Phil Lilley

There are places in Bear Creek/Bull Shoals close to Tucker in Ark. but you have to find your way down to the water. Locals know the backroads... take a GPS so you know where to go next time. We fished Bear this am and the guys on the bank caught more than we did- which wasn't many. They were there just not biting.

Has to be the White... it's in Arkansas- Little Rock. Interesting.

Good news... the dozier is out.

I just posted a report on OA main page. Here's a couple of fishing buddy reports: #1 My dad and I were down Saturday through Tuesday. The fishing was tough with all of the water running but with persistence we were able to catch about 20 or so between us each day. Our best fish was a 15in Rainbow caught on orange power bait. We threw every color of power bait we had along with minnows and the orange along with minnows seen to do the best. The best fishing seemed to be from about a half mile upstream from lilley’s to Cooper creek. Saturday afternoon we anchored behind the 1st dock upstream on the opposite bank. We found some slack water and fished minnows under floats and did real well. #2 We took you up on the $29 per night offer and got back home yesterday. It was really nice to get away from here for a couple of days for fishing. We fished from the dock on Sunday afternoon. It was tough with the water running. I caught two in the first two casts on pink power eggs and then didn't have any more hits for the next two hours. JD didn't catch anything on Sunday, so I out-fished him....again! He made up for it on Monday, tho. We rented a jon boat and went up river to float fish our favorite stretch from above Trout Hollow back down to the corner. We were using a little bit of everything, power eggs, night crawlers, power bait, to figure out the hot bait. We did okay for the first several floats, with one or the other of us catching one per float. JD dug around in the bag and came up with white power worms, which he tried. That seemed to be the ticket, as we caught several per float after that. It was sunny with very little wind for most of the afternoon, which made it nice. The clouds came in about 3 pm and it cooled off. After the clouds rolled over the lake, we noticed a marked increase in the size of the trout we were catching. When the sun was on the water, the trout were really skinny and small (stockers), but after the sun went under, we began to catch longer and heavier rainbows in the 13-14" range. We caught our limits and released around 12 fish total for Monday afternoon, so we had fish to eat for supper Monday night. It wasn't one of our stellar fishing trips for catching, but we had a really fun time. The trip cured our winter "cabin fever" blues for the time being. As usual, the staff at Lilleys was outstanding in helping us. Curtis set up the boat with the fish baskets to help us in drifting without a trolling motor.

Actually I caught several nice trout downstream of the work last evening in the dirty water- 2 nice browns and a nice rainbow on a white jig.

Checked the article- no agents names.

I heard they are now. Could be soon.

"While most here seem to easily dismiss this man unfairly. He is a very qualified outdoorsman at a minimum equal to many of you here." "Many" meaning a couple? Don't be too quick to judge. I haven't dismissed LD... just pointed out the only thing that stands out in my mind on the guy. I'm sure he's written some good stuff (and been paid for it) but that doesn't automatically make him my outdoors advocate. I do think accountability is wise. Conservation commission would be one- right? For the most part, most if not all the MDC people I know personally are outstanding men. Sure you're going to have a few bad apples. Hopefully they'll be weeded out.

One of the banks that got hit the hardest is being repaired. About a half mile above the mouth of Fall Creek, heavy equipment has been moved in and rock hauled in to shore up the bank that was eroded from last April's flood. One condo was left hanging- literally- and that's where the work is being done. One of the dozers got stuck (pic). The crews are laying rock to get to the rig. One thing- the corp usually won't let you "recover" or add to the bank like this but I guess it's the only way to shore it up.

You're going out pretty early... so don't expect alot. If it's not windy, you're ahead of the game. I'd drift a minnow or shiner on the flats or close to the drop off to the channel and I'd start at Beaver Creek and go all the way to K Dock. Stay on the inside bends where the flats are. 10-12 feet of water is where we did the best. Expect light bites. Otherwise swimming minnows on the bottom same structure/areas. May be fish the bottom in the channel for whites from Beaver down past Cedar. Have to local where they are first. That will be the hard part.

Moved this so it would get more attention from those who fish at Montauk.

I'm not going to count them... I bet it's closer to 300. Some are gray only- something I noticed when I changed containers.

I have I bet a couple hundred white/gray marabou jigs. I think they are 1/80th oz, some with orange and some with chartreuse heads. Nothing wrong with them... I had them tied years ago by someone who needed the money. They won't sell here and I need to get them out of my office. $5 plus whatever to ship. Also - #18 orange soft hackles with brown hackle - 48+ - $12.00

Nice to have you, Lee. I think your son has been on the forum in the past?? It's looking to be a good spring for walleye on Bull this year... hoping anyways.

Babler said he and Beck caught all their fish today before 9 am. Couldn't get bit all day. If that was the case for Brian, then that trouble may have really cost him.

Jeremy Rasnick was there- said the weights were pretty incredible for the weather. I think it speaks to what kind of fishery we have in Table Rock right now. Babler and Beck fish today.

"BTW, I had the some head honcho for the Red River Lock and Dams tell me flat out that it wasn't ever about the fishing and that any fishing that resulted from COE projects was a bonus." That about sums it up......

No problem... it was bugging me too. I sent the ad co another email asking if they got a fix figured out.

I thought it was a fumble. The announcer said they had looked at it. The official in the booth determines whether a play should be reviewed and they didn't think it should be. Warner didn't have control of the ball as his hand went forward BUT it could have gone either way. The facemask call is what got me. It was a hand in the face if anything. 15 yards. Kept the drive going in 4th quarter.

Man, two things bothered me about the game. The officials had too much say in the outcome. And did the Steelers pay off the time keeper!??? One play they really botched. I think with about 5 minutes left, a Steeler player ran out of bounds. They stopped the clock but started it back up after the officials spotted the ball. 15-20 seconds ran off and no one caught it. Then it stopped again at 2 minutes just as the Steelers started the play. Stopped for 2-3 seconds before starting again. The time didn't make any difference. The last play of the first half killed Warner. Great game. Roethlisberger played an incredible game.

Wallbash - using a big plastic worm, this phase is used when setting the hook. Jerk his lips off! - another adoring phase describing what you want to do to a big bass when setting the hook. Both are from my youthful days of pond fishing in Kansas with Greg Thompson. Purple grape 9-inch plastic worm was king.

They didn't get any pics of fish except this one of Gerry's rainbow. I pulled this off the facebook page. I have a full day today. Have to write and post reports late tonight. If I can get to the videos I will but they take along time to do. Facebook- all you have to do is sign up. I haven't gotten one spam email from signing up with them. I think that's why alot of people don't sign up with stuff like facebook is they're afraid their emails will get sold and passed around to spammers. Megan does alot with facebook and it's way easier to post videos than vimeo or youtube. Better quality too- not sure why.

Gezzz... Megan is way ahead of me. She's already posted videos and pics of the tournament of our facebook. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1639762773 Got to have a facebook account before you can view it. Sorry.

No generation, first day that the water didn't run all week which usually puts trout down for at least part of the day. Blue bird day- high sun and little wind. 60+ degrees. Water was good color. Usually not good fishing conditions but I guess not yesterday... good fishing reported by most. First time in a long time when you can catch bigger trout below Fall Creek than above. Alot of these trout were caught downtown.

Mona- change your birthday date... no one will ever know.