Phil Lilley

I's just a matter of wise judgement- when to say something and not to- and what to say. Don't let your emotions get the best of you or you may get hurt or worse hurt someone else... landing you in jail.

Peanut Butter Fly Hook: Saltwater hook 3/0 Thread: .006 Monofilament Wing; E-P Fiber (minnow color for the belly and shad gray for the top) Gill: SLF Hank ( crimson red ) Eyes: Solid plastic eyes TYING INSTRUCTIONS Mono is a little harder to get secure around the hook shank. It tends to slip a lot easier so when you tie it in. Make sure you hold the tag end until you wrap enough turns to secure it. Once you get that done tie your thread almost to the bend. Go ahead and tie a little piece of slf for the gill. Cut the back Ok, what I am trying to show you in these pictures is how to put flash in the material. Just spread out two clumps on your leg and sandwich the flash in-between the E.P fiber. The mono should be right in front of the gill. Tie in the gray fiber on the top of the shank. Make sure you tie in the center of the fiber. Rotate to the underside and repeat the same step with the minnow color. If you notice in the picture they are still separated in the middle, you can only fold one over at a time when tying them in. When you fold them over you will need to tie in front of the material. Don’t tie on top of the material or you will not get the flare. It will be smashed down and won’t look right. If you notice that I do the bottom first. It really doesn’t matter what side you do first just as long as you don’t do them at the same time. Now do the top the same way and now your thread should me right in front of the fiber now. Now we are going to repeat the same process three more times. Just move the thread up about a ¼ inch up the shank and do the same step again. Note: One thing I try to do when measuring how much material you will need to use and how to proportion the fly correctly. Don’t go to heavy on the material or you will notice it. Another to remember when tying this fly is once you do the first step with tying the material in you are going to do the underside with only short pieces. The top will still need to be longer though and you will need to keep the tapered ness to the profile of the fly to. When tying the top sections make sure they’re getting shorter and not staying as long as the first piece you tied in. The last section you put on at the front is going to be the only thing different. When tying this on, make sure you are right at the eye of the hook. Once you have done the step with pulling the back and tying in font of them you are going to tie on the top of the material just making a nice head of mono. Look at pictures 16-18 to see what I am talking about. Whip finish the fly off and put some gloss coat on the mono. I’m sure you can see that the fly is not looking good. What you will need to do is cut it to shape. Just look at the pictures to see how it is cut to shape. Once you cut it you can also brush the hair to blend in the material. You can see the eyes glued in, but just use some marine goop and glue them in. I also put in a small dot on each side with a prisma color marker.

Lefty Kreh “Classic Popper” I don’t know if you will be able to find this exact molding. They are kind of hard to find on the market, but another way you could get away to tying this, is with the pencil poppers that have the pre-made with styrofoam that come together as a set. You can get away with coloring that foam any color you want. This is a very simple pattern that does not require any complicated steps in tying this fly. This pattern was designed for small mouth bass and you will grow to like fishing this fly in rivers, creeks and lakes like I have grown to do. Recipe: Hook: pencil popper hooks with pre-made Styrofoam heads Thread: color to match tail. I like to use red or yellow / UNI 3/0 or UTC 140 Tail: Bucktail (Yellow) Flash: Mirage Flash Body: pre-made foam glued down in-between the hook TYING INSTRUCTIONS Get the thread started behind the body. I like to use this new material called Mirage flash. It is a lot stiffer and will not twist up or around the bend of the hook when casting long distances. Go ahead and tie that in. Cut the length to what you desire. Just remember to leave it shorter when fishing for smaller warm water species. Now Pike fishing is a different story. They don’t care how long it is because they it from all directions. Measure the bucktail to about the same length as you cut the flash. I don’t like to go real bulky with the hair so make sure it looks like it fits the profile of the rest of the fly. If you don’t know what part of the hair you need then pick from the top part of the tail. The further down you go the bottom you will notice the hair is a lot stiffer and will create a flare hen you go to tie it in and cinch it with your thread. When you first start tying thread try to not tie it in with to much tension on the thread. As you get it really tied in with a smooth thread base then you can secure it tighter. That is pretty much it. Whip finish the fly and your done. NOTE: If you don’t have the pre-made hooks with the head then you will need to glue the Styrofoam style ones. Then you can paint the white with prisma color markers.

The Norfork Special Recipe Hook: 2457 TMC size 12 Thread: UTC 70 Black Bead: Tungsten Bead 7/64 Tail: Pine squirrel (olive) Abdomen: SLF Original Blends # 14 Thorax: SLF Original Blends # 15 Legs: Sili legs in the barred style (olive/green) TYING INSTRUCTIONS I’m tying this on a size twelve, but it is really up to you on what size you want it to be tied in. I usually tie mine from size twelve when I’m fishing in lakes and creeks and for trout I tie from sizes fourteen down to twenty. I already sled my bead on and got my thread started and now I am ready to tie in the pine squirrel for the tail. Before tying this in, I like to only tie in the hide part with no hair on it until it gets to the bend of the hook. I like to tie in the piece at the front of the hook to make sure it is tied securely. Once you are at the bend you are ready to dub the body. I like to start the dubbing small at the start and then taper it up to the hook. You need to leave room for the legs and the collar of the other dubbing so remember not to tie all the way to the bead. Now cut about two strands of sili legs about an inch in length. Fold them around your thread and tie them down. You will notice that there not laying back at an angle. What you will want to do is tie back on the legs that are standing straight up just a little and that will give them that angle look. Now dub the collar with the other color dubbing. That will also give the legs a pushed back look. Whip the fly and glue it and you got a great pattern for all kinds of fish.

Mackie Bug Recipe Hook: 3769 TMC Size 10 Thread: UTC 140 Fl. Chartreuse Weight: .025 Abdomen: Super Bright Dubbing (black) Thorax: Super Bright Dubbing (Fl. Chartreuse) Rib: Copper wire (BR size) TYING INSTRUCTIONS This pattern was originated by Ed and Bob story. This is one of the best blue gill patterns ever. If you give this fly a shot I can guarantee you will not leave home without this!! Go ahead and wrap about six to eight turns of lead wire. After you do that you will want to start your thread and secure the lead wire from shifting so tie in front of the wire and behind it making several wraps of thread to lock it in place. This is called a thread dam. Tie in your wire right behind the lead and wind the thread until you almost to the bend. You still have to tie the legs so make sure you have a little of the straight part of the shank to work with. You should have a little room to work with at the bend. Grab the sili leg tie it in at the bend. I will talk more about this step in picture 8 and 9. Cut the legs evenly to the desired length you want. Tie the dubbing until you get just past the lead in the front. Wind your wire about six turns until you get to the front of the lead also. I am winding this the opposite direction. That will make the segmentations stand out more. This part might be a little tricky. I have notice people having trouble with getting the legs to look right. What you want to accomplish in this step is making the legs look like a “V on each side of the hook. You will have a total of four legs, two on the top and one on each side of the hook shank. How to do this correctly is by wrapping the legs around the thread and when you lay them down on the hook shank you will notice one going the right direction and the other one going forward. The key is to only do about two turns of thread and then fold the other one over and secure it. You will have to tie back on the leg a little to get it to fold back. Do the same thing to the other side. Now tie the other dubbing to finish the head and whip the fly. Glue it and your good to go.

You know where I stand.

It was the very last of the trip for them and fishing hadn't been as good as I wanted (no nice fat pretty rainbows for the show). Lots of fish but nothing of any size. They hooped up all the trout like they were good fish but I knew... and we'd been catching some very nice rainbows. We were drifting out of the hot area and past the KOA, a drift I had not made with them. We were talking and winding up the trip when I threw into the clay bank below the rock bank with a sculpin jig and wham- he hit. Kinda like the fish I caught with Steve Brigman last month- I was shocked and they were too. They had to turn the camera back on and got most of the fight on tape. I honestly don't remember how big it was- didn't measure or weigh it- sent it back to the water quickly cause I didn't want to hurt it, esp on camera. Six or seven pounds? It was a very beautiful rainbow and fought hard. They're getting alot of mileage out of that show.

You didn't vote

OK Bobber... then pick your favorite. Example- my home water would be Taney but that may not be my favorite. I'm looking for home but if it's too hard to figure out home then go to favorite.

It's really going to be cool when this poll gets going. It's worth it even for those who haven't to register just to tell us which forum you watch most (hint, hint). Come on- it's easy- vote!

What places do you fish besides Capps?

Is George going to the Caribbean?

Less of the same... less generation than before and warming surface temps are driving trout upstream toward the dam and bass are following. Yesterday evening Colton, a young man who is staying with us for the month of July, caught a dozen blue gills off the back side of our dock- today I saw another black bass sunny himself on our boat ramp- we have lots of tiny fry schooling along the edge of the bank- I think they're bass. Very strange summer indeed. Troutcam- dingy water. Not enough water running to change out the water that's here and boat traffic is stirring up the silt. But I did see something today that I haven't seen- a large school of rainbows moving across the screen. When rainbows are stocked, they tend to stay together for a while. Power bait fishing- eggs- continue to be hot especially down around Cooper and up by Riverlake. Bill said there's a bunch of trout in front of their dock- they are catching them on micro jigs under a float 5-6 feet deep, olive or sculpin. It's good all the way to Fall Creek. Some nicer rainbows stocked I guess- that's what I've seen come in at least. I talk about wind alot- for a reason. You can catch fish without wind but the difference is staggering if the wind is blowing just alittle. Jig and float or bait fishing, it doesn't matter. When they are running water, drifting an egg fly or jig and float using a white or pink micro is good as well as throwing a white jig straight. Me and Scott Bailey (aka griffin) got out for a couple of hours last evening and fished from Lookout down past the narrows and did fair. He did fair on a jig and float using a white and an olive jig and I caught a couple on a sculpin jig straight. When the water started about 6 pm I thought it'd pick up but really didn't. But we came in instead of heading closer to the dam where I think we would have done better. Fly fishing below the dam has been good. Linc fished a crackleback the other day when the chop was good and did real well. Beetle- small ones- are doing very good. Linc said there are tons of lady bugs up there.

Buck grew up in Forsyth. And I agree he's cut out to be an agent. Both him and Quinten are great people who are passionate about their work. But I can honestly say on Taney- their job is a bit overwhelming. Between the herons and poachers it's a wonder we have any trout in the upper lake.

Thanks for joining us John. I'm sure we'll be picking your brain in the future!! You must have tons of good stories to tell.

Home Waters: where you fish most. where your heart is. This will give us an idea where everyone's interests are. If you vote "other" post your home waters.

I'm not sure if I've ever heard of this group which would be unusual... but so is my memory- unusual. You mentioned KC... is this association part of a larger group, national? Like TU? If so, they should be governed by a regional board- but it doesn't sound like they are. I searched google and found nothing close to any association anyplace in the states. Not sure what the law could do. If they have bylaws and a charter and they aren't following them, they could be held responsible for mismanaging funds- not sure. As for their conduct- the park shouldn't let them back in and they should be blackballed by other lodges/parks. That's what we do basically. But bottom line, the members should take care of their organization if they care at all. It puts a bad light on the good fishing groups trying to do good and being responsible for their funds. If anyone has info on the web on this group, share it. I'm very curious.

Because they're not running much water right now the water along the bank gets merky- and there's algea growing on top of the water around the cleaning shack blocking sunlight- double-whammy! We had a light early in the year but it didn't make a whole lot of difference.

Wow- I've been in Juarez... Mike Abdon, our former agent, told me there's one word when talking to non speaking english violators- JAIL! They all knew what that meant. I hope no one thinks we are picking on spanish speaking people here. I enjoy their family-oriented customs and life styles and they are hard working people for the most part. But espanic populations are growing and spanish would be the #2 language needed to be used on signs.

Where are they putting in and out?

suckers- you got it.

Hatchery would know how to get ahold of an agent at 417-334-4865 or they will come down themselves and talk to the people in question but they can't write a ticket. Quinten cell is 417-294-5543

Did it have paying customers on it or were they just testing the waters?... not that you can tell one way or the other. I haven't heard anything about it. They didn't allow ducks before because the lake isn't wide enough there.

Bull Shoals has always been a hard lake to get information on. Not many guides fish the upper part. Mr Brown has posted a few times here and you're right, more information would be helpful. I've always stated that if guides prove their savy, not just with pics but being helpful and thorough, they will get trips from posting on any forum.