and only had 4 days off (1 includes day off with flu) , But i am unplugging telephones and throwing cell phone in WATER . Heck who knows the fish might think of it as being a shocking type of shad Am excited i will stop into phils tommarow and pickup hats

[WebFreeman]

That rainbow has quite a paunch. So were you using an indicator w/ the jog on your fly rod?

[Bill Babler]

Boy's this was just flat one of those day's you never forget. Hit the cable about 8 Am, with long time client and friend Bill Nicum, from St. Louis.

We were straight lining 1/32 oz. white jigs from the cable to clay banks, and it was 8 to 12 fish per drift. Most all were 17inch and above, with loads of browns.

They were running three very gently and the drifts were just amazing. We saw a lot of the takes as the fish seemed to take the jig in all columns of the water from surface to bottom.

Ouite a few shad coming thru, but more seem to be on the Table Rock side of the dam. As I was going home across the dam there were at least 50 gulls diving on the Table Rock face.

I like to drag the jig, most times, but today they were wanting it without drag, casted to either end of the boat and allowed to free drift. The takes were vicious, as they slammed the slack out of the line.

This pretty much continued until around 11 am when they kicked on the number 4 generator.. The fish didn't like the extreme flow and slowed down to about 4 per pass. By noon, the flow tempered and they bite pretty well till we quit at 1.

If there is anyway you can get down here now is the time. We haven't seen this in about 7 yrs.

The last time it was this good, Phil and I guided Brent Frazee the Outdoor writer for the KCSTAR. We had a monster trip that he talks about to this day.

Here are some photo's all the browns are different fish, but they look like they were cookie cut.

When you hooked these browns, they would catapult from the water. Several flipped in the air like a dolphin. Extreme stuff, enjoy.

[Kicknbass]

Wow. Nice trip.

[BrianK]

All I can say is awesome!. THIS is the legendary SHAD KILL that everyone's been asking about and thinking wouldn't come..... I guess the word is not out yet, i'd expect boats to be lined up down there.

I'm bummin that i'm not coming down for another 3 wks....hopefully the 'hit anything white" pattern will hold up for a while.

I was up late last nite tying up some white jigs anyway though after reading Phil's 'shad kill' article.

Great reports. keep the therapy coming.

question- how far down were you drifting before motoring back up?? Do you ever anchor or will it not hold (or too dangerous?) with fast water?

Brian

[Phil Lilley]

Anchoring takes thought. First, if anchoring will help you catch fish? Most of the time it won't. Better to drift. There are places along the bank- eddies and cuts- where fish will hold and wait for food to drift by. Those places are good but again, you have to look and plan your attack. Be ready to cut the line if you get in trouble. Don't anchor off the sides or back of a boat- only off the front and only if the front of the boat is high- not close to the water. You don't want the boat to get sucked under the water.

[BrianK]

I would agree with all that.

Boat, gear, fisherman under water...all bad.

Especially this rig

bk

[Bill Babler]

Brian, a few years ago we were fishing during 4 generators and 2 guys passed me in a rig just like that.

They had high bass seats mounted on top of the already raised seating in a 14' richline.

I told my clients if they go to the dam, they are going to get in trouble. Four generators were running so hot that the concrete anchors and the side walk were under water at Cooper Creek launch ramp.

Within 30 minutes, here came the sirens, and the water patrol. They had gone almost to the cable, and thrown out a concrete block on a chain over the bow to anchor them.

Whtinesses said when the boat hit the end of the chain it catapulted the guy in the back about 15 ft. over the bow.

At the time Jerry was the dock hand at Lilleys' and I believe he went up and saved their boat and motor, and a tackle box or two.

They were saved but for the life of me, these were grown men in there 60's, you would think that between the two of them there would have been one brain cell.

[BrianK]

"we're gonnna need a bigger boat"

now i've got a complex. thanks