Lilley's Fishing Report Feb.24Th - 27Th.

[Sac River Jim]

First of all I'd like to thank Phil, his family and his staff I was very impressed with everyone and everything. Phil was gracious enough to allow me to bring my mother and sister under the fishing buddy plan and set us up with accommadations to suite our needs. i feel he went out of his way to ensure that we had everything we needed from a larger cabin to even providing my sister with a phone line so she could hook up her fax machine for her family business. Our two bedroom cabin was immaculate and very comfortable for the three of us. The staff was kind, courteous and treated us like they had known us for a long time. I just could not have expected anything nicer than the the stay we had there.

Several years ago I managed a dock on a resort just up the lake from Lilley's and I noticed alot of little things that sets Lilley's resort apart from some others I have stayed at over the years. The dock itself was very clean and organized and his fleet of boats were impressive. I rented a G3 bass boat w/a 90 yamaha on it for 2 days and made 4 trips down past the landing and 2 trips up to Fall Creek and only used 4.5gal of fuel. when I turned the boat in I was pleased and surprised I didnt even come close to spending 20 dollars on fuel. The dock is set up very nicely for dock fishing and the fishing was excellent off it the whole time I was there. theres two benches on each end of the dock and he has very nice wood patio chairs set up between the stalls and all had pvc rod holders on them and even the extra little detail of cutting a slot for the neck of spinning reel to slide down in to secure it better. Alot of time when you walk on a fishing dock you will see power eggs smashed all over the deck and mono and cans and bottles all over the place but the deck on the dock was clean and very safe. The fishing cleaning stations had paper towel dispensers plastics bags and squeezies and the indoor station even had an underwater camera set up to watch those big browns just lurking underneathe you feet. The attention to detail and the little extra things is what impressed me the most and is a credit to how well the resort is managed.

I did alot of fishing on Tues. and Wed. I intended to try to get on the crappie down at the landing but the wind was blowing pretty hard straight out of the north so not only did it make it hard to hold the boat but the cold wind was pretty hard on this old mans bones too!!!! I did manage to catch a couple crappie in the 9in, class but I didn't really fish very hard for them. However I got on the trout really good both days using a drift rig and chart over pink power eggs on the dock and a jig under a strike indicator up towards and into the trophy area just above the narrows. Phil found some time on Wed. afternoon and took me up above the narrows and took me to school on jig fishing. I would adjust the depth of my stike indicator so the jig would drift just a few inches above the bottom. when the wind was creating a little chop on the surface I just let the jig float down but when we would be out of the wind I would twitch my rod tip just enough to cause a very slight ripple coming from the bobber. a brown 1/100th jig with an orange head worked best for me but I noticed Phil catching fish on white too. Most the trout we caught were of the 12 to 14 or 15in range but I was very impressed with their colors. It doesnt take a hatchery trout long feeding on scuds to develope brilliant coloring. Overal including the night fishing I did jerking a rainbow rapala stck bait off the end of the dock I caught well over 75 trout from early Tuesday morning to 8:00am Thursday morning. there were times on the dock I wud catch several fish in a row with most being 10'' to 12''. Alot did depend on how much current they were generating from the dam. When the water was rolling just enough for your drift rig to bounce and roll just off the bottom the fishing was best.

Again I;d like to thank Phil and the staff at Lilley's Landing for showing us such a great time,

[Sac River Jim]

[WoundedOne]

Jim is was nice meeting and fishing with you. Would love to fish with some other time

[Sac River Jim]

we'll get together i'm sure we are practically neighbors and i'll let you know when the whites walleye and crappies start up son's creek up on stockton. maybe we can try to get on em a couple times this spring.