Nick Williams

Depends on how much they're generating, I don't mind one unit as it definitely gives you some current. Much more than that however and you will struggle to wade and/or flyfish.

I was at Watts on Saturday morning. It was VERY foggy, kinda cool way to start out the day though. I got there early enough to get a stretch to myself though which was nice. I was dropping copper johns and pheasant tails. The copper John always seems to be the ticket for me. I used a indicator and a hopper, though a hopper never draws any strikes for me. The knots got me on Saturday. I was having a lot of trouble with line twist or something. It was horrible. This was my biggest fish of the day. I got tired of throwing nymphs so I tied on a wooly bugger and saw him tailing, he wasn't much of a fight though!

Your videos never disappoint Brian!

Yes T&M Gravel access is closed which is unfortunate. To me it always seemed to be one of the less visited access points, and it was "artificials" only. I usually go to Watts. It is easier to trek down lower or farther up if you want to get away from the crowds. The powersite, gravel parking lot, is a hot spot as well. Marval is nice as well, but on the weekends I think it fills up pretty fast.

That's genius. I've never heard of that before. I'm gonna go throw all my flies later and check that out. So how big of flies do you throw with that leader?

I feel like doubling it over twice would make a bulky butt section. Do you notice it being stiff or anything?

That's awesome.

I've never heard that about midges either. Are they really just black when the quality goes back up? I will have to try this. I did catch more trout on a green/olive zebra midge compared to the usual black last time I was there.

I Wow that is really simple. Do the twists stay just like that while fishing or does the twist in that cause the leader/fly to twist?

Is there such a thing as just a sinking tip that you can add to fly line? Or do you just recommend getting a full line with the sinking tip?

Is that a tip that you bought in addition to fly line, or is it just the front 15' of the fly line is sinking? I haven't ever used sinking tips or lines so I am curious. Yeah I try to always 'prime' my bigger subsurface flies, it didt

What were you throwing this fly with? Full sinking line? I tied one up, it is A LOT more buoyant than I expected. Or are you just fishing it near the surface?

I will definitely have to try that. Is there any reason you choose a Stimulator? Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a stonefly imitation? Do we have stoneflies here? I can definitely echo the part about the delicate presentation. When I was out yesterday I would cringe when the rig made the nice plop going in. How many nymphs do you run under it? And do you tie onto the bend of the dry or from the eye?

Went out for about 4 hours this morning. I was throwing the nymphs the whole time and this time kept the indicator on. I managed to round up a limit, but I still lost some fish. I definitely find nymphing in slower water VERY boring so I moved on to try to find some current and that is when I started picking up on them. A lot of my takes today were very sudden jerks under water, not subtle at all. And most of the time I could see deep enough to watch the trout so it was a learning experience!

Sometimes it's just the people on the river in the party crowd, whether they're horsing around or not, that I don't want to see. I felt scarred after seeing some of those people in their swim suits and "natural" element. BLAH! Makes me want to rinse my eyes with bleach!

Ah, ok. Makes sense. Ha glad its not just my phone!

I understand, so when anyone is watching their line, they just mend and react to what they see happening before them, correct? Yeah, the water coming out of Tenkiller is about 46 degrees right now, at least time I checked it was. It may be a little warmer in the last few of heat we've had. It is definitely cold enough for trout. The only problem is when Tenkiller gets down so low they don't let water out and the O2 levels drop. I guess you could call the river a successful fishery, at least for some people. It's also a hot spot for Striper too.

Yeah, most of the river is really wide and slow. The parts that I tried high sticking were at a few small riffles just south of watts. I've never thought about it as a leaf before though. That's kind of smart since there always seems to be something flowing down the river that I can compare my indicator too. So do you use the stimulator, and any fly you use, as an indicator just because you don't want to have an indicator? Or is it another reason? Meeting down there sometime would be cool, though i don't know for sure when I'll have another open Saturday that I can get away.

That first fish has some awesome coloration!! In regards to your phone, that sucks. They have waterproof pouches at wallieworld for like $4. Depending on your phone you may still be able to use while it's in the pouch, my iPhone works perfectly in it!

Brian, I can't get the video to play on my iPhone. This only ever happens with these videos, not your tying ones? Just wanted you to know! Guess I'll wait till I get home to watch it!

Haha I would have believed you ness, I had thought it was a brown when I brought it to hand, but I am not always right! Ok so how do I know, using an indicator or not, whether to make my mends upstream or down stream? I didn't notice a lot of times that my mends were dragging the indicator along, though I didn't see it when I was fishing indicator(less). I know that doesn't mean it wasn't doing it. At a couple spots the run I was fishing was short enough I could just high stick it somewhat so I could keep my fly line off the water. I didn't even think about sharpening my hooks. I've never done that, how does one go about it? I actually was checking my knots at one point and realized I didn't even have a barb or anything, it had broken off at the bend! I was fishing on the Lower Illinois by Gore, OK; it's the closest fishery for trout. Apparently they've started stocking browns, it was a nice surprise. I heard that all the stock for Oklahoma comes from MO. While I see that as implausible, do you guys know anything about that?

Did you stay south of Marval? How busy was it there? It was packed farther up the river though, lots of asians too. I didn't get to chase and Stripers, but I had the fly and rod ready! That's awesome though, those are the fish that we only get to see that keep us going back! What were you throwing?

Report: Went down to the closest river Saturday, probably spent about 6 or so hours on the river at least. I tried multiple nymph rigs, indicator and not indicator, and different nymphs. There was a ton of people on the river as well, so I got to just watch some people who were using an indicator as well. I found that I really didn't care for using the indicator, I thought that it ended causing more surface area for the water to drag down the river and it made me work more for the mending. So most of the time I went without one. The second thing I noticed, I enjoyed finding and fishing the runs more than the slack water. It was more of a challenge and a little less boring. I did watch one guy using an indicator, while I assumed he was nymphing I don't know for sure, but in the slack water he would lay the line out about 15-20ft from him and let it sit for a couple minutes. If nothing happened he would pick it back up and try another spot. He was catching trout doing this too! I couldn't figure out what the difference only that maybe he was using the right nymph? My last struggle for the day, I could not get ANY of the trout that I stuck with my nymphs to my hand. They ALL came off. I tried strip setting when my line would move and also lifting my rod, but still never seemed to have a solid hook set. What am I missing there? I ended up bringing to hand 0 trout on a nymph. However, I did catch a small brown on dry fly, so that helped make the day worth it!

So thinking about the whole nymph inch rig... A lot of the rigs I am hearing/reading about have like three or four different pieces. What knot are you guys using between each piece? I usually use a triple surgeons, I think, between my leader and tippet. Will that work for nymphing? I also read somewhere that some knots are less productive in power transfer and turning flies over? Is that true, and if so what knots should I be using? Thanks for all your help!

I think I'll be heading tomorrow morning as well, not sure where I'll post up though.