Mikey

... jealous much ....

Zach, We usually get there around 6am. We shoot for sunrise but that's too early right now. So, if we get there at 6 we should be ale to fish for 4 hours or so before they start generating (I glanced at the schedule) and then maybe hoof it down to Marval when they blow the horn. I've never fished down there but an older fella I work with likes to go there when the horn sounds. He says you can usually fish for a few hours before it gets too deep to wade. Last time he was down there he was fishing a seam of swift rising water with a wooly bugger and caught crappie, sandies, rainbows, and hybrids. That's what we want...fishing and never knowing exactly what you're going to catch. Any info on fishing Marval? Again...never been... Mikey

Some time in the next 2 months I'm wanting to plan an overnight trip with my son and I'm thinking about maybe staying at Cotter as this gives me a chance to fish the White as well as the Norfork and even get my son up to Dry Run. I was wondering, are there any places around Cotter that one can camp? Maybe near the water...that won't cost an arm and a leg? I've never had a chance to fish at Cotter, as the last time I was up the water was much too high. I did get to fish there at the access on the Norfork in front of Dry Run, but again...water really high and no takes. Did see a guide in his boat catching them really well on corn. Looks like he was having a chummy good time with his client. Mikey

Ok, so I finally got a chance to get back up to the Lower Ill to do a bit of fishing. My buddy and I ended up having decent luck on our San Juans in a flourescent red color. Another friend of ours tried all sorts of tackle on his spinning rig. Not even the power bat was working....he finally got it right with a yellow rooster tail. We caught a few in the skinny just at the gravel lot and more off the point under the dam. Actually had some reports of sand bass, crappie and rainbows being caught off that point, just pitching it into the current and letting it drift. Heading back up this coming Friday to try again. Mikey

Thom, I see that the egg just has to be roundish. And plump. I haven't tied any multicolors... I'll have to whip a few up before I go to bull shoals on wednesday. Got some white jigs already. Lookin' forward to my first trip to the white this week! Mikey

Concerning the trout cam, he may have been mentioning that it seems to be offline at the moment. No images being displayed...well, for me anyways.

I'm from the Ft. Smith area but unfortunately I haven't striper fished the river in a while. I do know, from word of mouth, it can be productive on the Arkansas River. I just don't know exactly where one would go as there are so many accesses, tributaries and sloughs with smaller fish in them one would think it to be a buffet. The Woodsman is a great reccommendation for fly fishing, however I don't think the guys there do much River fishing. You might also consder contacting The Tacklebox @ 479.646.3193. They sell primarily fishing supplies and might have a better idea on what to use and where to go. Just my 2 Lincolns on it.. Mikey

I was watching an episode of Fly Tying: The Angler's Art, he tied a soft hackle using chukar. It was called a chukar and copper. Was tied with black thread, the body was entirely of a heavy copper wire (so heavy it wasn't tied in, just wound) and chukar hackle at the head. Looked good, dunno how it fishes... mikey

recipe and technique there dano? and if using a spermicidal condom during the spawn...will it cause problems? mikey

As far as the medical scissors go, I too have found that snips used in a sutcher kit work well. They have that sharpened hooked front end that i find great for getting close cuts. crazy sharp too. Mikey

Thanks for the infor Seth. I'll try it that way tonight and see what it looks like. It's more complicated than the other methods but if it produces results then great! Oh yea, and for the heckuvit, here is a video I stumbled across of a guy tying a glo bug in 30 seconds. Without using the amazing globug dispenser tool thingie... He also uses the figure 8 to lock the material in place... Mikey

seth - can ya go into greater detail on your technique? mine are just a ball of fluff with a split in the middle. all glo and no ball.. mikey

Black thread, brown swiss straw for underbody, shrimp colored stretch tubing for over body, burnt orange chenille for the sex ring and a copper craft bead. Tie in the bead with the thread. Wrapped the thread all the way to the back of the hook, past the bend. tied in swiss straw, then tied in stretch tubing. Wrap the thread to midway. Wrap the swiss straw to the thread and catch it with a figure 8 type wrap. Tie in the chenille, give it 2 or 3 tight wraps and tie it off. Advance te thread on up to just behind the hook eye. Finish wrapping in the swiss straw and tie it off. Then just run the stretch tubing up over everything, being sure to catch all the fibers from the chenille under it, tie it off at the eye, whip finish head cement yadda yadda... Dunno if it will work, just piddling around. You could save some trouble and just use some brown thread and skip the whole tying in the straw stuff and use that as the base. I'm just outta the thread. Mikey

So, I've had some fly tying tools and materials for about 3 weeks now. The question is: What have I learned so far? I have learned that my wife's thread is not the "same stuff but cheaper". I have learned that the craft section at WalMart may hold great ideas, but I always feel silly browsing for 10 minutes at colored pompoms and metallic yarns. I have learned that when trying ti duplicate a fly I've seen a picture of, it is best to have a recipe. Furthermore it is best to follow said recipe. I have learned that crimping down the barbs is as humane for the fish as it is any fabrics or flesh around the area I am tying. I have learned a half hitch is not something involving a trailer ball. I have also learned how to do it with my hands. I have learned loctite super glue will bond anything to everything. Except antron. Antron melts. I have learned how to bend my own whip finish out of solid copper wire. I have not yet learned how it works. I have learned my dial-a-hook doesn't dial a decent hook to tie with. And just today I learned when a recipe for a San Juan Worm calls for chenille it doesn't necessarily mean rayon chenille. Funny stuff rayon...when singing the ends with a flame to seal them off it has a tendency to disappear in a flourish of smoke. Quickly I might add... Most importantly, I have learned regardless what it looks like...my fly is something I made. Something I enjoyed making (regardless the colorful language following thread snaps). Oh well...truly I learn something new every day. Especially when it comes to tying my own flies. Or whatever they are.... Flies successfully tied: Trout Crack - Y2K - Zebra Midge (olive&copper) - San Juan Worms Still can't make my egg patterns round. -Mikey

This is my attempt at the pic I previously posted. Not sure if I like it or not. I can certainly sympathize with my mother though. I can recall growing up when she didn't have the right ingredients for a rec ipe she would substitue what she thought was best and then hope we were starving enough to eat it. Kinda what I did here...not sure what the guy used as the underbody...and I'm sure my outer is too pink but here it is. I did take the artistic liberty and add a sex ring and a copper craft bead for the heckuvit. I call it the duracell worm... Mikey

I was looking for some fly tying instructional videos and stumbles across a great video site. It's part of a PBS broadcasting channel out of Washington State. You've really got to be on cable or dsl to even think about watching these. They are large, full screen videos running about 15 or so minutes long. Good quality stuff, the biggest hang up is that they are downloaded to the hard drive. You can't stream them. You even have to download some small program similar to iTunes, but it looks like it's specifically for educational/PBS opriented content. I downloaded it and didn't have any problems. I think it's worth it to watch these 2 folks tie some great looking flies. The reason I post this here is that one of the episodes I downloaded and watched yesterday has a copper john pattern on it. Good lookin' fly, the guy tying it uses a different material for the wing casing. Worth checking out anyways. Here's the link Fly Tying: The Angler's Art They've got some midges, leeches, and a vise worth more than my truck! Mikey

Don't leave me in suspense. how was the fishing?? mikey

Was just trolling through the Deviant Art website and came across this picture. I saved it for a project I was working on without giving it so much as a passing glance. Had it opened again today and happened to catch the title across the bottom: Northfork Bow. So I went back to the Deviant Art artist's site and read the artist comments. It's a nice pic of a rainbow indeed caught on the Norfork River. He's got some other Norfork pics in his gallery. Nice lookin' stuff. Click the image to go to the artist's page and access his gallery. Full version of this pic is gorgeous. Mikey

Kinda makes ya feel all warm inside don't it? Or maybe that's my wife's cooking.... Mikey

I dunno the land, it's my buddy that does. I know we're staying at the park so I guess it would be around that area. He's always had some decent luck with rapala's catching browns. I just thought I'd pose it to everyone here to see what they think. I don't like to hear they're running that much water. We're planning on getting up there the 22nd of next month. Hope it slows off some. Mikey

Has anyone (Leonard) ever fished Bull Shoals at night? When I go my friend is wanting to give it a go and I'm just curious what I might use. I've read stick baits do well with the browns. But what about flies? Mikey

I know my kids have got some lttle water balloons laying around here somewhere. And yea, I watched Zach tie the trout crack. I'll get the hang of it...on to the Y2K next, then a zebra midge. Gotta get some beads first. Mikey

Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess mostly it's a learning process. But so relaxing once I get into the groove of it all. When you guys were learning how to tie how many times did you let the point of the hook snap your thread? If I ge careless(i.e. too relaxed) I have a tendency to get into the point after I'm well into the tying a fly and boy is it irritating. Maybe I'll start crimping down the hook point when I'm crimping my barbs. Mikey

The shop I was at didn't have any gsp. They were out of a lot of stuff, but the prices were reasonable. That and I don't think the guy at the register knew what he was ringing up. He never asked, tho. Anyone have amy tips on making eggs actually look round? All of mine either look like a wad of yellow snot or a malformed wooly bugger... Mikey

Just thought I'd post a picture of my attempt at tying Wilson's Trout Crack. I've tied up 3 of them and this one was the best. I've got this tied on a #14 mustad. I know the recipe called for 04 mono but all they had at The Woodsman when I went in was 06. (They're right...monofilimant sure is hard to tie with!) Furthermore the only v-rib they could come up with was size large and in black. I improvised and went with some brown swiss straw. I followed Jeremy Hunt's instructions until I got to the rib, I had to twist the swiss straw really tight to get it downsized, then I tied it up instead of the rib. Looks ok, I think. I guess my biggest complaint is that I can't see the segmentation as well as I would have liked and the antron wouldn't dub onto the mono as easily as I thought it would but overall I'm pleased with it. Hope it catches some fish for me next month! Mikey