Phil Lilley

Meeting some of our kids at OB here in a few weeks and Jimmy wants to go deep sea fishing. I'm thinking more inland. So I'm looking for a guide. Any suggestions?

I was thinking about throwing a stimulator today!!

Put them back in storage

I think I'm gonna live. I still have a little bit of rattling in my lungs, but it's not too bad. I played two hours of basketball this morning and my energy level is pretty good. Being sick really makes you appreciate feeling good after it has passed.

Yep - sounds like what I had. I'm 80% better. Still have some congestion in my chest I'm hacking up. Had a pretty hard workout this am and did good. Playing ball in the morning.... we'll see how that goes!

I've inhaled a lot of brush burn and leave burn smoke in my time. Never had any issues... Never thought about avoiding is necessarily in the past. I can't emphasize how little I did inhale the other day... that's what I can't get over. The area where the leaves were and where I burned them was 10 feet apart. No vegetation either place- both had gravel underneath. And there could have been mice, skunk, cat, armadillos or other animals living there the last few of years. Who knows.

I had something happen this last week I've never had happened before. I'm almost 68 and have burned a lot of leaves and brush in my day, inhaled a lot of smoke, this last week was different. We moved 2 temp buildings on the grounds Monday. Under the buildings had accumulated a bunch of leaves, all dry. I didn't want to blow them in the lake so I decided to burn them. Tuesday, I spread them out on the old boat ramp at OTR and lit one end. Using a blower, I fanned the flames to make it burn faster. Then Ryan pointed out that some of the embers were blowing towards our gas tank. So I put the fire out. That night my throat started to get sore. Wednesday it went to my sinuses - I thought it was a head cold. I had a slight cough. Wednesday the cough got worse and worse to the point I was coughing uncontrollably... I thought I was going to rip something in my throat and/or chest. My head was killing me too. Marsha said several times.... may be it was the smoke from burning leaves. "NO WAY". I hardly remember smelling the smoke much less breathing in enough to do this! I took a nap Wednesday late in the day and when I got up my chest was really sore. When I coughed, it felt like someone was punching me. It'd send me to my knees! I started taking cough drops just so I'd have a break from it. Marsha said, "go to urgent care?" NO WAY! Friday the cough was all but gone but my chest was still on fire. So mid afternoon, we went to urgent care. The first thing the PA (Matt) asked, after hearing my issues, was "did I burn leaves?" What!! Did you talk to my wife???!!! Turns out he had done the same thing a couple of weeks back. His chicken coop caught on fire... I guess he has a big coop! Lost about 300 chickens. But inhaled a lot of smoke - and here's the kicker - burning chicken poop. The fact that the cough went away so quickly was the key. Gave me a prescription for steroids (which I've never taken before) and said to rest. Come to find out Paul said he woke 2 raccoons up sleeping in the middle of those leaves early Tuesday morning when he came to work. So it seems I got a very small whiff of burning coon poop that infected my lungs. And yes I'm getting better.

Wanted to share real quick what Shane Bush told me the other day in a text. They shocked mid week last week and said numbers of both rainbows and browns are good. Was pleasantly surprised at the number of browns, encouraged I'd say. Details of the study won't be out for a few months. MDC had to stock a bunch of 8-10 inch rainbows early last week. He said they stocked them in the Short Creek area, trying to bolster the numbers below Fall Creek. He said when they shocked, they found alot of them at the dam. My opinion - when this happens (a push in numbers in the trophy area), this moves fish out of the trophy area - some of the small ones but nice trout too. We'll see. I need to find out about a "warmwater hatchery" MDC raises trout in because Shane said that's where these rainbows came from. The water there got too warm to keep them, is what he said. I assume it got warm earlier than expected because of the very warm weather we're having.

It's very easy to work, simple. Hook it up to a VHS player and hit play and record on the device. I did send some of our tapes in a couple of years ago and it worked fine but it was expensive! Now I can do all of them and know what I'm paying. When I'm done, I'll find someone who needs it and give it away.

Amazon Portta VD20P VHS to Digital Converter with 5" HD Screen, Video Capture Recorder Convert to MP4 Compatible with VHS, VCR, DVR, DVD, Hi8, Mini DV, Camcorders, Retro Consoles

This has not been a typical spring start for Lake Taneycomo. Our area is still in a drought; although we've had some rain this winter, it has not been enough to keep our lakes above power pool levels. And it's been very warm, except for a couple of very cold spells in January and February. So we haven't seen the flows we're used to in late winter or early spring. Our generation patterns have been fairly consistent lately with no generation at night or in the mornings but with some flow late in the day for a few hours. So no generation during the day with flow starting about 5-6 p.m. and lasting into the night. Operators are running anywhere from one to two units up to 6,400 cubic feet per second of water. Our lake water temperature is about 46 F coming out of the turbines. It's going to take quite a bit of rain to bring lakes up to the point that we see more generation. Spring time temperatures don't usually demand a lot of power, so we're looking at low flows in the next few weeks at least. Again, not your typical spring time water patterns. Catching here on Taneycomo has been on the slow side lately. In the years I've been here, there have been unexplained periods of time when our trout are not active -- they don't seem to be hungry. I believe they feed mostly when the water runs, then when it's not, they rest, chill out, and lose interest in chasing a fly or eating a crawler. It's hard to imagine -- refusing a juicy worm -- but that's what they do sometimes. This seems to happen some years, and it usually happens in the spring and in August, for some reason. We start to think there's no fish, or something happened to the fish, or MDC isn't stocking fish. But every time, that's not the case. Every time they show back up in big numbers and start eating normally again. Okay . . . If the water isn't running, look for the chop. Look for where the wind is creating some sort of surface disturbance. Under the chop, the trout will be more apt to feed, or at least be interested in moving around and being in the mood to feed. Our lake is like a river, so with the bends in the river you'll find windy spots and other areas will be sheltered from the wind. Find that happy medium if there's a gale blowing. When the fish are biting, we're catching them on the basic flies - scuds, midges, San Juan Worms, mega worms, miracle fly (egg fly), small streamers, sculpin fly and emergers like a crackleback or soft hackle. I'm using 6x tippet on almost everything except the bigger streamers, for which I'm going to a heavier tippet -- 5x to 2x. Night crawlers are usually the best live bait. Only use a half crawler and hook it so it looks natural. The best Powerbait is yellow paste with glitter. Use a small #18 treble hook, and if the fish swallows the hook, cut the line to release it. Using the crawlers, I use a #8 bronze baitholder hook. Again, cut the line if the fish swallows the hook. If the water is running, throw a suspending jerk bait in shad colors. Also throw a white or sculpin jig and work it off the bottom. I use two-pound line when throwing jigs, unless the water is running hard (three to four units) then I'll use four-pound line to throw a bigger, 1/8th-ounce jig. I'm also throwing a jig and working it off the bottom. I've had a little success with white but the best has been black or sculpin. The jig under a float is working most days when there's a chop on the water. Best colors are black, sculpin and brown. That indy-orange head is working with the sculpin and brown marabou. My second go-to would be a chartreuse mega worm (mop fly.) I haven't heard much about the pink Berkley Powerworm on a jig head under a float lately, but that's always been a staple technique for our guides in the past. View full article

Oh man!!

It depends on the time of year I think. But the population is definitely down.

We won't donate them.... I can keep them in my office if need be. She has such a small office that she can't store alot of stuff.

Are you seeing them now?

Going through old VHS tapes and digitizing all of them. This is one that took me back... Can't believe how long Fall Creek's dock was... And the bank above Fall Creek - way different back then.

Man what a great song!

You know it!

Pets are truly God's gift to us. I always wondered if Jesus had a dog And I know the Lord delights in His creation and I'm sure that includes dogs... and other pets like CATS. I do like cats. I grew up with one. I still have one of the rescue cats from the last litter. But they aren't the same. When he was young, still a pup, I'd have to keep him in a big pen at night in my son's old bedroom. He'd poop every stinkin' night and have it all over him, the cage and around the cage. In his old age, he lost the ability to control his bowels... so again, we were cleaning up after him on a daily basis. So here's a video, in memory of Jackson and what he did best in his latter life.

Our black lab, Jackson, went to sleep Monday. He was 14 1/2 years old. He suffered from arthritis for the last 6 months but seemed to be happy up to the end. He was the best.... great with people and other dogs, minded well and love to go... in the boat or in the truck. Not sure I can go through another experience with a pet getting old and dying. We're free from having to worry about someone watching the "kid" which will be nice. We will see... but for now our heart aches when we come into the house and he's not there.

If they're not, let me know.

You should see any ads... I have them only "on" for guests. You're a "Fishing Buddy" - they should be off.

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Stinkin' bass... 😂