Phil Lilley

Don't know if you've seen the google ad for the Green River or not but it's a great read. I fished it a dozen years ago and I tell you, if you go and not catch a fish, it's well worth the trip. The canyon and river is breathtaking. I'd recommend the trip to anyone.

The only places you'll actually hike would be Idavain and Brooks. Brooks is easy- a good road- about a mile. Idavain is a mile plus along a well used path (yes bear). If it rains alot, the paths around camp will be wet and soggy. I wouldn't take sandals or tennis shoes at all. Take a pair of light weight rain proof boots for around camp. Less clothes the better. If I were going, I'd take 2-3 pair of fleece pants, a pair of jeans, long sleeve shirts and a couple fleece jackets. That's it. Jeans are for going to Eddies one evening- you could even wear fleece. Take the full body bug suit back... buy a simple head net. Coleman makes one - http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-827b360t-Ins...t/dp/B0009PUSZI like this one or even smaller. Tom Burckhardt has a net he used for turkey hunting that was tighter on his head. Personally, I wouldn't wear one. Too distracting. I put up with the bugs. You'll only have mosquitoes, no white sox so deet will keep them off you.

I left a couple of thousand up there. Jim's selling them for 50 cents or something like that. Wolly buggers I mean. Spin- jigs. Don't over complicate it. You'll probably take more tackle that you'll use. Jim will supplement what you don't have.

No eggs. Kings just got up there and won't start laying for another 2-3 weeks. They killed sockeye on simple black, olive, white or purple woolly buggers in #8's and #10's. You don't need to take anything else for sockeye. Rainbows- smelt patterns. These are baitfish ranging from 2 to 4 inches. They are rainbow-style, big eyes and silver. Anything to match them should work. Also leech patterns. Same colors as sockeye woolies. Wooley bugger will work but they have to be long. Articulated leeches should be good. But you have to get those down 8-10 feet up by camp. Down in the rapids not so deep. There they can be smaller. Deer Hair Mice. Jim said they waded King Salmon River this week and killed the rainbows on bug DHM. That'd be fun. Kings- not sure what to tell you. Have to get down- 6-8 feet. Bigger and flashy the better. Grayling- #8-#10 elk hair caddis worked for us. They're not that picky. Brooks rainbows- same as sockeye.... wooly buggers. Don't make it any more complicated than that. Leader- sockeye didn't care. We started with 6 lb Vanish and ended with 14lb. Rainbows- 6 lb vanish would work at Brooks and faster water I'd use 8. They did catch the biggest rainbows on spin cast- 2 lb line up by camp- black, sculpin, olive or white jigs in 1/8th oz fished bouncing the bottom. I think 4 lb would work fine... the Dudley's are fanatics. Take deet- bugs are bad.

Terry- we didn't stop at the island. We drifted on down to Lookout before stopping. There was a v-bottom boat there when we passed up but they left right before we got to them. I saw them net a trout. I think they were fishing jigs too.

Great showing... wish I'd been there. I was up there but on the water. Made one drift from the cable bouncing jigs off the bottom and caught a few. Stopped at Lookout and fished till dark. Tons of rainbows there. White was the color of the evening. 4 units running for most of the afternoon. That's why it took so long for the water to drop out. When they run that much water for 8-9 hours, it takes a long time to drain. Oh yea- I was fishing with a friend who's family was leaving today and I hadn't taken him fishing... thus the reason I couldn't make the school. Summer's a busy time! Lots of obligations.

Wish I had to time to go... sounds like alot of fun. I love to fish at night. Putting in at K wouldn't be the best place would it? It's a long run and I've gotten turned around on BS in the dark before. Put in at Elbow?

March Brown Spider, JJtroutbum Partridge & Orange, Flysmallie JV Hen & Brown Olive, Danoiark (Dan Sears) Gold & Partridge Soft Hackle, Steve Smith Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle, Randall Barron Poor Man's Spey, Mrs Ducky (Tami Kashirsky) Glass Bead Soft Hackle, DeepDiver75 Olive Flymph, The Caddis

mainly largemouth.

They're taking one of the bridges out at this exchange so if you're planning a trip to Branson, take another route. Traffic is supposed to be backed up for miles. If you're coming from the west, take James River Express, highway 60 and loop south of Springfield. Not sure about people from the east... but I'd avoid this intersection at all costs. Driving 20-30 miles out of the way is much better than sitting in traffic for 2-3 hours.

We were in one of our pontoons. When you said docks above RB I thought you may have been up where we were. Did you get a water temp?

Did we see you out yesterday? We made it down as far as the gold mine.

This morning our water is brown. I was over at my nefew's last night and it rained but it must have rained alot harder here. They'll need to run some water today to wash it out. Otherwise, the fishing has been pretty good for most. I've seen alot of rainbows cleaned anyhow. Maybe Billy-Bob has some insight.

Pretty cool... the cameraman needs a unipod! He's into the music way too much Thanks for sharing.

catfish- the camp site is http://naknekrivercamp.com There should be some pics there. There's not much to the camp... the neighbors have placed some annoying containers close to Jim's property line and then there's the "Pink Palace" which is close to the cabin which looks terrible. Takes away from the "great outdoors" theme of the place. But until they're moved, we can't do much about it. Jim calls is a "camp" for a reason. It's not fancy. The fishing is the best part of the package. But in time, the camp will improve.

I netted it, put in the live well immediately to keep alittle bit cause I don't like to net a fish, take pics and then release. The livewell was aerated very well with the same water it was caught in. I know browns get stressed easier than almost any other fish but this one must have had a heart attack or something. It didn't make it.

Took the girls to Belks to shop and me, Coy and Joe Howry went bass fishing. We'd done well across from Blue haven last June so we started there, throwing sinkos. Me and Coy texas rigged them and Joe went wacky. Joe hooked the only fish of the afternoon- a 22 inch brown. Nice fish but it didn't live. I put it in the live well and had it under aeration for a couple of hours, thinking it'd be the best thing for it after such a long fight. But it never revived. Very puzzling. Well I shouldn't count it out yet- it's in the minnow tank now but there's not much movement. The water in the area was quite cold- I'd say in the upper 50's. No bass. Several near hookups. He was out of the water less than 30 seconds for the pic.

huh?!

I had lunch with Bill and Becky yesterday... Bill had the AK bug bad, as you can tell. Some other interesting things about Naknek and King Salmon. Naknek is geared totally around fishing. When we arrived in May, there were few people wandering around, few cars and trucks on the road. But as mid June rolled around, the airport filled with young and old from all over the world in route to the canneries in Nakenk. They'll work 6-8 weeks, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for good money. I've heard as many as 20,000 but that number is very hard to believe seeing the size of Naknek. None have transportation so they walk the road and hitch rides. I picked up several on my trips into town, most didn't speak english. Most were eastern European or Russian. There aren't any car lots, no movie houses, one grocery store, one all purpose store called the "Odd Duck", one hardware store and one automotive store, all owned by the same company- native owned. You see the taxi service all over the place and they keep busy. One place to buy gas in Naknek and 2 in King Salmon. There are 2 marine shops in Naknek that are quite interesting to walk thru. They're geared towards commercial fishing- big ships and big fishing. These places are well stocked, esp at the beginning of the season and extremely busy. Back to fishing- I cannot express how awesome the rainbow fishing is here. It almost gets looked over from the salmon fishing. We didn't get a chance to fly fish in the "rapids" for them but it looked inviting the 2 or 3 times we boated thru the area. As we drifted over the flats (couldn't run them because even in me jet, it was too shallow), we spotted numerous rainbows in the 30 inch range darting away from the boat. Drifting a black wooly (leach) would have been deadly I bet. Bill's right about one thing... there's way too much to explore in an area like this. The lake is still untamed by from anglers. The few times we went out on the lake to fish, I promise you we were the ONLY boat on the whole lake. Take a look on google earth and see how big this lake is. It's the #2 largest in AK. Talked to one guy who said they fished one day up in the Bay of Islands and caught big rainbows and big lake trout at will throwing spoons against the banks. We did well throwing spinners catching northern pike and I hooked one laker. Wish we went back. In the Bay of Islands, there's a cabin you can stay in free of charge (if no one else is there) for up to 3 nights. There's nothing else there. Locals spend the week there after the salmon season (August) for their vacations. The islands shelter the lake from winds. There's NO other lodge, houses- nothing within 40 miles of the place except Brooks which is about 20 miles south by water. The water is no pure and clear, I drank a bunch- best tasting water ever! Just a note- not to put a hard sell on the camp- but Jim is already starting to fill up his camp for 2008. I'm really pushing to raise his rates... sorry but $1695 is ridiculously cheap. His closes competitor in KS is $1999 and they offer no hot meals or guided trips. The closes outfitter who does what he does is $3495 and they're not in a good location at all. NRC is smack dab right in the middle of the BEST rainbow fishing on the river. Even at $2495, which is what I want him to charge, it's a fantastic deal for what you get. He just needs to upgrade general amenities (bath, dining hall, paths, cabins). But who am I?

Kinda messy... but it was picked up before I left. I threw up some shelves and hangers for clients but will do a better job when I get back. Ran out of trim board so there's a couple of doors without. Will put carpet remnant down and paint the exposed floor. No boats pics are of yet.

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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.