Phil Lilley

Need to send some up to Vancouver. They need some snow for the winter olympics.

Can't say. Have to wait closer to the weekend.

K- you can see the board and weights. Pretty amazing how many limits over 8 pounds. Lots of rainbow males milking and sows dropping eggs. Most were caught down- from the Landing, as far down as Powersite.

I'll let you see what the weights were. I'll report more later. My grandson just hit town!

In years past, our trout fishing- quality of trout caught- usually diminishes as the weeks go by but not this year. I go by trout tournaments. Boswell, the first of January, weighs in the heaviest bags (limits). Then the Masters, last of January, the RAW and then Team, the last of February. The RAW, a private tournament, held it's 21st annual contest today. Most are from the St Louis area. RAW stands for Roger's Adventure Weekend. John and Ray Rogers, brothers, started weekend get-a-ways, hunting and fishing with friends. One of their weekends was a winter trout fishing excursion on Lake Taneycomo. Today, it's the only excursion that has survived the ages. You have to be invited by a RAW person to fish it. No guides or professional fisherman are allowed to fish it. As you can understand, many of the original RAW guys are getting up in years. Most started their trips at middle age. Many have retired, some have passed on. But new generations are carrying on in their place. John and Ray still make the trip - John from St Louis and Ray from Colorado. Back to fishing. The guys weighed in some great bags today. 45 teams headed out at 8 am, back to the dock at 3 pm. Eight trout weighed in by two-man teams. 2.46 lb rainbow won big trout I'm doing this by memory - will get you real weights tomorrow. About 10.3 took first. Wes Knopfel and his partner took first. Wes, a first place finisher in 1992, is one of the original RAW member. Second place was just under 10 pounds - Gerry Dwiggins and Bruce Wucher, top finishers in 2009. Third place was 9+ pounds. More in a minute. I got to change computers.

Colts 41 Saints 34

Welcome, Brent. Thanks

Wendell is a good friend. He's a very good fly fisherman who has spent, as you say, thousands of hours below the dam- he's part of the old guard. He went to the Pere Marquette with me way back in the late 80's - one of my first few years of fishing in Michigan. I'm sure you heard alot of stories and all of them 99% true. Gotta leave alittle for memory loss- he's getting old (my age).

The only thing about the gopro is I'm finding limited ways to use it. It's not that good on shooting regular video as far as details. The wide angle lense is so "wide" angle that it's almost distorted. Underwater shots seem much less distorted and that's where I'll probably use it the most- underwater. So it's kinda expensive for such a specialize camera. Now if you were a surfer or cliff diver/flyer, like the gopro website sample video show, then it's incredible.

Generation continues. Beaver and Table Rock close in on their perspective power pool levels and all wade fishermen wait with baited breath for forecasted rain/sleet/snow to hold off. Three units run 24/7 right now at Taney, giving boaters free reign of the lake. Drifting is the word, the key at catching trout. <p> Nothing much has changed from my last report. I do want to reemphasize the fact that the last 2 trout tournaments have been won by anglers fishing down from the Landing to Bee Creek and even lower on the lake. Large rainbows were stocked way down at Powersite Dam over 2 months ago and it seems most have been either caught or spread out to the point that it's hardly worth the run down there to try to catch one. Rainbows weighing an average of a pound are pretty common and found in the wide open water below the Landing. Some talked about keying in on docks and others fishing over grass beds close to banks. Cleos and other spoons have made a comeback of sorts along with jigs and medium cranks baits. <p> I got out this afternoon and boated to the dam. Chilly run but not too bad once stopped and fishing. It was an off afternoon for at least fish biting. I made 4 drifted from the cable to the KOA and averaged 4 bites per drift. Caught a dozen rainbows total, most about 13-14 inches with one pushing 17 and it was a big silver pig. It had a "shad belly" but from the way they weren't paying ANY attention to white tells me they've seen no shad - yet. Best color by far was olive - 1/8th to get down to the bottom and they were hitting light. Seems like right in the middle of these fronts, the trout take a siesta and today was the day. Talked to Bob Wehnert and he said about the same thing. Tomorrow through the weekend, our trout should wake up and want breakfast, lunch and dinner. <p> I wouldn't miss the chance drifting a night crawler or minnow from Fall Creek down past Short Creek for a larger rainbow or possibly a brown. I think with all the attention the lower lake has been getting, the upper lake may hold some forgotten lunkers. <p> Babler fished yesterday. I'll go ahead and write a report for him, leaving out the exaggerated numbers Bill, if you don't want me to rib you, write the report next time! He said catching was "off the chart" but his charts are alittle suspect at times. Pink micro jig under a float and it had to be fished deep to get close to the bottom I'd say. He fished exclusively from Andy's house to Fall Creek. <p> I did drift that section, first with a jig which I got no bites half way down, then switched to a egg fly, peach, and caught 3 on the lower section. I did quit at the Narrows cause I was needed back at the office. <p> One more note: They're starting to put sections of Fall Creek's dock in the water. Looks like it's going to be a nice big dock. <p> Here's a couple of videos I shot with my gopro camera. I'm still playing with it. I like the view under water. Although it was pretty dark outside today, drip it underwater and it lights up. I want to put it on a long pole and run it close to the bottom and see if I can pick up any fish while drifting. What would REALLY be cool it filming a trout take my jig! <p> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <p> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Don, an avid fisherman and wonderful family man, died yesterday. His big smile and even bigger laugh will be missed. I shared with Matt, one of his sons, that Don was very proud of his kids, very proud. He'd catch me up on all of them every time he'd come by the resort. May the Lord's love be felt by his family and friends in this time of loss and mourning.

Ah.... I was planning on hanging around for the free pizza.

Lots of good advice. Thanks.

Saw you on the water... I can attest to your success. I was on track to beat your 6:55 time but... well you'd have to read my report and find out why I didn't make it till after 10 am. Thanks for the report and welcome to our forum. You have a fantastic fishery down there.

Hummmmmm

They have - you're right.

Tied at class January 26 at Lilleys Landing Tying Class <p> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <p> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Example: #1 Metz Micro Barb Cock Saddle. My price is $21.49. To reorder they would cost me $23.97 now. I'd have to charge $33.59 and that's only a 40% markup. Plus Wapsi shipping and handling cost is a killer!!

Nice to hear from you, Ted. Thanks for posting!

Traffic will pick up in a month or so on lakes... may be it will here. It's a new forum/section and will take time to catch on. Right now it spread by word of mouth.

I have a tackle shop. It has some feathers in it. Chicken feathers. I don't sell a whole lot so I don't reorder that often. I don't change the price on stuff just because the wholesale price goes up - too much work. May be I'm supposed to... I don't know. Don't have time to consider it let alone do it. Anyhow - we've been getting alot of orders on our online store. Some are for feathers. The online store was setup a couple of years ago and the inventory online doesn't necessarily match what we have on the shelf. Again, I can't keep up. To my point - sitting here making an order for feathers and have noticed something disturbing. The wholesale prices are now much higher than my retail prices! Feathers have gone up!! But why? Couldn't be demand I wouldn't think. Supply? Are chickens dying off in big numbers? Just thought I'd throw this out there and give you guys something to talk about. I do think it's sad that it's so expensive to tie your own flies!

Thanks for the invite! I'll give you some warning but don't hold your breath... I don't get away that often.

I just took jigs... I didn't want to tempt myself to switch to something else. I don't get down there very often. The first- opening was a good excuse. I hadn't planned on fishing other places but the drop in water was making me nervious. I don't know the water - when it's safe to go where. I wanted to go downstream but if they shut the water down, Id be stuck. Lots of unknowns. Rim was a certainty... I knew it'd be up when I got there and I could stay between the shoals.

Oh- the ramp on the Golf Course side of the river is clear. Some guys fishing off the bank there, with high water, were catching a few trout but were also catching walleye. And one more question. I was asked by a local angler a question I didn't quite know how to answer... how many walleye bites did I get? What's the diff between a trout bite and a walleye bite? I never got an answer.