Phil Lilley

Well- got out and did some Missouri fishin' this evening with the kids. Jimmy, Megan and I took a pontoon up to the cable- started about 7 pm. The fog was already rolling in, chilling the air down to in the 50's. Felt just like... Alaska! Well not really. But you know the rainbows almost felt like the Naknek rainbows. We caught I bet 15 all together on 2 drifts from the dam, half were well over 16 inches and all were big and fat and fought like champs. Back before I left a month ago, I drifted up at the dam using flies and jigs and they just weren't biting. I was worried- why weren't they eating at least some of the time? Did they all leave!?!? Nope- and they have grown to be big ones just like I thought they would back when this high water started in April. We used white jigs- mainly 1/8th oz. I did try a sculpin/ginger jig and did almost as well. Had to have them close to the bottom and they were just tapping them softly. Meg and Jimmy got the handle on it pretty quick. Bill was right- they are all over a white jig up there. Lots of fun to come!

I'll let you know when I'm ready to go. If I'm going to start taking in $$$ I should set a few things up first like a bank account and keep it separated. I'll do a mailing to all members soon. If you want to, go ahead and email me banner ads and scripts so I'll have an idea what I need to do design-wise. lilley at lilleyslanding.com

Already had 37 successful views of the bear video. If you can't view it, you may want to download the latest version of flash or your firewall may be blocking it. I've uploaded a total of 4 videos so far.

I've emailed Web - hopefully he can address the issue. I've posted another "spinning wheel". I can see it fine from here. Could be the version of flash you're using.

I'm playing around with flash and it looks really good so far. Take a look and see if you have any problems with it. http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=c...&Itemid=103

How about $10 per month. He's something I threw together - http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=c...49&Itemid=1 Or I could start something on the forum itself and manage it. Limit to one or two images and 1000 words of text.

I am back. I have hats and bumper stickers but I'm almost out of stickers. Hats are $10 and stickers are free when I get more. Same design unless I can work something out before I have them printed. Idea- and this is off the top of my head. I may offer a place, a page on oa where members can advertise their businesses for a nominal fee. I like to kick it around and see what happens.

Am looking to print some more ozarkanglers bumper stickers and thought I should use someone from this place to do it. Not looking for a great deal... just a fair one and to give someone some business.

John- there no reproduction going on in Taney but you're right on the food part.

Not weekly but only monthly numbers. I remember ball park numbers off the top of my head. jan 25k feb 35k mar 55k apr 60k may 80k jun-aug 90k sep 80k oct 65k nov 45k dec 25k Location- if by boat they load downtown and head up or down. Very seldom above our place (Lilleys). Sometimes Rockaway and below when the water temp is ok.

Can't believe you all are still catching eyes below the dam. In the past when we caught, say, whites or crappie below the dam during flood gates, they'd disappear as quickly as they appeared. I'm beginning to wonder... Jet skies- I wouldn't worry about them Rich... cold water is pretty hard on the engines. Don't think anyone would run one for any length of period without problems. Never know.

Am in Anchorage- 4 hour layover. Time to catch up on news, sports and the forum. It was alittle hard leaving- just alittle. They found tons of silvers moving up the river today- only reason I slightly wanted to stay. Otherwise, I'm ready to be home.

Well... Sid was the brunt of most of the conversation. Seems he's quite a character on and off stage. Boated to Brooks and Margot today- great last day here in Alaska. I tried to get away from the crowd and take in the quiteness and absolute awesomeness of the landscape and the rivers and countryside. What a blessed man I am and how I wish I could take everyone up to experience this. The ride over was marvelous- very smooth. Temps in the low 40's on the lake but the covered boat wasn't too bad. It's always fun to see the new clients at the first sighting on a bear. This time there was one on the beach about 4 miles from Brooks. We pulled up along side him and followed him along the shore. He was of course looking for a snack and not paying much attention to us even though we were making alot of noise with the motor and cameras clicking. But then our waves hit the shore behind him and you should have seen him jump ahead like something bit him in the butt. On to Brooks- mom and 3 very small spring cubs on the beach greeted us. Bear school and we were on to the falls. No bears at the bridge so we breezed by. Lots of BIG males at the falls this time and a few sockeye caught. Couple of fights over fish. BB is THE big bear of the park and showed it, taking a freshly red away from an equally big bear but in the pecking order, BB had already secured his place over all. Pretty cool. Lots of chasing going on- large bears chasing off younger bears trying to get to the best spots. We walked in off the walkway thru the woods to the river- no bears this time. Fished down to the ox bow- clients hooking sockeye and Duane and I targeting bows. I hooked 2 bows that were as big or bigger than the sockeye that quickly blew downstream and broke me off. Sometimes you just don't have a chance. Landed a couple of smaller 20 inch bows and a couple of sockeye between having to move to one side or the other for a passing bear. Duane and I both heard what sounded like horses running just inside the woods on the bank up from where Duane was fishing and immediately a bear bolted out and right at Duane- but with another bear on his heals. Didn't know Duane could move that fast, esp in waste deep, moving water. Said his adrenalin was flowing for an hour afterwards. When the group headed up and on the trail to the lodge, I stayed behind and walked the river down for a while, taking in everything. No one else was fishing the river and the bears I could see were harasing the people near the bridge- again. So I had the river to myself. Pretty incredible 15 minutes of solitude. Then I heard a ranger lady screaming at something or someone. I looked up and saw a bear around the cabins- a place where they are not welcomed. Our group was just getting to the cabins and I guess she was screaming at them! Daune and John said she was out of control- yelling for them to go back down to the swamp and come up another way. They were practically to the top of the hill and out of the woods so no way were they going to take the clients back down because of just one bear... so they acted dumb and walked on thru. Then I approached- I saw the bear and started to go right and find a path thru the trees. She yelled at me 3 times to go right and find another path... and I was already there. I'm surprised- she's a veteran ranger but she handled the situation very poorly. But I scared some tourist to dead when I came up the hill- and very thick brush- to the overlook, yea I was kinda ducking and shaking the bushes alittle more than I should have but what the heck- they're there for a "bear" experience. I gave them one. I didn't say or even look up at them when I came out of the tall grass. One lady plopped on the ground when she saw me come thru- I think she almost fainted. Margot- 2 float planes at the mouth- not good. But we dropped off a few at the mouth to fish and Ryan and I took Mike and Marta (couple from Traverse City, MI) up 3 bends to a place where Ryan has slayed the rainbows yesterday. They weren't biting. Marta had trouble with the current and fell one but only to her knees and didn't get wet. I, though, went in face first while trying to "power walk" upstream in knee deep current. Yes got my video camera wet AGAIN but I think it still may work- we'll see when I get home. We finished there and wanted to head back down. The problem was we'd come thru some really, really thick grass and trees to get there and a bear came off the same trail after we'd been up there- and back in the same patch of woods so Marta didn't want to go back that way. The only other way was the other side of the river which I wasn't as versed in but Ryan said he'd taken it the day before so we started. About 200 yds up we saw another bear in the distance on our trail so we darted off the trail and to the east into what I thought was a meadow. But beavers had built a series of small dams- and big dams- and flooded the whole area. There was ankle deep water and neck high water and it all looked the same. We got deeper and deeper- it was really beautiful- the fir trees, the tall grasses, the mountains in the distance- incedible- and I kept telling Marta to take it in but she was more concerned about BEING lost and bears. Then Mike fell into one of those holes. He went down pretty hard and deep. Well, he had ribbed Marta when she fell to her knees but she crucified him for his fall. She wasn't worried about being lost anymore- it was payback time. It lasted the rest of the walk, rest of fishing time, rest of the boat ride home and even back at camp. Fishing- they caught a few char and sockeye but fishing wasn't very good. We headed back on another glassy lake- very enjoyable. Going to spend tomorrow getting all my stuff in order. Leaving all my clothes and carrying only fish home. Going to leave Duane to the bears... silvers are in the river now so they'll have a great time with them for 3 weeks or so. Weather has really straightened out... just as I'm leaving. But I'm ready- to go home to my wife who I've missed very very much. Kinda cool pic at Margot. Ryan with a red male- really big sockeye and beautiful. Be home Tuesday-

3 days and I'll be HOME! The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the heat. It got up to 64 yesterday and we thought we all were going to roast. Two sunny days after 3 weeks of clouds and rain- not the summer we wanted here. Locals say that was summer and now fall starts. Weird. On Thursday, I got a treat. Sean Guffy, known as waterman here on the forum, is from Rolla but fishes commercially here in Bristol Bay. He finished his sockeye stint the other day and called me to ask if I wanted to go out and try for halibut. Sure!! Just to get out on a fishing boat was a blast. We elft Naknek about 7 am and headed north towards the Kvijak River area and dropped the nets for salmon- both bait and take home... Sean and crew wanted to take some sockeye home. We caught sockeye, dogs (chum), pinks and silvers. Then we went out 30 miles to some holes and ledges another fisherman told Sean about. No luck. Tried a few other places with the same result. Oh well. Headed for home, stopped and caught a few more salmon in the mouth of the Naknek. Pulling into the river, we passed a crab boat called the Provider. Sean said it was one of the original boats on the Deadliest Catch. We had to drop off our dogs (for bait) so Sean gave me a tour of the boat. Cool stuff!!!! Also got some inside stuff on some of the captains on the show... Sean will be in Kodiak for a couple of weeks and then home. Looking forward to seeing him here on the forum again. Sean looked for "jumpers" to signal a school of reds (sockeye) but they were few and far between. The red season was winding down, the pinks were in mid-stream as far as moving into the rivers and the silvers were jsut starting. They left their nets out for 30 to 60 minutes. You could see splashes above the net when a salmon would hit the net. Sean and Eric both break the gills and bleed each salmon- the cannery they sell to require it. The headless salmon was caused by a seal. There are thousands that hang around the mouths of the rivers waiting on the fishing boats and they food line nets. They place havoc, taking fish from the nets and tearing them up pretty bad (the nets). Not sure how much Sean said he had but his permits allow for 3 sections of nets which I bet is more than 300 yards lone. Kitchen. Pilot's room. Sorry I didn't get a good pics of Sean or his crew, Lewis and Eric. These are all canneries, located all along the river banks in Naknek. Duane and others went to Margot Creek today and I guess they really did well on char and rainbows using beads. I guess it's in full swing now. I love fishing beads, esp at Margot. He said they got rainbows and char up to 29 inches out of that little creek. Bears weren't that bad either. I worked on the shower house- plumbing and electrical. They'll have showers at the lodge real soon. For my last day tomorrow I'm hoping they decide to go over the lake. Just checked the weather and LIGHT WINDS!!! Yea. I'll push for Margot too. We have some very good anglers in camp this week so we'll probably do both. Hopefully won't get stuck at the bridge like last time. We'll wade across! Or may be we won't go to the falls at all. Anyhow- will take lots of pics for my last day. Here's a pic of us fishing the other day. We kept having bears walk in in on us but all they wanted to do is look in the river. Here a bar walked right up to the point to go up the river in search of fish and Dave was in the way. So he just stood there till John (guide) saw the bear and yelled at it and it moved on. Dave hardly knew it was there- was tying on a fly at the time. Crazy!! All in all, this has been a good trip, despite having to work most of the time and the weather being so cold and wet. Never got on the rainbows here at naknek very well. But they should explode when the sockeye go on the reds which will be very soon.

Got to remember guys, there are new people active and inactive coming on the the forum all the time and have not had the chance to offer an opinion on the subject of Catch and Release. So keep that in mind when you think a subject has been hashed over and over on the forum. It's ok by me. How'd we swing into politics and oil? Not that I object.

You guys are funny.... Just saw the fish for the first time on the "closed thread". Thanks Dano for helping us out. Don't know if it was mentioned but a large brown caught, except on big line and brought in quickly, will suffer enough stress to kill it regardless of how it's treated before released. If a big brown is handled at all, esp out of the water, most likely he will die. Even if you release a brown like this and he swims away, chances are he will go lay on the bottom and die. Browns don't do stress well. If you get lucky enough to catch one of these and you want to release it and let it live, don't take pics, don't measure it, unhook it and let it go. otherwise, stick a knife in it and put it out of it's misery. As for replica educaton- our fault. We are in the process of adding this inof to our room books. But in this case, I don't think it would have done any good. If the brown is dumb enough to eat power bait after living without being lured for 15-20 years, then he may deserve to die. Dan- you may hvae to close this one too I'll reprot on AK later... got to get some sleep. But did go out with Sean Guffy (waterman) today on his skif. Caught salmon using his nets- cool!!! Didn't find any hallibut.

Lots to report... the best, very best, will HAVE to be told by Duane and Micheal. I wouldn't do it justice. Just know this... Micheal doesn't want to see another bear for the rest of his life!!! Great stuff. I do have to tell... Micheal seasoned himself with bear spray this evening. Wait till you hear the REST of the story. This was the first day of winter here. Wind, rain and barely in the mid 40's. Jim, myself and 3 clients ran up into Big Creek in search for kings and hooked 8 and landed 3, all about 40 pounds. Did catch some jacks, rainbows and char too. Big Creek is a long, windy river which alot of kings go up and spawn in. It's catch and release from one mile up in the creek and up so we caught and released. We boated 7-8 miles up. Shallow and windy- unbelievable trip in a jet. Very tricky would be putting it mildly. Two days ago, Duane, Micheal and 2 clients boated up for the 2nd time in my life by ourselves and made it up without incident (miracle) but didn't fair so well coming out. I run a 22 foot alum flats boat with a 150 jet. It's heavy and with 6 people I have to keep it over 4500 rpm to keep it on plane. I got too close to a cut dirt bank and slid the boat up on it's side, almost turning it over. Then I missed a Y in the road and ran it up on a mud flat- WA"Y up on the flat. I had a shovel for panning and had to dig us out- took 30 minutes. My nerves were shot and was extremely glad to get out of that place. Sockeye fishing has been good the last 2 days. AK Fish and Game reported we had 450k sockeye run thru the river yesterday- that's alot of salmon! Already we've had almost 7mil escape and that's the est for this year. We had only 7.7 last year and that was a huge year. Starting to see a bunch of pinks move up too. And still fresh kings. Duane, Micheal and 2 clients went to King Salmon Creek yesterday and both got a couple of 40+ lb kings on a fly rod. Today they went back and fished for dollies and rainbows behind kings spawning and caught "hundreds" on every cast using beads- 2-5 pounds. They're out rainbow fishing today. Hard core! I went out and rainbow fished last night for about 30 minutes. Windy and rain- not sure why I went but it was only 9:30 and too early to go to bed. Saw one chasing smelt and casted for it- caught him- 29 inch male. Didn't fight well and look skinny, just like the other big bow I caught earlier. Not sure if the smelt numbers are low or very late but I don't think the bows are getting alot to eat- yet. The eggs will be flowing big time soon. pic of a rainbow we caught the other day at Idavane. Bear in camp... again. Visits every day, sometimes several times a day. More pics of the new dining lodge. Adding a shower room next week. Here's a taste of food prices. Duane and I had fun taking pics at the food store last week- I leave for Anchorage next Monday, then to the Holitna River on Tuesday morning for a few days.

The days are long but flying by. Micheal is here- went to Idavain and Islands on Sunday- slow fishing. First time the grayling and rainbows didn't cooperate there. Neither did the fish at the islands. Nothing trolling. Duane and Micheal linited on sockeye after hours (got in at 1 am). Sockeye are starting to slow down- maybe. We didn't see as many today but that could be just the day. Did land quite a few but had to work for them. Some of us went up Big Creek at noon. My first trip. Very fun ride up- went about 5 miles up. Winds back and forth and fun in a jet boat. Thrwe spinners for kings and landed 2 plus a pink and a chum. Duane and I panned for gold. I ended up with 8 pieces, one small nugget and some nice flakes. Duane strike out. It's addictive! Can't wait to go back. Weather has cooled off and has been rainy. 50's daytime. I love it. Brooks and Margot tomorrow from what I've heard. Bears and dollies. Sorry no pics. Forgot my camera.

JULY 9, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORMER SHELL KNOB MAN INDICTED FOR ILLEGALLY TAKING PADDLEFISH EGGS, SELLING CAVIAR SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Shell Knob, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for harvesting the eggs from paddlefish caught in illegal nets at Table Rock Lake, in Barry and Stone Counties, Mo., which were processed into caviar and sold to a Tennessee company. Thomas Jerry Nix, Jr., 38, of Memphis, Tenn., formerly of Shell Knob, Mo., was charged in a seven-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield. Today’s indictment alleges that, from Dec. 31, 2007, to Feb. 17, 2008, Nix and an unindicted co-conspirator participated in a conspiracy to transport and sell paddlefish roe (eggs) that were taken in violation of state and federal laws. Nix allegedly set gill nets (a commercial fishing net set vertically in the water so that fish swimming into it are entangled by the gills in its mesh) on Table Rock Lake. Nix returned to check those gill nets every one to three days, removing all the fish that were caught, and relocated the gill nets on Table Rock Lake as the paddlefish moved upstream to spawn. When paddlefish were retrieved from the gill nets, the indictment says, Nix used a knife to slit open the underside of each paddlefish containing roe or suspected to contain roe, and extracted the roe by hand. After removing the roe, Nix sealed it in plastic bags that were placed in a cooler and transported to Nix’s residence in Shell Knob. In order to conceal his illegal activities, Nix allegedly weighted the carcasses of the paddlefish with rocks, then sank those carcasses in Table Rock Lake. Nix allegedly processed the paddlefish roe into caviar, which was weighed, packaged and transported to several locations in Tennessee, where the paddlefish caviar was sold to a company engaged in the business of buying, processing and selling caviar. The indictment says that Nix falsely represented that the caviar had been lawfully taken in Arkansas. Between Jan. 11 and Feb. 11, 2008, Nix allegedly sold approximately 387 pounds of paddlefish caviar to the Tennessee firm for a total of $35,820. On Feb. 17, 2008, Nix and his co conspirator allegedly took approximately eight paddlefish at Table Rock Lake, from which they extracted roe, and were in possession of approximately 78.3 pounds of unprocessed paddlefish roe when they were apprehended by agents of the Missouri Department of Conservation. Nix was also in possession, at his residence in Shell Knob, of approximately 91.32 pounds of paddlefish roe that had been processed into caviar and packaged in containers labeled for sale to the Tennessee company. In addition to the conspiracy, today’s indictment charges Nix with one count of possessing and transporting paddlefish roe taken in violation of federal regulations and five counts of transporting and selling paddlefish caviar across state lines. The federal indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Nix to forfeit to the government all vehicles or equipment used to commit the alleged offenses, including a 20-foot Bumblebee 200 Pro boat and trailer, with 225 HP Mariner motor, a GPS unit, and miscellaneous equipment such as three gill nets with anchors and a digital scale. The American paddlefish The American paddlefish is native to the Mississippi River drainage system and is taken for both its meat and roe. Once common throughout the Midwest, over fishing and habitat changes have caused major population declines. The paddlefish is a close relative of the sturgeons from which most commonly known caviars were obtained. Given its close relationship to the sturgeon, paddlefish caviar has qualities similar to sturgeon caviars. With diminishing worldwide sturgeon populations and increased international protection for declining stocks, American paddlefish has become an increasingly popular substitute for sturgeon caviar, and as such has become quite valuable. The paddlefish is protected by the various states in its range, including Missouri and Arkansas. Female paddlefish reach reproductive maturity at 9 to 11 years of age, and weigh 50 to 100 pounds or more. Mature female paddlefish normally hold between five and 10 pounds of roe. Wood cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation. **************** This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

OK I'll answer questions- I'm done writing the family. What is the price of gas at King Salmon? $5.59 Get us some pic's from inside the Pink Palace. http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/alaska2008 This is all the pics I've uploaded so far. The internet is terrible during the day unitl about midnight so I can't upload them any other time. Give us an idea of the fishing at camp and some photo's of sockeye. No sockeye photos but they are slaying the sockeye at will. Your friends are here- the Rankins. 2 grown daughers and 5 gradkids from 12 to 17 I'd guess... and all catching fish!!! 4 other clients from Michigan and they are doing well too. Hooked 18 kings in Big Creek today. Wind blew and is blowing 30-40 and will for the next 2 days. How are the Kings going and is anyone catching any? Your previous photo's were great. I'm looking forward to making my first trip to Big Creek next week with Micheal and Randy arrive. Give us some client photo's. No. I haven't been fishing with them. How are Jim Phyllis and the Kids doing? Fine. Same old same old. You know. How are the boats doing, and what is the standard daily plan that the camp is doing each day with the clients? JIm and PJ are the only ones with USCG Lisc. Duane, Matt and Miles are waiting on theirs. So Jim and Phyliss are fishing every day with James and sometimes Matt slips out with a couple. Another guide arrives in a week and he has his lisc. Are the Sockeye running very thick, after last years record runs? Haven't heard #'s but the guys said they were coming thru for 6 hours straight 5 feet wide today at Rainbow Rock. How are the Brooks trips? ie to many bears and slow, or great? You dry fly fishing was very impressive. Brooks rainbows are terrible. I did good on dries but all small. I haven't even seen any decent rainbows in the river. Bears are everywhere. Nothing like any years I've been here. YOu almost can't get out of the "people area" to the falls or the river. Crazy. Did you find my waders and 7 wt. TFO? if not who cares. May be. There is a pari of waders and a 7 ft TFO. I guess it's yours. My stuff got raided after the first and I'm still finding fly boxes laying around. Missing a few things too... but I have plenty of tackle to say the least. REally miss you all and can't wait to see ya. I'll probably call later in the week. Are there any opening at the camp in either late Aug. all of September, or early October? There seems to be some late interest. I'm sure you can come and find a bed. There's room up in the cabins on the hill for sure. But they are jammed packed. I'm sure someone can arragin staying at Kinko and renting a boat from Jim. He has tons of boats now- not even using 2 or 3 of them right now. Miss you too buddy!! Don't go on anymore camping trips, it takes to long for us to get information. We need an Alaska Fish Fix, almost everyday. Are you going to be able to catch some Sockeye and send some home? I have a hankeren for fresh Naknek River Sockeye. This is all I can think of now, but I will think of more. Miss Ya.

Here's some pics... the internet is giving us fits and it's 12:30 am here so I'm not going to answer questions... today. Here's some pics.

Got to get a better handle on wilderness camping... I took too much stuff and didn't have everything we needed. Lighter is better... couldn't carry enough fuel to do all the things we wanted but we did alot. Didn't figure out the Bay of Islands fish until we were headed out yeaterday to Margot Creek. I saw some fish dart out from underneath the boat as we ran over a shoal-point so we stopped and casted, then trolled some big wiggle warts and caught our first laker (3) and 2 big bows. Cool. Pics later... they're on Duane's camera. We started at Idvane Creek, hiked up to the meadow and caught grayling almost at will. They took our elk hait caddis like candy. Plus some rainbows- nothing like Dudley's and John Jackson's big bows last year but they fought hard of course. No bears... Lots of sockeye at the mouth so we caught dinner and grilled some on the beach. Boated to the Fuer's Cabin in the Bay and found the camp occupied. They had portaged over from Grovesner Lake, kayaking on their way to Brooks. The guides were from AK and their clients from upper NY. Nice people who we enjoyed much. Slept on a very hard wood floor of the cabin- wish we were out in a tent like the NY'ers on the soft grass. Next am we decided that was enough of the cabin so we fished around the islands and then headed to Margot Creek to check out the water, fish and camp there. There's usually a bunch of bears there but we were betting they weren't there yet. I did catch a nice dolly (26 inch) at the mouth but the creek was high and off color so we didn't fish there much. Waking, we saw a bear way down the beach- it didn't look like he'd been by our camp. We'd fixed one of the lakers for dinner the night before and the remains were still in the water. We boated to Brooks to meet up with Jim and the crew to help them out there. We were early so we tried to do some fishing. Hiked into the lower part only to be headed off at the water twice by bears- never made it to the water. Later when they arrived, we hiked to the top and fished down to the falls. I fished all dries- elk hair- and caught 15 rainbows or so none over 16 inches. Fun stuff. Duane ended up doing the same and landed a nice 20 incher. This was a print we found... the man's print is about a size 11. We have some BIG bears. We had a great time. Hope to explore some places around here this week. Have to do laundry first.

Duane and I finished at least the inside of the new dining lodge yesterday as the new clients arrived. They ate the first meal in the converted "pink pallace". Had a small incident... the generator was placed too close to the side of the building and the exhaust almost caught the place on FIRE again. I happened to go outside and see smoke coming from the corner of the building. We'd just hooked up the propane stove and I thought it was the stove causing the problem but solved it quickly by pulling away from the house and throwing a pot of HOT water on the siding. Fortunately, the noddles hadn't been put in the pot tey. I'm heading over to camp for 4-5-6 days so I'll be off line for a while. I'll have pics when I return.

This is the pink palace.. an old building that's sat on the river front for 15 years I'm told. The weather has battered it pretty good. It was supposed to be dismantled last fall and takend away but the owner procrastinated. After Jim's lodge burned, they moved it up where the lodge once sat and now Duane and I are remodleing it- I guess you'd call it that. We're going to make it livaeble by Saturday. It's pretty rough but it was free and that all they could afford right now. It'll be dry and warm. 4 of our clients went king fishing today. 23, 27 and 30 plus a small chum. Caught on plugs using spin gear throwing wiggle warts up in Big Creek. Rainbow and sockeye were slow today. Wind picked up this afternoon and is suppoesed to blow till Thursday afternoon.

RE: pic - there were quite a few women - just not in the pic I guess. Most of these were workers- either cannery people or other comercial fishermen. But there were several family groups heading home after a day in Anchorage (my guess). And several female cannery workers. But mostly male. Here's some pic of Brooks. I went over the day after I arrived (Friday) and yesterday (Sunday). BEAUTIFUL weather- uper 60's and little wind (BUT LOTS OF BUGS). Lots of bears at Brooks and lots of sockeye. Our people hooked them at will when they could. The bears were on us in a heartbeat as soon as one of our fish jumped. We were followed- closely- by a juvenile 4 year old for almost 10 minutes. We kept trying to get away from him but he was either curious or thought we had something to eat. Fimally we yelled and false-charged him enough we retreated. First time for me... kind of un-nerving. Had 4 bears fighting over a salmon right in front of us at the end of the day... then one's cubs ran in right on top of us- within 20 feet. We left... quickly. Duane and I are working on the old building they moved to the spot where the dining hall sat before it burned. Needs alot of work but has to be done by Saturday. Fishing alittle in the evenings... hope to fish more or day this week but much to do.