Phil Lilley

I can't ban anyone from LilleysLanding.Com, nor can I ban an IP from any of my sites. He can't even see either one, not register.

Wouldn't know how to do that... esp on my resort site too. Only common thing is that they are on the same server.

This guy is having a hard time accessing my sites and I don't know what to tell him... does anyone have any ideas? Since we last talked I've got rid of McAffee (anti-virus program) and did a complete re-install of windows.(also replaced the hard drive) figuring there was some kind of conflict. I'm still unable to access the site, I have no problem with any other sites other than ozarkanglers and lilleys landing.I've accessed them some time ago but not recently. Could there be a speacial browser setting? I've tried with both firefox and IE. I also re-installed firefox. I'd really appreciate any help as I don't know what else to try.

Any inquiries about the club can call Dave Blades at 417-849-4081 or email dblades@ozarkmountainbassmasters.com

Weekly Fishing Report Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Randy Zellers (501)223-6406, e-mail: mailto:rdzellers@agfc.state.ar.us White River: Mountain River Fly Shop said the cold weather should mean plenty of water coming through the dam, which means the Upper End of the river will be host to a fair number of boats. Try to run up behind other fly fishers, don’t drive over their drift, get in line for a drift and don’t cut in. Then everyone can have some fun. Fishing has been very good on the White. The trout are definitely hungry. Red White Tails have been very popular, egg patterns continue to do well, particularly the Flashtail Mini Eggs and Unreal Eggs. Red Head Olive Woolly Buggers are working extremely well also. Gaston’s White River Resort said trout anglers have seen many water conditions lately. Anytime between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., two to four units are generating. Around 9 a.m. until noon, the dam will shut down and the water level drops. However, the trout are still feeding during low water periods. The bulbous bivisible is working well for fly-fishermen where creeks run into the river. We also recommend the partridge and orange soft hackle, gold ribbed hares ear, copper john, copper zebra midge, Y2K bug, the sow bug and the draggin’ egg. During high water, try peach or white egg patterns, white and pink micro jigs and San Juan worms. Nightcrawlers are doing well for the bait anglers when the water is low. Yellow Power Bait has also been effective. Some other lures being used are No. 5 silver or gold floating Rapalas and Smithwick blue-backed Rogues. Any minnow-shaped lure has potential. Anglers White River Resort said water conditions are normal with little generation. Trout fishing has been excellent on yellow and pink Power Bait and drop rigs. Sportsman’s White River Resort said water conditions are normal with two generators running daily. Trout fishing is very good on Power Bait, Rapalas and jigs. John Berry of Berry Brothers Guides said generation has varied quite a bit. Some days have seen one or two spikes of heavy generation followed by periods of low generation. On other days, there have been short periods of very light generation. This has created some great wading opportunities and some excellent boating opportunities. It has been extremely cold and incredibly windy with a couple of warm pleasant days thrown in that allowed for some great fishing. The catch-and-release area below Bull Shoals Dam opened Feb., 1. Please avoid walking through the redds (spawning beds recently filled with fertilized eggs by brown trout). Now is a particularly vulnerable time for the eggs and they need to be left alone so that they can hatch and become big brown trout. The shad kill usually occurs some time from January to March during periods of very low temperature and high generation. This generally happens just after the brown trout spawn when they are very hungry. It is usually the best time to land a huge trout. This is not a reliable phenomenon and sometimes there is no shad kill. As yet, there have been no shad observed. One of the early indicators is gulls converging below the dams to feed on the shad. The best flies to use during the shad kill would be large white streamers. Be sure to carry both floating and sinking flies. There have been several reports of great fishing on black zebra midges with silver wire and silver beads and olive woolly buggers. Rim Shoals was fishing very well. The hot flies for this section have been olive woolly buggers, olive scuds and black zebra midges with silver wire and silver bead. The deeper holes along the first island have been productive, particularly with Y2Ks. On high water, the hot fly has been the San Juan worm in cerise. Bull Shoals Lake: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 651.94 feet MSL. Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock (870-445-4424) said bass are biting well on crankbaits in 5 to 15 feet of water on overcast days. Hula grubs and Carolina-rigged French fries are working fairly well in 10 to 25 feet of water. Walleye are biting fairly well on spoons fished over large flats in 35 to 40 feet of water. Bottom bouncers baited with nightcrawlers are working well on walleye as well. Lake Norfork: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 547.66 feet MSL. Cranfield Junction Bait and Tackle (870-492-5141) had no report. 101 Grocery and Bait said the surface water temperature is in the low 40s. Live bait trolled slowly under planer boards has worked well on stripers, but the bite is over by 8 a.m. The fish are holding in less than 50 feet of water. Walleye fishing has been slow, but jigging spoons and ice fishing jigs are doing a good job for some. Just remember do it slow. Crappie fishing has been fair using small minnows and jigs. White bass have been fair using jigs. Largemouth and smallmouth bass have been fair on deep-diving crankbaits and jigs. Norfork Tailwater: Gene’s Trout Dock (870-499-5381) said the water is clear and low with very little generation. Trout fishing is still good on corn and nightcrawlers. Fly-anglers are having luck on sow bugs and woolly buggers. Mountain River Fly Shop said most reports off Norfork continue to be fair at best, with many smaller fish being caught. Wading was wide open this week with the warmer weather, but generation started yesterday with the cold front pushing through. Small scuds (olive, gray and tan), McLellan’s hunchback, Davys sow bug (gray) and small Kaufmann’s (brown or olive) have been doing well. Zebras and super midges have been productive, as well as WD40s. John Berry of Berry Brothers Guides said the generation pattern on the Norfork has been a mixed bag. We had a few days with no generation and some days with a brief period of heavy generation. This has created excellent wading conditions every day. The Norfork has fished a bit better this week. There have been some reliable midge hatches in the afternoon. Anglers have done the best with Norfork beadheads in olive (size 18), and zebra midges in black with silver wire and silver beads and brown with copper wire and copper beads. When the fish are keying in on the midge emergers in the film, Dan’s turkey tail emerger (size 22) have been killer. To change things up, try large San Juan worms in red and worm brown and Y2Ks. They frequently tempt large trout. Dry Run Creek, as always, has been the place to take the kids fishing. The warm weekend drew out a few youngsters. Those few that showed up did exceptionally well. The hot fly was a size 14 sow bug. Other effective flies were olive woolly buggers and San Juan worms. Be sure and use at least 4X tippet and carefully pinch down those barbs. Little Red River: Lindsey's Resort (501-302-3139) said water conditions are normal with no generation. Trout are still biting well on wax worms with marshmallow combinations and crankbaits. Jed Hollan at the Little Red Fly Shop said the Greers Ferry powerhouse is releasing water for hydroelectric power generation most days from 6-9 a.m. and 5-8 p.m. There have been no weekend water releases lately. Incredible midge hatches continue and the trout are rising to them all along the Little Red. Top-water "bug puppets" (flies) that are working include the midge (size 22, cream or black), caddis (size 18-20, tan) and Adams (size 18-20). Below the surface, try a red butt soft hackle emerger (size 14-16), sow bug (size 14-16, UV tan, peacock or light gray), copper john (size 16, red, green or copper), zebra midge (size 16-22, red, black or copper) and wooly bugger (size 10-12, olive or black). Greers Ferry: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 458.43 feet MSL. Tommy Cauley of Fish Finder Guide Service said the water temperature ranges from 30 to 42 degrees during the day. Some sunny weather and warm rains would really bring the bite back. Hybrids and white bass have been moving around with the cold weather, but are still schooled up and can be found by looking for concentrations of gulls over the water. Once you find them a jigging spoon will catch bottom-hugging fish, and a Buckshot In-line spinner, grub, hair jig and swimbait will catch suspended fish when reeled in very slowly. Crappie are biting in the late afternoon on sunny days around channel bends with pole timber and ledges with timber on them. Small minnows are working the best on the crappie. Walleye have slowed, but warmer water and longer days should see an increase in staging activity soon. Beaver Lake : As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 1,113.54 feet MSL. JT’s Crappie Guide Service (479-640-3980) said bass fishing has been best in the Big and Little Clifty area. Crawdad-colored Wiggle Warts and watermelon jigs fished along chunk rock banks have produced some bass. Points with timber have been holding bass as well. Try using suspending jerkbaits in clown or bone colors. Crappie fishing continues to be best in the river arms. The Neals Bluff area and Friendship Creek have been good spots. Look in shallow bays on warm sunny days around laydowns and brush piles. On cloudy days try around standing timber near the channel in 10-25 feet deep. The best baits have been minnows and Shineee Hineee jigs. White bass are still in their winter haunts along deep main-lake points. Indian Creek, Eden's Bluff and Point 12 are all good spots to look. On warm, sunny days, they may venture out to flats or in shallow bays. Jigging or casting spoons will work best. Stripers have been in Prairie Creek and south towards Monte-NE. Umbrella rigs with 3/8-oz. jigheads dressed with white grubs have produced well. Catfish are biting well along bluff lines on shad or liver. Southtown Sporting Goods (479-443-7148) said water conditions are normal. Crappie are biting well on minnows and jigs around brush. Bass are fair in deep water on jerkbaits and plastic worms. LakeSWEPCO: JT’s Crappie Guide Service (479-640-3980) said bass on SWEPCO are a bit fussy on some days. Try crawdad-colored jigs or live minnows around pole timber. Shallow-running crankbaits have taken a few bass near the discharge. Bluegill in SWEPCO have been hitting crickets along timber and the deep channel on the east side. Spring River: Marks Fly Shop said mayfly and caddis hatches continue to grow. Stable weather will move in soon along with consistent fishing results.

Signed up for it... good idea.

Lots of good information on the storms on John's board http://p088.ezboard.com/Tornado-DamageGass...icID=3962.topic

We didn't get as much as expected.

Ventured out before the rains hit. Boated up in one of our new G3 Eagle 190's... nice boat! May sell mine and just use a rental!! Boated to just above the flats (Narrow Channel Flat) and swung into the shallows where I saw dozens of rainbows vigerously midging. They were hitting those bugs so hard it looked like white bass on shad- pretty cool! Of course my boat put them down for about 15 minutes while I tied up. Put on 6x fl tippet and tied on a #18 olive RS2, pinching a half palsa 12 inches above the small fly. The weight of the hook sunk the fly slowly- perfect for the 6 to 12 inches of water I was fishing. Had numerous takes and lots of pull-outs. Brought may be 9 to the boat, all but one under 12 inches. There's a ton of small dinks up there right now. Could see them cruising in the deeper water. When I got down to the flat, I tied on a #16 black soft hackle cause the wind had picked up and there was a perfect chop on the water for stripping sh's. I was right... good hard hits and another 2 to the boat. I was checked while on the water... not for a lisence but by the new creel checkers. Matt Mauck, MDC fisheries biologist, was with 2 gentlemen. They pasted me by cause I had just pulled up to start fishing so I didn't get the drill. Was dissappointed! But nice that they're out there again!

Shad report was not accuate. No shad coming thru the dam.

I think you're talking about Taney's tailwater, not the White. 701 is all the way down and wadeable.

Be blessed!!! It's your birthday!! Thom (68), Whodat (46)

Also was told they're running "minimum flow water"... the pics I've seen on John's site don't indicate that- right?

Forecast is for heavy rains today and tonight. But by looking at the radar http://intellicast.com/National/Radar/Curr...mp;enlarge=true it looks like most of the big stuff is going to miss our watershed... unless it forms in NW Arkansas and moves up thr our area. I heard flash flood warning... was hoping for a 3-4 feet jump in Table Rock's level to get the Corp some water to run but not sure it's going to happen. Would be good for Bull Shoals and bringing on the shad below BSD too. We'll see. For now I bet fishing is real good today below our dam! And below BSD too.

According to Newlands, shad have been coming thru, enough to where some guys brought him a bunch of shad for the freezer. I'm getting this 3rd hand mind you. As big as shad run is, I hate to start a erroneous fish tale.

Sorry to say I haven't been much the past week but have talked to quite a few that have. John Johnson was just here for a couple of days and said fishing was very good for him. He boats above Fall Creek and fishes zebra midges almost exclusively with the exception of a scud every once in a while. Saturday was not the greatest fishing day but it was a great day to be fishing. High sun, no current and little wind. Did do well using jigs under a float 4-6 ft deep between Fall and Short Creeks as well as throwing 3/32 nd oz jigs straight, no floats and working them off the bottom. Best colors- sculpin, olive and brown/orange. Power baits worked ok but worms did the best in the bait catagory. Minnows are working good but the water has to be running to be the best. Crappie are starting to move into winter positions. I've heard the dock and Fish House have been targets for holding crappie- jigs, minnows and swimming minnows. Also try along the wall, mouth of Roark and Turkey Creeks. I like using pink or chartreuse jigs. We had a 3.80 lb brown caught and weighed in the tournament Saturday which took big trout. Had another rainbow about 2 lbs weighed in. Alittle over 10 won with about 6 teams between 6 and 7 lbs. Weight were not as good as the Boswell or Masters mainly due to the nice conditions, I believe.

http://fishfever.com/

http://www.ocregister.com/sports/bass-osbo...8634-cast-event OAK VIEW In a bass tournament where one cast could mean winning $10,000, Don Osborne took it literally. The Castro Valley angler pulled up to the Lake Casitas shoreline in a spot called the airstrip and made his first cast Friday morning in the Heavyweight Bass Championship. It was the only cast he would need. On the third crank of the reel, Osborne hooked up and went on to land a 10.52-pound largemouth bass. "After that first cast, I couldn't get that clock to tick fast enough," Osborne said. As it turned out, he didn't need to worry. On a day of rain, wind and cold, none of the other anglers could boat anything close, not even those who knew the lake inside out. So, Osborne, whose experience at Casitas amounted to less than 8 hours of pre-fishing in December without catching a fish, became the king of big bass by winning the inaugural Heavyweight Bass Classic, a biggest-bass-takes-all event. He earned a $10,000 check and a custom-made HBC belt, something akin to what a heavyweight boxing champ would receive but without the bling. "Hey guys, anybody can win," Osborne told the crowd huddled under the awning of the tackle shop during the awards ceremony. "It was just luck. Total luck. I've never been on this lake. I had to be in the right place at the right time, and my number was drawn today." Those whose numbers were not drawn were a who's-who from the big-bass community: Allan Cole, Mr. A.C. Plug who got the big swimbait craze started with his lure; Dana Rosen, who once caught a 63.26-pound, five-bass limit at Casitas; Art Berry, who has caught more than 100 bass over 10 pounds; and Butch Brown, who has caught 850 bass 10 pounds or bigger. A week before the event, Brown was videotaped catching a 12.5-pound largemouth at Casitas and saying something like, "See you Friday," a statement that spoke of his great confidence. None of these heavyweights even weighed in a bass, proving Osborne's contention that anyone can win. "You could have put money on so many great, great anglers here and this guy shows up and wins," event emcee and pro bass angler Byron Velvick said. "I think it's great. It definitely feeds the idea that these guys are like, 'Man, this could easily have been me.' Every one of them." Osborne, it should be noted, is no stranger to swimbaits and big bass. He's caught 62 bass weighing from 10 to 16.9 pounds, and has been fishing swimbaits for nine years. "I've been throwing them religiously," he said. "It's like a slot machine. You keep pulling it, pulling it, eventually it'll hit and today was my day." For the remaining field, it was just a long day. Of the 49 other contestants, only 19 weighed a fish and only six were heavier than 5 pounds, topped by a 7.99-pounder. The winning fish was caught on a Ken Huddleston early Castaic 12-inch plug, apropos since it was swimbait-maker Huddleston whose idea it was for this event. "Our goal is to turn this into a trail, a regular circuit (with two or three events a year)," Huddleston said. The next event is July 11 at Clear Lake. "It really is long overdue," Velvick said. "Tour guys won't appreciate it because it really becomes a one-fish, one-lucky-cast kind of bite. But it really does showcase great, big-fish fishermen. This is what these guys live for, that one big bite." And if it's on the first cast, so much the better.

Saying that Jordan Brown had a good year outdoors is akin to saying the MU Tigers football team had a good season. The only downside to the 14-year-old Cuba, Mo., resident's envy-inspiring string of 2007 successes is that he might never have another year that measures up. Brown's year got off to a good start when he killed a nice gobbler during the spring turkey season. He was excited when the month-long fall turkey season opened Oct. 1, but his wildest dreams fell short of what actually happened. Read more - http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/st...View/sid/26689/

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/r...08/01_31-03/OUT With one just one fish, you might say 26-year-old Justin Riley of Woodbine broke five Maryland bass records. His 11-pound, 2.88-ounce fish taken from the Potomac Saturday is the biggest largemouth taken since records were first kept in the late 1950's. It also ranks tops in both the state's freshwater and Chesapeake Bay divisions, and add to that it's the biggest taken in any tournaments in Maryland - including the BASSMaster's Classic held out of Baltimore 20 years ago. And, though records aren't kept for ice fishing, Justin is surely atop the heap for a bass caught under the ice, which was the way his hog was reeled in from the frozen Potomac at Marshall Hall between Blue Plains an the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Maryland side of the River. It wasn't meant to be that way. Justin was fishing a tournament in the Winter League of Anglers Choice with his dad Edward - and skim ice covered much of the river which of course made it impossible to cast everywhere he wanted. After leaving the docks he sliced through the thin ice with his bass boat's big motor, but once fishing and with not much success, he tried something different. With his bow motor he broke open ice to cast - and as he proceeded, via his electronics, he noted fish under the newly broken ice. He began casting a half-ounce XPS blade bait of a mixture of lime and chartreuse and it wasn't long before the lunker grabbed it, then made a beeline under the ice. The whole scrap of about 10 minutes was fought under the ice. He landed his record at 8:30 a.m. and kept on fishing. By day's end, the father-son team had won the lunker award, most pounds in aggregate (20 pounds 2 ounces) and everything else. Big fish are no strangers to Justin, who at times has fished the BASSMasters circuit. From the mouth of the Mattawoman he has taken a 9-pounder and four more largemouths of 8 pounds or better. The .88 ounce made the difference between the largest tidal water bass and a tie with Rodney Cockrell of Calvert County, who on Oct. 4, 1983 cranked in an 11-pound 2-ouncer from Bowens Pond, a private fishing spot in Calvert County. It tops by a couple of pounds the biggest catch I made on one cast at that pond. About 25 years ago while fishing with Ebbie Smith of Prince Frederick at Bowen's, I cast a large propeller bait into a shady shallows and had a curious strike. There were two jolts within a second, And when I got the fish to the net it turned out to be two bass, twins - each of 5 pounds, one at the forward hook and the other at the tail hook. Bass of 5 pounds or more weren't unusual at Bowen's. For Justin, things aren't that close in the tidewater bass division, the record was a 9-pound, 1-ounce fish taken from the Pocomoke by J. D. Noell on Sept. 13, 1975. Record keeping is curious under DNR's tournament system. Cockrell will keep his record, but Noell has lost his. Fishing In Maryland, a fishing annual which set up the original record system, lumps fresh and tidewater bass together, so Justin's fish rules all for FIM honors. What's the difference; now we all know who caught Maryland's best largemouth. Justin was in the dark for a while. On the boat, his scales, because of the cold weather showed different weights each time he tried to weigh his fish. When he got ashore at the weighing station and he realized he might have a record, the fish was quickly taken to a market to be weighed on certified scales, but it couldn't be put on the scales - sanitary rules nix anything on market scales that are alien to what the store stocks in commercial fish, meat, vegetables and fruit. So he hurried to Bass Pro Shops in Hanover where the fish was weighed and still remains. On the way to Bass Pro, Justin covered the fish's eyes and used a mix of fish preservative to keep it alive, then it was put in a quarantine tub where it was touch and go for a couple of hours. A soon as quarantine time is over, it will join the other fish on display in the big tank at Bass Pro for everyone to admire. It's a legitimate hog and came only three days after another record bass. On the Wednesday of last week, Fred Barnes of Chesapeake, Va., caught a striped bass of 73 pounds at Cape Henry off the mouth of the Chesapeake to set a record for Virginia. Justin's half ounce XPS lure is a look-alike of the popular Silver Buddy, but he did a little tinkering with it. He figured the treble hook was too long so he changed to a shorter one. He says it makes a difference, and who can argue with a man who has the record? The Silver Buddy is among my favorite cold weather bass jigging artificials though I prefer it in silver. I was introduced to it by George H. W. Bush in 1992 when on a frigid and windy March day he pulled one from his tackle box as we were fishing the Potomac several miles upriver from where Justin scored. It didn't catch much that day; what with all the press and security boats around, but the president took a bass of about 9 inches, I got one of 10 inches - and on my wall is an autographed dollar bill.

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/...s/619cloves.txt LOVES PARK, Ill. (AP) _ Marty Dinges broke a promise to himself two years ago when he started collecting fishing lures. Not just any kind of lure, though. Dinges describes Jim Bagley Bait Co. lures with adjectives generally reserved for pieces of art. "These lures are beautiful," said the 54-year-old angler. "I bought them because I had never seen a lure that looked so real." He purchased a few. Then a few more. Now he has 1,200 at his Loves Park home. "It's a hobby that has kind of turned into an obsession. It's funny how it works out that way because I always said I would never collect lures," he said with a chuckle. Now he searches for them on eBay and lure collectors' Web sites and at garage sales. He's also made friends online who help him on his collecting quest, such as Jonathan Manteuffel of Alabama. "He is very instrumental in my passion for Jim Bagley's baits," Dinges said. "Jonathan is a Bagley fanatic and has one of the top Bagley collections. His knowledge is second to none." The lures are considered contemporary collectibles, as the earliest ones only date back to the late 1950s, but their quality attracts collectors. The company's slogan is "The World's Most Treasured Lures." "You try to limit what you pay for them. I've paid premium for a couple of them, but most of the ones I'm getting average about $4 or $5," said Dinges, who has never collected anything else. His Bagley collection includes a "very rare" one-inch small fry smallmouth, double-deep diver, which was a "production error." Only a handful were made and just two still exist, said Dinges, who paid $150 to another collector for the lure. Dinges not only collects Bagleys; he also takes them to the lake. "I was afraid to fish with them at first," he said. "I had them over a year before I fished with one." He got a scare on his first fishing trip with his Bagleys, A toothy, 32-inch muskie followed his perch lure to the boat. "I pulled it out of the water as fast as I could. He would have put teeth marks on it," Dinges said. Now he has a separate group of less-valuable Bagleys just for fishing. "They catch fish, too," he said. While Dinges is a relative newcomer to collecting Bagley lures, Johnny Garland of Johnson City, Tenn., is considered one of the pioneer collectors of the brand. He started in the early 1990s. "I would go to tackle stores and buy every Bagley they had," he said in a phone interview last week. "I would make a deal and buy them for $2 or $2.25 (about half the retail price), and I was buying 200 or 300 at a time or more." Serious collectors will pay plenty for those Bagleys today. In the past few months, three Bagley green frog lures sold for $1,100, $1,525 and $2,180. Garland recently sold a "master" collection of 242 Bagleys for $30,000. "It shocks me," Garland, 62, said of the prices the lures are fetching. "It's almost silly. There's no reason for those baits to bring that much." Garland believes the Bagley market might have peaked. "There are a few (Bagleys) that might go a little higher, but I think there will be several that will go down, too," he said. Dinges still considers it a good investment. "The little amount of money I've got into them, I could put that into a boat or other fishing tackle and not get my money out, but with these I can," he said.

A fisherman from Croatia is selling his pet dog because it kept catching more fish than him. Slobodan Paparella from the Adriatic island of Lastovo said he was fed up with being embarrassed in front of his fishing pals. He said that most days when he went fishing he would catch only the odd fish - but that his Irish setter Lipi would jump into the water and use her jaws to catch dozens of fish. Paparalla said the last straw was when he tried to reel in a 15lb (about 6,8kg) fish but lost it at the last second - only to see Lipi jump in and catch the fish with one bite and bring it back to shore. "The other fishermen were all laughing at me. I have no choice but to sell the dog because it keeps humiliating me," he said. - Ananova.com

You think? The folks at invision said they found some problems with the cookie settings and another thing... going to reset it and everything should work much better. I thought some of the problem was the server but I guess not.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...3/SPB9UOP3U.DTL Game wardens trapped, arrested and convicted a Northern California poacher and restaurant owner by using a combination of CSI-style techniques and old-school hide-in-the-bush stakeouts, according to court documents made available last week. The result is one of the landmark wildlife enforcement cases in California history and also one of the craziest fish stories ever told. Like many of the best cases, this saga started with a tip. In the summer, a Bay Area angler called the Department of Fish and Game's poacher hot line, (888) 334-2258, and reported that he'd seen a fisherman "catch at least 30 trout in one day and keep them all" on the Sacramento River in Dunsmuir, according to Fish and Game. In addition, the tipster recognized the over-limit poacher because he'd been to the fellow's restaurant. Game warden Joe Powell, a 15-year veteran with 10 years in the Bay Area, decided to cruise over to the River Cafe in Dunsmuir, arriving incognito in plain clothes, and look the place over. "The menu was taped to the window, and sure enough, there was a rainbow trout dinner for sale for $10.95," Powell said. The rumor was that the owner of River Cafe, Larry Baker Sr., was following the DFG tanker truckers around, and then after trout were planted, would catch the fish before they could get naturalized to their surroundings. Within a week, game wardens John Dawson and Jake Bushy, wearing full camouflage and masks, hid in the bushes near Baker's two favorite fishing spots, "the Wall" and "the I-5 Hole," both well known on the Upper Sacramento River in Dunsmuir. They watched as a DFG tanker truck arrived at about 10 a.m. and each of the spots was planted. <h3 style="" class="subhead">Setting the trap</h3> The "Wall" is in downtown Dunsmuir, where Dawson said he watched Baker arrive within an hour of the plant. Baker placed salmon eggs on his hook, cast out, and one of the freshly-planted trout struck almost immediately, Dawson said. "I just watched him catch a limit in five minutes," Dawson said by radio to Powell, who was stationed nearby at the restaurant. "He'd sling the fish up and snap the neck backwards," Dawson said. "We'd never seen that before," and added it would be another indicator to later identify the fish. The DFG watched Baker for three days. Although the limit is five trout per day, game wardens said they saw him catch 33. In a defining "character moment," Dawson said he also filmed Baker throwing an empty salmon egg jar and a soda can "right into the river." While Dawson hid in bushes for 10 hours at a time, Powell trailed Baker when he left the river. "He'd catch five trout, take them to his restaurant, and then go back and catch five more about an hour later," Powell said. "One time he did that three times. The most we saw him catch in one day was 18." Baker did not know he was being watched. He also didn't know that the DFG's Mark Hampton, an associate biologist with an expertise in marking salmon, had injected a tiny wire with microscopic identification numbers in the tail fins of 300 trout planted at Baker's two favorite fishing spots. Because Powell, Dawson and Bushy are well known in the area, and in fact, have reputations that approach near-legend status across the Western U.S. for past undercover busts involving bear and elk, Powell asked game wardens Yvette Adams and Rich Wharton from out of the area to enjoy a dinner at the River Cafe. <h3 style="" class="subhead">The gotcha moment</h3> The couple, dressed like they were on a date, each ordered the Rainbow Trout special. The undercover agents did not finish their meal and placed the leftovers in a take-home box. Powell, getting more eager by the minute to inspect the tail of the trout, was waiting nearby with what he called "The Magic Wand." This is a $5,000 micro-wire detector. He waved it over the tail of the leftover trout in the take-home boxes and each time, a red indicator lit up and an alarm beep sounded. "Gotcha," Powell said. He then led four game wardens back to the restaurant, search warrant in hand. Baker was not at the restaurant because "he's out fishing again," according to a restaurant employee, Powell said. The game wardens then walked into the kitchen of the restaurant and immediately spotted several trout on a cutting board, Powell said. They inspected one and saw that its neck was snapped backward in a very unusual fashion. Within five minutes, the game wardens found 22 trout, and of those, half were injected with the coded ID wire. Game wardens seized all the dinner receipts for the entire year, after which they estimated that Baker's restaurant had served 60 trout dinners. The case ended in January when Baker pleaded guilty to five counts of violation of the Fish and Game Code, including unlawful take, unlawful sale of trout, illegal fish in an eating establishment and littering, according to the DFG. Baker was ordered to pay $5,323, sentenced to 30 days in jail, placed on three years of probation, and banned from fishing in California or accompanying anybody fishing for three years. In addition, Powell said, Baker sold his restaurant and is moving out of state. There's a moral to this story, Powell said: "You never know who's watching."