Phil Lilley

Wanted to find some larger rainbows so I headed upstream, thinking I'd start at Lookout and fishing the bluff bank using scuds. As I pulled up to the area, I notice no one was wading in the stretch next to the island so I decided to head on up to KOA and fish up there. If there's waders in the shallow stretch, I can't run through there on plain... makes too many enemies. I started fishing just below the KOA rock bank using a thin skin gray scud but soon switched cause rainbows were midge along the bank I was fishing. I tied on a red zebra and caught a dark male rainbow right of the bat- then nothing. Long story short- I tried deepening the zebra, put on a renegade (dry) and caught a couple small rainbows, used a black soft hackle and caught one more, stripped it all the way thru the shallow area to the bottom of the island with one more strike. It was slow and disappointing. I thought it would be a good catching trip but it ended up being a good fishing trip. No boats above Fall Creek, only one wader fishing when I drifted out.

Hallelujah!! We have an agent on the board!!! Thank you for your comments- they are very welcome! I want the rules explained in a clear way so we can help educate the public to what they are, no matter who's right. I know there's gray areas and an agent has some latitude when dealing with anglers... I have a friend who is a retired Mo State Patrolman- he told me they are taught to have your mind made up to write a ticket or not BEFORE walking up to the car. He said that was hard to do sometimes.

Just wondering... Where is your favor creek or river to catch smallies... when and how? I must say, I don't get out and fish the creeks as much as I'd like... and southern Missouri and northern Arkansas has the best streams in the country. James River is my best producer for numbers of smallies but I've caught the largest bass on the King and Buffalo Rivers.

When I was a young kid (5-6 years old), our family was staying at RR- of course I wanted to fish. They bought me a tag and I fished all of 5 minutes and wanted to move on. So I handed my rod to my grandfather and took off. He was reeling it in when an agent walked up and asked for his lisc. My grandad wasn't a happy camper for the rest of the trip.

I see my idea of using the "live" image from USGS's site doesn't work... the url #'s change when the image is updated I guess. Shucks! I guess we have to go to their site and see current conditions. ..... Yep- they do.

Interesting what a fish will eat.

I don't look for them to run any water- temps will be mild and lakes are low. Lots of midge hatching throughout the day so zebra midge under a float with either a spin or fly rod will work. Jig and float should be very good using either micros or marabou jigs. Throwing a jig straight 1/32 or 1/16 oz in sculpin, brown, olive or black. Casting a rapala F-5 in rainbow or silver... stop and go with the retreive. And power eggs using a white egg and another color like pink or orange- also night crawlers injected with air.

Thanks for the report... I saw a boat go by late last night... 1:00 am or so. I bet that was the boat in #1. They were heading downstream towards Cooper Acess- I assume that's where they were headed- pulling out- or to a dock.

Correction on the preaching Sunday... I have to be here for the dock for most of the morning Sunday so Tom Johnson is doing the honors. I'll have to go ahead and post at least the notes on this blog as soon as I get them done. You know, this is supposed to be our off season- they say. December is the slowest month but my calendar doesn't say that. I've been messing with the images on the forum... I'm sure you've noticed. It will get better I promise. I'm going to have some real professionals look at it- I want to do alot with the forum. I just need alot of help. I see conservationcafe is changing. My vision for this forum is to keep it geared to fishing only and to keep it clean. It's not that I'm judging anyone... I've learned to appreciate alot of the guys and gals on cc over the years but there is alot of sarcasm that gets out of hand at times. My number one thing is - to respect others on the board. Respect people as people and not to use they key board to bash and bite. At best, this kind of communication is impersonal and because it is, sometimes people think what they type doesn't mean anything. It does- much more than we realize. So I'm going to try to keep this forum focused on fishing... positive enjoyment of an activity we all have in common and love.

Depends... above Fall Creek you'll find alittle bigger trout but you know the way the stretch between FC and Short Creek has been fishing, you may want to fish jig and float, 2 lb line, orange headed sculpin or brown 1/80th oz jigs 2-4 feet deep. Also use zebra midge #16 black or red under an indicator with a fly rod or spin rod. If bait- air injected worms - excellent. Anchor on the shallow side of the middle and cast towards the deep side.

Thanks for looking it up... I didn't even do that- just took the word of an agent which probally wasn't the thing to do.

I knew someone would pick that up... that subject has been a hot subject on other forums including a bbs I used to have up on oa. I talked to our local agent... as a matter of fact the last 2 agents... and both have said you do not have to stop fishing when you have a limit of one species in a livewell, whether you're fishing for bass, crappie, walleye or trout. Culling is not legal. Once it's in your live well, it counts towards your daily limit.

Went got some supper... Boated up to Short Creek at 4 pm- it was alittle breezy coming from donwstream. Took one of the rental bass boats cause mine is overheating. Didn't have an anchor (hate when that happens) so I fought the wind with the trolling motor till is settled about 4:45. Had a thin-skin gray #16 scud on so that's what I tired first, under an indicator 24 inches. Caught one and missed one- one in the livewell. Tied a red #16 zebra on and set the indicator 12 inches cause there were some rainbows midging way in on the bar close to the mouth of the creek. Caught one and that's it. Those trout are alittle hard to catch for me the last 3 times I've been out. Two in the livewell. Set the indicator deeper- 20 inches- and moved out towards the middle of the lake off the bar. There was alittle midging going on and I targeted what I could see and caught 2 more - Three and four in the livewell. I moved the indicator alittle deeper and went out to the channel where there was a fair amount of activity. I missed a real big rainbow- turned him. Ended up catching 3-4 more before I headed in. Now I'm goin' to eat some trout...

Should resume on Tuesday, December 13, 7 pm. Classes are free.

He's looking for a motor with the gear shift in the throttle handle like the mid-90's mercury's and mariner's use to have.... ideally. But he'll take any 15 hp at this point. Just answer to this post for contact... he's without a computer right at the moment.

Is it me or does the Orvis knot just add one more loop at the end... (or does the Davy knot leave off a step) I'll have to try it.

3 - River Ridge Canoes Fully equipped with floor grates, rod holders, cheese tray, paddles, battery boxes, padded/swivel seats... We paid $1500 each, retail was $1700. Asking $800 each. They're 2 years old- good shape. You can put a small 1-5 hp motor on the transom or a trolling motor of any size really. See River Ridge Home Page for details. $800 is a firm price... if we don't sell them, we'll continue to rent them here at the resort for $45 per day with shuttle.

Here's the knot. UtahOutdoors.Com Here's the link to the page.

If they run water is will be alittle bit in the mornings... but I doubt if they run any Saturday or Sunday. Chance of generation - 10% (my guess).

Fished this afternoon with friends from StL - Jim, Jim, Dave & Dave- father/son teams. They come down every time this year and let the wives shop while they fish all week. Jim VanDerhaar Sr. is an avid bow hunter and hold several Missouri State Competition crowns in archery. Said his furthest kill is 65 yards... wow! Anyhow, we headed upstream in their Bennington pontoon for a 2 hr trip starting at 1 pm. Bill Babler had a trip this am and said the trout were "feeding like crazy" in the trophy area. The water ran fairly hard this am- he drifted olive micro jigs under an indicator. The water was off by 2 pm- we stopped the boat just below Fall Creek. The guys started with power eggs... a white and a pink ball and they had fish on immediately. Someone asked about browns and I said to tie on a medium rapala and bam.. they caught trout, no browns though. I tied on a 1/80th oz jig under a float and played around a bit but I kept busy netting trout and tying on hooks. When we got down to Short Creek (the wind had pushed us there by 3 pm), I got alittle more serious seeing rainbows midging like crazy around the bar. I tied on a jig for Jim Jr and then the others- Jim and I caught trout after trout for 15 minutes. Jig- orange head and either brown or sculpin marabou. The rainbows are dark cause the water is dark right now... but some were males coming into spawn. Caught quite a few 13-14 inch rainbows and all of them were fat-thick trout. Fought good and hard- the DO must be holding up good in the area which is good. Talked to some guys staying here who fished yesterday in the wind... said they had a real good day. I know they throw jigs under a float but didn't get any details. Braving that wind and cold is one thing but catching fish in it is another... good for them!!

Buster reminded me back a few years ago when BS got so low, he tore up the big walleye in January and February, catching numerous walleye over 10 pounds. It will start in the K Dock area early and move upstream. With the good walleye report, and the great crappie fishing carrying over from 05, and possibly a white bass comeback, this may be a huge spring for upper Bull Shoals. I know the bait shops and marinas need the business!!

Talked to Buster- he's still catching alot of kentuckies deep off points and transision banks 30-40 feet deep using Jewel 3/8 oz football jigs in the punpkin seed/ watermelon colors. But he said guys are catching some big largemouth up in the creeks (James mainly) on spinner baits. Crappie still are in the news- Cricket Creek/ Long Creek is still the hot spot (if there is such a thing in the winter) and when they are catching crappie they're big ones. Along the bluffs in cedars 8-20 feet deep using jigs, they should be schooling up as the water cools... and with the winds we've had, the water temps should be cooling nicely.

http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07064533 According to this, it's up a bit - the levels don't look that bad but the cfs is double normal conditions... so unless Sam comes on and corrects me, I'd say it's going to be high and full of debry from the rain (leaves and grass).

Aeronikl- reading your post really blesses me. It's worth all the frustrations - server crashes, lost data, writing a long article and losing it only to find out I didn't save it... remember- some of those articles were written 5-6-7 years ago. I try to go back and update them, especially the ones that talk about fishing with worms and minnows below the dam I love to put information out there for people to read, learn and use. If it helps anyone enjoy fishing more, then it's all worth it. Thanks- would like to meet you next time you're down.

http://cgi.ebay.com/20-Live-Freshwater-Scu...1QQcmdZViewItem Makes you think.... $10 for 20 scuds... good profit in bugs, huh!?