Rainstein

I had about the same luck myself last Saturday (10/27). Only hooked four in as many hours, and only managed to net two of them, both stocker-size browns but very nice coloring. I switched flies a lot too. Started off with a green nymph, but didn't get anything, and couldn't catch anything on my old standby, a orange headed micro jig with an olive marabou tail, either. Wierd, cause I have never failed to catch something on that fly. The lack of quick bites surprised me because the water was moving pretty quickly and was sort of cloudy, which I thought would produce more reaction strikes than it did. Hooked my first brown of the day on an pinkish-white egg pattern after I overheard some bait fishermen talking about catching some on power bait style eggs, but promptly managed to let it slip off the hook. The redds you saw may explain the bites guys were getting on egg patterns. But, I managed to lose that fly too, when my next catch was a tree limb. I switched to another egg pattern, and didn't get anything else. I didn't get any action for quite a while, but started noticing risers on some small, cream colored flies that seemed to be attracted to sunny spots on the water (is this the Callibaetis of which you speak?). I had moved down the river from the majority of my stuff, so the closes thing I could find was a BWO wet fly, which I managed to drop right on top of a fish in sunny spot. He took it before it could even sink, since I didn't put any weight on it, and that was the first brown I netted. He managed to yank the swept wing off of that fly, so I switched to an olive WD-40 and started nymphing again, and pulled in one more stocker-size brown I saw laying down-current of a flat rock. Drifted a very small olive nymph (I used so many flies that day I've forgotten which) over his head and got to watch him rise right up to meet it. That was it for me, and couldn't get another bite. How was the water when you were there? It was murky and fast, but not to high, on Saturday.

Thanks for the info. I'm curious . . . how'd it come to be named the Y2K Hole? Also interesting about the quasi-spawn. How'd you figure that out? Did the person who filled you in also mention anything about how often that sort of thing happens with the stockers? Be nice to have a rough pattern of that sort of thing to know when to throw egg patterns.

At risk of endangering my "in-the-know" reputation, I have to ask . . . what's the Y2K hole?

Its been a week, but figured it might still be worth posting something about fishing the White above Beaver last weekend. Fished in the hole between the ramp nearest the dam and the campsite ramp, above the artificials only area. Had pretty decent crowds at both ramps, bait fishing from the banks, but found a decent spot (I thought) in between. Tried a tan sowbug nymph . . . nothing. Tried a small black zebra midge . . . nothing. Tried a green wooly booger, about size 12 . . . nothing. Only thing that made me feel better (and maybe its a sad commentary on my character) is that nobody else fishing corn and powerbait seemed to be catching anything either. Finally, about 11:30, caught a small Brown (10 in or so) on an orange micro-jig with a marabou tail (A nice ol' guy gave it to me once on the White and its never failed to hook something on any river - always a good fall-back when nothing else works). Headed to the Dam Store about 30 minutes later, for some Pringles and Beany-Weenies, and then ran back down to the access below the last campground, in the artificials-only zone, and started gearing up when the darn (and I mean darn, not dam) siren blew three hours earlier than it had for the last two weeks. Talked to the miffed bunch of guys that came straggling out of the river to the parking area, and heard stories of 10 and 15 fish a piece in that area of the river. I'm not going back up by the dam (and I mean dam this time) anymore. Too much corn floating around and too many lines in the water, and dogs barking and kids chucking rocks. From now on, I'm fishing where you can only get to in waders.

Fished late in the morning (I have a two-year-old who won't aways cooperate with early morning fishing plans) just above Beaver Dam. A pretty decent number of bait fishermen on the banks, and not so many fly guys as I thought, given the long weekend. Maybe the Razorback season opener kept people away, who knows. Plenty of fish in the water, but almost no flow at all, so drifting was almost impossible. Very clear water and very slow current made fish very spooky. Hooked three on a size 16 bead head zebra midge, but, like an idiot, lost two of them. The one I did catch was about stocker size. Since I didn't get on the water until about 10:45 or so, I'm thinking it was better in the early AM. Was cool early, and one guy told me there was a pretty good mist on the water in the morning, while another who was leaving as I got there told me he'd been there for a while and caught 5 in the hole I ended up fishing the rest of the morning (catching only 1). Fishing dried up completely about 1:00, so I packed it in shortly thereafter. Talked to another guy from Oklahoma as I was leaving, who said he did pretty well on an olive bugger and an olive and rust colored bugger that looked a lot like a really big (size 12 or bigger) griffith's gnat (green body with lots of rusty red). I'd tried a bright green mini-bugger at first with some flash in the tail, but they hadn't been interested (probably more like terrified with those water conditions). Same with a red headed, olive tailed micro jig. Only think I had any luck on was the zebra midge, and I was only 200 yards from the guy who caught a bunch on something totally different. Was a really nice day though, and worth standing waist deep in frickin' freezing water.

Wouldn't begin to know who to write to. Is it the Wildlife Conservation Deparment that maintains the parking areas, as well as stocks the fish? I understand a landowner's right to access the river, but as much of the high bank as they've had to cut away to make the access ramp, and as much material as they've pushed into the river itself is what concerns me.

Yeah, we're probably talking about the same one. Its almost directly across the river, on the east side, from the fishing road/parking area that comes off the road to the powersite. If you wade the shallow channel on the west side and cross the island in the center, you see it across the second (deeper) channel where the logs have piled up (and where there's some pretty decent fishing. I'm headed out of town too, though not for fishing (for work). Maybe I'll see you at the river after that. Have fun.

May be a couple of weeks until I get to fish again. Got to go twice in one week last week, once on the Lower Illinois and once on the White above Beaver, which is almost unheard of for a guy with a two-year-old at home! When I'm getting close to heading back out, I'll drop you a note and see when you're planning to be there. I could use the tips on catching those browns.

Got in a few hours with the fly rod this morning and afternoon below the dam. Fished from the access at the turnaround by the newer campground. Caught nothing on a "Prince of Buggers" (yellow bead head, gold flecked) I got at the dam store on the way in, thinking I would have some luck with a brightly colored streamer as I did last time. I was totally wrong. Water was almost at a standstill at about 11:00 AM, with Table Rock not generating at all and backing up into the Beaver tailwater. There was really hardly any flow at all, so was hard to get a good drift going. And the water was so crystal clear the fish could see anything I put in the water coming a mile away, and had all the time in the world to decide it wasn't food before the slow drift brought it anywhere near. Eventually, about 12:00 or 12:30, it seemed like Table Rock must have started generating, because the drift piked up a little bit (without Beaver generating), and I switched to a smaller fly, a bead head, with a swept white wing and a short red-brown tail, black body wound with shiny green, about a size 16 or so. Caught only two 12 inch or so rainbows, but, though fishing was slow, was all in all a very nice day to be on the water. Generation started at 2:20 or so, so it cut me short just as was starting to catch 'em.

Haven't fished there a ton, maybe 5 times, but haven't caught a brown. Based on your ratios, it shouldn't be too long, I guess.

Fished Saturday morning, but didn't get out until late (about 11:00 before I got on the water). Checked generation schedules online before heading out, and saw nothing scheduled for either day this weekend, but, when I got there, found several guys heading out. One stopped to tell me he'd heard from another that the phone report was indicating generation to begin at 1:00. Well, 1:00 came and went, and, about 3:30 when I had to pack it in they still hadn't done any generating. Didn't help the fishing though, although my tardiness in getting to the river probably didn't help. Saw a guy with a decent stringer when I got there, but, between 11:00 and 3:30, only caught two, both on a green bugger with an orange head, and some flashabou in the tail. About a size 12 or so. They were jumping right and left, and I saw one pretty sizable(for the Illinois) rainbow in a pool that I sight-casted to for a while, but it totally ignored my offerings. In the end, pulled out only a 13-inch'er and a 9 or so inch'er. A guy spin-fishing down the river told me he'd gotten a decent rainbow and a nice brown. I've yet to pull a brown out of that river, and was starting to wonder if they were there at all. Best thing about the day was that, because of the predicted generation I guess, there was almost no one on the river. I do have one question, if anyone knows. On the east side of the river where it splits by the gravel fishing access area (on the west side) immediately below the dam, someone has dug out a new access drive that goes right down to the edge of the river. The annoying thing is, its right next to what used to be a really good hole. Anybody know what that's about?

I think I know which road Zach's talking about. But we may be talking about different ones. This is the way I go when I go to the east side of the river, anyway. If you're coming from 1-40, and take the Gore exit at Hwy 10, turning left on 64 to go into Gore, you'll want to make an almost immediate right turn after you pass the indian courthouse and before you get to the bridges over the Illinois. Mapquest calls the road "E4460 Rd," but I don't think there's a sign. Follow that about 3 or 4 miles, curving around, over a new bridge that looks to have just been finished, until you see a crossroad with stone pillars on each of the four corners, and a parked semi trailer on the corner. I think there's a sign that says River Road on the side that the semi's on. Turn left onto River Road (that's left if you're coming from the direction of Hwy 64), and follow it about two miles. It winds through a few right hand corners, but just stay on it and the pavement will run out a half mile or so before the river. There's a parking area by the river, and you can walk right down. Where you end up is about 150 yards upstream from the parking area on "Fishing Road" off of 100 on the West Side. Hope that helps.

If only the Lower Illinois had been closed to fishing for 30 years like Dry Run, and we'd all be pulling ten pounders out, huh? Oh well. In a half-day trip (which is about all I can ever do, since I live in Fort Smith and have two-year-old), it still makes for some fun, even if your only hope is a decent stringer rather than a trophy.

Fished the Lower Illinois just below Tenkiller, at the River Road Access on the east side of the river, on Sunday morning. Primarily fished a spot just above the run right before the channel splits by the gravel parking area on the west side. No luck on flashy green nymphs (which is what I usually catch them with over there), so switched to an olive bugger tied on an orange micro jig head, with a little flash in the tail. I know some will say a jig head is cheating on a fly rod, but tell that to the old guy who hand tied it and gave it to me on the White above Beaver Dam a couple of weeks ago. It caught fish there, and it caught six rainbows for me yesterday on the Illinois, ranging from 10 to 13 inches. The jig head hook the old guy tied it on was about a size 12, and had just a little orange head. Like I said, looks about like a bugger without the body section, but just a head. Got a couple of bites after that on a bead head bloody mary from Big Y Fly Co. (http://www.bigyflyco.com), which I highly recommend for quality and price, but didn't land any after that. Was raining most of the time, but the river was misting and it looked so incredible the rain didn't matter.

In defense of both the upper reaches of the Illinois River in Arkansas, as well as of chicken farmers, who, despite what you may hear, have done business on the Oklahoma side of the line for quite a while too, I'll say I've spent a lot of time floating the river between Fayetteville and Siloam Springs, and its full of fish. Been on that stretch of river a million times in canoes and kayaks for the last ten years or more. Water is by no means crystal clear, but neither is it in any other warm water fishery in the region. I've tipped canoes into that river a million times, and I've only grown one extra eyeball, which was quite easily removed Its a pretty stretch of water.