Phil Lilley

Like a normal, rainy winter day here... 32 and light rain, no wind, great fishing weather (for trout anyway). Don't know what tomorrow will bring though. We may get hit too. But because of the terrain between here and Springfield, alot of the weather stops at the break-line. It did last night. We are about half full. Had a couple of cancelations but for the most part- a good weekend for us in January. The resort has a generator that powers the whole place if it does get bad. I'm wondering how much diesel we have in the tank though.

He came in yesterday... had a GREAT day fishing at the dam today, he said. We'll be here all day tommorrow, rain... or rain... or ice...

-18... man that's cold! Amazing it's -18 here in the states. It hasn't been winter here... until now. Rain and 35 here. Looks like the freeze line is between here and Springfield. Rain, rain, rain... keep it coming!

Check out the pics on the trip page. Look for the pic of the smelt... and the fingers. That's the marks. First day I got cut, next day I lost my glasses to the river (swatting bugs). But I'd do it all again... oh yea... I am going to do it again. With gloves, a boga and a string on my glasses

It helps if you put the correct path...

You're very much welcome. Thanks for being such a gentleman. I appreciate how you treat your wife and son... you're a good husband and father- much to be proud of.

http://ozarkanglers.com/video/bear_cubs.wmv We were leaving Margot Creek, just walked out from the mouth and got in the boat when this mom and cubs walked out where we had just come from. We were in the boat a few feet from shore- very safe. This is what you don't want to mess with- mom and cubs. http://ozarkanglers.com/video/brooks_falls.wmv Famous Brooks Falls. No bears there in mid August- they're there last of June thru most of July- then to the upper woods where the streams are small and salmon are thick- easy pickin's. http://ozarkanglers.com/video/camp.wmv Naknek River Camp http://ozarkanglers.com/video/margot_creek.wmv Looking out from the creek to the lake- beautiful view. http://ozarkanglers.com/video/sockeye_ripping_hand.wmv First day and I handled a sockeye wrong... stupid! You'd think as many browns as I handled I'd know not to put your fingers in the mouth! http://ozarkanglers.com/video/sunset.wmv Sunsets last a LONG time up north... almost an hour.

Had to try it and see what you're talking about... 'ADD REPLY'

Without sounding smart (hopefully), you should back and read fishing reports from Novemeber- there are alot of them. Crowds are pretty bad on weekends. Almost always good populations of trout below the dam, assuming that's where you're refering to. If not, boat traffic is light downstream and fishing is fair to good. All depends on generation patterns and summer/fall bug growth.

When the water runs, like it has for a week now, trash builds up on the camera. We need to clean it off- but sometimes it gets missed in the day-to-day.

No- not yet. But will someday. Maybe soon.

I got a new shipment of OzarkAnglers.Com bumper stickers in... if anyone is interested. This is great advertising for the site- but the best advertising is word of mouth. Keep spread the word!

It was shot on Margot Creek. If you go to http://earth.google.com/ -download their G/E software, if you haven't already. Type in 'King Salmon, AK' in the finder at the top left of the window. It should take you to KS. To the right or east is a big lake (Nakenk) and a glacier to the east of it. The east half of the lake appears to be light blue water- that's caused by glacier runoff. In the southeast corner of the lake, close to what appears to be a volcano, close to the glacier, is a small creek that snakes back and forth, running south. That's Margot Creek. I have about 4 minutes of the same bear fishing the river but not quick as exciting as this clip. I'll play around and do some more later. Unfortunately I didn't take many video fish shots- I was too busy netting fish- or afraid to video and drop the camera in the water.

Been playing with a video editor and some video from Alaska. Let me know how it plays... what you think. http://ozarkanglers.com/video/hungrybear.wmv

Yes. It's going from $35 to $40 or $42... I'd have to look. But it's $35 till the end of Feb. Daily is going from $5.50 to $7.

Well there's two characters we haven't seen in a while- very nice to have you both lurking around. It only means that walleye and white bass are around the corner. Forsythian- thanks for reminding me about the walleye.

6 lb line. Throw F or CD (I prefer F) F-7 is perfect. Gold, silver, rainbow Start and stop- hard irratic action and stop alot. Rogues are very good too, esp the suspending types. They really smack them when you stop.

Yes- Jeremy will be here as far as I know.

My dad is 72 and in good health but who knows how long any of us has to live here on earth. Cancer is such an ugly thing. So many have to deal with it or know someone, a friend or relative who does. Psalms 57:1-2 1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me. We do cry out for mercy and healing, in all things. Hear the cries of the Hurt family and meet them in their distress. In Jesus's Name- Amen Amen

Gabe Cross Sorry for my delay in reporting...been guiding the last three days and had a little trouble getting changes made. Anyway, after the really fine day on Tuesday, the weather and fishing was quite a bit tougher the next day. The wind was steadily blowing from the north and temperatures were a good 25 degrees colder. For some reason the browns were not biting like the day before, but we worked hard and probably brought 35 fish to the boat. Lots of beautiful and chunky rainbows that day. Shad patterns were still not working. Yesterday (Thursday) I had the pleasure of taking Phil Lilley of Lilleys' Landing Trout Resort in Branson, and a friend of his, Randy Waggoner of the Kansas City area out for the day on the Norfork Tailwaters. The weather was chilly, breezy and overcast. Phil loves fly fishing, but is a jig fisherman (and an awesome one for that matter) at heart. Randy was interested in fly and jig fishing. Well Phil started out HOT on white jigs, catching one nice brown after another. His friend caught three nice trout on the fly rod, but it was a special jig bite, and I wasn't going to keep him off of it. Now these guys didn't catch a 100 fish or anything like that (probably landed 50 to 60), but the quality and beauty of the fish was remarkable. Nothing over 20 inches, but two were right in that ball park. A lot of the fish were 15 to 18 inches, mostly browns with two brookies and two cutthroats. One rainbow went 19" and they caught several other nice 'bows. It was a fun day and I had a chance to witness something different. Believe me when I tell you it takes a lot of skill to catch fish like these guys were on jigs...it wasn't just casting and reeling in. They really know how to work the jig and keep it near the bottom during extremely heavy flows. It is strange that we only got three bites on my shad pattern while they were tearing up the white jig. My theory is the jig covers more water and produces better right when the shad start coming through. Perhaps because all the trout are not keyed in, so the jig finds the more aggressive fish. Last year fishing with a jig fisherman buddy, the same thing happened and he schooled me. But as the trout became more selective, dead drifting shad patterns became just as effective (if not more) than the jig. But you can't explain trout a lot of times, and every day trout fishing is truly a unique experience. My thanks to Phil and Randy for showing me a fun time and some awesome trout. Phil Started fishing at Newlands this am - all 8 units running and the water was MOVING!! But saw gulls swarming the surface and even saw shad in the water. Caught a few on white jigs but wind was very tough and we were fishing with some rookies so we pulled out and went to Norfork Dam. 2 units running full but much manageable water and no wind. Caught some extremely nice browns, rainbows, a few cuts and brooks. All fish obiously eating shad- all caught on white jigs and were FAT. Saw gulls picking p stuff on the surface a short time but didn't see any shad. More to come in an article and great pics in a few days. From http://ozarkanglers.com/reports/wr_archive05.php See other pics here - http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2005/norfork/

Two years ago I floated the upper tailwater and simply killed browns and rainbows on white jigs. There may have been shad coming thru the turbines before I was there... but I still would try jigs if you're going there. "killed" is figurative... we released everything.

Good goals... good luck with that! Welcome!!

Bill- you're not crazy... I edited the day in after your post.

yes

I'm creating a map for my talk in St Louis and need some help. Can't seem to get my brain in geer today. Here's what I have so far- Fly Selection: ~Scud (freshwater shrimp, Gammarus); sizes 12 to 24 in a variety of styles and colors, gray being the basic color along with tan, olive, purple, white, black and brown. Add little orange for a ‘dead’ look. ~Sow Bug (Isopod); sizes 16 to 24 in basic earth colors- gray, brown, olive. ~Midge (Diptera); sizes 14 to 28... no way to cover all midge patterns on record. Larva: thread midge, miracle, zebra. WD40, RS2, brassie. Emerging: soft hackle, emerger, serendipity. Adult: adams, griffith’s gnat, crackleback ~Forage (sculpin, minnows); sizes 4 to 16, wooly bugger, clouser, sculpin, mo-hair leech Any additions?