Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Generation is here to stay... for awhile... may be for a long while. August isn't even here yet and it's normally the hottest month of the year. Triple digits triggers hydro-power and we see the proof everyday. The only question is when and how much. Saying that, it's going to be hard reporting to you when they will run water this next week. It could come on as early as 7-8 am and as late as 10-noon. But if it stays in the 90's, it will come on and build to fairly high level into the evening, going off as late as 11 pm, dropping out as late as 1 am.

Night fishing- you'll have to deal with elevated water levels and lots of fog. Not impossible but count on fishing most of the night for the best fishing.

When drifting, please don't do like this guy. He's in a "Crawdad", a small 2 person boat. He tried to anchor his boat sideways in the current just below the dam. the only thing that saved his life is that he was in the slower water close to the first island- kinda in its eddie. He finally stopped in the eddie closer to the island- after I told him not to anchor like that- it would swamp his boat. He was having a hard time hearing me but I'm confident I got my point across... he just didn't take hede. I thought as I took the pic... I hope this isn't the last picture of him.

I did get out today. I took Rene Njamnshi from Camaroon, Africa. He is studying in this country with the help of a ministry my folks are involved in, Torchbearers. It was his first time fishing in a lake like this, I think first time fishing with a rod and reel. They use nets, hand lines and trot lines in his country. We drifted scuds mainly- orange, tan and gray. They liked the gray with a blue uv tint the best. We caught 8-9 rainbows- best as long as the flies were on the bottom.

Cooper Creek is still the best area to catch fish. Some of the guides have been using a beaded egg fly under an indicator 5-6 feet deep- but using this up to Fall Creek and even up to Lookout and catching fish. Peach best color. Babler is still doing well on either tan or sculpin micro jigs under an indicator above Fall Creek early in the am.

Fishing has picked up this week from previous weeks. May be it's because MDC has stocked from Cooper down a few times midweek. Alot of the rainbows stocked were pretty good size. They're hitting a variety of spinners and spoons as well as power eggs- contrasting colors- one white and one pink or yellow or orange- orange being the best color.