Phil Lilley

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.

I know that first guy...

Not lately.

Pothole - it would make sense to me that fish wouldn't be up there due to the cold(er) water coming over the dam there but it's usually pretty good fishing. Haven't heard anything lately though.

Read up on fizzing fish. There's a good article someplace on this site....... It's good to know if you're fishing deep. Great report. Sounds like you had a awesome fishing trip. Thanks for sharing.

Good answer considering the question. Need to be specific and post your question under the appropriate forum. You'll get good answers.

I couldn't be more proud, Jeremy! Sure miss seeing you though... new wife, great new job and fishin' and winnin' all those tournaments. Going to chase whites on TR before church this am .. . maybe I'll see you on the lake!!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/29/pirates-threaten-boats-mexico-border-lake/ ZAPATA, Texas – The waters of Falcon Lake normally beckon boaters with waterskiing and world-record bass fishing. But this holiday weekend, fishermen on the waters that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border are on the lookout for something more sinister: pirates. Twice in recent weeks, fishermen have been robbed at gunpoint by marauders that the local sheriff says are "spillover" from fighting between rival Mexican drug gangs. Boaters are concerned about their safety, and the president of the local Chamber of Commerce is trying to assure people that everything's fine on the U.S. side of the lake. At the fishing camp his family has owned for 50 years, Jack Cox now sleeps with a loaded shotgun at his feet and a handgun within reach. In the American waters, Cox said, "you're safer, but you're not safe." Mexican commercial fishermen regularly cross to set their nets illegally, why wouldn't gunmen do the same? he asked. Two weeks ago, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned boaters to avoid the international boundary that zig-zags through the lake, which is 25 miles long and 3 miles across at its widest point. Authorities also urged anyone on the water to notify relatives of their boating plans to aid law enforcement in case of trouble. Since issuing the warning, most boats have stayed on the U.S. side. "That's a good indication. It means they're getting the message," Texas Parks and Wildlife Capt. Fernando Cervantes said Thursday as he patrolled with two other game wardens. "They're still coming out, but they're not going across." The border is marked by 14 partially submerged concrete towers that mark the Rio Grande's path before the lake was created in 1954. Game wardens and the U.S. Border Patrol watch over the lake but do not cross into Mexican waters, and no Mexican law enforcement is visible. Men armed with assault rifles robbed fishermen on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake on April 30 and May 6. They traveled in the low-slung, underpowered commercial Mexican fishing boats that are familiar here. They asked for money, drugs and guns, and took what cash was available. No one was hurt. A third incident happened a couple of days before the warning was issued, but Cervantes said the fishermen were able to escape without the thieves boarding their boat. The attacks "were really unusual," Cervantes said. "We had never seen it, and then they started up." Violence on the Mexican side of the lake has been climbing for several months. A fractured partnership between the region's dominant Gulf Cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, plunged many of the area's Mexican border cities into violence. Police stations were attacked, officers killed and rolling gun battles between the gangs and with the Mexican military became commonplace. "To me, this is spillover violence," Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said. "I don't do the Chamber of Commerce talk. I talk reality." Still, the sheriff says, boaters should safe provided they stay on the American side. Cox, 81, says it was only a matter of time before the violence from Mexico crept onto the water. And the idea that gunmen looking to score easy cash from fishermen would not cross the lake's imaginary boundary doesn't make sense, he said. That perspective is what worries Chamber of Commerce President Paco Mendoza. "What's keeping our town alive is our lake," Mendoza said. In recent years, drilling in the county's oilfields has virtually stopped, and the wells are no longer producing like they once did. In those days, oilfield workers packed Zapata's restaurants and hotels, he said. So Zapata increasingly looks to the lake for economic growth. Five fishing tournaments are scheduled between now and July, and a few big ones are set for next year. "As far as we know, all of our contracts are still in play," Mendoza said. Falcon Lake landed on the national map of fishing destinations after the 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series tournament, where bass-fishing world records were broken. The pirate warning could hurt businesses that depend on the lake, "but anglers will continue to come to Falcon because of the great fishing," Mendoza said. Norma Amaya, who runs a tackle shop with her husband, insists there is plenty of good fishing in U.S. waters. She points to a photo taken in December of a woman holding a 13.2-pound bass and smiling broadly. Amaya said her husband's guide service had had a couple cancellations since the pirate warning, but they are still booked solid for next year's peak season, which runs from December to March. They've stopped selling Mexican fishing licenses because no one is fishing over there now. Robert Amaya stopped taking clients into Mexican waters back in March, when violence was peaking in Mexico. "It is dangerous over there (in northern Mexico), I wouldn't advise anyone to cross," she said. Norma Amaya said the reports of pirates "have been blown out of proportion. It's probably just some hoodlums. I don't think the cartels want the exposure." As he helped launch his cousin's bass boat from Falcon Lake State Park, Ronnie Guerra said he hadn't heard much about the pirates. But he knew enough to stay on his side of the lake. "We already know what's going on on the other side," he said. "It's been going on for a long time."

Some say 55 and most say 60. I was a little low. 42 is cold but I don't think it's affecting our trout. Fight hard and feeding well.