ribtips

Great post. You might elaborate on how close to someone else is 'too close'. 30 yards? 50 yards? I know I've got my opinion... BTW, I'm pouting. We had three lake-front units booked for this week that I had to give up.

Tell me about it. We drove our boat to fish the upper lake 4 years ago from Rockaway. A massive storm (spun off of a hurricane on the gulf) blew in and we took refuge at the Fall Creek marina. We had to leave the boat overnight and pulled the boat out the next morning from that ramp. I probably burned up 20,000 miles worth of tread on my back tires getting that sucker out. At least now I know it wasn't because of my incompetence...

I never thought about using a Gulp Egg to float a 'crawler... good idea. Question... how good of an idea is it to use the other half of the worm? I loved using nightcrawlers and the Blow Bottle last summer, but dang, they sure didn't last long.

I had to cancel my lake-front reservations for this summer. Wedding arrangements for my son are a little higher than expected. Oh, well, that will just make next fall or summer all that much more fun to look forward to. Plus, I'm getting a really great daughter-in-law out of the deal, so it's all good.

Buster (or was it Phil?) gave me the basic rule of thumb - the channel is on the bluff side (where the bank is the steepest) and stay away from the docks when you're above Lilley's. Getting from one side to the other when the bluff switches sides is the tricky part. Oh, and watch out for Buster's Log. I knew it was there and still almost bounced my prop off of it. It's at a pretty good place to fish, but it's off of the channel, so it shouldn't be a problem. If you find a good spot to drop an anchor off of the channel, head to the shallow side nice and slow, watch your depth finder, and look out for logs. If you can pat your head and rub your belly at the same time, you should be in good shape...

The short answer is 'not really'. The long answer is that there are many variables, including how much water's running. If you value your prop and lower unit, when you're above Lilley's stay on the bluff side and take your time until you've learned the ropes. Hopefully, not the hard way. Let me put it this way - I know for a fact that it costs $75 to rebuild a stainless steel prop at B&B Prop Shop in Haltom City, TX.

Well, not 'on' the dock, but they've got a hole in the bank right outside the cleaning table window....

I'll bet that's one of those pigs that hangs out under the cleaning table. We peeked down there one day and drooled on them.

Good point... except if you're sitting shallow and casting deep, your line will be well below the boats if they stay on the channel. While I'm here, what's the general consensus for boats that drift by in front of you? Do you just take a few minutes off, or continue fishing while exchange dirty looks with the folks in the drifting boat and hoping you don't catch a big 'un that will wrap itself around their lines? Nobody owns the lake, so what's the smart and courteous thing to do?

I spent pretty much our whole trip this year sitting on Buster's log and casting into the channel on the bluff side, and judging from the crowd, it's not exactly a well-kept secret. Something that I learned from Buster was that (as was mentioned in a recent post) boat traffic stirs the fish up a bit and you'll get a flurry of bites right after a boat comes by. I say all that to say this - if you're on your way up or down lake and see boats sitting shallow and fishing deep, please help us out and pass by on the deep side. This is the exact opposite of what I previously concluded because I just assumed that it was bad form to cruise over the top of someone's line. This may be common knowledge for 85% of the readers of this board, but I just learned about it myself because I'm still pretty green on Upper Taneycomo. As green as I am though, I've got a nice batch of fresh Rainbows in my freezer. Thanks again to Buster. He da man. ...oh, and I just made my reservations for next July. Already stoked.

That point seemed to have been lost on a lot of folks last week. One other nice thing about anchoring shallow is that boats coming by seem to stir up the trout a bit. Call me nuts, but dead spells seem to coincide with no boat traffic. For sure, injected nighcrawlers was working like a charm, and as many times as I was pulling my line in with no worm on it, I started to think that they were hitting it on the way down to the bottom after the initial cast. When we ran out of 'crawlers, we starting putting on chartreuse Powerbait and Gulp eggs and still caught fish. We also got bites on 4-year-old rainbow (orange and red) Powerbait. On a lark, I bought some Powerbait artificial worms at the Pro Shop that, according to the package, were supposed to float. Well, they don't, so I'd advise not wasting your money. All in all, we had a great week up there. We brought home our possession limit and learned a lot. Buster's the best. Also thanks to Lilley's dock guy who helped me diagnose and fix some boat engine / fuel problems. Also thanks to the "Lilley's Landing Black Cat" for entertaining us with his trophy mouse catch while we were eating our dinner last Wednesday evening outside of unit #4. Who needs Animal Planet? Y'all have a really nice place, and we're going to make sure it's not four years before we get back up there. Oh... I should apologize to the guy who was sitting about 30 yards up-lake from me at Buster's log last Wednesday morning. I was having, to say the least, a challenging time casting last week, and my misguided attempt at a backhand cast put my 'crawler about two feet in front of his boat.

Dang, I like it up here... Buster took us up to his 'log' on Tuesday, and that's where we've been going in the early morning until too much water's running to hold anchor. Then we join the crowd and drift down to Lilley's. We've been catching 10-15 in three hours or so. We were intending to use air-injected crawlers, but ran out and used Gulp chartreuse and did pretty good. Gulp seems to work pretty good, but it doesn't stay on the hook as well as Powerbait. We were sitting there this morning and a guy drove up and anchored about 20 yards down-lake from us, so guess where our lines were ending up? He kept giving us dirty looks, but DUH! I mean, it's not like we were sitting on the only place to fish. Someone told us (was it Buster?) that one of the lakes above Table Rock is full, so they're running water early to bring it down.

This may violate the spirit of this thread, but one of the requirements of our trips up there (besides worshipping at Grizzly Tools) is a visit to Hemingway's at the Bass Pro Shop. Then we go ogle the boats we'll never buy.

Woo Hoo!! Three days to go. Spent all day today getting the boat ready to roll. She's ugly and pretty old, but she does the job. Please don't laugh at the hand-pumped hydraulic motor lift. You'll hurt her feelings. We're not totally unfamiliar with Lilley's... we've stopped there a time or two for a potty break, snacks, and microjigs. I took a little look around while we were there and pretty much decided that we were going there next. I really like the peace and quiet at Rockaway, but it's getting a little long in the tooth. Time for new and shiny. Any hints and pointers on putting a boat in up that far? We got stranded up that way 4 years ago when a rain band from the remnants of a hurricane blew through (it was at a resort above Lilliey's). We had to leave the boat there (Taneycomo fog) and come after it the next day on our way out of town. The ramp there was really steep and I had a hard time pulling the boat out.

My family and I will be arriving at Lilley's on the 27th (staying in #4) for the week, and I'll be looking forward to talking shop with you guys. We're new to Lilley's, but not to Taney, but we've spent all of our previous trips on the lower lake around Rockaway and have only ventured up to the upper lake a couple of times. I hired Buster Loving a few years back and realized that it was a lot more fun up there (and the accomodations a lot nicer). Man, my brain's already there....