Missouri's First Lady of Trout Fishing

[Phil Lilley]

by Spence Turner ~~ "When you coming down?" Phil Lilley asked. "Browns are running and the Corps of Engineers isn't running much water through Taneycomo or for that matter anyplace in the White River system."

Perfect conditions, I thought. We'd talked earlier about getting together Lilleys' Landing Resort for some fall trout fishing when spawning browns move up to the head-end of Lake Taneycomo. Even set a date, which turned out to be my wife's birthday...not just her birthday, but rather her 60th birthday. When she learned of my plans...well it wasn't pretty and I'm still digging out of the hole. Women just don't have sense of humor when it comes to forgetting minor things like birthdays. Needless to say, I rescheduled.

I've conducted a 30-year, dark and steamy affair with a bewitching, curvaceous, sultry, lass, who's waters run deep and cold, followed by intensely personal periods of hot, steamy, activity. I've wallowed in those waters. Felt the power and reveled in their deep, stark, beauty; savored the explosive organisms of slashing rainbows and broad-shouldered browns; and agonized over her health as she aged.

Her name: Lake Taneycomo, Missouri's first lady of trout fishing.

I thought about those years, the thousands of rainbows and browns I'd handled; the fights to change regulations, introduce brown trout in 1980s and a special management zone in the 90s; as I motored south to Branson and Lilleys' Landing. The changes worked: Lake Taneycomo is back with an attitude. And, I retired.

Taneycomo anglers have shattered Missouri's brown trout record, and discovered a dead brown, longer than the current world record. The lake has everything needed to grow a new world record: an abundance of food; great living conditions and habitat for brown trout; and regulations allowing browns to grow large. Keep your fingers crossed.

Day One

I wasn't looking for a record, just a couple days of great trout fishing. The water was off and after a quick check in, I headed for the upper end at Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery. The upper pools are waist-deep at max...bathtubs filled with large cruising browns and rainbows. Anglers lined the second hatchery outlet. Not really needing company, I walked to the third outlet and waded across to the Rerod run and pool, spooking several large trout with my clumsy wading.

At the head-end of the riffle, a pod of small rainbows fed on amphipods kicked loose by upstream anglers. I caught two, before wading to the end of the run and rerigging to a large black woolly bugger as light failed. As I finished, the horn at the dam blew, chasing me off the water, as needs for electrical generation took precedence over those of the angler.

I waited out the flush of water and resumed fishing as water fell an hour later. Fog tentacles swirled around me as I waded back out to the riffle. A great blue heron joined me fishing the shallows.

Tensions of the day and week disappeared in the darkness and fog. Two small rainbows fell to the black woolly bugger in the dark, before a heavy strike jarred my rod. The trout wallowed briefly, shaking its head, then sprinted downstream stripping line from my reel. What a satisfying sound in the darkness.

It wasn't large. I quickly worked the trout back, and landed and released a 15-inch brown, none the worse for our brief encounter. It was enough for the first day.

Day Two

The water was off. Fall leaves floated randomly around Lilleys' Landing dock, and the bluff across the lake was on fire, cloaked in reds, yellows and greens as trees held tightly to a calliope of leaves, heralding the approaching winter.

As long as the water was off, Phil suggested fishing the upper end again. We found the parking lot full, most anglers fishing outlet 2. Phil suggested rerigging for some "skinny water" trout fishing...changing leaders from the rope I used in the darkness, to a 9-foot nymph leader, tapering to 7X or 8X. In the shallows, browns and rainbows fed on midges and amphipods, backs and tails out of the water; several large browns tended a newly dug redd in the outlet plume, mostly ignored by float-and-jerk anglers.

We both caught trout, rainbows mostly, with a brown trout or two thrown in for good measure; Phil caught and landed 10 trout for everyone I caught. In the afternoon facing rain, we motored up to the "Overlook Hole," and fished drys and small soft hackles to rainbows cruising the shallows, finishing the day using the old tried-and-true, weighted scuds under a small strike indicator, a technique dating to the 60s and 70s. No large trout, but lots of intermediate-size rainbows fell to the rig, and we had the lake to ourselves.

Day Three

Ryan Walker, White River guide and friend of Phil's suggested heading for the Norfork tailwater and fishing Arkansas' catch and release zone, downstream from McClellans boat dock. Ryan is one of the new breed of White River guides, who specialize in catching large trout using flies and artificial lures (Contact Ryan through Lilleys' Landing). I'd not fished the Norfork in over 15 years and jumped at the opportunity.

We found the river almost dead low and dropping, creating a series of shallow riffles, bedrock shelves, and pools, making the entire river available to anglers. We waded down to the first riffle and Ryan suggested fishing the skinny water, shallow areas at the edge of runs, before moving to the deeper areas in the riffle.

"On falling water, I've found large trout holding and feeding in shallow riffle areas, overlooked by most anglers." Ryan instructed as he pointed to a spot about 5 yards from where we stood. "You'll need an indicator."

I tied on a small "dead shrimp" Ryan handed me and cast...it really wasn't a cast. I just flipped the fly and indicator to the spot where Ryan pointed. The indicator stopped and I tightened the line and was fast into my first trout, a rainbow. In the next four casts, I caught and released three trout, all between 10 and 14 inches. Nice start to the day.

We caught a bunch of rainbows, several browns, a couple of cutthroats and even a brook trout before breaking at noon. I'd guess we caught and released 30 to 40 trout and the day was young.

After a drink, we drove to the handicap parking lot at Goat's Bluff and walked upstream to the islands and the end of the catch and release area. What an afternoon. I watched brown trout spawn; a young women hook a huge trout briefly before losing the fish; Ryan landing an 18-inch rainbow, which weighed in at about 4.5 pounds and lose another larger trout, which took off for Missouri and didn't stop; and Phil catching an Arkansas grand slam, a rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout. The largest fish of the day for me...a large sucker. I have no idea how many trout we caught and released, probably well over 100 in the five hours we fished...certainly well worth the drive from Branson.

Lake Taneycomo is back; heck the whole White River system is reveling in unprecedented high quality trout fishing never experienced before. Thirty years ago I envisioned what the White River System could become, and now have seen the vision come to reality. The real winner in all of this is the trout angler. The good old days are now, with more to come.

And my love affair with Lake Taneycomo continues. Not older, just better.

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