DaddyO

At the moment, my vise is empty. But I'll be tying Hair and Coppers, Soft Hackles and maybe Comparaduns tonight. My son and I are going fishing in the morning.

I was Fly Fishing on the Norfork river, two years ago, in the Quarry Park area. I made a few false casts to feed more line out. Just as I was making the final cast, one of those buzzards flew through my cast and I snagged him. My 7x tippet never even stood a chance and the bird didn't falter in his flight at all.

Dude, If you can't say something nice, don't say anything. Al, sounds like you had a good time. Thanks for sharing.

There is an Annual One Fly Tournament held in December on the Lower Illinois river in Oklahoma. Zach Bearden usually posts the event in the forums. If you check the December posts in that forum you will see some of the specifics. You can enter the tournament by purchasing the fly for $5 each. The rules are simple. You can only fish the $5 fly but you can buy as many of them as you want. The fly remains unknown until the day of the tournament. The past two years they have handed out awards for First fish, Most fish and Largest fish.

Hopper (Gregg) has a drift boat. I wonder if he has ever tried to float the Lower Illinois?

That's still good information. Thanks for sharing the results.

Cole, I'm anxious to hear what you find out. And, No, I didn't fish this past weekend. I haven't been out since my last post which was about a month ago. My oldest daughter just gave birth to my first Grandson this week and my Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary is this Weekend. So, I've been a little busy. I am hoping to get back out fishing in about a week or so.

Cole, thanks for posting the report. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. I always assumed that the trout don't spawn in the Lower Illinois. It might be worth a call to the OWDC to see what they say. If you call them, let us know the outcome.

Flytyer57, See this link for the pattern: http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=339&Itemid=74

Nice fish. Congrats!

Congrats! Sounds like you had a good day. Did you move around or just fish one area?

Give us a report when you get back. I haven't been in a while and I'm needing a fix.

I used to be real concerned about getting knots in my leader. I've stopped worrying about it because I started thinking about the knot that connects my tippet to the leader. It doesn't prevent me from catching fish. I don't get a lot of knots anymore. But, if I do get a knot, I don't spend a lot of time trying to undo it. If I can't undo it in about 15 seconds, I just cinch it down and get back to fishing. Birds Nests are a different story. I'll spend about 2 to 3 minutes on it. If I can clean it up, great. If not, I just cut it out and tie on a new leader and tippet.

I don't even try at 40.

Rick, I gotta get out with you and Brian, chasing the stripers, one of these days. Those are great fish. Have you had any luck catching stripers on the Lower Illinois?

It was a wild crowd today, also. Nobody was rude and we all had a good time. Well... until we got off of the river, anyway. That was when my wife and kids realized that they were all sunburned in various stages. It looks like goofy old Dad who wore a shirt all day is the only one that didn't get sunburned. Oh well, we still enjoyed the trip and got lots of pics of the family. I didn't even take a fishing pole. However, the river was in good shape and the smallmouth were chasing minnows. I think that I need to do the float on a Tuesday or Wednesday and see if I can catch a few of those.

Not me. I'm taking the family floating down the Upper Illinois. Good luck and have fun.

Corky, Deep is a relative term. We were up river from the parking lot. And there were a few holes that I would call over the waders deep. Depending on how far you want to walk, you can find all types of water up or down river from the parking lot.

I've caught a few shad also. What do you mean when you say that the trout are starting to thin out? Is this due to striper consumption or human consumption? Or are they just schooling up where there is less fishing pressure?

We fished the T&M Gravel Pit area.

I've been enjoying hitting some neighborhood ponds in the Owasso area. I've been catching a few small bass and lots of blue gill and sunfish. I've been using the fly rod and using small poppers, size 12 Elk Hair Caddis and Predators. Just having a blast.

Fishing was slow today. However, I got a late start and didn't get on the river until about 9am. I introduced a young man to the addiction of fly fishing and enjoyed the day with him and my Dad. Here are a few pics... We caught about a dozen each and used everything we had. It seemed like they didn't want to focus on any one pattern. The big fish of the day was caught on a soft hackle.

Go Karts and Mini-Golf. The girls like to shop while I fish. Other than that, its the food and the shows.

Corky, Rio tapered leaders work well because they already have the loop. I buy the BassPro brand. They don't have the loop but they are a buck less than the Rio brand and I can tie a Perfection loop in 15 seconds. 9ft 5x is what I buy and I also have a spool of 5x, 6x and 7x tippet. On the LIR you can get away with 5x most of the time. If I am doing a lot of midge fishing, I will sometimes switch to the 6x. I hope that helps.

Tim, Go to this website and look at the generation schedule for the day you will be fishing: http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx Unless you are up at the dam, you may not be able to hear it. Watch for rising water and always know where your exit point is going to be.