Ham

Lol, it wil provide some extra flash and a little vibration. I do not expect the same level of quality in a 40 cent jighead vs the $3.00 jighead. I actually wish that the good folks at Blakemore would let me design a crappie series for them that had more appropriate hook sizes through out the weight ranges 1/32 oz, 1/16 oz, 1/8 oz, and 1/4 oz. I'm still waiting on that phone call though.

I know all that water is shallow and in the ponds usually has some visibility. Are these surface flys or are you at least getting a visual strike?

You are the Man!

I'm thinking about using them on the original Road Runner head. No barb.

TFR, you don't have to tell me twice. I ordered some from TW at 20% off. I haven't gotten to use them yet.

I've got some LFT stuff, but Zi have become really fond of the Gene Larew Baby Shads. I start with those.

"the slower the fall the better for crappie" A lot of times yeah. There are practical issues like how deep are you fishing, how much wind are you fighting, and can you throw it far enough to be effective. I have lighter jig heads than 1/32 oz , but I rarely use them. I've used super light jig heads on a dropper from a heavier head, but that leads to a lot more hang ups in cover and almost no feel on the light jig. No way am I going Swing Impact for crappie. Even I have to draw the line somewhere and I am too cheap for that.

Thanks John! I dearly love swinging a 1/32 oz crappie down past stuff and getting that big ole THUMP. Tell you what though, sling that 1/32 oz jig for a while and suddenly that 1/8 oz Ned feels like a cinder block. I caught all three species of bass. Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, Green Sunfish, and Black crappie.

I had some stuff planned that was going to keep me off the water, but that fell thru. I had not planned to fish at all. I helped the wife around the house for a while, but the BassCat was calling my name. I finally got to the water around noon. What beautiful weather for this time of year. It was sunny with light and variable winds. It was still in the 40's when I launched, but just fantastic. Made me wish I had been there at daylight. Water was pretty clear. Water temp was 56 degrees when I launched and the water got up over 57 before the day was done. The fish made me wish I had gotten there at daylight as well. I caught em as soon as I got there and pretty consistently until I quit at 5:00. I caught a fish on my next to last cast. I wanted to catch some crappie, and I did. I would have caught more except my lack of fully funtional electronics. I'll spare you the details, but I'm stuck with what I have for the foreseeable future. Just know, that I am seriously jealous of all the people with good depthfinders/ GPS units. The smallies also got in the way. A bunch. BSL is just flat loaded with smallies right now. I have a hard time leaving them alone when I know I can ease over there a little ways and catch them basically at will in 15-30 foot of water. I got enough crappie for a meal. I wanted to catch a few more and ran to a few spots trying to do that, but I really only found them in one location. I did however find smallies every where I went.

I'm not usually thinking "selfie" when these things happen. I've been on one side or the other of this deal about 7 times now and NO photos were taken on any of the events.

I'm a BIG beliver in the "popping" it out with string. Obviously, you have to use some common sense on when it is a doable deal AND it is a lot harder when you are by yourself. I would likely have tried the string trick on that one. I had one buried almost that bad at the base of my left thumb on a float trip. I lost a little time, but you have to paddle out. And if I have to paddle, I might as well fish on my way down the river.

Man, I love bobber fishing! I really enjoy watching the indicator bouncing along anticipating it going under. Love it!

I'll throw a hopper pattern any time the wind blows and especially if a trout strikes my indicator. If I get three takes on the indicator, I will time on a Hopper of some sort every time.

Holy Crap that looked bad gruber. Makes me want to throw a barbless Ned the rest of my life.

Les loves to watch you dance Cody.

They just don't make flip flops as well as they used to.

Looks like you returned the favor and took him for a ride.

Water conditions were honestly pretty awful. Being local, I would not have fished those conditions IF I was fishing solo. Given that everyone made an effort to get here, we put our heads down and made it happen. We all caught fish. Nice fish. Pretty fish. Some big fish. but about 1/3 as many as we should have had we had good water. I've gotten quite spoiled by the shear numbers that the White produces. I guess I needed to reset my expectations. But the real point of these get togethers is to meet some of our OA brothers and share their company. It is my pleasure to spend time with this outstanding group of gentlemen. Crappy water conditions did not impair that at all. I really enjoy these get togethers. It really is one of the best events in my year. It was nice to (finally) get to meet Bill Babbler. I'm glad N9BOW got to make the trip down. I'm looking forward to seeing his place on the lower river come together. I hope I get a chance to learn some fly fishing from SIO3 in the not to distant future. This was my first time to get to fish with Quillback. He did great, but he's always done well on these trips. Phil Lilly made the trip down as well. He was as quiet as ever, but as generous as ever also. I got to spend more time with LRF, Griz, and Terrierman. I think I would get in real trouble if I lived closer to any of them. I'm sure I would love every minute of it though. Simply outstanding men. I'll never tire of their company. Richard Cross was nice enough to send down a bunch of his new HD Zig Jigs and some Zig Jig hats. I tried to get everyone there some jigs and I hat. If I screwed up and missed someone please PM me and I will make it right. Thanks Richard! Thank You to Phil Lilly! I know that maintaining the forum takes a lot of effort. It's very unlikely that I would have met any of these great people if OA wasn't in existence. Ham

I'm just gonna look for all the trucks.

That's great news Les. The smaples and swag Richard promised have arrived. I have goodies to share.

I've had fish struggle that were released immediately when caught from > 35 foot. Maybe I brought them up too quickly. I think I could drag a jig out to 60 foot if I can drag it in 30 foot of water. I just choose not to do so. Others are free to do as they please. I'm sure there are large numbers of fish DEEP. They are safe from me.

Very nice looking flys. I've never really used a fly with that much Red in it, but seem to suspect that they will be effective. Another way to view the fly swap would be to look at it as a way to share your flys with others who would value them and maybe even fish with them after you've passed away or add them to a display collection. You could always donate the flys you receive for various charitable projects.

I see the makings of a good roof vent pattern.

Ask at the hotel if there is a flyshop in town. Get there if possible and at least talk fishing. Its tough to be that close and not have enough daylight hours to justify the effort of bringing gear and buying the fishing license. It would be killing me.

I choose to NOT fish >35 foot down. Too tough on the fish. I've caught fish with the boat sitting in >100 foot of water, but I was fishing for schoolers on top. I catch more fish > 20 foot deep than I would have ever dreamed possible before I moved up 8 years ago.