Phil Lilley

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.

Woke up early this am... earlier than I wanted to. You know - getting up to go in the middle of the night (3:30 am) and could not go back to sleep. So I started my trip to BS Dam alittle early. Good thing. On the road before 5 am. Making good time with jon boat in tow. Hadn't had this particular trailer on the highway in quite some time. I felt great about it - the trailer lights all worked! Three miles north of Harrison WalMart, I felt the tire go. It didn't start together very long. Had to ride it to a lit corner road and pulled in. The trailer had a spare but wasn't sure if the Dodge Truck jack lug wrench would fit the lugs. It did. The jack worked perfectly too. Thought, man this is only going to cost me 30 minutes. Then I saw the the fender was completely bend under, after I put the tire on. Took it back off and tried to bend it back. It's not a cheap, flimsy trailer fender but I got it back close. I got ahold of my sister Lisa who was just about to leave her house in Harrison for work (the resort) and she met me at WalMart with some channel locks. I bent the fender and gave the tire plenty of room. It lasted a total of 4 miles. It blew- I pulled into Shoney's. I took it off and headed to WalMart. The tire store opened at 7 am. I was their first customer but they didn't carry any 13 inch tires. Headed to Tire World - they open at 8 am. So I sat. Bought 2 new tires, back to Shoney's and a tow truck was taking my boat away. Man! Back on the road... I almost turned back home but thought, what the heck... I'm going fishing!! The tow truck thing... just kidding. Got to the dam at 10 am. Jeremy said the ramp below the dam on the State Park side was clear but I could see driving over the dam it was snow covered. I drove to the State Park Dock and put in at the ramp there. The water was up to the top of the ramp - lots of water. Headed up - all the way to the dam. Started with white 1/8th oz jig on one rod and a 1/8th oz sculpin/ginger on the other. Crimped down the barbs as best I could but still was pulling fibers out of my sweatshirt. Could not get it all. If I was checked... well I wasn't thankfully. The only way I could have been legal is if I had taken a file. Mental note: Take a file next time. I haven't fished the White out of a boat that much. Jerry Dudley taught me to fish the Golf Course side at the line- the backwater there. I started there and caught a half dozen rainbows there- no real size but they were really hitting. Drifted out of there and kept catching rainbows. Good first drift... but it ended up being the best one. Did catch the largest trout of the day on that drift - a 18-19 inch brown. Was going to take a pic but he was hard to handle with one hand the the hook fell out before I got the pic... darn barbless hooks!! I worked both side and the middle. White seemed to be the best color but I did well on the sculpin/ginger too. Had fun on the big shallow shoal just above the lower line (trophy area) on the Park side throwing the white jig and standing high on the deck of the boat and watching the jig disappear in the fish's mouth. Didn't have to feel the bite- disappear -- set the hook. They dropped the water most of the time I was fishing up there. All in all they dropped in a good 5-6 feet. Very gradually. Pulled out at 1:30 pm. Headed to Norfork Dam. Thought for sure they'd be running water and the ramp would be clear. No on both counts. No generation and the ramp had snow on it although I probably could have gotten the boat in. No waders and I didn't want to fly fish. Headed to Rim Shoals. I knew about the time I got there the water would start to drop out, like it did at the dam. I was right. I fished the same color jigs and caught alot of rainbows and 2 small browns. Nothing big. First pic was the largest rainbow - about 16 inches - but I took the pics because of the colors of these rainbows- very beautiful. Met Gary Flippin. He was baling boats out. I've never met him although I've been by his place a couple of times. Nice visit. I fished both sides of the river from the upper trophy line to the top of the shoal. The inside bank produced trout but not like the outside (dock side). So now I'm running on fumes. I'm going to bed and tomorrow I'm fishing Taney for at least an hour or two and see if I can catch bigger rainbows than I did on the White. I honestly thought I'd see more big browns, being opening day. May be next time.

What started out as a yucky day, ended a real nice, sunny winter day here on Taney. And the fishing was great. Nice rainbows weighed in. Eleven teams, the smallest number by far in the history of trout tournaments, at least out of our place. Water ran all day - about 3 units. Talking to some of the guy who fish today, this contest was fished in a very unique way. There were trout caught from Fall Creek all the way to Powersite and all points inbetween. I know people who caught - and weighed in - rainbows caught at Powersite and just below Fall Creek, caught around the Landing, Kanakuk's Camp off Lakeshore Dr., down close to Bee Creek, Bull Creek, Cedar Point and further down. Heard of one nice rainbow caught close to Short Creek but the rest of the nicer rainbows were all caught down lake, from the Landing down. Most were caught on jigs but some were caught throwing or trolling rogues and casting spoons. Lots of dark males weighed in. If someone caught one, there were usually more in that school and they caught more than one. Big trout was a 1.94 rainbow caught by one of the Hawkins brothers... sorry I didn't get which one it was. I'll find out and post his first name. Had another rainbow at 1.92 - pretty close! First place - Byron Wheeler/Josh Wheeler - 9.38 Second - Shawn Pingleton/Vince Elfrink - 9.26 Third - Jason Lutz/Mike Fitzhenry - 9.12 Forth - Wil Long/Chad Estes - 8.94 8.72, 8.70, 8.64, 8.20, 6.68, 6.60 were the other weights. Big rainbows - 1.94, 1.90. 1.80, 1.48, 1.40, 1.34, 1.24 ... these were "big fish" from each bag. These are some of the best bags we've seen in years, but again, they're finding these trout in completely different areas than in past years. It spreads the field, so to speak. Good fishing!! Great fellowship!!!!! Great bunch of guys, we're honored.

Break it off!!!! BREAK IT OFF!!!!!!!

A bear would have been the bomb... right behind the angler.

No video... just audio.

Some have asked about recording these programs. I can post podcast (audio) of each but not video. Video would cost me, to start, $55 per month, hosting fees.

http://ozarkanglers.com/podcast/babler3-5-09.mp3

Or - found this online http://www.online-image-editor.com