Nick Williams

Yeah, I am. But that idea sounds excellent. I am learning a lot from everyone, but it still can only go so far until I can see it on the water! Guess I'll have make a trip to the closest river tomorrow!

Guns or not, society will always be a mess. It was before there were guns, and will be till any foreseeable future. Removing guns won't change the human race.

From personal, and recent, experience, he is correct. Take his advise for real.

I'm curious for all of you that are chasin Stripers, are you guys taking spinning tackle out or a fly rod?

Sounds just about perfect!

Thanks for all the advice guys! Now if I could just get to the river on a consistent basis.....

Hesitate before you set the hook. My biggest problem when fishing hollow bodies is that I'll get so excited when a fish slams it that I will rip it right out of their mouth. When I can give a second to let them actually grab the frog I will usually hook up. Of course, I haven't ever used any frogs except the hollow bodies, so I can't give much advice there. The hollow bodies are insanely weedless. Vary your retrieve and make some pauses on the thick parts of weeds. Have some fun though, I am jealous.

Ah, I even had some of my own personal foam froggish flies similar to that and didn't even give them a try!

Yeah, I will. Do river largemouth grow physically different than other largemouth? Usually, of course there's never a huge amount of smallmouth where I fish, I have no problem telling its a largemouth, I don't ever have to check the tooth patch or jaw line.

Yeah, that's what it looks like, but it seemed to be quite a bit smaller mouth than I would have expected.

Yeah, that is definitely what I'm talking about. I've never considered not using an indicator. That is one of the parts I always have trouble with though, it either comes off or I feel like it is too big/bulky to feel anything and that it is changing the way my line drifts in the current.

Hey I'm tryin to expand my understanding of techniques and I'm wanting to see how everyone, if you do, fishes with nymphs, i.e., favorite nymphs, favorite rig to use, ect. Any advice is awesome as well!

What were you throwing?

Hahahahahaha agreed.

Well it wasn't that I didn't believe you guys as to the fact that it was a party river, I just didn't realize how intense it really is. I mean it really is hard to even grasp till you see it in person. Another side of the coin was that we got my dad a kayak for fathers day so he wanted to try it out as well.

Floated, and fished when I could, the Elk this weekend. Started on Friday night late with my fly rod throwing my own version of a crawdad. Started just before midnight and probably was out till about 2:30am. This was a couple firsts for me as well; first smallmouth on the fly rod and also first time fly fishing at night. Someone help me identify this next bass, I thought it was a smallie at first, but..... Then the lateral stripe in this picture was very clear. Spotted bass? Baby smallmouth? They were all over if you paid attention. I was trying to see what the forage was. There also quite a few baby flathead cats as well but I didn't get a picture of one. Huge scar on this smallie, it was on both sides too. Another picture. Early the next day we got up to float. I didn't use my fly rod because I didn't want to have to mess with it on the river so just an ultralight. Rock Bass? Another. Used a soft plastic Yum craw Same fish, red eye! It was pretty good fishing till we hit the party train...

So, I went ahead an floated the Elk River just to see how it would be. We did an 8m float with Eagles Nest outfitter. The first 4 miles weren't bad all. The river was nice and the other people floating were just families in canoes. However when we got to about halfway the party started, I definitely didn't realize how bad it would be. It was absolutely ridiculous. Definitely WILL NOT float the Elk on Saturday during the summer again, not will I ever take the youth group on a weekend. So, my next question. Does the Elk clear up quite a bit during the week? And not just the floaters but the beach/gravel bar dwellers as well? Or is this just a party scene no matter what?

Where were you wading at?

Just go to a craft store like Hobby Lobby and go find the Pompoms back by the rest of the "tying material" there. At our local one it is by the feathers and foam! But you can get an assortment of eggy colors for like $2. Slip it onto the hook, add some super glue and you're ready to go!

Well I call it a trip, but it was just down the road from my house. I went out yesterday and wanted to share my results. I tied a new, sort of my creation, foam from fly last week and have been testing it out on some bass. It was working really really well, surprisingly, until yesterday morning. This is what I had been catching with the new frog. Not anything huge, but oh well. I went out yesterday with one of my teens he was using conventional tackle I was throwing flies and we couldn't get any fish on anything. My frog wasn't even producing. I was surprised. The water was all muddied up which I found odd because we hadn't had any major rain recently. I did finally end up catching something though! First one! And yes, on the fly rod! Second one! They did like my foam frog! And one for the artist in me. Turned out pretty good I thought!

I've tried to contact several outfitters on the Elk and haven't heard anything back yet. I will look into the lower end see what I can find.

I will plan on giving it a go then, and I'll try to report back with how it went. My fly rod is 9' so I don't think I'll have a problem there. I can see the fly line being the problem too, especially with managing a paddle. You recommend the bass taper just for the extra weight to get the line out, am I understanding that right?

Yes, nudity wouldn't be the best for a group of junior high teens! I will consider your advice! Thanks!

That is a new idea I haven't considered though, and something that won't hurt to check out. But Justin is probably right, I don't think even I would want to have to be in the river getting wet that early without my waders.

I have used conventional tackle out of a canoe multiple times, but never have I tried my fly rod. I never wanted to have to try to mess with it. Is stability an issue in casting from a kayak or while sitting down?