Phil Lilley

I don't know if there's a difference between shooting and running lines. Here's an image I drew up of the rig. You cast it upstream and hold the rod high, then dropping it as the rig sinks, then following the fly with the rod. You have to be careful not to get ahead of the fly or you'll drag it. At the end of the drift, I usually hold the rod low and pointed downstream till I can't feel the bottom anymore. Of course there could be varied conditions that would require modifications to the drift. Just like any new technique- the more practice you get the better you are. I've been using this technique for about 22 years mainly on the Pere Marquette River in Michigan, where I first learned it.

I'd bring it. It gives you more options.

I've gotten out several times over the last 4-5 days. Back when the water was down and they were running "fish water" last week, I boated up to Lookout and fish both sides of the island using my shooting line and caught rainbows on a red san juan- best fly. Dropped down to the narrows and did real well doing the same. The current was perfect for using shooting line- perfect presentation. Again, stopped at Fall Creek and fished the channel shoot on the east side and did ok. Fished yesterday with John Johnson from Kingfisher, OK and friends. Boated to the dam in his boat and fished white 1/8th oz jigs and caught some real nice rainbows from the cable to the island. A couple pushing 18 inches. All were good looking and fought pretty hard. Caught others downstream but not as big. This morning I boated up to join the guys. Brent jumped in my boat and we drifted from Lookout to the narrows, first the shallow side using a red san juan under an indicator and caught a couple. Then drifted the other side and caught a blue gill on a stimulator. Then we worked 1/16th oz sculpin jigs and caught several rainbows- small. Boated to the cable and started throwing white jigs again and caught several rainbows, not the big ones though. I drifted a natural bead using a small split shot and caught 4 trout, one brown. Caught a rainbow spewing eggs just before putting on the bead. Earlier in the morning the guys caught a smalley, a kentuky, a white bass and a crappie on jigs at the dam. I have no idea why they continue to run the water all day like this. I'd think they'd start conserving since Table Rock is now below power pool- regardless that Beaver continues to dump it's water. ????????? But didn't see any browns below the dam, nor did I see any jumping. Not a good sign for the brown run. Not a good sign for our hatchery and harvesting eggs this season. Guys are catching rainbows from Fall to Short Creek on night crawlers.

Sounds like Crane has recovered well from it's drought/flood events. That's great!

Where is the bridge pic?

Do you have a phone number? Seems like they'd be better off with emails or... maybe... a FORUM?

Not sure. Haven't had time to mess with it. Will go into that account, if I can remember the user pw, and see if I can change it back. No big deal.

Last time I checked it it was 59 coming straight from the dam. It won't go down till Table Rock turns over in December.

Brad Wright was experimenting and tied a jig the night before the big day. Knowing that the trout bit on cracklebacks and woolys, he thought a small jig made with both a tail as well as hackle palmered on the body would work. It was a rainy, foggy 40-degree Wednesday morning with winds blowing out of the northeast and no water running. He started about 7:20 in the morning by outlet #1 with a rapala. “I jerked and twitched, jerked and twitched, and nothing ever bit,” he said. He switched to the jig and float. First he tried the jig with six-pound line on his spinning rod, then switched to four-pound spool with two-pound tippet tied past the indicator. On the first cast he caught a rainbow, about 18 inches long; consecutive casts yielded another rainbow and then two or three browns, approximately three pounds. He then re-tied his knot to the jig and continued casting. On the second or third cast, the big bruiser hit, taking off downstream. As Brad followed, he slipped and fell onto a big rock. “I lost my footing and my right elbow hit on the rock – but I didn’t drop my rod.,” Wright recalled. The fish continued its run, and headed right in front of a man from Kansas. As Wright was regaining his balance and in pursuit, the other angler called out,”Son, do you know how big this fish is?” About 10 pounds, Wright ventured. “Try doubling that,” the man replied. The race was on. After a joint downstream, the fish led him back upstream past outlet #2 and to the far side of the lake. Before catching up with him, Brad managed to fall several more times in his pursuit. He and the fish were all the way past the cable when the horn blew, warning that generation was starting. Once the whistle blew, to Brad’s surprise, the fish headed back downstream. Wright knew he had to get back to the hatchery side of the lake and at that time the fish had reeled off over 80 yards of line. As the water level rose, he started across, bobbing up and down trying to keep his feet beneath him. Suddenly the big brown made a beeline for a log just below the first outlet and stopped. At that point, Wright and the onlookers who had been witnessing the chase for and hour and a half, gathered around. Brad wanted to see where the jig was hooked now that the brown was resting. Positioning himself over the fish, he put his hand into its mouth; he could see the jig was caught between two front teeth. Later he surmised if the jig was anywhere else the 2-pound line surely would have been cut. With his other hand he grabbed a gill plate and slung the huge brown onto dry ground. Brad took the brown trout up to Angler’s Archery for Chuck to inspect. Unofficially it weighed over 26 pounds. Chuck, after looking up the current world record for 2-pound line, told Brad he needed to take it and get it officially weighed so off they went to Consumers grocery to be weighed on one of their meat scales. By the time it was weighed on the Consumers grocery store official scales, two hours had elapsed. Wright figures the fish probably actually weighed about 30 pounds right out of the water. After it was all said and done, Brad’s brown trout is in the record books as the biggest, recorded fish caught on 2-pound line in the world. The fish was mounted and now is on display at Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri. View full article

I've joined the MAC ranks. We now have 3 mac's in the family/biz. I bought a Mac Pro last week and just got my cs4 web software today so I'm loaded for bear. But it's tough getting used to the different way this works and acts. One thing is finding/saving/moving files around. Explorer was easy. I understood c:/ drive and the filing system. Mac is difficult to read, IMO. I've connected my 2 screens today and having alittle trouble keeping them inline. One screen wants to bleed over into the next. The curser in the corner to change apps is a pain too. Gotta find a new way. I have to go to the right screen and upper right corner and that's along way to go if you're working in the left screen. Any thoughts?

I've joined the MAC ranks. We now have 3 mac's in the family/biz. I bought a Mac Pro last week and just got my cs4 web software today so I'm loaded for bear. But it's tough getting used to the different way this works and acts. One thing is finding/saving/moving files around. Explorer was easy. I understood c:/ drive and the filing system. Mac is difficult to read, IMO. I've connected my 2 screens today and having alittle trouble keeping them inline. One screen wants to bleed over into the next. The curser in the corner to change apps is a pain too. Gotta find a new way. I have to go to the right screen and upper right corner and that's along way to go if you're working in the left screen. Any thoughts?

Gavin is right. Kings are hard to find and will cost you big bucks. I like sockeye best but it's hards to tell the difference between sockeye and coho.

WOW- if you like fish straight from the source- you gotta jump on this! Awesome price too. Sean is the guy I got to go out with and fish a bit in Bristol Bay this summer.

Branson is always .15 to .30 cents higher than surrounding areas. We try to buy gas in Springfield as often as possible.

Is this statutory rape??? This is a forward I got today. Off color- yea. Funny- yes. Cure your boredom?

You're killing me here.

I didn't say it was coming.... it just hasn't come yet.... IF it comes. I would think so BUT you never know after such an unusual year.

Jon- we have a rule. You have to type more than one word to start a topic. Unless it's a word like, "fishon!!" or something like that.

I emailed Clint, hatchery manager, and asked him about the brown run. I remembered in the past that the hatchery usually harvested their browns by first or mid October. Clint corrected me and said it was the first couple of weeks in November. He said they haven't had alot of browns climb the ladder but they are looking for them to come in here in the next few weeks. So they didn't come up early as some thought. If they did, they didn't head up the fish ladder which would have been very unusual. So chances are they have not come up and are late this year. Very strange- Salmon runs in Alaska - most if not all runs were late this year. Salmon runs at least on the Pere Marquette River in Michigan were at least 2 weeks late this year. Brown run here is 2-3 week late I'd say. So there is hope, yet.

Going to close this with these words... I've known Jeremy for alot of years. He's passionate about fishing, fly fishing, fly tying and teaching both. He's just a passionate guy who likes to please people. I've put my foot in my mouth several times on this forum over the years and you all have called me out on it each time. Thank you. It's made me a better person and yes I do have to watch what I type cause being the owner of this site I'm held to a higher standard than others. I understand and respect that. "Guides" are also held to a higher standard and rightly so. And when one goes alittle far in reporting, they get hammered alittle more than others. It goes with the territory. I think most everyone here kinda knows everyone by now- our idiosyncrasies and ticks, our way of expressing ourselves- and sometimes we have to interpret "reports" in different ways and say to ourselves, "well, that's just Phil" and go on. And then I'll repeat this one from before... type it, reread it and make sure it's what you want to post in public for all to see and scrutinize.

I get it... stirring the pot!! To answer one question- all the generation and flood water pushed alot of gravel from the bottom and from the outer banks downstream and filled in some areas. Fishing comment- browns- everybody is frustrated with the situation. Very few browns right now when there should be tons. Late? Early? Skipping a year? Not sure anyone knows. DO is always bad this time of year- nothing new. Higher water temps is different and gets the blame for bad fishing days- rightly so possibly. Rainbows- Skinny trout- some are but most are not. Bill reported catching lots of rainbows spitting out lots of small scuds above Fall Creek the other day. Vince had one of the best days of guiding/fly fishing last week he'd ever had. Don't think these are the reports Jeremy was referring to (hopefully). I can vouch for either of these as being 100% accurate. Fishing is fishing and not catching! Everybody has an opinion and has a right to it. But if you type out an opinion that calls out people for lying to drum up biz... you may get pounded. Just a warning.

Lead being the first one in line... I usually put it there. I think Duane had it there too.

Drove to the dam today about 1:30 PM and found my buddy Duane (DuckyDoty) fishing. We plotted around below rebar a bit and didn't do very well. I think Duane caught a few rainbows on a light colored scud duo and I caught one on a san juan. Didn't see many caught either. Didn't see any browns this time. Duane did see 2 cruisers below #2 along the bank that would push 20 lbs so there are some around. I offered to take Duane out in my boat and he said ok. So we headed back to the resort and uplake we went. Stopped at the narrows above Fall Creek and saw the water was starting to move. We threw against the channel bank till the water started moving too fast and caught 4-5 rainbows pretty quick. Then headed up to Lookout Island, got out and fished around it. I caught 4 rainbows on the backside using my "chuck-n-duck" method and a #14 tan scud. Duane went to the front side and started drifting a san juan/scud combo and wacked them. I came over and messed around with some midge patterns but didn't do as well. I bet he caught 30 rainbows- one pushing 20 inches. Most were small though. Fun stuff! Duane said he talked to someone who talked to a either a biologist or a hatchery person about the browns. I'm going to double check with the hatchery manager to make sure this is right. Evidently the hatchery hasn't has many browns climb the ladder yet this fall. Normally, I know they have their browns by the first of October. Some think the high water temp has them heading up late this fall. All we know for sure is they're not up at the dam.... yet. Not in the numbers we are accustomed to. Did get an email from Clint at the hatchery the other day. I might have already reported this. They have not altered their stocking schedule this fall on account of warm temps or low DO levels.

??? Just checking the forum this evening. All this fuss about "nothing"?