Phil Lilley

You guys are funny.... Just saw the fish for the first time on the "closed thread". Thanks Dano for helping us out. Don't know if it was mentioned but a large brown caught, except on big line and brought in quickly, will suffer enough stress to kill it regardless of how it's treated before released. If a big brown is handled at all, esp out of the water, most likely he will die. Even if you release a brown like this and he swims away, chances are he will go lay on the bottom and die. Browns don't do stress well. If you get lucky enough to catch one of these and you want to release it and let it live, don't take pics, don't measure it, unhook it and let it go. otherwise, stick a knife in it and put it out of it's misery. As for replica educaton- our fault. We are in the process of adding this inof to our room books. But in this case, I don't think it would have done any good. If the brown is dumb enough to eat power bait after living without being lured for 15-20 years, then he may deserve to die. Dan- you may hvae to close this one too I'll reprot on AK later... got to get some sleep. But did go out with Sean Guffy (waterman) today on his skif. Caught salmon using his nets- cool!!! Didn't find any hallibut.

Lots to report... the best, very best, will HAVE to be told by Duane and Micheal. I wouldn't do it justice. Just know this... Micheal doesn't want to see another bear for the rest of his life!!! Great stuff. I do have to tell... Micheal seasoned himself with bear spray this evening. Wait till you hear the REST of the story. This was the first day of winter here. Wind, rain and barely in the mid 40's. Jim, myself and 3 clients ran up into Big Creek in search for kings and hooked 8 and landed 3, all about 40 pounds. Did catch some jacks, rainbows and char too. Big Creek is a long, windy river which alot of kings go up and spawn in. It's catch and release from one mile up in the creek and up so we caught and released. We boated 7-8 miles up. Shallow and windy- unbelievable trip in a jet. Very tricky would be putting it mildly. Two days ago, Duane, Micheal and 2 clients boated up for the 2nd time in my life by ourselves and made it up without incident (miracle) but didn't fair so well coming out. I run a 22 foot alum flats boat with a 150 jet. It's heavy and with 6 people I have to keep it over 4500 rpm to keep it on plane. I got too close to a cut dirt bank and slid the boat up on it's side, almost turning it over. Then I missed a Y in the road and ran it up on a mud flat- WA"Y up on the flat. I had a shovel for panning and had to dig us out- took 30 minutes. My nerves were shot and was extremely glad to get out of that place. Sockeye fishing has been good the last 2 days. AK Fish and Game reported we had 450k sockeye run thru the river yesterday- that's alot of salmon! Already we've had almost 7mil escape and that's the est for this year. We had only 7.7 last year and that was a huge year. Starting to see a bunch of pinks move up too. And still fresh kings. Duane, Micheal and 2 clients went to King Salmon Creek yesterday and both got a couple of 40+ lb kings on a fly rod. Today they went back and fished for dollies and rainbows behind kings spawning and caught "hundreds" on every cast using beads- 2-5 pounds. They're out rainbow fishing today. Hard core! I went out and rainbow fished last night for about 30 minutes. Windy and rain- not sure why I went but it was only 9:30 and too early to go to bed. Saw one chasing smelt and casted for it- caught him- 29 inch male. Didn't fight well and look skinny, just like the other big bow I caught earlier. Not sure if the smelt numbers are low or very late but I don't think the bows are getting alot to eat- yet. The eggs will be flowing big time soon. pic of a rainbow we caught the other day at Idavane. Bear in camp... again. Visits every day, sometimes several times a day. More pics of the new dining lodge. Adding a shower room next week. Here's a taste of food prices. Duane and I had fun taking pics at the food store last week- I leave for Anchorage next Monday, then to the Holitna River on Tuesday morning for a few days.

The days are long but flying by. Micheal is here- went to Idavain and Islands on Sunday- slow fishing. First time the grayling and rainbows didn't cooperate there. Neither did the fish at the islands. Nothing trolling. Duane and Micheal linited on sockeye after hours (got in at 1 am). Sockeye are starting to slow down- maybe. We didn't see as many today but that could be just the day. Did land quite a few but had to work for them. Some of us went up Big Creek at noon. My first trip. Very fun ride up- went about 5 miles up. Winds back and forth and fun in a jet boat. Thrwe spinners for kings and landed 2 plus a pink and a chum. Duane and I panned for gold. I ended up with 8 pieces, one small nugget and some nice flakes. Duane strike out. It's addictive! Can't wait to go back. Weather has cooled off and has been rainy. 50's daytime. I love it. Brooks and Margot tomorrow from what I've heard. Bears and dollies. Sorry no pics. Forgot my camera.

JULY 9, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORMER SHELL KNOB MAN INDICTED FOR ILLEGALLY TAKING PADDLEFISH EGGS, SELLING CAVIAR SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Shell Knob, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for harvesting the eggs from paddlefish caught in illegal nets at Table Rock Lake, in Barry and Stone Counties, Mo., which were processed into caviar and sold to a Tennessee company. Thomas Jerry Nix, Jr., 38, of Memphis, Tenn., formerly of Shell Knob, Mo., was charged in a seven-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield. Today’s indictment alleges that, from Dec. 31, 2007, to Feb. 17, 2008, Nix and an unindicted co-conspirator participated in a conspiracy to transport and sell paddlefish roe (eggs) that were taken in violation of state and federal laws. Nix allegedly set gill nets (a commercial fishing net set vertically in the water so that fish swimming into it are entangled by the gills in its mesh) on Table Rock Lake. Nix returned to check those gill nets every one to three days, removing all the fish that were caught, and relocated the gill nets on Table Rock Lake as the paddlefish moved upstream to spawn. When paddlefish were retrieved from the gill nets, the indictment says, Nix used a knife to slit open the underside of each paddlefish containing roe or suspected to contain roe, and extracted the roe by hand. After removing the roe, Nix sealed it in plastic bags that were placed in a cooler and transported to Nix’s residence in Shell Knob. In order to conceal his illegal activities, Nix allegedly weighted the carcasses of the paddlefish with rocks, then sank those carcasses in Table Rock Lake. Nix allegedly processed the paddlefish roe into caviar, which was weighed, packaged and transported to several locations in Tennessee, where the paddlefish caviar was sold to a company engaged in the business of buying, processing and selling caviar. The indictment says that Nix falsely represented that the caviar had been lawfully taken in Arkansas. Between Jan. 11 and Feb. 11, 2008, Nix allegedly sold approximately 387 pounds of paddlefish caviar to the Tennessee firm for a total of $35,820. On Feb. 17, 2008, Nix and his co conspirator allegedly took approximately eight paddlefish at Table Rock Lake, from which they extracted roe, and were in possession of approximately 78.3 pounds of unprocessed paddlefish roe when they were apprehended by agents of the Missouri Department of Conservation. Nix was also in possession, at his residence in Shell Knob, of approximately 91.32 pounds of paddlefish roe that had been processed into caviar and packaged in containers labeled for sale to the Tennessee company. In addition to the conspiracy, today’s indictment charges Nix with one count of possessing and transporting paddlefish roe taken in violation of federal regulations and five counts of transporting and selling paddlefish caviar across state lines. The federal indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Nix to forfeit to the government all vehicles or equipment used to commit the alleged offenses, including a 20-foot Bumblebee 200 Pro boat and trailer, with 225 HP Mariner motor, a GPS unit, and miscellaneous equipment such as three gill nets with anchors and a digital scale. The American paddlefish The American paddlefish is native to the Mississippi River drainage system and is taken for both its meat and roe. Once common throughout the Midwest, over fishing and habitat changes have caused major population declines. The paddlefish is a close relative of the sturgeons from which most commonly known caviars were obtained. Given its close relationship to the sturgeon, paddlefish caviar has qualities similar to sturgeon caviars. With diminishing worldwide sturgeon populations and increased international protection for declining stocks, American paddlefish has become an increasingly popular substitute for sturgeon caviar, and as such has become quite valuable. The paddlefish is protected by the various states in its range, including Missouri and Arkansas. Female paddlefish reach reproductive maturity at 9 to 11 years of age, and weigh 50 to 100 pounds or more. Mature female paddlefish normally hold between five and 10 pounds of roe. Wood cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation. **************** This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

OK I'll answer questions- I'm done writing the family. What is the price of gas at King Salmon? $5.59 Get us some pic's from inside the Pink Palace. http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/alaska2008 This is all the pics I've uploaded so far. The internet is terrible during the day unitl about midnight so I can't upload them any other time. Give us an idea of the fishing at camp and some photo's of sockeye. No sockeye photos but they are slaying the sockeye at will. Your friends are here- the Rankins. 2 grown daughers and 5 gradkids from 12 to 17 I'd guess... and all catching fish!!! 4 other clients from Michigan and they are doing well too. Hooked 18 kings in Big Creek today. Wind blew and is blowing 30-40 and will for the next 2 days. How are the Kings going and is anyone catching any? Your previous photo's were great. I'm looking forward to making my first trip to Big Creek next week with Micheal and Randy arrive. Give us some client photo's. No. I haven't been fishing with them. How are Jim Phyllis and the Kids doing? Fine. Same old same old. You know. How are the boats doing, and what is the standard daily plan that the camp is doing each day with the clients? JIm and PJ are the only ones with USCG Lisc. Duane, Matt and Miles are waiting on theirs. So Jim and Phyliss are fishing every day with James and sometimes Matt slips out with a couple. Another guide arrives in a week and he has his lisc. Are the Sockeye running very thick, after last years record runs? Haven't heard #'s but the guys said they were coming thru for 6 hours straight 5 feet wide today at Rainbow Rock. How are the Brooks trips? ie to many bears and slow, or great? You dry fly fishing was very impressive. Brooks rainbows are terrible. I did good on dries but all small. I haven't even seen any decent rainbows in the river. Bears are everywhere. Nothing like any years I've been here. YOu almost can't get out of the "people area" to the falls or the river. Crazy. Did you find my waders and 7 wt. TFO? if not who cares. May be. There is a pari of waders and a 7 ft TFO. I guess it's yours. My stuff got raided after the first and I'm still finding fly boxes laying around. Missing a few things too... but I have plenty of tackle to say the least. REally miss you all and can't wait to see ya. I'll probably call later in the week. Are there any opening at the camp in either late Aug. all of September, or early October? There seems to be some late interest. I'm sure you can come and find a bed. There's room up in the cabins on the hill for sure. But they are jammed packed. I'm sure someone can arragin staying at Kinko and renting a boat from Jim. He has tons of boats now- not even using 2 or 3 of them right now. Miss you too buddy!! Don't go on anymore camping trips, it takes to long for us to get information. We need an Alaska Fish Fix, almost everyday. Are you going to be able to catch some Sockeye and send some home? I have a hankeren for fresh Naknek River Sockeye. This is all I can think of now, but I will think of more. Miss Ya.

Here's some pics... the internet is giving us fits and it's 12:30 am here so I'm not going to answer questions... today. Here's some pics.

Got to get a better handle on wilderness camping... I took too much stuff and didn't have everything we needed. Lighter is better... couldn't carry enough fuel to do all the things we wanted but we did alot. Didn't figure out the Bay of Islands fish until we were headed out yeaterday to Margot Creek. I saw some fish dart out from underneath the boat as we ran over a shoal-point so we stopped and casted, then trolled some big wiggle warts and caught our first laker (3) and 2 big bows. Cool. Pics later... they're on Duane's camera. We started at Idvane Creek, hiked up to the meadow and caught grayling almost at will. They took our elk hait caddis like candy. Plus some rainbows- nothing like Dudley's and John Jackson's big bows last year but they fought hard of course. No bears... Lots of sockeye at the mouth so we caught dinner and grilled some on the beach. Boated to the Fuer's Cabin in the Bay and found the camp occupied. They had portaged over from Grovesner Lake, kayaking on their way to Brooks. The guides were from AK and their clients from upper NY. Nice people who we enjoyed much. Slept on a very hard wood floor of the cabin- wish we were out in a tent like the NY'ers on the soft grass. Next am we decided that was enough of the cabin so we fished around the islands and then headed to Margot Creek to check out the water, fish and camp there. There's usually a bunch of bears there but we were betting they weren't there yet. I did catch a nice dolly (26 inch) at the mouth but the creek was high and off color so we didn't fish there much. Waking, we saw a bear way down the beach- it didn't look like he'd been by our camp. We'd fixed one of the lakers for dinner the night before and the remains were still in the water. We boated to Brooks to meet up with Jim and the crew to help them out there. We were early so we tried to do some fishing. Hiked into the lower part only to be headed off at the water twice by bears- never made it to the water. Later when they arrived, we hiked to the top and fished down to the falls. I fished all dries- elk hair- and caught 15 rainbows or so none over 16 inches. Fun stuff. Duane ended up doing the same and landed a nice 20 incher. This was a print we found... the man's print is about a size 11. We have some BIG bears. We had a great time. Hope to explore some places around here this week. Have to do laundry first.

Duane and I finished at least the inside of the new dining lodge yesterday as the new clients arrived. They ate the first meal in the converted "pink pallace". Had a small incident... the generator was placed too close to the side of the building and the exhaust almost caught the place on FIRE again. I happened to go outside and see smoke coming from the corner of the building. We'd just hooked up the propane stove and I thought it was the stove causing the problem but solved it quickly by pulling away from the house and throwing a pot of HOT water on the siding. Fortunately, the noddles hadn't been put in the pot tey. I'm heading over to camp for 4-5-6 days so I'll be off line for a while. I'll have pics when I return.

This is the pink palace.. an old building that's sat on the river front for 15 years I'm told. The weather has battered it pretty good. It was supposed to be dismantled last fall and takend away but the owner procrastinated. After Jim's lodge burned, they moved it up where the lodge once sat and now Duane and I are remodleing it- I guess you'd call it that. We're going to make it livaeble by Saturday. It's pretty rough but it was free and that all they could afford right now. It'll be dry and warm. 4 of our clients went king fishing today. 23, 27 and 30 plus a small chum. Caught on plugs using spin gear throwing wiggle warts up in Big Creek. Rainbow and sockeye were slow today. Wind picked up this afternoon and is suppoesed to blow till Thursday afternoon.

RE: pic - there were quite a few women - just not in the pic I guess. Most of these were workers- either cannery people or other comercial fishermen. But there were several family groups heading home after a day in Anchorage (my guess). And several female cannery workers. But mostly male. Here's some pic of Brooks. I went over the day after I arrived (Friday) and yesterday (Sunday). BEAUTIFUL weather- uper 60's and little wind (BUT LOTS OF BUGS). Lots of bears at Brooks and lots of sockeye. Our people hooked them at will when they could. The bears were on us in a heartbeat as soon as one of our fish jumped. We were followed- closely- by a juvenile 4 year old for almost 10 minutes. We kept trying to get away from him but he was either curious or thought we had something to eat. Fimally we yelled and false-charged him enough we retreated. First time for me... kind of un-nerving. Had 4 bears fighting over a salmon right in front of us at the end of the day... then one's cubs ran in right on top of us- within 20 feet. We left... quickly. Duane and I are working on the old building they moved to the spot where the dining hall sat before it burned. Needs alot of work but has to be done by Saturday. Fishing alittle in the evenings... hope to fish more or day this week but much to do.

Can't get rid of me that easy... WIFI is free here in Anchorage so have to take advantage of it. Have a 4-6 hour layover here. May get on an earlier flight but this place (Penair) is busy this time of year. Lots of overseas workers trying to get to the canneries. No hitches so far in travel. Very nice flight to Anchorage from Chicago. It was clear flying over the mountains south of Anchorage- very majestic. Weather here is nice- 58 and cloudy. WE'll see what it is 250 miles SW of here. Hope the wind has died down. First couple days in camp will be interesting... I know there's no extra beds so I may be tenting it on the tundra tonight. Pic of Penair...

We have lots of white jigs... the shop is just up the hill from our dock.

Long time no hear from.... your reporting is appreciated.

Leaving Springfield tomorrow 6 am to Chicago, then to Anchorage and on to King Salmon. Will arrive there at 7:30 pm AK time- 10 pm your time. Looks like I'll be ordering items for camp. Jim said they haven't had time to do much other than bare essentials. I feel like Santa with 3 big bags of goodies for them. Thanks for all the flies- well over 800 flies have come in from Francis Steffen, Tim Homesley, Michael Maples, Leonard Keeney, David Cook, Rolan Duffield, John Jackson and a lap top from Pat Nelms. They will be thrilled! Camp has had 50-60 mph winds for the last 2 days. Very little fishing but at least no bugs!! Temp is 52 today. It'll be different than this 90 stuff we've had today. But I'm ready for colder weather. Don't like the heat. Will post when I get a chance. Take Care!!

Oh yea- mostly in December. 200k of them

You'll have to call the # and ask for sure. He said it was a JR and it had a pedestal.

Average - some will be smaller and some larger. That's not counting the feds rainbows coming in at a whopping 8 inches.

Brad Wright is trying to sell a new vise. I said I'd try to help. Dyna-King Jr. new in box. Everything with it. Retail $250 Asking $150 417-230-6703 for more details and want to buy it.

Generation on Taneycomo hasn't changed much over the last couple of weeks until yesterday when we saw a break. Because of high lake levels at Beaver and Table Rock, the Corp has been running four units at Table Rock Dam for pretty much 24/7 for the past couple of weeks, plus the fact that we keep getting these rain events in the water shed. These haven't been wide spread rains but small cells but lots of rain. This week we've seen a 2-inch and a 4-inch rain in our immediate area but it didn't affect Table Rock's lake level much. But they have to keep running water so eventually drop the lake to manageable levels. Table Rock is almost down to 926, 11 feet above power pool. Trout fishing has been fairly consistent the last week or so. Not real good but not real bad. Because of the fast water, you just about have to get out in a boat and drift to do well. Bank fishing in the downtown area is pretty good, as well off the dock at Rockaway. Here at the marina, we've been sending people downstream for the better part of a month to catch trout. Drifting from Cooper Creek down, staying in the middle of the lake and using Gulp Power Bait in white, yellow or pink. Our guides are still fishing down close to the bridges in downtown Branson for the most part. Bill Babler reports doing good on nice rainbows this morning drifting below Scotty's Trout Dock down to the Branson Landing. Also doing good are spoons- Spin-a-Lure in gold or silver casted and retrieved or let go to the bottom and jigged off the bottom. Cleos- same thing. We'd asked some friends over to eat last night. I got the bright idea to go out and catch dinner for us. This idea has bombed for me so many times you'd think I'd learn but I'm a so learner. It was an excuse to get out and fish, is what it was, but we were going to be in trouble if we didn't come back with the bacon. Vince and I boated up to Fall Creek at 6:45 pm. We started casting white 1/8th oz jigs (Vince) and a F-11 black/silver rapala (me), first in the mouth of Fall Creek. Vince hooked a fish immediately next to a downed tree- a small brown trout. At the same time, I had a huge brown swipe at my lure right at the boat. Might have gone 6-7 pounds. We worked on down and I had no more action on my stick bait so I switched to a white jig. Vince had caught 4 more browns and missed several more bites so the white jig was the ticket. We'd try to hit every slow pocket of water against the bank and almost each time we'd get a strike. We missed 6 takes to one hookup. They do that sometimes- bite short. We trimmed the feathers back on our jigs and began to hook a few more fish. More browns. Vince landed 3 trophy browns over 19 inches (pics). But thankfully we started hooking and landing some rainbows!! We ended our drift just past Short Creek with 2 limits of rainbows measuring from 13 to 16 inches, just right for my hot grill waiting back at home. Not bad for an hour and 30 minutes, one drift. One thing I will mention about our retrieve... we would cast our jig as close to the bank- in eddies or slack water- and let the jig drop a foot and then jig it up. Let it settle back down and jig it again. Most bites were on the first two jigs. We'd work it out another 15-20 feet and then drop the rod tip and reel real fast. As soon as we could see our jigs, we'd stop to see if we had a fish following the jig. I'd say half the time we did and the fish would take the jig as it started to drop. One of my fish was a white bass- about 1.5 pounds. Pretty cool. But this technique works- try it. White jigs are also working up below the dam, working them the same way- off the bank in slack water. We're seeing some awefully nice rainbows being caught. All our rainbows are fat and thick and fight harder that I've seen them fight in years. It's because of the hgih water running all the time- they're just stronger. I did get down and fish the lower lake a couple of times last week. Boy, if you love catching blue gill on a fly rod, you need to try the lower lake. Down below Rockaway Beach, get off the main lake and fish the back waters where the water is warmer and not moving. I casted red humpies and stimulators at pods of blue gill along the tree line and caught them at will. Nice palm sized too. Bass fishing on the lower end is fair. We threw small topwater lures in 1-2 feet of water on flats and caught a few largemouth bass. Also caught them in deeper water using sinkos. I am leaving for Alaska tomorrow morning. Be back on July 29th. I will try to post reports while I'm there but they may be spaced more than a week apart. It all depends on when I can get to town to the public library in Naknek where there's WIFI available. And yes, I'll have some pics from Alaska too.

I'm posting a new detailed report shortly- I'll tell the tale there.

There is a ramp at the dam and it is open. If they are generating, it's fairly hard to launch and trailer a boat. Cooper Creek would be much better.

Don't understand this at all. First, rainbows stocked average 11.5 inches now. That means alot of rainbows are already over 12 inches. It would give them a chance to "get smart" and not be caught? Hum... I doubt it. Gulp is just too yummy. The slot is designed to grow fish to "trophy size". Not trophy size is defined differently to each individual. To some it's 15 inches. To others it's 20 inches. MDC thinks it closer to 15 inches and if you go out west I think you'll find a 15 inch rainbow would be coveted. Here- we're spoiled having all the great trout fisheries. Before the trophy area, if we caught a 15 inch rainbow we'd be ecstatic. Eighteen inch- oh my! Now it's common, very common. Plus it's the intent of MDC to see these "slotted" rainbow to migrate downstream for all anglers to enjoy, not just the "blue blood elitists" they call us that only fly or lure fish. That's what they called us when we tried to pass the new regs in 1995. OK- to tackle adding fish to the pond. Consider: catfish eat what- shad, worms washed in after a rain, blue gill and other forage fish. Is there a demand on these food items already? Is there an abundance of these food items or is the lake "stable"? Carrying Capacity is the phase MDC uses to define the used of land and/or lakes and their resources to provide sustenance for wildlife and fishes. Right now, is Taneycomo "balanced" where all species of fish are eating well and not starving? Is there an abundance? Is there a surplus? To say there's room for more fish means there's an abundance of that food for the species you're putting in, namely catfish. If you put catfish in the lake, it will put more of a demand on their food. Resident fish will have less. Catfish compete with bass I'd think. So this action will affect bass somewhat in a negative way- right? Same with yellow perch, walleye, even stripers. They will all compete for the food that's in the lake. You're not adding to the food base, you're adding predators and thinning the food base. This is what a fisheries biologist would look at when considering a change in how a lake is managed. Our trout are somewhat different though. Because this is a put and take fishery, the food base isn't considered as strongly as it would if you were stocking a lake, say for, catch and release. You'd have to stop or slow stocking at some point because you'd starve your trout. MDC was fearful back prior to the implementation of the trophy area because they didn't know for sure what the trout would do exactly above Fall Creek. Would they all heard up there and starve because of the lack of food? They didn't think so but this hadn't been done before so there were questions. They felt like the trout, if there wasn't enough food for the masses, would migrate down till they found food, OR get caught. And fortunately, they were correct. They didn't all go to the dam but are dispersed throughout the lake for all to catch and enjoy. The trophy area and slot has worked. Can there be changes? Sure. I've thrown out there ideas- change the slot to 13-24 inches on rainbows if you want larger rainbows. Create a slot below Fall Creek. MDC had a campaign back in the 80's where it was suggested that anglers released 12 to 16 inch trout (I think that was the numbers) voluntarily. It worked I think for a while but fizzled out about 1990. But if MDC didn't do anything, I'd be just a happy with what they've done so far. Looking at the numbers, there's no way to deny that for what it is, Taney is a premier trout fishery. I'd love to see more wading areas, riffles and pools but that's just not the character of a tailwater like ours. In saying all that, this high water event is going to beef up that claim... wait till the water goes down! There's a bunch of new, BIG trout out there waiting to be challenged.

John- that's the brown caught in July. The current record was caught in October the same year and yes they were close to the same weight. Micheal knows the guy who has the current state record and that's the mold he has. Dano- you're right. We caught rainbows this evening that were 13-15 inches and fought hard. These are rainbows that you usually see above Fall Creek. But no one is fishing this area- we're not sending anyone up there cause it's been tough. But not everyone can jig fish like Vince.

How about these babies... worth traveling 5-6 hours for? Seriously, Taney is a great trout fishery. AND as far as catching that 15 pounder- the BEST way to catch one is to learn the technique of TROLLING. I know a guy who catches 10 pound browns all the time. And it's not Trav.

Had to post this before we put the fish on the grill... mainly because of the debate going on over on the species.. poll.. thing. Here my buddy Vince cleaned up on nice browns this evening- 45 minutes of fishing. Had our limits of 13-14 inch rainbows on white jigs started at Fall Creek and floated to Trout Hollow fishing the bluff side. Tossed back 8 more browns and one nice white bass. Got to go eat!