Phil Lilley

Welcome. I think you'll like it here. Great people on the forum who also love and appreciate the Current as well as many other rivers and streams in Missouri and Arkansas. Looking forward to reading about your experiences on the river.

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Meet more anglers here on the forum and spend time fishing with them.

A friend of mine has registered Chessies for sale. Here's what she put on her facebook page - I have chesapeake bay retriever pups for sale that will be ready Feb 25. They are AKC registered pure bred Chessies from excellent bloodlines. The price is $850. Pictures of all pups are on my page. Facebook or call me or Matthew Bennett to schedule an appointment to see them or time on Skype. The sire and dam's 3 generation pedigree are available for viewing and the sire has over 300 retrieves under his belt this year. You gotta see these awesome pups! I can give you the contact info you need if you're interested.

Had to delete a few posts and ban a member.

Went a couple of weeks ago and didn't find much- not even the short crappie. Fished the mouth of Cedar where we have found winter whites- nothing. So haven't found them yet. You find the crappie scattered on the flats or on the bluffs? We tried the bluffs and off the flat at Snap.

We are planning to hold an informational meeting for Bull Shoals and Norfork Tailwaters on February 6th from 6 -7:30 pm in the McMullin Lecture Hall on the campus of ASU-Mountain Home. This meeting will provide us (AGFC) to update the public on current monitoring efforts (population samples, creel survey, etc.) of some of the management strategies implemented in 2007-2008 when we developed the management plan. We will also discuss plans for upcoming projects. The first half of the meeting will be a presentation of our monitoring data and the second half will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. I think this will be a very informative meeting and I encourage everyone to attend. We will be advertising this through the normal media outlets, but feel free to pass this e-mail on to anyone that may be interested in attending. Thank you. Jeff Jeff Williams Trout Program Coordinator E: j_williams@agfc.state.ar.us | P: (870) 424-5924 ext. 432 | M: (870) 404-0503 Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Mountain Home Field Office 201 East 5th Street Mountain Home, AR 72653 P: (877) 425-7577 | F: (870) 425-6596 www.agfc.com Comments by James A. Smith - Here is our chance to approach AGFC on submitting a request for extending the Norfork River Catch and Release to the boundaries that the AGFC staff requested 3-4 years ago. If you recall, it was not fully implemented due to some backdoor politicking done the night before the vote. It will be interesting to see how the extension improved the size of fish in the catch and release as compared to the rest of the river. The data will be skewed due to the change in Brown trout size limit, but I would be much more interested in the effects on Rainbow. If you recall, data at that time was submitted showing limited (1" to 1 1/2") growth per year. I believe this is the lowest growth rate on record for the North Fork. Recall, that stomach samples of rainbows showed that the contents was 50% algae/moss. The lower end of the river has virtually no aquatic life. The effects of Overlook and the flooding has filled in the rock base with silt and small gravel, eliminating the habitat for sculpins and crayfish as well as scuds and sow bugs. This area was not touched by the AGFC during last years "habitat improvement" that was done as a result of the Overlook settlement and some matching funds. That money was spent on the area of the river least effected by the silt from the Overlook run-off. I strongly suggest that the AGFC be urged to improve the habitat below the Ackerman Access and designate the area from Ackerman Access to the end of first island down stream from there, as Catch and Release. I would suggest that this be done immediately following the habitat improvement. This will allow that section of the river to recover and once again begin to populate the needed food source to allow the rainbows and other species to have the nutrients needed to grow at an expected rate. Please pass this opportunity on to those you feel will support the effort to recover the lower section of the North Fork. I would like to hear any suggestion, comments or ideas you have toward making this happen. I also expect, and request, any negative feedback. Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is the opportunity to formally approach the AGFC to implement the program submitted by the Fishery Staff in its entirety.

ok

We fished from January 29th until February 1st. The weather was amazingly warm for the middle of winter. Water generation was pretty heavy for the morning of each day. We fished out of the boat with mostly spinning reels using 2 lb. olive colored Trilene XL line, switching to fly rods for a little while each day. The most fish we caught in the shortest time was just after they turned the water generation down, below the dam in the trophy water along the large chunk rock banks, several 14” - 17” browns and rainbows right on the banks using 1/32 oz. white jigs. From Trophy Run down to Fall Creek, we caught both browns and rainbows on 2 ½“ gold countdown Rapalas. Along the rock banks across from Lilley’s we picked up some nice rainbows on 1/32 oz. white jigs. We fished below Monkey Island to the bridges with white Power Bait nuggets tipped with night crawlers and caught a few when the water was running hard. Don Steelman

This post doesn't bode well for the shop that's there presently (Reed's)... I would hope we do need one there or Reed's Cabin shop is doomed. I would hope that everyone here stop in and see the shop, which is first class, stocked with more flies that I see at most city fly shops, waders, rods, reels, fly tying tools and material. Darrell Bently has been reporting on fishing at the park here and now doing audible, call-in reports weekly.

They just finished spawning.

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/blog/2012/01/17/a-new-way-to-take-fish-pics/

Follow up- fishing this morning was much slower than yesterday. Only boated may be a dozen trout with no browns and one walleye. Lots of boats but thinned out quickly. Much prettier day when the sun came out. Will post a bunch of pictures on the White River Gallery.

Full report on http://ozarkanglers.com

4 units early dropping to 2 units by noon, then back up to 3 at dark. Don't have any pics that show those levels exactly... I'd start at outlet 2 and go to 3 when they drop it BUT I'm not an outlet expert. I'm heading to the White for a couple of days early tomorrow so I'll miss your visit- have a great time.

There aren't a whole lots of choices on the lake- Cooper Creek Lazy Valley Ozark Trout Trout Hollow Blue Haven Lakeshore Taneycomo Tanglewood Boats at Scotty's if you're staying below Branson. If you need boats (the place you're staying are out) and you're staying above Branson, we should have some left.

Put in at Twin Bridges at noonish and headed up the Spring. Went about a mile and fished a cut down the bank staying in 6-9 feet of water. This is a bib flat where the river isn't more than 12 feet deep all the way across. Paul, a friend who lives in Neosho, has been catching a lot of whites there and other spots the last 2 weeks. But nothing. Wind was blowing upstream and it was tough fishing. Went on up and fish the mouth of a slew on the right side (east) and caught 9 whites in 4 passes. The wind picked up so we headed up past the old bridge pilons and tried up there- out of the wind kinda but didn't do any good on whites but did catch 4 black bass, small, on the east bank. Went back down and tried the flat again but the wind was soo tough- we quit early. I caught most of my while DRAGGING my swimming minnow on the bottom.

Audio report on the main site - ozarkanglers.com

You'll missed a couple of fishing reports given today is you don't check you http://ozarkanglers.com

Saw this on facebook.... had to smile.

The new version gives you alot more options... just have to find the right one.

Wow- how blessed we are! Be safe over there.

I saw this water for the first time today. Very impressed. Have to go back and fish it someday. Thanks to Darrell Bently (Idylwilde) for the tour. You know- they have an excellent fly shop there!! Tons of flies, apparel and lures. Gray day but I got some good pics and videos of the stream. They'll be posted on the Montauk and Current River sites in due time.