Phil Lilley

I knew it'd be a good fishing day...

So I'd love to get over and play a round with you guys before winter sets in...

But do they (Europeans) have the same incredible fishing opportunities we do here in the states? I agree, this is foreign to me but I'm not going to knock it because the fish or technique is different. Congrats to the guy... Now they probably release this fish, right? Wish we had the ability to declare a record without killing the fish. It's possible, just not practical.

That might be it. He said if you can find it, it's very expensive to buy. Of course it's discontinued - a long time ago.

It's 4... Note the fish in the bags are not cleaned.

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/2017/10/20/taney-county-mdc-agent-knew-something-fishy-their-story/784744001/

Real TV

I've tried beads before and haven't had as much luck as I'm having now. Do you know about the nail polish they used to put on them? Duane was telling me about it.

She was more colorful for sure. The one in 2012 was silver and much heavier. Yesterday's rainbow was average weight I'd say. But the one in '12 was thick, solid, a brute. And a bit longer. They both put up a good fight, although this one fought in less than ideal water conditions. I was glad Duane was busy -- it let her rest almost 45 minutes in the water before being released.

You can't match our trout eggs... but then you don't have to. I've been catching them on 10mm beads. They're huge!

Not sure how to title this one. Went out this morning to get a baseline for a fishing report - try some things. They are running one unit of water, lake level 705.3 feet. I didn't get out till about 9 a.m. - boated up to just above the Narrows in the trophy area. I threw some jigs -- black, sculpin and olive -- with only a couple of bites. The midges were hatching in clouds and rainbows were taking them along the current edges close to the bluff bank. I didn't have my fly rod in the boat or I would have been throwing a small dry. I wanted to try one more thing before heading back -- a bead. We use beads in Alaska to catch big rainbows during the salmon spawning season and I'd been experiment with them here. You peg the bead, which comes in various sizes and colors, to your line about 2 inches above a small hook. Then you pinch a small split shot above the bead about 2 feet. I was using 4 pound line. Throw it out and drift it like you would any fly or bait. Bump it on the bottom. I picked up 2 small rainbows and had 3 more good strikes. Both rainbows had the hook in its mouth, not outside of it. Then I thought, let's do a comparison. So I boated back up to the top of the Narrows and drifted a #12 grey scud (200R hook) using the same split shot. Caught one small rainbow right off the bat. Then got a good strike, then another. I thought it would be about the same result. But towards the end of the faster water, I hooked something that surprised me. Why surprise? Well, I wasn't ready for something to pull hard enough to break my line, plus my drag wasn't set for it either. Nor did I have my anti-reel switched so I couldn't reel backwards like I usually do. Luckily, my line held up as the drag started to slip a little. Then I was able to flip the switch and reel backwards. It was a good fish but the hard fast run fooled me. I didn't think it was as big as it was. It stayed deep for almost the entire fight, making 3 long runs and fought hard close to the boat to stay down. I grabbed the Gopro, turned it on and set it up on the bar. The video shows the fight towards the middle to the end, not the long runs. I netted the fish but kept it in the water. I called Duane at the resort and asked him to come up with the camera to take some pics. He was on a room repair mission so it took a while for him to boat up to where I was. I drifted down to a spot on the bank where I could get out with the fish. It's way too hard to get good, SAFE pics of a trophy trout while in a boat. I say safe for the fish, not me. I didn't want to raise the rainbow out of the water unless it was for a few quick pictures. The color of this big sow were incredible! I was blessed to have landed and released. I did get a measurement, marking my spinning rod against her length while in the net. I set it on a measuring board and was surprised to see it was 28.25 inches long. It didn't seem that long in the water. The release..... View full article

Not sure how to title this one. Went out this morning to get a baseline for a fishing report - try some things. They are running one unit of water, lake level 705.3 feet. I didn't get out till about 9 a.m. - boated up to just above the Narrows in the trophy area. I threw some jigs -- black, sculpin and olive -- with only a couple of bites. The midges were hatching in clouds and rainbows were taking them along the current edges close to the bluff bank. I didn't have my fly rod in the boat or I would have been throwing a small dry. I wanted to try one more thing before heading back -- a bead. We use beads in Alaska to catch big rainbows during the salmon spawning season and I'd been experiment with them here. You peg the bead, which comes in various sizes and colors, to your line about 2 inches above a small hook. Then you pinch a small split shot above the bead about 2 feet. I was using 4 pound line. Throw it out and drift it like you would any fly or bait. Bump it on the bottom. I picked up 2 small rainbows and had 3 more good strikes. Both rainbows had the hook in its mouth, not outside of it. Then I thought, let's do a comparison. So I boated back up to the top of the Narrows and drifted a #12 grey scud (200R hook) using the same split shot. Caught one small rainbow right off the bat. Then got a good strike, then another. I thought it would be about the same result. But towards the end of the faster water, I hooked something that surprised me. Why surprise? Well, I wasn't ready for something to pull hard enough to break my line, plus my drag wasn't set for it either. Nor did I have my anti-reel switched so I couldn't reel backwards like I usually do. Luckily, my line held up as the drag started to slip a little. Then I was able to flip the switch and reel backwards. It was a good fish but the hard fast run fooled me. I didn't think it was as big as it was. It stayed deep for almost the entire fight, making 3 long runs and fought hard close to the boat to stay down. I grabbed the Gopro, turned it on and set it up on the bar. The video shows the fight towards the middle to the end, not the long runs. I netted the fish but kept it in the water. I called Duane at the resort and asked him to come up with the camera to take some pics. He was on a room repair mission so it took a while for him to boat up to where I was. I drifted down to a spot on the bank where I could get out with the fish. It's way too hard to get good, SAFE pics of a trophy trout while in a boat. I say safe for the fish, not me. I didn't want to raise the rainbow out of the water unless it was for a few quick pictures. The color of this big sow were incredible! I was blessed to have landed and released. I did get a measurement, marking my spinning rod against her length while in the net. I set it on a measuring board and was surprised to see it was 28.25 inches long. It didn't seem that long in the water. The release.....

Water levels are running at 270cfs (350cfs avg) and water clarity has been clear. The river is low and clear and still tough fishing on sunny days and easy catching on overcast days. On the sunny days a Y2k down deep produces well and a Brownie can be really hot some days. There have been a lot of crawfish moving around. And a big nymph in olive or brown can be really good. Stripping the woolly or nymph upstream is the ticket. For spin fishers on tough days or even on a fly rod a hot pink trout magnet can be really hard to beat. On a windy day use a indicator to get down below the leaves floating in the water. Tight lines and good luck, Mark Crawford springriverfliesandguides.com

Boated to the red house above the Narrows last evening and started fishing a black 1/16th oz jig, this time under a float 4-5 feet deep. They were running one unit worth of water, about the same as Saturday evening. Drifted down to Fall Creek - nothing... I ended up throwing the jig straight below Fall Creek but still no bites. I quit before the water dropped out - that's when the fishing has gotten better the last few times out. Lots of leaves in the lake from the winds all day yesterday. Hopefully they sank last night and won't be a factor today.

Last summer black jigs were the color. This summer we caught more trout on sculpin/ginger and white more than any color. But lately it's been black or black/olive. I've been getting out mainly in the evenings and doing very well on black jigs. The best catching has been as the water is dropping out. Got out last evening when they were running the most water of the day - lake level was 705.12, 3852 cfs, 56 megawatts which is equivalent to one unit. Kelly and I boated to the dam and started throwing jigs, mainly 3/32nd ounce black, white or sculpin color. One rainbow right off the bat then nothing up there. Dropped down to Lookout and caught one more. Very slow. Then we boated down close to the top of the Narrows and started catching, all on black 1/16th ounce. The water had started dropping out too which seemed like to trigger the feed. We caught rainbows above the Narrows but not in the Narrows. Then started catching them again below. The second drift, we started further above the Narrows and had the same results. We sent ahead and drifted down past Fall Creek, catching rainbows the whole way down. They stopped about 100 yards below the mouth of the creek. We had to get back in so we headed back to the dock. Rainbows were fat for the most part. Had a couple in the 15 inch range but most were 12-13 inches.