Phil Lilley

Can't tell he's a guide- can you!?

Has anyone used what I call a sulpin jig on smallmouth? It's just a marabou jig using sculpin colored feathers. I've used in on Beaver and North Fork and absolutely tore them up... I've fished it vertical along steep banks and stumps and had them come out and nail it.

Zach is a guy from Knoxville, TN... an excellent photographer and now I find he's a writer too. He has an article in the recent issue of American Angler- just got our shipment of the publication. The Winter Game - check it out! He's a frequent visitor on another fishing forum - flyfishingarkansas.com

Old lodge.... I misread the thread. I was there for a short time taking pics of the construction and the cloudy water. Then I headed down.

I bought them thinking I could rent them... they haven't done well. So if I can take the money and put them into something else that rents better I will.

I should have asked where the old bridge is... I was at RR till 12 pm. I took pics and t/t Tim, fished alittle at the end of my time down by the old dam. Report w/ pics to follow this evening.

Definately add some kind of glue to the head... some use super glue. You might add cement to the thread just before you whip it.

Park at the parking lot near the hatchery and walk up or down stream.. assuming you want to fish below the dam. I've posted some maps here- http://www.lilleyslanding.com/lt_maps/Top_End.php This is a map of the upper end but you can scout further and see there's good wade fishing all the way down to the KOA. Take some soft hackles, olive wooly buggers and cracklebacks... it should be breezy and they should work.

Yes- it will be in the journal. Hopefully it will go out this weekend and I'll post it here too.

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.