Phil Lilley

Had to go back and see how old... I would have guessed not a day over 50! You're Blessed!

Thank you very much, Al, for sharing your fishing experiences. Very nice.

Thom's request has spurred me to go ahead and give an overview of trout fishing. Here goes. There are still a bunch of rainbows from Cooper down to the Landing, close to the surface during low light times and deep at high sun. Jig and float early and late and when it's cloudy and power bait on the bottom when it's not. Also injected night crawlers are working good. Zebra midge #16 red or black if you see trout midging set 12-24 inches deep. Micro jigs 4-5 feet deep if no midging. Colors- olive, sculpin, tan. Gulp eggs- white with another color- pink, orange, yellow. Haven't heard much about trolling or casting spinners or spoons. In the Short to Fall Creek area, lots of midging rainbows most of the day. Same as above. Fall Creek to Lookout- midging off and on. When on, long leaders and small midges. RS2 and WD40 olive #22's and a very small indicator and cast to midging fish. Dries along the bluff bank- #8 stimulators and humpies, elk hair caddis and maybe ants. Been alittle slow on dries though. #14-#16 scuds in brown, grey, tan and olive fished on the bottom (gravel) on the drop or up on the flats. Jig and float with a half micro 4-5 feet in the channel. Olive or scuplin. Skip a crackleback or soft hackle if you see midging fish and there's a chop on the water. #8's in brown or cream. At the dam... I'd be guessing. Somebody else needs to jump in and report (details please). I fished last evening but didn't do well. Did see alot of good fish.

Not sure about weekends but weekday crowds have thinned considerably.

Drove to the dam around 3:30 and fished till 5. No waders just tennis shoes. Fished above outlet #2 the whole time- drifted a variety of sucds with little success. Soft hackle- nothing. Skipped a crackleback- nothing. There was a hatch coming off but they were microscopic. Hooked several nice trout on small #20 tanish scuds but didn't stay hooked long. Hooked on huge brown and with one head shake he broke on 7x. Hate to even fish with the stuff. Saw some 24 inch plus browns actively spawning in front of me but didn't have any small eggs to try behind them. I was impressed with the number of trout and the size. Hope they bite next time.

Place Team Members http://www.anglersinaction.com http://www.anglersinaction.com/complete_results.htm Total Bass Big Bass Final Weight 1 Marty Watson - Doug Long 10/10 3.75 26.07 2 Mark Fann - Mike Fann 9/9 4.42 23.99 3 Greg Poindexter - Nathan Poindexter 10/10 3.56 23.29 4 Wes Endicott - Derrick Wright 10/10 0 22.48 5 Buster Loving - Jim Thompson 10/10 4.35 22.28 6 Robert Robbins - Tim Taylor 6/6 3.14 18.25 7 Ed Larson - Loy Galloway 8/8 3.4 17.77 8 Jerry Crosthwait - Sally Crosthwait 9/9 0 15.46 9 Howard Buening - Terry Buening 8/8 0 12.28 10 Ron Tolliver - Ron Ennes 7/7 0 11.92 11 Scott Hopping - Ryan Hopping 7/7 0 11.06 12 James Macleod - Bob Shepard 5/5 0 10.3 13 Tucker Pierce - Shane Pierce 5/5 2.07 9.76 14 Mike Rowland - Junior Shinn 6/6 0 9.59 15 Van Cox - Gary Cook 3/3 3.47 9.28 16 Rodney Edwards - Scott Hill 5/5 0 9.24 17 Danny Waite - Brian Leonard 7/7 0 9.11 18 Roger Springs - Ken Hunt 5/5 2.61 8.68 19 Bill Stout - Jeff Stout 4/4 1.82 8.37 20 Sonny Moore - Gary Brach 3/3 3.61 8.24 21 Kevin Billen - Kenneth Robinson 4/4 0 8.15 22 Bill Dennis - Roger Waters 5/5 2.91 7.97 23 Bobby Williams - Steve Olive 5/5 1.83 7.93 24 Mike Edens - Alex Haines 5/5 0 7.9 25 Frankie Brown - George Hance 4/4 1.69 7.83 26 Rusty Darnell - Dave Davis 7/7 0 7.81 27 Keith LaBarge - Roger LaBarge 4/4 1.91 6.79 28 Aaron Hunter - Alton Hunter 4/4 0 6.68 29 Jim Dopp - Charlie McCutchen 3/3 3.1 6.61 30 Roger Mhoon - 6/6 0 6.52 31 Chad Allison - Darren Cooper 3/3 1.79 6.31 32 Bill Duncan - Harry Belli 4/4 2.62 6.24 33 John Williams - John Wilbanks 3/3 2.31 5.93 34 Randy Roustio 3/3 3.1 5.88 35 Art Cambridge - Jerry Crews 3/3 0 5.8 36 Joe Miller - Bill Athey 3/3 2.65 5.76 37 Larry Egidy - Dennis Morgan 5/5 1.45 5.66 38 Randy Seahorn - 3/3 0 5.64 39 Albert Harris - Ben Jackson 4/4 1.36 5.32 40 Mike Bruton - Josh Bruton 4/4 1.17 5.15 41 Bobby Sullivan - Roger Mathews 3/3 0 4.31 42 Ival Hannah - Rusty Gill 3/3 0 4.13 43 Cliff Mosley - Tim Bankston 2/2 0 4.05 44 Steve Ortiz - Larry McGlinn 3/3 1.31 4.03 45 Jeremy Ingle - Rick Wilcox 3/3 2.11 3.89 46 Brent Watson - Perry Ayres 2/2 0 3.52 47 Earnie Cox - Russell Beck 2/2 0 2.93 48 Mike Gann - Ryan Leahy 2/2 0 2.52 49 Larry Tasker - Larry Tasker II 1/1 2.1 2.1 50 John McCurdy - Mike Mills 1/1 2.05 2.05 51 Rich Campbell 1/1 2 2 52 Lynn Adams - Manuel Farris 2/2 0 1.84 53 Mark Ballinger - Chris Kelner 1/1 1.82 1.82 54 Jim Grass - Mike Campbell 1/1 1.77 1.77 55 Dr. John Tweedie - James Tweedie 1/1 1.59 1.59 56 Tim Newberry - Dave Franklin 1/1 1.29 1.29 57 Howard Love - John Pollitt 1/1 1.16 1.16 58 Wayne Fowler - Bill Richie 1/1 1 1 59 Bruce Anderson - James Luper 1/1 0.95 0.95 60 Quenton Dale Bear - Jeff Bear 0/0 0 0 60 Butch Belt - Stan Snelson 0/0 0 0 60 Chris Bridges - Steve Prince 0/0 0 0 60 Wayne Butterfield - Mick Hailey 0/0 0 0 60 Brad Coats - Marvin Deckard 0/0 0 0 60 Wally Fairweather - Jonathan Krek 0/0 0 0 60 Mark Mudd - Mike Daley 0/0 0 0 60 Darrell Reach - John Bennett 0/0 0 0 60 Zac Udock - Jim Zaleski 0/0 0 0 60 Gunnar Wixon - Steve Wixon 0/0 0 0 60 Jim Young - Terry McCormick 0/0 0 0 Final results for the 2007 Anglers in Action Team Championship. Buster said he caught all his fish 60 feet deep!!

Got out the last couple of evenings. Yesterday was fair at first and then they shut off. Zebra midge #18 red under a half palsa on the flats below Lookout- caught a few but when the hatch was over I moved down to the Narrows and then to Short Creek with minimal results. Today I headed up about 4 pm. Wind out of the north blowing upstream- good! Wanted to catch fish on a soft hackle. But they wouldn't bother my #18 red soft hackle so I put on a #12 brown crackleback and it was on. I caught rainbows till almost dark. They liked it straight retrieve and stripped fast and short. In the channel or on the flat- didn't matter. Caught may be 20 but not really any size... but it was fun. If they missed it I'd throw right back in and they'd hit it again. Very aggressive. Perfect chop on the water!!

I say May because of the crowds but I bet we go in August. We have to plan around everyone's schedule.

A 10 hp motor is plenty big enough.

I would think Mark Twain would be a good place for crappie- always thought it was a good lake for them.

That's why I'm asking- didn't think about runoff. Is it not fishable in late May?

Talking about taking a family vacation to Yellowstone next summer. We went 10 years ago in late August so I know what to expect that time of year. What about early? Mid May? Trying to avoid the crowds and of course fish! I'd think early would be good.

Great to hear from you... was wondering what happened. And yes it was a year ago. Haven't had that much excitement since!

And you were worried about the water... Thanks for the report. We had alot of rainbows brought in yesterday. Quite a few caught off the dock on worms and power bait. Fish midged morning and evening... I pushed off with a boat in front of the dock last evening and caught a few on a red zebra myself- one small brown and the rest rainbows. Good reports coming in on fishing the trophy area above Fall Creek using zebras. 3-4 feet deep in the channel and 12 inches on the flat.

Can't believe Rolan hasn't chimed in on this one... I won't let the cat out of the bag Mine is the same as Rolan.

They treat water like gold and conserve when they need to. It's a balancing act in dry years. They consider lots of factors. But in wet years they let it rip.

I'm a Chief's fan but if anyone has to beat them I'd like Brett Farr be the one.

Ran alittle water this am- not much- already off. Lots of midging in front of the dock this am... catching rainbows off the dock on pb and worms.

Most of those guys were just talking and didn't fish, including me. Almost all of them cleared out in less than 30 minutes.

No eggs- no fish spawning in this area. Not much pressure either- only 3 other boats in sight all morning.

7-10 days. It's called the "Fish House". Mr. Morris changed the name recently... one of the many changes that has delayed the opening. But I understand Morris is taking special strides to make this a show piece since it's in his back yard. Meals are to be reasonable too. Looking forward to seeing it.

Wanted to get serious about fishing this morning after all the talk about slow fishing. Boated up to Andy's house about 8:30 am and started with a couple of scuds #16 and #18 in brown (mink) and gray. Using 6x fl. tippet and setting the indicator deep- about 6 feet- but only fishing 2-3 feet of water. Wanted to make sure the scuds were dragging the bottom. No wind. No current. I had to move the flies every 10 seconds of so to attract attention. The takes were very subtle and I probably missed a bunch but did land 4-5 rainbows. Really wanted to try casting dries along the bluff bank although nothing was active on the surface. Tried a #8 stimulator- nothing. #10 red humpy- nothing. Change to midge fishing on the shallow side. About 9:30 am midge starting hatching and the trout responded. Most of the acivity was on the shallow side but I wasn't doing well using zebras so I tied on an olive #22 biot midge which I thought was the wrong color. It was a very light olive. 7x fl tipet and a half palsa 6 inches above the fly. The rainbows loved it. I had tied on about 20 foot of leader so not to spook the trout, since they were in less than 12 inches of water. It all worked, even with no wind. Caught about a dozen nice rainbows before calling it quits about 11 am. They were still midging good when I left. Trout fought good and hard. Trees are beatuiful right now... Here is a couple of pics from a couple of weeks ago at #2. Water was coming on at the time. Looks like a convention!

Water is off this morning.

Haven't heard anything yet but you might give Mark a call at Cricket Creek Marina. 870 426 3474 http://www.cricketcreek.com/

My educated guess is it will shut down Friday sometime- before Saturday and the weekend. I'd be very surprised if they ran it Saturday.