Fishing's Good

[Phil Lilley]

The storm we thought we were going to get, we didn't. Just a 10 minute downpour with little wind. Some areas got more action than we did.

The lake looked very inviting after the rain. Fog lifting over the water and no wind. They're still running less than one unit and the water here is barely running, moving. Perfect for any fishing but I like to jig fish.

My parents live down the street from the resort and they're taking care of mom's mom, my grandmother. Dad's heading back from Dallas this evening and mom needs help getting Grandma to bed so I had to stick close to the house. I dropped the trolling motor down and headed across the lake with the grand dog, Darby, choc lab.

Had a sculpin 1/8th oz jig tied on and started with that.

After a couple of rainbows, I hooked something I knew wasn't a rainbow. May be a brown... it was staying down. But it wasn't. A smallie! What a treat.

I didn't get very far and hung another heavy fish. I got a glance - it was a brown. Man this fish pulled! Great fight but I won.

Darby goes absolutely nuts when I hook a fish. She ate a rainbow in the bottom of my boat last summer as a pup and that taste drives her crazy when she sees a fish now. It's almost too much to manage, that's why she doesn't go fishing with me very often. I put both fish in the livewell for pics. Took them over to the dock and Jimmy took them, then we released the fish. The two young boys couldn't understand why I released the fish... said pretty fish taste better. Never heard that one before.

Went back out and ended up catching alot of rainbows, another smallie and this nice rainbow right out in front of the Cooper Creek Public Dock (behind fish). Bill (Babler) said they were eating that jig all the way down past Monkey Island and he was right. Just get it to the bottom and jig it up and down. Can vertical jig if you want to.

[Gatorjet]

Great fish Phil.

Wow, I might not even have to fire the Gator up week after next. Nick & Mandy were already planning to come to, and after seeing my pics from last week he is PUMPED!!!

[Phil Lilley]

I hardly ever fish down here ... but I think I'll start fishing it more. Chance to catch something besides a trout is a plus. As I drifted down past Cooper, I was thinking about Scott's big brown he caught on power bait. I thought, "a big brown would much rather eat a small jig than a piece of dough, right?"

Never know.

Babler cleaned some nice rainbows caught close to Monkey Island today. Caught them on sculpin jigs. He said they were spitting up big scuds. When cleaning one, he found a sculpin in a stomach. So now we have a good number of scuds in places other than close to the dam and rainbows eating sculpins. Things are looking up!!

Food for thought.

[troutfiend1985]

Coming down in a couple of weeks. Finals will be over on the 13th, and man these pictures make it hard to study. Lilley, you have one of the best offices in the world man, and I am jealous.