Phil Lilley

3 days of wind and no bugs… it’s been nice. My bites on my ankles and wrists and getting a chance to heal. We’ve started my cabin and have the floor, walls and rafters up. Will sheet the roof and walls today. 12 x 24 cabin with a 12 foot bedroom in the back, a small bath and bunks in the front room. 6 foot porch facing the river. Our building crew have another week to finish but we’ll get it done long before that, leaving time to fish more. Found black morels 2 days ago just down the road from camp. Paul Crews, Neosho, said AK was and morel capitol of the world… it rained last evening and we’re going out again soon to hunt. Today is the opening day for fishing here in the river and at Brooks. I’ve been taking aul and his 2 guys out in the evenings this week above the line and have not done real well. Paul has gotten a couple of big rainbows but not many numbers. The other guys- Jim Turner, Tom Burckhardt and James Johnson (Jim’s son) have gone out in one of the smaller jons- they have floated jigs and done better. A few large rainbows but mainly small ones. But last night was ours! We started about 11 pm, anchoring just above the line. No fish. At 11:45, we dropped down to a flat about 300 yards and anchored, tied on swimming minnows and waited for 6/7. We’d seen rainbows chasing smelt for 2 weeks in the same area and were tired of not getting a shot at them. They’d slowed a bit in the waning sunlight but were still there when we casted our first lure at midnight. Donnie hooked the first rainbow, 20 minute fight- 28 inches. The order and hookings after that are blurred in my mind. Too many to keep track of. For the next 2 hours we landed about 15 rainbows- smallest a couple under 20 inches but the bulk between 22 and 25 inches, Donnie’s 28 and another 32 and Paul 29 incher. Paul took about 25 minutes to land his. Here’s are some pics. The sunset is at 2 am.

That's enough... back to fishing.

I just got caught up on the drawdown situation... the Corp and Empire were supposed to coordinate flows to cover the upper gravel bars while the mid-lower lake was to be down. It sounds like they failed. MDC, in the past, would moderator the event. 5-6 years ago they all failed and the upper gravel bars were exposed to 90 degree heat and sun for 6 hours and we lost 60% of the scuds up there. I think it took 12 months to recover. From what Bill told me this has happened again. Although I don't like bad PR on our fishing (business motivated), I wouldn't mind MDC, Branson, the Corp and Empire be held accountable on the front page of the paper... maybe the Old Seagull may take this up. I'll ask MDC to see how they view the situation and report.

Here's some more Jim Turner posted - http://woody.bims.biz/alaska/

Drizzle today so not much building. Would like to go fishing... we'll see. Here are some pics - Tom with his first grayling Idvain Creek- pretty small but there were some nice rainbows and grayling. Chuck with a decent rainbow- on a dry! Tom with a couple of northern pike. They weren't taking as well as the other day.

Hey- went "over the lake" across Naknek Lake to Brooks yesterday with the crew. Forecast was for calm winds all day. Brooks is now open so there were tourist there... not sure why people would pay $1600 per night for lodging when there's no bears there but they were there with cameras anyways. No bears there but did see our first bear on the way out of the river. It swam in front of us to the north bank (same side of the camp) about 4 miles above camp. We thought the girls would get a visit but they didn't see him. After Brooks, we boated to Idvain Creek and hiked up about a mile to the "meadow" where the creek flattened out. We caught grayling and rainbows on beaded nymphs and dries- graylings were about 15 inches and rainbows about 13 inches. No bears. 7 pm- headed to the Bay of Islands where we caught Northern Pike last week- found them again and landed 5-6. We worked some other banks and I hooked a 15 lb Lake Trout on a single-hook spinner... hook pulled out before we netted it. Would have liked to see that one- and Jim said he would have liked to eat it. It was a beatiful fish- never caught one. Back at 10 pm... very long day. Today we're putting rafters on Jim's cabin. Going well. Jim and family went to church and came back with Halibut. Jim also found out how to fish for Halibut off shore so we may go in the next couple of days.. yea! Pics later

How many years did they haul in hundreds of truck loads of fill to the Landing? 2-3? Where was the Corp? I guarantee you if I brought in dozens of loads of rock and started to "reclaim" land along my bank, the Corp would be at my door with a court order to cease and desist. The Corp fell down on the job. Sure HCW/City of Branson will take all the ground they can. I'd like to see the plans for those parking lots- I bet they will show that was the plan all along.

Well guys and gals... we're online at camp. It's slow but working. We're limited to bandwidth so not sure how much I can be on and not go over the 2 gigs per month limit but we'll see. Won't be uploading pics from here... have to wait till we go to the library or rob signal from Crystal Creek down the road (with permission of course). I have mixed feelings about being connected to the outside world like this though... hard to describe. Had the coolest day we've had yesterday. Didn't get out of the 40's. Tom Burckhardt, Chuck Puckett and Jim Turner came in yesterday. The plane Tom came in on was full of cannery workers arriving for the short 6-7 week season. Most were young college aged kids from Russia... interesting. The canneries ship in over 20,000 workers. Tom is working on our GPS mapping. He's works for Bass Pro in St Charles and teaches GPS classes there.

Whale milk??? You guys need to educate yourselves on our world using the internet and quit spending so much time on forums :) Well it's been an interesting time up here in Naknek... everything is behind schedule including the lake and river levels and the barges carrying everything into this part of the world. It all affects what you do and don't do. The river was 2 foot lower than normal when we arrived 10 days ago. It has risen about a foot. For Bill, it's about 4 feet down from last August. We have to watch for boulders even from camp to the ramp. We took the crew upstream and across the lake on Sunday in the big boat. Jim, James and I had to get out and walk the boat 200 yards because it was so low getting to the lake. The river runs about 4 miles from our place to the lake and it's low and full of boulders that will get you when you're not looking. But we made it thru - took an hour but we did- and across the lake to Brooks and Idavane and then the Bay of Islands. At Brooks, we walked the road to Brooks Lake, about 1.5 miles. We took the path to the famous falls- no bears. The people at the park, which doesn't officially open till June 1, said they've seen 3 bears in the area. We saw several piles of scat- fresh ones. It would have been nice to see one for the crew (my dad, uncle Jack and cousin Dan from TX and Dave Eckerle from KC) but this time of year they should be seen from a far- they are HUNGRY right now with no salmon to feed on. We took the path thru the woods to meet up with the road to Brooks Lake and kinda got lost. So here we are, footing thur pretty thick woods with fresh bear skat... it was an "adventure" as my uncle Jack put it, AFTER we found the road. Brooks Lake was beautiful. At Idavane, the lake was surprisingly low and the bay Jim usually parks in at the mouth of the creek was full of boulders. We casted spinners from the shore and James (Jim's son) caught a small rainbow and a dollie. On the shore we found Moose, bear and wolf tracks. I took pics of lamprey spawning in the creek (underwater). At the Bay of Islands, we casted spinners again from the boat and found a school of pike- all about 28-30 inches and great fighters. We caught 10- everyone caught at least one and lost several. We fried them up at camp and they tasted fine! Thanks for the tips. We've boated up to the upper boundary of the "river"-- the river is closed to fishing till June 8 but you can fish above a set of signs about a mile above our place. There's good current there- the river narrows and gets shallow. Lots of rainbows starting to feed on salmon smelt. Surprisingly, swimming minnows have done the best along with 1/8th oz white jigs. James landed a 7 lb rainbows and David landed a 9 lb- about 29 inches- a couple of evenings ago. We tired to fish till midnight on Tuesday just to say we did but it got alittle chilly and the fishing had slowed to nothing. It's getting dark about 12:45 am not. We're also starting to see some rainbows feeding in the river in front of our place. Hopefully it'll be HOT fishing by June 8th- can't wait. Our building has gone slowly... as I said everything is behind here. The barges that supply the area with everything for this community was late arriving. We were getting what we could each day from the lumberyard. We've gotten the floor and walls up on Jim's cabin... my will follow in the coming days. Weather has been great the last 5 days. Some wind but not much. No wind equals BUGS!!!!! Everyone else needed bug hats but they didn't like me as bad so I reframed from the net... so far. Temps in the high 50's to low 60's. Here's some pics- They are going to be in random order- sorry. I'm running out of time here at the library.

Hey guys... I thought I left it open for members to use but I guess it didn't take. I can open it back up and see if the spammers have forgotten about us... I was getting 10 sign ups per day and all spammers. I didn't want to overload Dan while I'm gone.

Got to camp Monday evening to find our dining hall had been broken in to this winter and items taken. Jim and Phyliss are still accessing the situation... it's set us back a day or 2 to say the least. The locals say natives from other regions go around in snow mobiles in the dead of winter and reek havoc on the remote lodges and cabins. Not much you can do about it either. Some leave the door open and a note that says, "clean up after you're done". We'll take more precaution next fall when we "lcok up" for the winter. Cleaned out the hall and cabins, made new lists of items to buy (replace what was taken), making plans for the buildings and other projects- we've been busy. Hard to go to bed at a decent hour cause it doesn't get dark will 12:30 am- 3:30 am your time. Haven't bought my fishing lisc yet- too much to do. The wind has been real bad till about 2 hours ago- gusting to 60 mph off the lake... it's manageable now. We're in Naknek for supplies- the library has interent. We've ordered wireless at the camp there's a tower 2 miles away and we're hoping it will reach. But there's not wireless boxes available- we're on a "list". My dad, uncle and a friend are coming in this evening. We're starting on building projects tomorrow. Had a moose roam thru camp last evening- a big bull moose. No bears in the area that we know of yet. There are beluga whales in the river feeding on smelt- down river about 5 miles. We may boat down to see them. That's about it for now- sorry, no picks. Oh yea- before you pack up the kids and head up for the cheap prices... our gas here is over $5, milk is $7.89 a gallon and pop is $2 a can. Double bacon cheese burger and fries- $17.50 at the local pub.

Gas is 2.79 up here. Lots of things are cheaper- go figure???

Yea- I'm surprised. By now I thought you guys would have posted your pics and fishing reports and all... I thought you were going to have a pretty good number attend. I was hoping to hear all about it before I left for King Salmon but I'll guess I'll have to wait I know Mr & Mrs Ducky were excited. I knew it was their anniversary but didn't know it was their first! No wonder they're still making goo-goo eyes at each other! John- did the water cooperate for you? We leave for KS this afternoon at 1 pm (4 pm your time). Weather has been summer-like for AK... sunny, light breeze and 65. We'll see what KS has to offer.

Day #2 Slept in till 5:30 am (8:30 at home). Headed to Seward, AK and took a 6 hour cruise out to see some animals. The drive over was beautiful and the cruise was too. Snow covered mountains everywhere. Short story - cause it's 2:22 at home and I'll feeling it! This is just a taste of the drive over. This is the dock at Seward and the boat we took out. Sea Otters Orca Whales- 3 pods of 2-4 in each pod. They were following the salmon in. Seals- sleeping by day and feeding at night. The name of this glacier slips my mind but it was a 1/2 mile across and 300 feet high at the water. We saw small pieces fall and it kept making pop sounds as loud as a canon. Very cool. Saw 3 Humpback Whales but this is the only one that would show his full tail. This is our crew. We saw eagles, black bears, doll sheep, wild goats, puffins and lots of other birds. Couldn't take enough pics of the islands and mountains but didn't do them justice. Shopping for a few last minute items in the am and heading to King Salmon at 1 pm- be there at 2 pm. Then off line for a while. Hope to be on again soon. Blessings!!

I agree on the 5/15 no gas thing... it's something people have to try to think they're doing something. As for our rates... our base rate is set pretty low. I feel we're doing alot of people a service keeping them as low as they are. I feel like we could raise our rate 50% in the 'season' and fill up just as fast cause again, they aren't building resorts on this lake anymore, they're tearing them down. But it's not my desire to do that. We make a very good living and so do the people who work for us. I'm not in this life to see how many toys I can accumulate, actually I like giving them away (where needed).

ok- showing my mental aging. AARP not AAA You know...

Being in the 'room' business, I understand why they do it. It's supply and demand- economics 101. At the end of the year, a motel has to make a profit to stay in business (simplified version). Because Joe on the corner is getting $29 per night in a slow time a year, most everyone else with the same amenities will get the same rate. But when everyone's full and there's big demand, motels 'make up' for the low rates and get higher rates, when they can get it. Hopefully the average rate meets their budget. We started at the very beginning to set our rates as low as our budget could stand with a flat, year-round rate. Why? Cause it's much simpler to remember one rate than a bunch of rates. That and we can get away with it. We offer amenities that no one on the strip can match so we have little competition. We can get $59 in the dead of winter when some motels get $19. Then we get $59 in the peak of season when a simple motel gets $79. But then we're not 'normal'. Don't even get me started on AAA (AARP) discounts. We've always tried to give young families a discount and NOT the retired folks. I always figured AAA(AARP) -aged people have had their chance to build a nest egg but younger people have not had the time and need alittle help, esp with kids. That's why we don't charge for kids under 18 (as "extra"). But I have to say, we got our AAA (AARP) cards not long ago- I told Marsha I'd never use them. The FIRST time she called and got a room in St Louis, she mentioned AAA (AARP) and got $40 knocked off the rate. It ticked me off they'd charge that much more for non AAA (AARP) members (younger people) but did I take the discount- you bet cha! yes this was edited...

Cooper Creek would be perfect I'd say. If you want to concentrate on just the trophy area, take out at Riverpointe Estates but it will cost you a couple of bucks.

TroutBeads.com have mottled up some of their eggs. Don't have to paint them with nail polish like we did last year. They really look great.

"Fished a tournament that year at red 11 on Grand. Water was 4-5 ft deep in there motel " That's why we didn't buy Red 11 back in 1979... we looked seriously at it but the mold and threat of flooding every 4-5 years made it an easy decision. Did catch a bunch of crappie off their dock while camping at the resort (they weren't open so I stayed in a popup in the parking lot).

I am new at this Alaska fishing but hopefully I'll learn a bunch this summer. I would say eggs, leeches and flesh for rainbows. Bright streamers in pink, purple and red for silvers. There's dozens of names of silver flies... but the brighter they are the better, esp in milky, glacier water. We use beads for rainbows. http://troutbeads.com is a great place to get them.

I'd say pray for clouds and rain. That's when the whites come up the best.

My wife's folks are from Greensburg/Mullinville, Ks. We were just out there a few weeks ago for her grandmother's funeral. I've spent alot of nights in the Best Western Motel hunting and visiting... it's one of the only buildings standing in the town.

I leave in 14 days... bought my Samsonite bags today and have my stuff laid out. Boxed them up twice already but changed plans... I'll learn. You know- this stuff should be plan on the COE site. If not, I need to put a FAQ page together on TR. This is one thing that needs to be put out there cause I have seen people swimming off the south side. I thought it was odd. Should be signs at least! What were the fines?

For those new guys and even the absent minded old ones (like me)- I have a new batch of OAF bumper stickers on order, free for the taking. Just PM your mailing address and I'll put one in the mail. Phil