Phil Lilley

Jigs Jigs Jigs. That's a great area to fish off the bank when the water is off. #2 lb line and 1/32 - 1/16th oz black jigs will catch a lot of trout there. Let it go o the bottom and them lift and drop. They'll hit it on the drop.

I met Jim and Phyliss Johnson in 1985 when I visited their fishing resort on the Pere Marquette River in central Michigan. We became good friends. They sold their place on the PM in 2005 and bought Naknek River Camp in 2006. Bill Babler and myself went up and helped guide that first year and I've been going to almost every year since. Paul Crews and I arrived in King Salmon on Saturday, July 15. It was a typical summer day--temps in the 60's and rainy. The weather didn't change will Wednesday when the sun came out and it warmed up into the 70's. Sunday we hit the river for some sockeye salmon. Sockeye and king salmon start entering the river typically the last week in June but the main run starts the first week of July. Naknek is known for its big sockeye run and big rainbows. It gets a fair number of kings and silvers and chums and a lot of pinks on even years. We were lucky to still see good numbers of sockeye still running upriver and were able to get our limit of 5 each on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we boated to Brooks Camp, a 35 mile trek across Naknek Lake. We walked to the bear viewing platform (about a mile hike) and joined people from all over the world to view a bunch of brown bears in their natural environment. Sockeyes were schooled up below the falls but hadn't started jumping yet but we did see a few get caught by bears on the falls. We boated on to Margot Creek, another 15 minute ride. It's a good size creek that flows into the lake from the south that's usually full of rainbows and dollies. We caught some dollies, mainly on jigs. Beautiful place!!! Wednesday we tried some king salmon fishing, boating up Big Creek, a creek where salmon run up into to spawn. We didn't have any luck so we headed back to the main river and drifted huge beads and did some good. Only caught one decent king and quite a few "jacks" which are small, 1-2 year old kings that come back to the river to spawn prematurely. Thursday through Sunday we fished for rainbows, throwing my marabou jigs, 6-6" medium light spinning rods and #4-pound line, working several boulder fields in the river where the rainbow hold and ambush passing schools of smolt (baby salmon migrating from the lake to the ocean through the river). Best colors - black and sculpin. They have both sculpin and black leaches in the river. Here's a video I put together -

Just got back... will be getting out may be this afternoon. Need to edit and post alot of videos.

Talked to a guest here who has a boat at Diamond City on BS. He said the same thing about the walleye he's catching there.

No it wasn't. Not sure what happened. O2 was good, Temp was good. May be it was the fight. It did fight hard and it took a while to land it. Big live well. Was never out of the water for more than 10 seconds. Waited till it was obvious it was dying to take the picture. He even said he didn't need pics if it meant a good release. I worked with it for an hour. It just never did right herself in the live tank. It may have survived if it had been release and not brought in but I'm not convinced. There's just hardly no way to land a big trout like that, take any kind of picture and get it released successively. What I'd do? And I did this once when I was by myself fishing- before even landing it, I'd call someone at the dock and tell them to head up to where I was. I'd land the fish and keep it in the net. Troll to the bank. Get out of the boat in to the water with the fish. Measure it if I have a tape. Lift it out of the water for a quick pic. Release the fish. We do this all the time in Alaska. The fish is out of the water for 10 seconds tops. Handling is held to a minimum.

Brian- You're blessed to be able to fish that area every day - be there to pick up trash - THANK YOU for that!! All of us appreciate your efforts. Thank you for talking to people about the regs and even helping anglers by showing them the right way to catch fish. You have years of experience - again - you are a blessed man for having that opportunity for most of your life. You know our situation - we have 2 agents per county. MDC isn't picking on us (Taney). It's how it is. It's a big machine - everybody wants their piece of the pie protected. Fact is when the water doesn't run, more ppl fish below the dam. More chances to poach. When the water runs, less chance. I've talked to the agents - they say when they're patrolling Taney below the dam with the water off, they can start at one end and write tickets as they go down the bank. And when they get to the end, they can go back up and start over and keep writing them. It's endless. It doesn't stop. That's the way it is and that's the way it's been since the dam was built. It's the way it was in the mid 70's when there are huge rainbows being caught on roe during the spawn. And we still have one of the best trout fisheries.

Alittle over 14.

Generation patterns on Lake Taneycomo this summer have been consistent. Operators at the dam ran water every afternoon for the month of June. The only variant was on hot days they started it about 2 p.m. and ended after dark, and on cooler days they started it about 4 p.m. but still shut it off by dark. Water temperature has not change d either. It's held at 48 degrees with the oxygen level steady at about seven parts per million, which is good. With this generation pattern, everybody is happy! Those who like the water off have all morning to fish, and those who like it running have the afternoon and evening to enjoy. And most anglers are catching fish. For those fishing below Fall Creek, night crawlers are still the best bait to use. Blow some air in them to make them float off the bottom using a syringe, Four-pound line is still okay to use. Drifting them on the bottom in the afternoons is good, too. Another live bait to try is a minnow drifted on the bottom. The pink powerworm on a jig head under a float is also the go-to for most guides in the mornings. They like to stay in the shade as long as possible, fishing the worm anywhere from four- to seven-feet deep. We've enjoyed a breeze most days starting mid morning. Find that chop on the surface and fish a jig under a float. The best jig has been a black micro jig. Tie on a little two-pound tippet for best results. In the trophy area, the zebra midge caught this beautiful rainbow. They were fishing with guide Phil Stone and using 6x tippet and a #14 black zebra midge. The zebra midge is a good all-time fly because it imitates a larva our trout eat every day of the year. Small jigs under a float are working, too. Micros in black, olive, brown and tan using 6x and 7x tippet. Mega worms are working too in white, chartreuse and peach. Jerk baits are catching some big trout near and after dark from the dam down to the Branson Landing. Use Doty's Signature Series baits -- as well as other suspending jerk baits along with jigs --while the water is running and after it's dropped out; it doesn't matter. One angler said they stayed out most of the night and were glad they stuck with it. Fishing was slow until the moon dipped below the horizon about midnight and that's when the fishing really got hot. View full article

I think we had them a few weeks ago. But our fish don’t rise to them. Hoping with all the mature trout we have now they’re more educated to eating bugs on the surface.

Glad you got it going!! What color was the best?

I’ve decided to hammer the banks with beetles, ants, hoppers and other delectables next month. Found this one today as the water started to move. Stimulator. About 18 inches. It’s a triploid too.

Walleye??? When we going??!!

I think this is an old image. I've seen it before.

Not really but we got out late morning. Brush piles had tons of fish but looked real small. And that's all we caught. Small ones.

It’s for the forum. Only

Is this An old picture??

Before I go out and google search for help with my ad setup, I wanted to ask if there was someone here that does that for a living. I don't have the time or patience. Thanks

I will. Traffic is actually increasing.

It was busy on TR too. Took the kids blue gill fishing.

Cat out of the bag.... If that's the brown that our guides have seen at Lookout, it's pushing 50 inches. Yes, 50 inches. It would beat Bill's fish by a mile. If it's up there, someone is going to get it. Hopefully in the mouth.... not in the back.

Nathan gets all the credit. I'm blessed to have an awesome staff!!!