Phil Lilley

There's quite a bit I could add to this for catching browns on dead bait but I won't. Here's why. I used to use dead bait to catch browns and was quite successful at catching . . . and killing a lot of browns. When fishing dead bait, you fish it dead in the water and let the fish take the bait. You have to use pretty big hooks when using dead bait and almost every time, the fish takes it deep. I found the mortality rate to be very high regardless how careful I was handling the fish, even leaving the hook in the fish. So I stopped fishing this way years ago and have not promoted it since. I'm not condemning this article or anyone who fish's dead bait, please don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are ways to fish dead bait without killing as many fish although the mortality rate is about 20% under the best conditions using bait and I do use bait for rainbows when I'm guiding occasionally. I'm just sharing my experience. Nice to see you back, MOCarp! It's been along time - missed you carp reports! How was sucker grabbing for you this season?

Float size- not really. Whatever you like using. But I try to use enough to float any thing I'm using whether it's a jig or fly but only enough to keep it up. I like it to go under when I get a bite although that's not always possible. They take it pretty softly sometimes.

Thanks for posting the wrap up!

Smallmouth bass daily limit is two and each must be at least 14 inches long to keep. From confluence with Clabber Creek downstream to the confluence with the White River, smallmouth bass daily limit is 1 and must be at least 18 inches or longer to keep. Outboard motors may not be used on the Buffalo River upstream from Erbie Ford, nor larger than 10 horsepower from Erbie to the White River. Daily Limits Rock Bass - 10 Largemouth, spotted, *smallmouth - 10 *note special rules Catfish - 10 Bluegill, redear, longear, warmouth and other sunfishes combined - 10 Missing anything?

SWPA totally lied on their schedule this morning--shouldn't be surprised but disappointed. They're running 2 units this morning but at less than one unit water level - 704 feet. Never shut it down last night. Was going up to the dam to get a fishing report this morning. So don't make any special trips down (or up) to the tailwater to wade till they show us they're gonna leave it off when they state they are.

Generation patterns seem to be set in. Water has been shutting down late in the evening from 9 to 11 pm and back on the next day from 2 to 3 pm. The amount of water they're running changes, though, each day, any where from one to four units. When the water comes on, the fish are eating but you have to deal with moss breaking loose and flowing for the first hour or so. Man, fishing continues to be very good. I hold back saying excellent because excellent means EVERYONE is catching fish and that's never the case. But if you follow my advise to the teeth, you will do well. First, your equipment is important. Have to use something that can use 4-pound line. A lot of closed face reels don't do well using light line. Four-pound line is a must. Being able to cast it at least 50-feet is another must. If you can't and you're drifting, drop the line over the side and let line out till the bait is out there and bumping the bottom consistently. I took some friends fishing yesterday. Started about 3 pm - the water wasn't running at first so we fished night crawlers, anchoring out in front of the Riverpointe Estates boat ramp in the middle of the lake. Pumped a little air in the worm to float it off the bottom with a split shot about 18-inches from the hook, a #8 short shanked, bronze hook. That floats the worm about 18-inches off the bottom. We caught a few rainbows but with no wind and high sun, they weren't too interested. Talked to Steve Dickey, he said they were doing well using a 1/256th oz olive micro jig under a float 6 feet deep just up from where we were so we changed locations and technique and sure enough, he was right. They hit a tan micro too. Had to tie on a piece of 2-pound Vanish tippet because the water is so clear right now. They didn't waste any time eating the jig. The Corp only gave us about 20 minutes of no generation but they kept catching rainbows till the moss got too bad. So we switched back to night crawlers, and yes, they liked the worms! No need to inject air when the water is running. My friends ended up landing four rainbows over 17 inches with the others less than 15 inches. Nice trout! I have not been up below the dam yet with no generation but I would imagine it's pretty good. Haven't had any real good, detailed reports on the forum either . . . I'm sure we've had some members fishing up there. I guess they don't want to brag too much about the fishing, drawing more anglers to their honey holes. Sorry, had to jab a little. Fly fishing from a boat in the trophy area is really, really good. Micros under a float - olive or tan. Midge patterns are pretty good but scuds are the best fly going. I reported seeing lots and lots of scuds after dragging an anchor in the gravel up there and that's what they're eating. I've been using either a beaded, silver/gray scud under a float or a scud using a tiny split shot. Number 14's or 16's if water is off and #12's or #14's if it's running. I got out this evening and threw a white jig for a while. One unit running - very nice flow. Caught a few rainbows but they didn't seem real excited about my offer. Not much in the way of surface action but did try a soft hackle- no results. So I tied on a #14 silver/gray scud and drifted the shallow side of the lake over the flats at the narrows a few times and caught nice rainbows each time I made the drift. My trolling motor went out on me again but that didn't hurt me too bad. Back to bait fishing below Fall Creek - I didn't mention using any Power Bait. Rainbows are still hitting Gulp and regular PB is paste or eggs. Pink seems to be the best color lately. Use 4-pound line for best results.

Bring it on! I mean down.

Oh . . . tools in the pics are NOT included. Pics are from the Oasis site.

Megan wants me to move our Oasis Benches out of the shop so I'm offering OAF members the first shot at them. I have 2 Compact Walnut Benches, retails for $284 I'm selling for $120.00. Cut to $90. I have 2 Pedestal Partner Benches, retails for $179 I'm selling for $80. Cut to $60. I have one Spinner Bench, retails for $179 I'm selling for $80 but I have another that the spinner part was never put together and thus is not really functional, at least the spinning part. The block of wood could be taken off and the spinning part put back on but the block is glued and so it would be difficult not to damage it - but if you don't care about it's looks, it could be done and would be workable. This one I would sell for $50 - what a deal! Not $80 but $60 and the broken one for $35. Drop me an email if you're interested.

Talked to a friend this evening from the Mobile, AL area who's into Gulf fishing in a big way. Also a pilot. Also has some interest in oil. He had a few interesting things to say that I didn't hear in the news. #1 - He said they should have let it burn. #2 - He said when they were trying to put the fire out, they blew too much foam on the rig and that's what made it collapse (tip over), breaking off the pipe and thus the leak. #3 - He said his daughter was swimming on the beach in that area 2 weeks ago and came out smelling like oil, felt the oil on her skin. Couldn't see it but it was already showing up. #4 - If a hurricane hits the Gulf and blows up north into the states, it will carry that oil hundreds of miles inland - all the way up here.

Oh yea - Bill misspoke when he said there were a dozen or two rainbows following my fish as I pulled it from the shadows . . . there were dozen -s! I bet 60-80 trout followed in one big school. It was amazing how many were hold up in the shade - and Bill was right - as soon as the clouds came and there was a little chop on the water, turned around and they were on the flat feeding like crazy. That was about this time I headed in - about 11:30 am. Trout fishing is absolutely fantastic . . . and I don't use words like that very often. Bill on the other hand . . . . . .

I got out well before Bill dragged his butt out of bed I played around with a few different things. Best was a scud - #16 light gray fished on the bottom either on the bluff bank or on the flats. One thing - I took one of our jons up cause our bass boats were rented. I take an anchor so that I can drop it and stay in one place without messing with the trolling motor. Once when I pulled it up, I noticed as I pulled it from the gravel there were gobs and gobs of bugs coming out of the gravel. I showed Bill- dragged it this time and you wouldn't believe the bugs. This is about as fertile as I've ever seen this lake. Midge, mayflies and scuds and sow bugs, not to mention the reported hoard of sculpin I've heard about. No wonder our rainbows are as big and healthy as they are.

We have a last minute opening for a three bedroom, two bathroom unit open starting this Saturday, June 5th, and leaving the next Saturday, June 12th. The unit runs $189/night and if you stay 7 nights there is a 10% discount. Give us a call if you're interested - 888-545-5397 Thanks!

Did you fish the White in AR or Taney? Moss was bad for a while but it's mostly cleared out now. Not sure about the White though.

How about oil eating enzymes?

Looks like they've got Table Rock and Beaver where they want them. No generation for most of the day today. We'll see what they do for the rest of the week.

Show a guy how to jig fish and he can't get enough . . . He caught this one off the dock a few minutes ago. 22 inch. Not a gut fish or he'd be fatter.

Come by and say howdy.

Ryan and I hit the lake after we closed shop at 6 this evening. Boated to the dam and drifted all the way to Fall Creek. They were running 2 units but dropped to one about the time we got up there. Dropping water is usually the kiss of death but it wasn't real difficult to catch fish. Wasn't one after the other though. I switched color jigs most of the way to Lookout while Ryan stayed with white the whole evening. He kicked my butt too but I caught the biggest! White was the best but like I said we had quite a few dry spells which I'm not use to. That's why I kept changing but they didn't want much on the dark side. Here's the proof... it's nice to have someone to take pics. The first few nice rainbows I had to take pics of. Ryan, like I said, was nailing them down to Big Hole. Then it dried up till we got almost down to Lookout Island. This one was my big rainbow of the evening. 20 inches on the nose. White Jig. Ryan caught this one right after I caught mine. We didn't measure but I'm sure it pushed 19 inches and it might have been heavier than mine. This last one I caught at Short Creek - just wanted to show there's a bunch of nice rainbows below Fall Creek. This one was a good 17 inches.

The Corp dropped the lake to one unit this morning and the schedule says it will stay at one unit all day. Nice!

The weekend is over and summer has begun. For us at least, Memorial Weekend marks the beginning of the busy season which lasts through the middle of August. It's a shift from getting ready to maintaining. It's all good. The fog here is liked by most, especially the new people. They think it's nice air conditioning, cool in the morning and evenings. I hate it. Evening is my time to get out and fish on the lake and the fog slows me down. Can't see the line . . . it's wet and cold. Anytime it's muggy out, the fog is thick and most of the time it's muggy. I boated up to Lookout about 7 pm. It took alittle while to get up there. You can run in light fog until you hit a patch of thick stuff and then you have to bring 'er down off plain. If you're too slow, you cruise into the fog bank and invariably there's a boat and you're on top of it. It scares them and it scares you but never is it real close . . . just aggravating. I don't think I'm going too fast but I'm sure it seems that way to others who can only hear you approaching in the thick stuff. A lot of times, I just don't go out. They are running 2 units worth of water. I threw 1/8th oz jigs against the bluff bank - started with white. Brought 4 rainbows to the boat and all were nice 15+. But I felt I wasn't getting the jig to the bottom well enough. The water was swirling more than I thought it should be plus I couldn't see my line very well due to the fog. But I kept on drifting and working. Lost the white jig so tied on a sculpin. Caught a few more including the rainbow in the pic. Hard to feel the bite. I drifted all the way down almost to Short Creek before picking up and heading in. Not a lot of trout but it was nice to get out. The midges were thick over my head tonight . . . good sign of healthy insect hatches.

Anyone know where I can find bell weights in bulk?

Al, I loved your pics from last year... hope you'll share some from your trip this year!! Thanks!!!!

Hitchin' Post on the south side of the dam on 165.

Didn't see that... Ill move this to the Little Red and see if Ed can get some more help.