sean c

Nice Larry! I just finished up. Leonard mine will go out in the mail today please let me know when you get them. Articulated Ice Pick: Back Hook: Size 6 4X long Streamer hook. Front Hook: Size 4 4X long streamer hook. Head: Silver Fish Skull size small/medium. Tail: Gold flashabou and pearl UV baitfish emulator. Body: Pearl red hue ice wing fiber. Wing: Yellow black barred zonker strip. Articulation connection: Beadlon .19 and two red glass beads. Originator: Rich Strolis In Rich's original pattern his tail is marabou instead of the baitfish emulator, he ties in a foul guard on the rear hook and has a collar of senyo's lazer dubb. The first time I saw this fly was when I was given a couple from Brian Wise his had a tail of the baitfish emulator, flashabou and marabou but not the full collar of the senyo's lazer dubb. So far I use some combination of all three depending on my mood but likely I will find the easiest way to tie these and do it that way because I am a super lazy tier. This weekend is the first chance I'm going go get to throw these at trout I am super pumped(cmon rain and clouds!) but the largemouth have been killing this thing. I tied these on a little bit smaller hooks because this streamer can be a beast to cast and I wanted to tie something for the swap that didn't require an 8 weight to throw. Leonard thanks for doing this I look forward to getting everybody's stuff. My helper after we finally finished.

Leonard I would like to be in. I will do something articulated either the ice pick or circus peanut.

Nice Cocry! What are you using for a collar on the first fly? I would tweak that fly a little I would either turn the dumbell eyes under the hook shank to ride hook down or flip the rabbit strip if I wanted it to ride hook up. I love the streamer in the second post nice job.

I am pretty sure McKee bridge itself is private. Kelly ford is about 1 mile above McKee bridge that would be your closest upstream access. Also if a guy was going strictly for these stripers you could put in at Kelly and take out at ROLF(I would guess for a fee) be around two miles or so.

Yup.

I'm with Ness. Outside Bend if I ever meet you in person I would like to buy you a beer.

That is exactly what Justin is talking about. You are probably fishing more line than you can control if you need to strip line in to make another cast. Shorten it up and add some weight if thats what it takes to get to the bottom. Also the less line you have out the easier it is to control the line and get the proper drift. You are thinking about this backwards this is exactly why you would want to hire a guide. Brian isn't an oustanding guide because he knows how to catch alot of fish on the NFOW plenty of guys can do that he is an outstatnding guide because he knows how to teach other people how to do it. There is no substitute for good casting and fishing lessons and the sooner you take them the the shorter the learning curve to get where you wnat to be. If you can swing it you should book Brian for a day when you are up in October in my opinion one of the coolest things you can do in the Ozarks is spend a day in a drifboat on the NFOW in the fall when the colors are popping.

A, Thanks for the report and pics glad you caught some fish. Your second trip to the NFOW was more productive than mine I promise you. FWIW there are plenty of fish caught stripping Buggers there. Keep at it it that river will make you a better fisherman. Not sure if your fall break is the same as us Okies but we will be there then maybe we can hook up and do some fishing.

Joe lots of really good advise in here. I just use the Whiting 100 packs. They are just pre sized saddle hackle. This stuff is by no means as good as premium neck hackle but in the smaller sizes it works just fine for me. I haven't bought any in years so I have no idea about the availability of this stuff anymore but it could be a cheap alternative to buying an expensive neck or two.

I was using mono without beads until Brian put me on to the beadlon. The problem I was having with mono was after so many fish it would kink to the side or slip to the side rendering the fly useless(could just be operator error). I have half a dozen perfectly good circus peanuts that I can't use anymore because of the connection. If your going to put the time and money investment into tying articulated streamers you want them to ba as durable as possible. So far the beadlon with a bead or two has seemed to have solved my problem and a bonus is I think it is much easier to work with than mono.

+1 to the above. We were there the 25th through the 29th and did a very limited amount of fishing but the fishing was pretty good on the few mornings we fished. If you were there on the weekend that has to make it just that much tougher with the floaters thrown in and additional fishing pressure. If I had to list the seasons from favorite to least for me it would be spring>winter>fall>>>>summer.

Jeff nice report. Me and the family are doing the same next week. This is my first trip to the NFOW that doesn't involve fishing from sun up to sun down and I'm really looking forward to it.

I have a 6 and an 8 both with sinking and floating line. If I had to have just one I would split the middle with a 7. I almost never use the 8 the 6 will throw some pretty big stuff nicely.

Wow what a great fish Brian!

We decided to suprise them Brian they have no idea what we are up to.

Brian great report. We were out Thursday through Saturday and really struggled single digit fish counts in my boat all three days. Could get some chases on streamers but not many takes and the nymphing was poor at best. We did get out Saturday evening and floated Blair to Patrick after the rains. Spring creek was turning the river milky white where it comes in it was really weird the left side of the river was white and the right side was perfectly clear. Strangely enough the only nice fish hooked that weekend came on that float in the milky white water on a yellow circus peanut I figured it was the only thing bright enough for them to see in that water. It was probably an 18" brown that left me after putting on a neat aerial show. I kind of wish we would have stuck it out a fished Sunday now oh well.

Nortrad I will be down this weekend I will keep an eye(and ear) out for them. I'm sure Justin has the skinny.

Brian there was one really big tree stuck on the bridge about in the middle but the rest of the trees have been cleared out. The concrete curbing on top of the bridge took a pounding. I got under at 1900 CFS on Saturday and it was tight I wouldn't want to try it on much higher water. Those I beams under the bridge are a real pain.

Justin I'm lucky most of my friends don't tie so I just threaten to cutt off their supply of flies if they refuse to row.

Chris anytime. I look forward to it.

A couple of US trips that haven't been mentioned on my list: Black Canyon Gunnison Smith river Montana Green river below Fontenelle dam

Self guided Pete I bought a driftboat last year and did a trip with Brian and got to see and learn how it was done properly and have coaxed just enough of my friends to learn how to row that I get to fish every once and awhile.

Got out this weekend with a couple of friends for one last pre canoe season trip. I was afraid we were going to get washed out after all the rain Friday but the water color stayed good all weekend. The streamer and nymph fishing were both really good. The river looks good and the fish are extremely healthy. It was crazy seeing the debris in the trees and trying to wrap your mind around how high the river got. I am pretty sure the big rock above McKee bridge moved or turned over it looks about half as tall as it did before. Got this one Saturday morning on a streamer The rock above McKee

TF1985 count me in if you still have room.

Idylwilde it sounds like a neat idea and I wish you luck with it. It does sound though like a little to much handling of fish with pictures and girth measurments. I would strictly stick to just length measurments on some type of board like the bass guys use. I would issue a measuring board and scorecard to each team and stress the importance of getting the fish back in the water as quickly as possible. Your also going to have to deal with the issue of a foul hooked fish and if it counts as a catch or not. If there is any way you can do beats its going to save you alot of frustration. You could always have say a lower section and an upper section and split that up into beats. For example if you had 12 teams you could have 6 beats in the lower section rotating every 1.5 hours and 6 beats in the upper section doing the same. Good luck.