budman

I laugh a TV commercials that show someone fishing with their rod being held the same way. You would think as much a these companies spend to make their commercials that they would hire someone to advise them. They could even ask any run of the mill fisherman and get good enough advice to make them look like they know what they are doing. Even saw one a few years back the show and grandfather, father and son fishing in a creek with a flyrod where the fly rod was held the same way, reel up.

Daffron Outdoors, did you ever take your Christmas Float? Report or Pictures.

I think the regulation is no outboard motor above Erbie and only a 10 HP or less from there down to the White. A couple years ago we floated the lower section in our kayaks and about 1/2 mile upstream from the White we had two bass boats with 250 HP Mercs come by use at full speed. Glad we were close to the right bank fishing the edge and weren't affected by their wake. We hoped the didn't know about the shallow rocks another mile upstream.

thanks Phil, I will watch for them and order some.

Nice report and it look like a fun trip and some nice fish. Great looking food, that always makes for a great trip. I looks on Lilley's site and only saw marabou jigs, no football headed ones. What are they call and what colors did you guys like? Where did you guys stay and what part of the river?

Thanks, I found and read the report. Sounds like and good time and good food.

Didn't see any report on how the fishing went, what worked and where you caught fish. I am going be on The White Jan. 29-Feb 1. We are staying in a house between White Hole and Stetson's. We plan on renting boats from White Hole. Can you give me any suggestion on what jigs or lures worked best for Jigfest. I guess it depends on the flow and releases to where we can fish. We have fished the White in the past but mostly down stream. Last year we boated out of Cotter and have wade fishing around Wild Cat and in the Rim Shoals area. I know we need to fish deep but any more advice will be welcomed.

Made a Guinness Stew out of some venison roast. Should have taken a picture before the group started eating because is all gone. I cut the roast up in one inch cubes and seasoned and floured them and browned them in a large pan. I added one chopped onion, 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms, chopped celery, 3 bay leaves, a couple sprigs of rosemary, couple table spoons of tomato paste, a table spoon of brown sugar, table spoon of worcestershire sauce, 32 ounces of beef stock and 12 ounces of Guinness Extra Stout and cooked until the meat was tinder. Then I added chunks of potatoes, carrots, green beans and coarse chopped cabbage and cooked until the potatoes are done. I was great. I will try to add a picture next time

Al is the expert and has given me advice on river levels a few times and never been wrong. You might consider taking out at Dillard's Ferry, 1.5 miles upstream from Buffalo Point. The take out is much easier because you can drive down to the river there and at Buffalo Point there is no road to the river and you have to drag all you stuff up a hill of loose gravel. Enjoy your trip and give us a report when you are back.

We had a fun float on the river last week. We started at Greer on Monday about noon and got off the river on Thursday about 1 pm at the 142 Access. The water was a little low and we had to get off the kayaks and pull through several on the shoals. Started off with a #6 beadheaded Olive Bugger on the fly rod, and with a small white rooster tail on one spinning rod and the other with a Rebel Craw. The other three guys all tried something different and we wanted to see what would work best. I caught trout on all three rods with none really working better than the other. Everyone caught a few nice rainbows within the first mile of the float. We stopped on the right side of the big island around Graveyard Hollow where the river has a big S turn and a nice deep hole. We caught several trout each out of this area, some in the 14-15 range. One of the guys was using a hopper with a midge dropper. He caught two minnows on the midge that were about 2.5-3 inches long. That was a new one for us. Another first was catching a line, which I thought was a fish because it pulled back at first. When I got my lure up I notice it was another fishing line so I started pulling it in to get it out of the water. As I was pulling it in it started pulling back. Once I got it in it had a 12 rainbow on the other end. It was hooked on a white rage swim bait that was about half rotted. When I unhooked it it swam off like nothing was wrong. We kept fishing and started to look for a nice gravel bar to camp, the fish kept biting but we couldn't find a nice gravel bar big enough for four tents that wasn't on a flat island or over grown with lots of grass and weeds. We stopped at Turner Mill South and thought about camping there but didn't like the idea of having people drive into our camp in the middle of the night. We knew of a nice place down stream across from Stinking Pond. It was a great spot and there was plenty of wood for a fire. We cooked some really nice ribeyes and potatoes. We always have steaks the first night out so we don't have to try and keep the cold too long. Breakfast is Burritos made from Mountain House Breakfast skillet, Cheese, and extra bacon. Coffee is Folgers Singles, two in a cup makes a good cup of coffee. I think everyone caught a rainbow right in front of camp before we started our day of floating. A couple of the guys switched to a ned rig or craw on their spinning rods. Well the ned rig was the ticket so we all switched to one and caught several nice rainbow each. I had never caught a trout on a ned rig before but will try it on all the place I fish for trout. Lunch was Jalapeno cheese summer sausage and cheese on crackers and a cold beer. Spent the second night just up stream from Greenbriar Float camp. It was a little smaller place but worked. I rained a little that night, about 3 am but not enough to make us worry about the river coming up any or making it off color for the next day. Breakfast was the same except had extra sausage patties instead of bacon. We use that precooked bacon and sausage patties so all we have to do is warm it up a little. Right after our launch the next morning two eagles landed in a large tree that was over hanging the river. It must have been a regular spot for them because they never looked at us coming toward them, they were watching the river. I was long until one just dropped out of the tree and headed for the water. After splash down it made it's way to the shore with a nice trout and flew off. They other one was waiting for it's turn and never moved as we floated right below it. The fishing changed and we started catching some small mouth and goggle eye. We all made it safely over the big drop down stream from Boze Mill. We floated under the Hwy 160 bridge at Riverton and headed into new territory for us. The small mouth were biting and I caught a nice 17 incher, my largest fish on the trip. We found a really nice large gravel bar maybe a couple miles downstream from Riverton but since it was only 3:30 we thought we should keep going so we wouldn't have a long float on Thursday. Well that was a mistake because we had to float about three more hours before we found a place for the night. It was actually the only place on the river were I found cell service. Everyone used my phone to call our wives and let them know we were still alive. We had told them there would be no service but two of the guys wives didn't believe them. One of them had called two other wives to ask if they had heard from us and they told them no and we won't until they get off the river on Thursday afternoon. Our camp spot for the night was tree covered and kept the heavy dew off our tents and they were dry the next morning so we didn't have to put them away wet. We got to the Hwy 142 Access about 1 and our truck was there and we loaded up and changed clothes for the drive home. On our float we saw about 20 otters, one group of six that seemed as interested in us as we were of them. Another group of three left the bank and swam towards us and right under our kayaks. We must have seen about as many eagles, most were mature with white heads and tails, lots of deer with several feeding on the grass growing on the river bottom. Some would have their whole heads under water for maybe 10 seconds or so. Also saw two dead ones in the river, one 8 point buck and a doe. Only saw four pigs this year and one flock of about 15 turkeys. The weather couldn't have been nicer. It would have been a perfect trip but two of us turned over and lost a rod and I lost a cot. Glad I also carry a nice sleeping pad or the rocks would not have been a nice to sleep on. One guy just wasn't paying attention, fishing too much and wasn't prepared to have to make a hard turn around a strainer. It took us about 20 minutes to get it out from under a tree. I turned over because I wouldn't take my own advice. Just down stream from Riverton I noticed a spot with a couple downed trees on one side and very shallow water on the other. I told Jon I think we better stop and drag our kayaks through this spot. Well I didn't take my own advice and just went for it. Shouldn't have done it. There was a limb just under the water where I was having to make a tight turn between a couple trees. I hit it and rolled over. Glad I always wear a good life jacket, because I couldn't touch the bottom and was grabbing for rods and other stuff. So next time I will listen to my better judgement instead of just going for it. If it wasn't about 5 hours to get here we would float it more.

I hope the fishing improves by the end of the month. We are going to float from Greer to Hwy 142 Sept. 25-28. Driving from Tulsa so we won't get on the river until 11 or 12, so Monday will be a short day and then camp somewhere on the river. Tuesday and Wednesday will be longer days and we plan on camping a couple mile down river from Hwy 160 bridge. Then float the rest on Thursday and load up and drive home. With the river being down we should be able to find better gravel bars to camp on. I know the water is down some but I floated the lower Buffalo Aug. 14-16 and had to get out and drag our kayaks through the shallows. Now the water is lower and I think it would be tougher. Fishing couldn't be any worse because the Buffalo was low, clear and slow and the fish were spooky and picky.

I have floated the Lower Illinois several times in my kayak from the dam area to Gore Landing to trout fish. Several times as we got closer to Gore Landing we would have nice size Stripers come up to a trout we would have on a line. I would like to target some Stripers with my fly rod. Has anyone every done this and willing to give me some ideas. I'm sure the closer one gets to the channel the better chances you have, throw some bigger streamers and at least and 8 weight rod. What time of year and what time of day is best and any part of the river better than others.

Anyone fished Crooked Creek between Pyatt to Snow or Snow to George's Creek. I will be camping at Tyler Bend on the Buffalo and floating a couple days. Haven't been on Crooked Creek in about 5 years. How is the floating, fishing and water conditions. Will be in a kayak and will have both a spinning rod and a flyrod.

I got my flies today. They all look great and I can't wait until I get to try them out. Mic, thanks for putting this together and doing all the work to sort and send them out to all of us. It will be until the first of April before I get to try them. Got to catch up on some work and them I will be in Colorado skiing for a couple weeks. I will give a report after trying the out.

I once found a 16 foot john boat with trolling motor, a man's wallet, cell phone, and other items on the seat along with a bow fishing rig. It was about 100 yards into the woods on Oologah Lake in NE Oklahoma. I was deer hunting and noticed it just after daylight. When I saw all the stuff left in it I was concerned that maybe someone had maybe fallen out of it and drowned. I went to the local police department and told them what I had found and ask them if they had had any missing person's report for the guy. Instead on taking the ID I found and checking it the officer ask for my ID, witch I gave him but thought it strange. He then told the women working the desk to run my ID for warrants. Had to hold my tongue. While they were doing the warrant check on me I call the local game warden and he ask where I was at and when I told him what the local cop was doing his reply to me was yeah that is officer so an so and he is a really big A-hole. I got my ID back and walk out without giving them the ID I found in the woods, all the while they were trying to get me the give it to them while I was walking out of the building. The game warden met me outside and I gave him the ID and location of the boat. The next weekend I was sitting in the woods again and just after daylight I noticed and couple guys walking through the woods, and they were not wearing any hunter orange even though it was black powder season and they should have. I noticed one was a game warden and I figured they were looking for the boat. They were and the other guy was the owner. He said he had been bow fishing in he spring and the trolling motor quit and he was blown to a tree line and had to wade out in waist to chest deep water. He thought he could go back and find it the next day. He couldn't and assumed it sank or blew away. Glad I could help the guy out but hope I don't ever have to interact with the Nowata police department again. Also floated past and young couple having sex on the river bank, about 100 yard down stream from the Tyler Bend put in. They weren't trying to hide and they stopped just long enough to look over and smile as five of us floated by.