Phil Lilley

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http://ozarkanglers.com/alaska2007/album1 http://ozarkanglers.com/alaska2007/album2 http://ozarkanglers.com/alaska2007/album3 ADDED NEW ALBUMS!! To sum up the trip, for me it was exhausting. I bit off more than I could chew with the cabin. I had fantastic help for the first 3 weeks, getting Jim's cabin shelled (he didn't want any more than that), some work on the existing cabins, dock in the water, path beefed up to the cabins, alittle remodeling in the dining hall and shelling in my cabin. I spent the 4th week working my myself hanging and finishing sheet rock, painting and trimming my cabin and the 5th week after guiding finishing everything up. I lost 15 pounds on the trip but it was worth it all. The fishing was unbelievable. Unfortunately, before the river was opened to fishing prior to June 8th, it was alittle tough for the early crews. But rainbows in front of the camp and up to the access about 1/2 mile upstream, you could literally catch huge rainbows at will on spin cast using jigs or swimming baits. Tom Burckhardt and JD Dudley mastered this art and both landed several rainbows over 30 inches. These trout didn't come easy. Most fights lasted well over 30 minutes. Later this season, these trophies will weigh in excess of 15 pounds, beefing up on eggs and flesh in August and September. I was told sockeye's don't eat much when they run the river and they normally eat real small bugs... well they absolutely loved small wooly buggers!! We used a shooting line with weighs/technique we mastered while fishing for kings in Michigan. The clients caught on quick- even Jerry and JD Dudley who swore they'd never tough a fly rod (avid spin/jig anglers). Even tall, lanky Al Waller mastered the drift and was hooking sockeye on almost every cast. The sizes ran small at first but the larger salmon worked their way up later in the week. Streams of fish followed-the-leader all day long along the banks, finding the path of least resistance to the lake and then to feeder streams. They were easy prey for our rigs. They landed sockeye up to 9 pounds but many larger were hooked and lost- just too big, fresh and wild for even 14 lb tippet, fast water and 10 wt rods. Kings were a challenge. We trolled and casted spinners at the mouth of Big Creek on 3 occassions and landed 12 up to 20 pounds. We were hoping for one a a fly but they didn't cooperate. It was slow for other outfitters, we heard. The follow week (this week) is supposed to be peak. The king run is the shortest of the salmon runs and there aren't that many that run the river compared to sockeye. I wished I'd seen more bears... sorry to those who didn't want that but I like them. The crew that were to Brooks on the first trip last week got a treat of a lifetime. I'm happy for them. Al Waller didn't land a fish all day cause each time he'd hook a sockeye a bear would come out of the woods and go after his fish- he'd have to break it off. When we went over on Friday, we found a spot where there were bears close but not in eye shot of us so we fished in peace, for the most part. Wasn't as exciting though. Back to living in Alaska in general... it's living resoucefully. You don't waste much time on things like you do here. No TV, I saw a newspaper a couple of time, making due with whatever the hardware store had and most of the time they didn't have what I needed, empty grocery store shelves at times, prices are double on most items and sometimes triple. Nails, screws and the like are sold by the pound at one price, no matter the type and size, ordering from Anchorage was sometime cheaper than local prices, everyone waves on the road--- and there's only ONE road there. It extends from the mouth of Naknek River at Bristol Bay to the access at our place on the river. Ten miles from one point to King Salmon and ten miles to the end- 20 miles total. The speed limit is 45 cause the paved road is no uneven because it's built on tundra- it sinks! Actually the gravel road from KS to the access and our place is nicer than the paved road to Naknek. And oh yes- whatever the hardware store has at the beginning of the season, after the barge is unloaded, that's all till next spring and the next barge. There's no special ordering. And there's no other hardware store. There is some other avenues to get lumber and appliances- meet the owner of the Fisherman's Bar after 4:30 pm and he'll take you to one of two metal buildings where he has some items for sale. All in all the experience was good. I am supposed to go back for the month of September and guide again for the camp. I really didn't like to be away from home that long... we'll see what happens.

After an email from Bill, I understand alittle more about his beef. BUT I'm still not completely sure of the details and how widespread the problem is. I've never had much of a problem with any of the motor boat or drift boat guides on the water. I know all of the motor boat guides and a few of the drift boat guides. Drift boats have been a recent addition to this lake. I purchased and tried a Hyde Boat about 8 years ago and didn't like it (personal thing). It was one of the first drift boats designed and built for a motor (small hp) but it didn't get upstream very fast at all against current. Anyhow... The 2 major bottlenecks in the upper lake are at Fall Creek and the narrows about 3/4 miles upstream from FC. You have to pass thru these channels to get to large open water above them. If someone is fishing or anchored in or next to these necks, you're going to either have to ask them to move (nicely) or pass thru where they're fishing. All the guide I know of are aware of the traffic they encounter if they're fishing these spots and are understanding and gracious when you pass. It seems there are some new guides who aren't aware of the channel issues. This is what Bill is referring to. I don't want to start anything here -- motor boats vs drift boats -- but there are more and more drift boats coming onto the scene every year and everybody must find a way to get along. A drift boat has the same rights and responsibilities as a motor boat. They have to give way to the channel for navigation and can't expect to have a channel to themselves and their clients. A drift boat experience is peaceful yes but one on Taneycomo does have its drawbacks. You have motor boats sharing the same water - that's just a fact of Taney-life. We all have to get along. It ruins a fishing trip when guides have words, doesn't make any difference who's right and wrong.

Yes. 2 boxes were still frozen. One was unthawed but chilled. We grilled some for lunch today for a bunch of guests... very tasty.

Back safe and sound. Flying standby isn't fun but there's alot of people still in Houston looking for a way out so I'm blessed. Getting affairs taken care of. Like John, I'll report soon with pics. Bill's taken alot of wind out of my sails. He covered alot in his reports. I'm looking forward to the Moore's and John's accounts of the trip. Different perspectives are always good.

In Seattle... on standby. Concerned about the 3 boxes of salmon sitting on the dock in St Louis for 7 hours. Marsha is trying to contact someone there to make sure they're placed in a freezer.

Well... don't know how much battery I have here but am sitting in Anchorage airport on standby for the 12:45 am flight- last flight- out of here. Looks like I'm spending the night unless there's a miracle. But maybe the Lord wants me here for a reason- I'm open. My flight out of KS was late and I missed my flight earlier. Can't begin to report on the trip. Way too much to tell. I hope some of the others chime in and give their accounts. Simply a trip of a lifetime for most I'd say. The new run of sockeye in the river is something to see. A line of sockeye 4-10 abreast marching as an army upstream for 2-3 weeks straight. In Brooks, they were almost bank-to-bank, about 50 feet wide. The bears were amazing, again. The newbees got a thrill to say the least. To correct Bill's assessment of Brooks, there were 85 bears on the 1.2 mile stretch last season. We saw about 30 in our short stay. We got to fly over from KS which was a treat... Jim's wasted his lower unit on a gravel bar on the trip before and 3 of the clients didn't get a chance to go. Got to fly right seat to the pilot on the way back... in an otter. I got the cabin liveable. A few trim pieces short and the front needs paint. I'll have picks... when I get home. The sockeye were extremely easy to hook. We used shooting line, a weight 4 feet up the line and 2 flies- the favorite fly was a #10 purple wooly bugger but we switched to white, brown, olive or black at times. These fresh salmon were entertaining to say the least. Big runs, flips and twirls and alot of breakoffs. Some almost got spooled. The largest landed about 10 pounds. Kings were tough. Trolled and caught about 10 in 3 tries with a 20 pounder the biggest. Tried alittle fly rod but no takers. This coming week should be the best for kings. The trip to Idavane was fun. Caught graylings at will on elk hair caddis (John Jackson did extremely well) and several rainbows up to 24 inches. The walk up was interesting... JD said he's never been so scared in his life. We walked thru tall grass and trees for a mile with alittle bear sign... not much... but it didn't make a difference to JD. JD (Dudley) broke 4 or 5 line class records on sockeye/spin cast jig. 2-4-6-8 and 30 lb... I think. He also was rainbow king landing several in the 28-29 range with a 32 inch thrown in. Caught them all on 2 lb line and jigs. Better go for now. Lots of pics to follow- if and when I get home. Am I ready to get home??? Oh yes!! Way too long to be gone, even to such a place. I don't look forward to the heat though!!!

I've caught a couple... but very little fishing for me. Marsha caught a 24 incher last evening. Got a pic but it will have to come later. I'd say our crew this week has caught and released 40 over 20 inches, 6 over 30 inches.

Lots done. Our last building crew is heading home tomorrow. We got all of our building projects done yesterday. Jim and I will finish next week. Both our cabins are done except for wall covering... there's very little to chose from in this part of the world. Sheet rock is $24 per sheet... breakage, I guess, in shipping. We can get paneling for $27 but I don't like how it looks. I'm going to use siding and wanescoat my bedroom and living room and staple plastic till next fall or next spring. My cabin is 12 x 24 with a 6 foot porch and Jim's 16 x 24. We picked up my boat from King Salmon yesterday- ran it upstream to camp since I didn't spring for a trailer, yet. Running thru the rapids was an experience!! Big water and boulders, winding back and forth, some of the passages only as wide as the boat. It's a 22-foot, alum, semi-V, 6 feet wide. Lots of room- pretty much wide open. I bought the spider frames and seats like they use in river boats on the White and they've works very well so far. The console is mounted center-front which is nice cause you can see the boulders you're about to hit. The 150 E-Tec is a horse. There were 4 of us in the boat and it raced through the rapids. We found more morels yesterday- just down the road between here and the lake access. Went clamming last evening. Droved to Naknek, onto the beach outside themouth of the river (Bristol Bay) and drove the beach (experience in itself) up 5 miles to the "spot" locals like to clam. Incredible sight- from normal water line, the ocean was well over a mile from that spot in several places. The tide is -5 which is 5 feet below normal. Normal tide is about 30 feet. We walked out about 1/4 miles to where we found hundreds of claims laying all over the ground. We filled several buckets before Tom exclaimed the tide was coming back in. When we left it was picking about 10-15 feet per minute, kinda like Taney when the water comes on times 10. Clams are soaking and we eat them tomorrow. Took Marsha fishing when we got back. Midnight I think. Took the boat upstream about 1/4 mile to the access where Paul had been fishing while we were clamming. He caught 12 rainbows from 20 to 27 inches, mostly on jigs or swimming minnows. Marsha hooked one on the first cast- jumped 6 times and threw the hook. Hooked another and did the same. I hooked one and it threw the hook too. All in 30 minutes- we got cold and headed in. Went out on the lake this am with the guys. Wanted to go to a cove where Jim has caught Char. Couldn't get there because the straight we needed to cross was too shallow still. So we cruised the lake and looked for deep rocky banks for northern pike. No luck but the lake was slick and very beautiful. They guys are going king fishing with Jim this afternoon. Marsha and I have things to do in town. The kings are moving in, as reports go. We did see 2 roll at the mouth of Big Creek yeterday. High tide is 3 pm at KS and that's when they are going to try to be there. We'll see. Oh yea- John- your package arrived!

In town for another lumber yard stop (big bucks) and laundry (also big bucks). Would love to open a laundry mat here- we spend about $130 each time we wash between the Johnson's and us. Filled the truck with gas just now- $65. It's $4.23/gallon. They don't change the price for a year- they get a year's supply once each year and they just got this years delivery. Price dropped from $4.60 to $4.23 which I'm sure is a welcomed sight for locals. It's cold and rainy here today. We got the roof panels and tin up yesterday on our cabin. Insulated the ceiling too. Picked up the wiring for both Johnson's and my cabins. We're trying to put in long days so we can fish the last part of the week. Want to go halibut fishing too. News of kings coming into the mouth of the river... town is really getting busy esp the ship yards. Should be just a couple of days and they'll sound the bell. Here's are some pics... random again. I'm almost out of battery and need to get off. The cabin being built is ours on the river. Don't have any pics from yesterday's building. Another pic of Tom's 32 inch rainbow

Sorry- I didn't mean to even post it cause I couldn't get the pic to attach. Having a very hard time with this connection. It's a wireless from a tower 2-3 miles from here... and then the speed is dial-up speed. I wait 1-2 minutes and then get a time out. May not get any more pic uploaded till I go to town now- it's getting worse it seems.

Oh yea- here's a nice rainbow Tom caught night before last. It was slow but he did catch one- fish of a lifetime. Oh yea- here's a nice rainbow Tom caught night before last. It was slow but he did catch one- fish of a lifetime.

Zach... honestly I've fished very little since I've been here. Been trying to get everyone else in fish. Today we went to Brooks and fished the river. Was met by a 6.5 year old female bear roaming the lodge area and beach. One of the guys accidently got within 30 feet... got a good pic anyhow. I know the age cause I asked a ranger. Tons of big rainbows in the river- amazing. The guys working here are not fly guys so I rigged them with spinning gear, a float and a #10 black or olive wooly bugger and they did well. There's quite a few leaches moving thru the rivers and the rainbows and keying in on them and smelt. Nothing huge landed- 20 inches or less. Steve, a friend of Jim's from Anchorage went with us and is experienced on Brooks. He caught a couple dozen rainbows from 18 to 28 inches. I did catch one at the last minute on a dry... a #22 emerger... ran me up and down and finally broke me off 24 inches. So I haven't gotten into my fly box... using swimming minnows and jigs in the lake so far. Will have time to fish more this next week hopefully. If it didn't make national news... go to the Anchorage newspaper and check out the bear that killed and ate 2 moose calves in someone's front yard. Just blocks from where we stayed. Oh yea- here's a nice rainbow Tom caught night before last. It was slow but he did catch one- fish of a lifetime.

No kings... they may be late. Usually they head into the river with high tides around June 15 but our river is still low and cold. We'll see. They have opened commercial fishing as of June 4th but the boats are still in the yards in Nakenk. Town is getting busy with cannery people- lots coming in on planes everyday at King Salmon. Lots of Russian college aged kids the other day when Paul came in. They looked like lost puppies.

3 days of wind and no bugs… it’s been nice. My bites on my ankles and wrists and getting a chance to heal. We’ve started my cabin and have the floor, walls and rafters up. Will sheet the roof and walls today. 12 x 24 cabin with a 12 foot bedroom in the back, a small bath and bunks in the front room. 6 foot porch facing the river. Our building crew have another week to finish but we’ll get it done long before that, leaving time to fish more. Found black morels 2 days ago just down the road from camp. Paul Crews, Neosho, said AK was and morel capitol of the world… it rained last evening and we’re going out again soon to hunt. Today is the opening day for fishing here in the river and at Brooks. I’ve been taking aul and his 2 guys out in the evenings this week above the line and have not done real well. Paul has gotten a couple of big rainbows but not many numbers. The other guys- Jim Turner, Tom Burckhardt and James Johnson (Jim’s son) have gone out in one of the smaller jons- they have floated jigs and done better. A few large rainbows but mainly small ones. But last night was ours! We started about 11 pm, anchoring just above the line. No fish. At 11:45, we dropped down to a flat about 300 yards and anchored, tied on swimming minnows and waited for 6/7. We’d seen rainbows chasing smelt for 2 weeks in the same area and were tired of not getting a shot at them. They’d slowed a bit in the waning sunlight but were still there when we casted our first lure at midnight. Donnie hooked the first rainbow, 20 minute fight- 28 inches. The order and hookings after that are blurred in my mind. Too many to keep track of. For the next 2 hours we landed about 15 rainbows- smallest a couple under 20 inches but the bulk between 22 and 25 inches, Donnie’s 28 and another 32 and Paul 29 incher. Paul took about 25 minutes to land his. Here’s are some pics. The sunset is at 2 am.

That's enough... back to fishing.

I just got caught up on the drawdown situation... the Corp and Empire were supposed to coordinate flows to cover the upper gravel bars while the mid-lower lake was to be down. It sounds like they failed. MDC, in the past, would moderator the event. 5-6 years ago they all failed and the upper gravel bars were exposed to 90 degree heat and sun for 6 hours and we lost 60% of the scuds up there. I think it took 12 months to recover. From what Bill told me this has happened again. Although I don't like bad PR on our fishing (business motivated), I wouldn't mind MDC, Branson, the Corp and Empire be held accountable on the front page of the paper... maybe the Old Seagull may take this up. I'll ask MDC to see how they view the situation and report.

Here's some more Jim Turner posted - http://woody.bims.biz/alaska/

Drizzle today so not much building. Would like to go fishing... we'll see. Here are some pics - Tom with his first grayling Idvain Creek- pretty small but there were some nice rainbows and grayling. Chuck with a decent rainbow- on a dry! Tom with a couple of northern pike. They weren't taking as well as the other day.

Hey- went "over the lake" across Naknek Lake to Brooks yesterday with the crew. Forecast was for calm winds all day. Brooks is now open so there were tourist there... not sure why people would pay $1600 per night for lodging when there's no bears there but they were there with cameras anyways. No bears there but did see our first bear on the way out of the river. It swam in front of us to the north bank (same side of the camp) about 4 miles above camp. We thought the girls would get a visit but they didn't see him. After Brooks, we boated to Idvain Creek and hiked up about a mile to the "meadow" where the creek flattened out. We caught grayling and rainbows on beaded nymphs and dries- graylings were about 15 inches and rainbows about 13 inches. No bears. 7 pm- headed to the Bay of Islands where we caught Northern Pike last week- found them again and landed 5-6. We worked some other banks and I hooked a 15 lb Lake Trout on a single-hook spinner... hook pulled out before we netted it. Would have liked to see that one- and Jim said he would have liked to eat it. It was a beatiful fish- never caught one. Back at 10 pm... very long day. Today we're putting rafters on Jim's cabin. Going well. Jim and family went to church and came back with Halibut. Jim also found out how to fish for Halibut off shore so we may go in the next couple of days.. yea! Pics later

How many years did they haul in hundreds of truck loads of fill to the Landing? 2-3? Where was the Corp? I guarantee you if I brought in dozens of loads of rock and started to "reclaim" land along my bank, the Corp would be at my door with a court order to cease and desist. The Corp fell down on the job. Sure HCW/City of Branson will take all the ground they can. I'd like to see the plans for those parking lots- I bet they will show that was the plan all along.

Well guys and gals... we're online at camp. It's slow but working. We're limited to bandwidth so not sure how much I can be on and not go over the 2 gigs per month limit but we'll see. Won't be uploading pics from here... have to wait till we go to the library or rob signal from Crystal Creek down the road (with permission of course). I have mixed feelings about being connected to the outside world like this though... hard to describe. Had the coolest day we've had yesterday. Didn't get out of the 40's. Tom Burckhardt, Chuck Puckett and Jim Turner came in yesterday. The plane Tom came in on was full of cannery workers arriving for the short 6-7 week season. Most were young college aged kids from Russia... interesting. The canneries ship in over 20,000 workers. Tom is working on our GPS mapping. He's works for Bass Pro in St Charles and teaches GPS classes there.

Whale milk??? You guys need to educate yourselves on our world using the internet and quit spending so much time on forums :) Well it's been an interesting time up here in Naknek... everything is behind schedule including the lake and river levels and the barges carrying everything into this part of the world. It all affects what you do and don't do. The river was 2 foot lower than normal when we arrived 10 days ago. It has risen about a foot. For Bill, it's about 4 feet down from last August. We have to watch for boulders even from camp to the ramp. We took the crew upstream and across the lake on Sunday in the big boat. Jim, James and I had to get out and walk the boat 200 yards because it was so low getting to the lake. The river runs about 4 miles from our place to the lake and it's low and full of boulders that will get you when you're not looking. But we made it thru - took an hour but we did- and across the lake to Brooks and Idavane and then the Bay of Islands. At Brooks, we walked the road to Brooks Lake, about 1.5 miles. We took the path to the famous falls- no bears. The people at the park, which doesn't officially open till June 1, said they've seen 3 bears in the area. We saw several piles of scat- fresh ones. It would have been nice to see one for the crew (my dad, uncle Jack and cousin Dan from TX and Dave Eckerle from KC) but this time of year they should be seen from a far- they are HUNGRY right now with no salmon to feed on. We took the path thru the woods to meet up with the road to Brooks Lake and kinda got lost. So here we are, footing thur pretty thick woods with fresh bear skat... it was an "adventure" as my uncle Jack put it, AFTER we found the road. Brooks Lake was beautiful. At Idavane, the lake was surprisingly low and the bay Jim usually parks in at the mouth of the creek was full of boulders. We casted spinners from the shore and James (Jim's son) caught a small rainbow and a dollie. On the shore we found Moose, bear and wolf tracks. I took pics of lamprey spawning in the creek (underwater). At the Bay of Islands, we casted spinners again from the boat and found a school of pike- all about 28-30 inches and great fighters. We caught 10- everyone caught at least one and lost several. We fried them up at camp and they tasted fine! Thanks for the tips. We've boated up to the upper boundary of the "river"-- the river is closed to fishing till June 8 but you can fish above a set of signs about a mile above our place. There's good current there- the river narrows and gets shallow. Lots of rainbows starting to feed on salmon smelt. Surprisingly, swimming minnows have done the best along with 1/8th oz white jigs. James landed a 7 lb rainbows and David landed a 9 lb- about 29 inches- a couple of evenings ago. We tired to fish till midnight on Tuesday just to say we did but it got alittle chilly and the fishing had slowed to nothing. It's getting dark about 12:45 am not. We're also starting to see some rainbows feeding in the river in front of our place. Hopefully it'll be HOT fishing by June 8th- can't wait. Our building has gone slowly... as I said everything is behind here. The barges that supply the area with everything for this community was late arriving. We were getting what we could each day from the lumberyard. We've gotten the floor and walls up on Jim's cabin... my will follow in the coming days. Weather has been great the last 5 days. Some wind but not much. No wind equals BUGS!!!!! Everyone else needed bug hats but they didn't like me as bad so I reframed from the net... so far. Temps in the high 50's to low 60's. Here's some pics- They are going to be in random order- sorry. I'm running out of time here at the library.

Hey guys... I thought I left it open for members to use but I guess it didn't take. I can open it back up and see if the spammers have forgotten about us... I was getting 10 sign ups per day and all spammers. I didn't want to overload Dan while I'm gone.

Got to camp Monday evening to find our dining hall had been broken in to this winter and items taken. Jim and Phyliss are still accessing the situation... it's set us back a day or 2 to say the least. The locals say natives from other regions go around in snow mobiles in the dead of winter and reek havoc on the remote lodges and cabins. Not much you can do about it either. Some leave the door open and a note that says, "clean up after you're done". We'll take more precaution next fall when we "lcok up" for the winter. Cleaned out the hall and cabins, made new lists of items to buy (replace what was taken), making plans for the buildings and other projects- we've been busy. Hard to go to bed at a decent hour cause it doesn't get dark will 12:30 am- 3:30 am your time. Haven't bought my fishing lisc yet- too much to do. The wind has been real bad till about 2 hours ago- gusting to 60 mph off the lake... it's manageable now. We're in Naknek for supplies- the library has interent. We've ordered wireless at the camp there's a tower 2 miles away and we're hoping it will reach. But there's not wireless boxes available- we're on a "list". My dad, uncle and a friend are coming in this evening. We're starting on building projects tomorrow. Had a moose roam thru camp last evening- a big bull moose. No bears in the area that we know of yet. There are beluga whales in the river feeding on smelt- down river about 5 miles. We may boat down to see them. That's about it for now- sorry, no picks. Oh yea- before you pack up the kids and head up for the cheap prices... our gas here is over $5, milk is $7.89 a gallon and pop is $2 a can. Double bacon cheese burger and fries- $17.50 at the local pub.