Phil Lilley

Generation has been almost exactly the same every day since my last report two weeks ago. There has been no generation in the morning, up to about 2 p.m., then the current builds to almost four full units for three to five hours. It has gradually been slowed to zero generation which then lasts through the night. Sundays is the only variation, when two units are run instead of four. Water temperature is holding at 48 degrees and becoming very clear. Duane Doty spotted a sculpin on the bottom of the lake in 10 feet of water from our dock this morning. There has been high, (hot) sun, no wind, and now clear water. Those are tough fishing conditions on any body of water. So it goes without saying that early in the morning is the best time to fish. It's getting light at 5 a.m. now and the water in front of our dock starts to see sunlight by 7:30 a.m. It's not that you can't catch fish once the sun gets up, but it does get tougher. For instance, friend Coy Howry and hit the lake Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. We started at the dredge spot up lake from the resort and worked our way up. We were throwing 1/16th-ounce jigs with two-pound line, sculpin/ginger, white and brown colors. I caught one pretty quickly, then nothing for a long time. An hour later we were up past the old Riverlake dock when the breeze picked up and a chop on the surface of the water appeared. We immediately started catching rainbows and netted our joint eight-trout limit in less than 10 minutes. Yes, a chop on the surface makes a huge difference. Look for broken lake surface area!! See it, go fish it!! As I mentioned, the sculpin/ginger continues to be one of the best jig colors we're using, whether it's 1/32nd ounce or 1/8th ounce. White is still okay but seems to be dropping in the popularity poll. Under a float, the brown, sculpin or sculpin/ginger or peach with an orange head is best, 1/100th ounce. But use two-pound line for sure. If the water is off, I'd use two-pound line regardless of whether you just throw a jig or use the jig-and-float . Our water is too clear for four-pound now. I use Trilene XL clear. No generation: Floating a night crawler has been much better than any Powerbait. Use a #8 short shanked bronze hook. Hook the night crawler through the ring, pinch off the tail half and inject air in the head section. Make sure it floats. Your weight should be about 18 inches from the hook. If the water is running, no air needed in the worm. But if you're going to use Powerbait, orange and yellow are working the best. Again, use two-pound line or add a short section of two-pound line to the end of you line. Jeffrey Steven and his buddy Jeff Trares were throwing jerk baits above the dock up by the dredge yesterday evening and almost at the same time they caught two nice browns. Steven's measured 23.5 x 15.5, 8 pounds and Trare's was 19.5 inches, 4.5 pounds. Duane took some guys fishing Sunday up by the dam and caught these nice walleye on stick baits. Yes walleye. There are a good number of walleye and white bass up there. Caught them early in the morning, that's key. Another tip -- work the stick bait very slowly. Turner Micro Jigs have made somewhat of a comeback. Well, if you ask our guide Bill Babler, they've always been good under these conditions. The half micro, which weighs in at 1/100th of an ounce, in sculpin olive or ginger, have been great during the early morning stillness, again using two-pound line or 6x tippet. Fish it anywhere from three- to six-feet deep, depending on the depth of the water. Our hot spots aren't really hot spots any longer. The fish seemed to have spread out, scattered from the Landing to Lookout. There is still a lot of trout from Lookout to the Narrows. The dam area is hold a lot of fish too including warm water species. Not that any of our readers need to heed this, but our conservation agents have been working a lot of nights lately, nabbing poachers filling their stringers at night below the dam. Dozens and dozens of people have been cited for too many trout, keeping illegal sizes, using bait, no license, no permit -- you name it. If you see someone taking fish illegally, call the hotline at 800-392-1111. Speaking of fishing below the dam, fly fishing mornings has been pretty good. Jeremy Hunt says he's catching them on midges, sculpins and of course the white Megaworm. Lisa Bellue caught this beautiful brown last week on a Megaworm and released it. Back down below Fall Creek, the pink Berkley's Powerworm is still catching rainbows, but our guides have had to travel around a bit to find schools of fish. When they discover them, they'll catch 5 or 10 and have to move to the next place. They do work together, calling around to see if anyone is on fish. That's why you'll see a group of them sometimes in the same area. Early, fish the worm four- to five-feet deep and as the sun gets up, you have to go deeper - up to eight-feet deep, depending on water depth. And again, two-pound line is best. View full article

I don't think I'm real picky about what's "worthy" to be an article and what's not. As for as a fishing report, the simple basics is helpful to anyone looking for current information so it might have water temperature/clarity, weather conditions/wind, strategy, baits/lures/type of gig , depth of water.... you know fishy stuff. Spots - not so much. Lots of details - or not. Basics - yes. Comments will follow an article, just like a topic so if it's a lame report, you'll hear about it The one thing that is REQUIRED is a header image. It can be of the fishing trip or an old image of the lake/river. The way articles are displayed, images set it off. yes, it's a like and feel thing... I admit. But when an article doesn't have an image, it looks out of place. There's already a small group of posters that posts trip reports, fishing and not fishing, that I repost frequently, Quillback is one. Jeff does a great job and I know there's a ton of anglers who appreciate his reports. M&M, RPS, dtrs5kprs, netboy, lance34, cheesemaster, mixermarkb, and of course Al Agnew and Bill Babler.

You're right... I'll have to give it some thought. Tomorrow. Thanks guys.

What?!

You've seen me repost a fishing report or a topic of interest as an article many times. It might seem confusing, but there is a purpose. There's 2 main parts of OA - the FORUM and CONTENT. Content houses sections on each individual "water" on the forum, although some of the waters are not completely yet. Most are. And under each water, there's a fishing report section. So someone who wants to see fishing reports on the water they are interested in can click there and not have to wade through the forum for a report topic. A few members have the ability to post an article. I have to give you "permission" to do so. The format is almost exactly the same except for the article header image that appears on the top of the post. When you post an article, it appears both on the forum and in the content side. When I repost a topic, I have to delete the duplicate topic- that's why you might see one I forgot to delete. I am going to be in Alaska for 3 weeks so I won't be able to repost any topics to articles. And I thought some of you might want to go ahead and post articles instead of posts. I'll be checking the forum every once in a while when I get to town and can help if someone has trouble. I have a Youtube video on how to post an article... it's pretty easy. Thoughts?

So, this is a little late as this is from Saturday (6/9), but it has to be the best day on Stockton I've ever had. My 7 yo son and I launched at 5:30 and were off the water by noon. We got 5 walleye 18"-23" and 34 keeper crappie. I have no idea how many white bass, catfish, drum or small crappie and walleye we caught. It was literally non-stop action. At times, all 4 rods had fish on. I don't know how many times I yelled 'doubles!' They were still biting when we left, but the heat (and overcrowded livewell) drove us off. View full article

Morning was slow. Got much better when the sun got up, even better with boat traffic. Fishies like big wakes banging the bank. Not a surprise. Caught fish consistently from 830-3pm. Quit reluctantly. Number of keepers...many. Main lake stuff, not necessarily points or run outs, close to the main river channel. Mostly 18'-25', with some out to 28' or so. Temps pretty much 84-85. Color our new normal cloudy mess. Tubes, football jig, Ned. Fish seem to want an aggressive presentation, so deadly Nedly got a little less love. Hopping, darting, etc. Lost a bunch of fish on tubes. Need to look at hook options. Best tube bite I've had in years. We've gone through two and a half 20ct bags in a week. First thing we saw a lot of singles, but they weren't playing. Wake bait, spoon, nothing. The dragging fish are very much as Mr. Babler described. Quite a few are "catching" it. Too many were also pitching, lol. Jig fish were ridiculously touchy about trailer size. Plus one very optimistic gog... View full article

Welcome! I'm sure someone can help you with that.

OK.... I changed the title.

Aren't these red ears? If they're not, I need to change the title!!

At least once a year, I love to get up to the upper lake (Table Rock) and fish for big gills and this morning was it, so far. It took us a while of course to find where they were hiding but when we found them they bit and they were big.... they did not disappoint. 9 am - Put in at State Park. Tried a couple of spots close to the Branson Belle that have been good to me in the past - nothing. Then we went to an old favorite... the high line point in close to Moonshine Beach. We tried our pieces of night crawlers in 12-20 feet all places but this time we ventured out a little deeper and caught a few. Still bored, we went on over to the main point there, on the inside (east of the point) and fished in 22-28 feet on the bottom and found them. They weren't fast and furious but it kept us on our toes. Ended up with 15 between the 3 of us, about evenly distributed. I hadn't had my son Greg out BG fishing since he was a kid and for Coy, he's an old pro. Number 8 hook, small split shot, #4 pound line and drop it to the bottom, reel up a little bit. That's about it. The fish I cleaned, most had eggs so I don't think they've spawned yet. I was told they were 15 feet deep but we found them deeper, at least in those spots. How long? The board doesn't lie View full article

Lighthouses?

By the way bruiser is back.

We love you, Bill. I told Duane... we called it "poking the bear". Just having fun with you.

No they aren't. Both sexes.

No.

27 x 18 male. On a chartruese Mega Worm.

Here's DD's rendition of the micro. Turner - .0099 Duane's - .0098 Side by Side.

10x.... at least??

So I guess we should stop calling them 1/265th and call them 1/100th? Wonder what the full micros are? 1/16th?

Not sure I'm ready for custom fit clubs... would mean I'd have to play more to justify it. I bought these used off Amazon so I'm not out a bunch if they don't work. HAHA - if "they" don't work.

Twenty-four hours just isn't enough time to do all the things I want to do. Even getting up at 4:30 am, I'm still short time and energy. Anyhow... I started playing gold at an early age. We belonged to the Parsons Country Club and my parents would drop me off at the club lots of days in the summer. Of course there was a creek that ran through the place and I had my fishing pole with me too. Never had a lesson.... wish I did. Started with a slice and never could get rid of it until the last few years. I've force myself to keep my hands inside by changing my grip, stance and back swing. I'm hitting my driver pretty good now. My short irons have always been consistently good. I can putt but can't read a green. But my medium to long irons are my downfall. Anything outside of 150 yards, I have problems. I own a couple of hybrids, a 21 and a 23 degree. I hit those much better than an iron - I think it's a mental thing. So I've ordered a couple more hybrids - an Adams 25 and 28 degree. I'm thinking these may just replace all my irons between a 3 and 6. Anyone else have issues with long irons? Do you do better with hybrids?