Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Haven't written a fishing report in almost a month. May be a record... not a good one I guess. But being gone plus not fishing since being back has made is hard to write one. Been real busy with home improvements this past week... but you really don't want to hear all that.

This was quite a July, wasn't it? Sure love this global cooling. Fish do too. Generation has been different almost everyday. We check the charts every afternoon to see what they will do the next day - alot of our guests come in and check. It's been pretty accurate. Most mornings it's off and running in the afternoon - up to 4 units. I've heard the same thing everyone has heard about Beaver being dropped resulting in more generation here but we haven't seen it yet.

Fly fishing below the dam has been fair to good- depends on the day and time of day. Still catching rainbows on dries - beetles and ants, some midges. With all the rain we're having, San Juan worms in brown and tan are working good in the swifter moving water and with the water running. Scuds in #18's and #20's in tan, olive and brown have been good but have to use 7x tippet to do any good, especially in sunny weather.

From a boat, they're using either micro jigs or small 1/125th oz jigs under a float when the water is off both above Fall Creek and below. No wind, the bite has been REAL slight, barely moving the float so you really have to pay attention. And again, 2 lb line a must. Change colors if you're not getting bit. Vince reported NOT catching fish on olive but changed to sculpin and did good. There's not much difference in those colors... but it made a difference yesterday. If they stop hitting one color, don't keep fishing it, change. Change depths too.

Below Fall Creek, Bill's been catching some REAL nice rainbows on night crawlers, water running or not. Also, I'd think you'd do well working 1/8th oz jigs along the bluff bank while the water is running. Water off, they've been catching rainbow on gulp power bait, anchoring on the shallow side and throwing to the middle from Short Creek up to Fall Creek. Anchor off the channel and you won't have boats running over you all day.

More later... when I get and to fish. And I will.

[Bman]

Thanks for the report. I plan to be down there this next week.

[Indiana Trout]

Question Phil, how long do you suppose it will take to draw Table Rock down after they get done with Beaver?

[Phil Lilley]

I have no idea. Couple of weeks? Depends on how fast they draw it.

I got out for the first time this evening for an hour. Started at Dry Wash above Fall Creek and drifted down past the flats working the middle to deep channel. Threw nothing but 3/32nd oz jigs straight - worked off the bottom. They wanted it jigged sharply, not slow. Caught 8 rainbows, mostly at or below the flat. Lots of suckers... not many trout that I could see. Missed more than I landed. My second trout was a very nice rainbow- 19 inches and fat. Started with a sculpin, then tried a white which they ran from, then a sculpin/peach. I wanted to see the jig- see the strike.

Great to get back on the water again. Took a while to get my touch back.

[ribtips]

Anchor off the channel and you won't have boats running over you all day.

More later... when I get and to fish. And I will.

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.