OKFlyFisher44

T&M and the gravel pit area is the same access. Its after the Marval turnoff but before the Watts turn off. Look for a sign on the right side of the HWY that says T&M Sand and Gravel. Turn there...the road runs into the river. Easy to find.

Made the trip down to the Lower Illinois on Sunday in hopes of catching some stripers early and then catch some trout in the afternoon. We got on the water around 5:15 in a section of river where we had seen lots of stripers cruising during the day the weekend before. We covered quite a bit of water, throwing clousers, deceivers, and poppers...but couldn't get into a striper. It was pretty frustrating. A few of my buddies decided to put away the big rods and go after trout as there was tons of fish sipping midges up and down the river. My friend Joey and I decided to continue to chase the striper bite so we headed downstream to another section of river where we'd seen some stripers cruising and had actually caught some baby stripers (1-2lbs) the weekend before. We both were fishing deceivers on a sink tip line, stripping them through the deep pools. We were able to catch about a half-dozen baby stripers but couldn't hook up with any big fish. We called it quits after an hour or so, put away the big rods, and went to chasing trout. We fished at T&M and Watts the rest of the afternoon. We slayed fish on san juan worms and pheasant tails on an indicator rig along with catching TONS of fish on various dry fly patterns when the fish would start feeding on the surface. I caught several on a crackleback by dead-drifting it like a dry fly, then letting it swing out, and stripping it back to me. FUN way to fish! We caught a few browns today too...kinda odd? Not sure whats up with the stripers this year. There is a ton of shad in the river right now. They must be feeding at night...just gorging themselves all night. Then just cruising and sulking in the deeper water during the day. Thats my only guess...its frustrating. We seen 15-20lb fish cruise within a few feet of us...just mingling with the buffalo. All in all it was a good day.... On a side note, my buddy Joey caught a HUGE crap on a wooly bugger at T&M. He saw it cruising towards him so he bombed a cast ahead of the fish, let the bugger sink to the bottom, and then just barely twitched it across the bottom. The carp cruised right over and inhaled the fly....it was awesome!

They are definitely there....LOTS of them

Nice fish Phil! We were down there on Sunday morning. We chased stripers most of the morning and then switched out gear to go after trout the rest of the day! There are some nice fish in the river right now. I saw big trout at Marvals, T&M, and Watts. Glad to see the wildlife dept. stocking some big fish...

Some pictures from the weekend...

5/15 Some buddies decided to brave the rainy forecast to go chase stripers on the river this past weekend. Keystone Dam was scheduled to be off all weekend so we had high hopes for good fishing. The flows were still pretty high at Zink to start the morning off so we decided to try out a new spot and drove up to Swift Park below the dam. We geared up and began to make the trek downstream to fish some rocky points that looked to have some shallower water. We threw clousers, deceivers, and even poppers but none of us got a bite. Just too much water to cover....it'd be awesome to fish from a boat just so you could cover some water way faster! There looked to be soem awesome holes further down river but we decided against walking further down. It was forecasted to start raining around 1:00pm and the water was dropping at Zink so we loaded up and headed for hopefully more productive waters. We put in at Zink and started fishing the hole where Donny and I caught our stripers a couple weeks ago. Chris and I started with deceivers on a sink tip while Joey and Cole was throwing clousers. We dredged the depths with only a couple sand bass and drum to hand. It was a disappointing start. We continued walking upstream fishing every hole and flat that looked promising. Joey caught a few more drum along the way, one of them being in the 5-6lb range. He thought he had a striper on the way it was fighting....it was a let down. We finished up by the dam with only Cole sticking a decent hybrid and Chris catching a blue cat, which was pretty cool to see. We packed it in...with plans to come back tomorrow morning. 5/16 The next morning I met up with Donny and Chris at Zink once again. The river had bottomed out at 50cfs, overcast skies, and no wind....I was crossing my fingers for good fishing. We headed down again to the hole where we'd got into the stripers a couple weeks ago. It didn't take long and Chris was hooked up! He brought a solid FAT striper to hand, his 1st on a fly rod. He was excited. Not 5 minutes later, he was hooked up again on a striper but the fish threw the fly early in the fight. We thought we had found the stripers...but we were wrong. Chris and I managed to catch a couple of catfish (a blue and a channel) on our deceivers and that was it for the hole. We fished a few other spots before heading up to the dam on the east side. We got into some sandbass and a few drum before I hooked up with something that almost put me into my backing. I cranked the drag down and it still peeled line off the reel. I brought it in close and it swirled on the surface, revealing itself. It was a nice hybrid! These fish fight like crazy...they just wear themselves out. It was the fish of the day for me.... A few minutes later, Chris walked up with his rod in his hand....broken! So that ended the day for us.... I'm guessing the crappy weather over the past week has pushed the stripers back downstream, hopefully they come back when we get some warm weather. Surely they haven't already spawned out? Who knows....still trying to get these fish dialed in...

Did you see the pig of a female I caught right after you left?? It put me into the backing twice!! We estimated it to weight 21 pounds going by its measurements... It was cool meeting you buddy! You caught an awesome mess of fish!! Can't wait to get back down there!! That f

Clousers and deceivers are perfect...thats all most of us every throw at them! Get on GoogleMaps and search 31st and Riverside. Thats where Zink Dam is. There's a parking lot there. And there are the soccer fields across the river on Elwood Ave that offer ample parking... As far as where to fish....you'll have to figure that out on your own. Those fish are all over the place

I caught that fish on a deceiver. Also caught a bunch of sand bass and hybrids on the same pattern up by the low-water dam... Phil... We just fished our way down to that spot. Its easier to access it by the soccer fields if you want to fish below PSO specifically...

'Nuff said!

That picture turned out great Joey...thanks again for taking it!

Took a trip down to the Lower Illinois today to do some scouting for stripers. The run should be starting anytime...I've been hearing of striper guides catching them at the mouth of the river already. We covered some water today throwing deceivers and clousers but no stripers were found. I'm thinking the cold winter and the recent cold fronts/rain storms have kept the water temp in the Arkansas river low enough that it hasn't got the fish running yet. It was still a productive morning, we found some new holes that will hold stripers once the run starts along with seeing that some old favorites were filled in with gravel On a more positive note, while throwing a big deceiver for stripers this morning...I stuck this toad of a rainbow and was able to bring it to hand. It slammed the fly and missed it resulting in me missing the hookset but I cast right back out on top of her head and she slammed it again! It was an awesome take and an awesome fight. A few good jumps and impressive runs, even on the 7-weight! Along with the rainbow, I caught a couple of hybrids which I thought were a little random but whatever... There's also a TON of carp (or buffalo?) in the river spawning. There was HUNDREDS of them stacked up in the river, it was crazy to see. We messed around a caught a few of them as well on brown/orange clousers, they put up an awesome fight. We put the big rods away and went up to the Watts area to chase some trout. We caught a bunch of stockers just above the access on san juan worms...lots of fish cruising. Everyone was catching fish...it was a nice day to be out on the water.

Thats crazy. I don't think I've ever seen a snake while fishing on the Lower Illinois... We were stomping around along the river all day today...

The stripers are running....

Phil, you need to get out there. Its an awesome river. The fishing can be a challenge sometimes but its worth it.

From reading your fishing reports, I believe we fish the same areas. You fish at Baptist more than we do but I plan on fishing down there more. There is some sweeeeetttt looking water downstream. We got into several nice fish. I seen a few fish over 20" that I spooked out of holes...there are some toads in there!

SCUDZ RULE....do you have some kind of a mental issue ? I don't get you at all...carry on with your randomness. Randall...I love my waist-pack. It currently holds 2 double-side fly boxes in the middle compartment along with the fold down foam patch being full of flies. I could stick 2 medium sized boxes or 1 large box in the large compartment but I usually keep my licenses, phone, camera, snacks, etc in that pocket. I've got the thing packed with all kinds of stuff, everything I could need to fish with room to spare. Its a great pack, very comfortable to wear. I will say that I bought mine used off of EBay, not sure if I could bring myself to pay full retail for this pack. I think its like $120 or $130 new? Quality gear but they sure are proud of it.

Some college buddies and I made our way down for what has now become an annual trip to the Current River on Friday evening late. It rained on us the whole way there till we got a few miles outside of the state park where the rain finally tapered off. We set up camp at Eagles Park Campground and got a fire going, followed by some adult beverages before crawling into our sleeping bags to get some rest for saturdays plans to chase trout. By that time, the rain had stopped and the skies had cleared...things were looking up! We started the day off by hiking upstream where we caught a bunch of fish from just below the park to just below the Rock Garden area on Saturday morning. Most of our fish came on caddis emergers, caddis pupae, and sowbugs. There were tons of caddis, mayflies, and tricos coming off both days but very little fish rising. Caught maybe a half-dozen fish on CDC Elk Hair Caddis, just targeting specific rising fish...it was fun, always a challenge. Fished below Baptist saturday evening for a few hours....got into a few fish but not much going on down there. It was our 1st time to fish that area, some awesome looking water. Can't wait to go back and fish even further downstream!! It reminded me of Crane except on a little larger scale. On sunday, we spent most of our time above Tan Vat. Caught several solid browns on red san juan worms just above Tan Vat with one of them around 18"-20", just a fat healthy brown. Walked further upstream above the Rock Garden and caught a few fish on the CDC EHC again before we packed it up. The weather was perfect all weekend and the fishing was great. I love this river...its fantastic. It can be tough but very rewarding too, lots of quality water too. I can't wait to go back and fish more below Baptist...lots of good looking water that I didn't get to fish. Pictures soon to follow...

We had a great weekend at the Current. Caught a bunch of fish from just below the park to just below the Rock Garden area on Saturday morning. Most of our fish came on caddis emergers and sowbugs. Lots of caddis, mayflies, and tricos coming off both days but very little fish rising. Caught maybe a half-dozen fish on CDC Elk Hair Caddis, just targeting specific rising fish...it was fun, always a challenge. Fished below Baptist saturday evening for a few hours....got into a few fish but not much going on down there. It was our 1st time to fish that area, some awesome looking water. Can't wait to go back and fish even further downstream!! It reminded me of Crane except on a little larger scale. On sunday, we spent most of our time above Tan Vat. Caught several solid browns on red san juan worms just above Tan Vat with one of them around 18"-20", just a fat healthy brown. Walked further upstream above the Rock Garden and caught a few fish on the CDC EHC again before we packed it up. All in all, a great weekend as far as weather and the fishing. I love this river... Nortrad, it was cool meeting you!! Detailed fishing report and pictures coming...

So Gavin do you think above Baptist is still highly fishable? At 187cfs, its not super high and murky is it? Maybe just a bit off-color? Trying to justify driving up there to do some fishing for the weekend and hoping maybe the river will go head and come down a bit in the next 24 hours...

Glad to hear that the river fished well. We're coming down in a few weeks. Hoping to hit the caddis hatch again like we did last year. They were coming off in swarms last year...slayed fish all day on Elk Hair Caddis...it was epic fishing. Can't wait to get back...

If they do generate, you should find fishable and wade-able water near the access at the 2nd parking lot below the dam. Wade across the stream to the island and then walk up to the top of the island. The water is a little deep and fast, just add some split shot and you'll get the fly down to the fish. Or like BFT said, get the spinning gear out. I was able to fish that area even when they were generating at over 3000cfs and the wading was quite easy due to how shallow it is around that island. Fishing was a little tough but we caught fish though!!

Thats not the one I'm talking about and I already tried Google Maps, it didn't bring it up. Its located on the south side of Lake Taneycomo on HWY 165. Just can't seem to remember the name of the place! Thanks anyways KicknBass!