Ham

Thanks for te help. IF I was looking for myself, these things would all be posible. My Dad is the one looking for this white elephant and so far I think he's a blind man describing an elephants by grabbing the trunk. I'm not 75% sure he knows what he wants. I at least know that there are literally dozens of tapers which you then multiply by rod line weights and again by length. I am STRONGLY urging him to buy a rod like his friends and lets swith the tip guide out. That way he would at least know what he was getting. I am concerned that he would get a rod that would be too heavy in hand or too wimpy on the hookset if he branches out in the world o blanks tht are available. It's nice to go custom IF you know exactly what you want.

I did find out the that it was made in 1963 (maybe he told me he got it in 1964 not 1954?) form the Shakespeare site, but I'm still searching for line rating info.

My dad has a friend that swims a crappie jig with a Bass Pro White River Hobbs Creek 5 wt. My Dad would like a similar set up. It would be easy enough for me to go buy him one, but I screwed up and said wouldn't it be nice to have that blank wrapped as a jigpole rather than a flyrod. So now I'm searching for that blank. He would like to duplicate the weight (in ounces) and the taper. I might resort to buying the HC and stripping the guides off and replacing them with full guides. BUT are the blanks that the different White river rods are built on available?

You're killing me man.

I took a look at it yesterday. It hasn't been babied over the years so its looking a little rough. It is labeled a Wonderod #922 6'6" IF it was rated for a particular line that info is gone from the blank. I'll try to goggle it up, but does anyone have a source to help me determine the right line to try on the puppy. I have a 2 wt line, a 5 wt,6 wt,and 8 wt. I could just try the 5 wt and see how it goes. I love my Dad. He and I still get to fish together. He is in amazing health for his age and stays very active. He is always learning new areas to fish and is willing to fight a long learning curve fr a anew fish or new technique. He is NOT sentimental about equipment. He had the first Pfluger Supremes and the solid steel rods with dacron line. He doesn't ditch what works to buy the latest and greatest, but is happy to point oout that pretty average stuff is much better than the VERY best of his youth. I'll get a bigger charge out of fishing the Wonderod than e will from hearing me talk about it.

I "learned" to fly fish on my Dad's 1954 Shakesphere Wonder Rod. It is a white blank. It is old enough to not have a line rating. It is 6'6". I think it would do well with a 4 or 5 wt line. I loved it and wouldn't mind fishing it EXCEPT that I am afraid of breaking it. It's ok I have a 7'6" 3 weight for small water that is a SSSLLLOOOWWWWWW graphite.

A true beast by any measure.

Hey River Runner. Send that guide down to south Louisiana. If he pulled that crap down there, he'd be educated very quickly. I would imagine that a fist fight or worse would be included free of charge in his education. Everything you posted should be the common sense "rules" of a boat ramp. Maybe a quick, "Hey Buddy can we use the ramp now" said after 1-2 minutes of waiting and BEFORE you got angry would have done the trick. Easier for me to say that than to be there and do it I know. What guide service was this? A few calls to the guide service complaining about the operator of that boat/vehicle might make a difference. If the guide doesn't know basic boat ramp behavior, I doubt he'd be a good choice for on the water stuff either.

You too Buffalo Bob. Leave a fish or two for me would ya?

Fish. Fly fishing for panfish might be tough to do in the winter time though. for your fly rod fishing, silly trout seem to bite all year. Crappie can be caught all year long at least down here.

Why aren't the ramps on TR steeper? It is hard to launch a bigger boat on TR without getting your rear tires wet. I'm used to ramps that allow you to float the boat off without drowning your truck.

Man that's great! I hope you have the time to spend with the dog to get the full potential out of it. Labs can be so wonderful or just nervous energy chewing machines.

Bobber my man, you're killing me. If I live long enough, I'll know every decent smallie that lives in that river by name. For now, I have to read your trip reports and grit my teeth. For some reason, my life doesn't seem to be my own anymore. Come Hell or high water, I'll live in Arkansas within 5 years. I might be divorced, broke, and living on pork and beans, but'll have good fishing gear and more chances to use it. I'm 5 hours away and I have to work at the hospital this weekend so I'm O-U-T.

They are definitely predators. Their tiny size is the only thing that keeps us from catching them all the time.

Why so many all at once? I like Tiemco, Gamakatsu, and the better Mustads. I buy as I need for a new fly pattern, but I'm not much of a tyer.

Hey That's great. Awful shallow for the weather we've had lately, but they are where they are.

Dear Santa: I want a three day work week, a house in the Ozarks, my fishing buddies to live less than 2 hours away, and to catch a Giant Honkin Brown trout in 2007. Enforcement of existing immigration laws would be nice if you can't get me the other stuff. Thanks your pal, Ham

We all get them at home and work. I hope nobody is getting unhappy with the site over spam that slips by the filters.

Different folks like different styles of indicators. Indicators aren't all that expensive. Buy several styles and fish them for yourself BEFORE you rule out any design. "Bigger" and "faster" water will require more lead to keep the fly(s) down so you'll need more of an indicator to keep the flies from hanging up. You'll have fun learnig to balance those two things. I've used the putty floatant, the sticky back foam, and the styrofoam and toothpick. I've caught fish on all three and have found disadvantages with all three. I'll probably continue to try all three and may add another design or two to the vest. Make repeated drifts through an area. If you never hit bottom, you need more lead. If you are hung up constantly, you need less lead or less line beneath the float. If the float sinks every cast you need more float. Watch the way the indicator moves normally. Lift on anything abnormal.

I wouldn't worry about getting a Tetanus shot anymore often than every 5 years, but I remember hearing about a study where they found it very rare that anyone got tetanus after having been immunized at any point in their life. I need to google that. The crappie from deep water thing is interesting. They can get back down when yanked from 25 foor down or so, but deeper than that and they are going to have issues. In Texas, they waive the 10 inch minimum on Lake Fork, Lake of the Pines, Toledo Bend and maybe Sam Rayburn. You MUST keep the first 25 crappie you catch. No C & R fishing. I have put some smaller crappie in the livewell and they have recovered over the course of the day. If you put them back and they don't get back down pretty quickly, the gulls, loons, peilcans, or cormorants will eat them. I'm sure you could "fizz" the crappie, but oddly enough I've never seen an article that stresses catch and release for crappie.

You're not the first person to think that those fish might be Brown Trout. A lady I work with thought she was catching a lot of Brown Trout on the Spring river. They weren't Brown trout though. I actually like the chuhbs and odd ball fish of the world. By the way, what kinda of fish is that in the water just under your thumb in the photo ?

My bad, I didn't mean to be obtuse. Our friend,Cajunangler, has abused me with a spinnerbait multiple times. I more than returned the favor this past April at Lake Ouachita. It was brutal. I ended up giving him my rod and "the bait" and the front of the boat ; unfortunately he still couldn't buy a spinnerbait fish. JTM is a seine when he has spinnerbait fish and the front of the boat. It's horrible.

Actually Phil, Capitalist. Not that I like it anymore than you do, but at some point we might have to pay per view any NFL game. That'll really motivate me to spend more time outdoors and less time in front of the TV.

I've been on both ends of the boat when it wasn't good to be the guy behind the first spinnerbait the fish saw. I didn't enjoy either experience, but it was easier to deal with the guilt of catching all the fish than it was to deal with the frustratuion of watching all the fish get caught. Good report. Thanks.

I'll be computer free for a few days and wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Take a little time to Thank God for your many blessings. Enjoy your families, food, and football too.