DaddyO

I buy my nail polish for jig heads and Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails at Walgreens so that I don't have to fight the crowds at Wally World.

Zach, Where have you been? We haven't seen you lurking around here in a while. I'll try to make it down for the One Fly tournament. That was fun last year. Phil

Holy Cow!! That's a nice fish!! Where is the Spring River?

Tito, I couldn't find the youtube video. Can you post a link?

Can I change my "Clouser" entry to a "Schminnow"?

I was fishing the trees on the other side of the island at the first turn off of the Powersite road. Was wearing my fishing vest over my green rain jacket. I don't remember talking to anybody about a brown wooly bugger. What part of Owasso do you live in? I live in the Barington Point subdivision just north of the High School.

Jeremy, I think that you need to do one of your videos showing how to tie the leg knots in the pheasant tail fibers.

John, Check my other posts for pictures and patterns. I was using the BobWhite and the Hair-and-Copper drifted about 2 feet under a strike indicator.

Birds with white heads and white tails are Eagles. I think the road that you are looking for is E990 and it is paved. It ends in the Watts Area parking lot.

OTF6, I didn't see your post until I got back. Sorry that I missed you. I wound up fishing the trees on the other side of the island up by the Dam the first part of the day. Brought 30 fish to hand and LDR another 7 or 8. Then I drove over to the T&M Gravel Pits and fished the Car Hole for the first time. I only brought 7 to hand and LDR 3. The weather was kinda funky and the temp dropped about 10 degrees in 10 minutes. I didn't catch any more fish after that, so, I decided to call it a day. It felt good to knock the rust off of my cast. I hope you other guys were able to get out also.

I'm gonna play Hookie from church Sunday and do some fly fishing. It's been a couple of months and I need a fix, bad. They're running 1 generator on Saturday and nothing on Sunday until 5pm or 6pm. Rain or shine, I'm going. I was planning on going Friday morning but they were running 2 generators and the missus made me hang Christmas lights instead. Maybe I'll see a few of you fellers down there. I'll be in the blue ford sportrac.

Wrench, Is this the recipe that you used for the Picket Pin? Hook: Nymph, 2-3x long, size 8-14 Thread: Black Tail: Brown hackle barbs Hackle: Brown, palmered over body Body: Peacock herl (use 3) Wing: Grey squirrel tail Head: Peacock herl

I'm guessing closer to 5 lbs.

OK, so you're out hunting and it's the beginning of the rut, bucks are running around like they have no brain whatsoever, you know your buddy is in the next blind over and you're both hoping to get a deer on opening weekend, when all of a sudden you look out to your left and see this..... .....under the statewide regulations what are you supposed to do? Do you shoot the one with the bigger rack.......or the gay one?

I was fortunate to grow up begin able to hunt over a variety of dogs. We started out with a Brittany, who just walked up to our house one day. We lived in the city. She was a great dog. We called her Lady. My Dad thinks that he trained her, but me and my brothers know that she, really, trained him. Dad, later, aquired a Pointer that we named June. It was a thrill to watch those 2 dogs hunt together. If one of them was on point, the other would slowly come up behind and honor the first one by staying half a dog length behind. Dad taught them to bust the covies on command. Both of the dogs got to where they would actually reach into the covey and pick up a quail as they were busting them. I can't remember the number of times that one of them would bring me the bird and drop it at my feet only to have the thing jump up and start flying away. Let me tell you, you'd better not miss a bird that they laid at your feet, because the would snub you the rest of the day. (I had that happen once. I didn't know that dogs could give you a dirty look, but she sure did) We used to pop off the heads and feed it to the dogs, as treats, when they retrieved the birds. The nice thing about a Brittany / Pointer combo is that the Pointer will work the area long in front of you while the Brittany works short, covering the area that the Pointer missed. I sure do miss those days of hunting over good dogs. My Dad hurt his back at work one day. The Doctor told him that his days of walking the fields and hunting with the dogs were over. He sold the Brittany for $50 and a 30/30 and he sold the Pointer for $250 with the promise that he could have the pick of the litter if the guy ever bred her.

Jabber Jaw, If you feel comfortable listing your city and state, I think that you will find that there are several gentlemen on this forum that will be kind enough to teach you how to use the fishing poles and lures that you have now. If you do not feel comfortable doing that, you will also find that we will provide lots of answers to your various questions anyway. I applaud your efforts, either way.

This is a list of flies that I have used to actually catch fish on the Lower Illinois. 1. Zebra Midge size #16 and smaller, Black and Silver, Black and Copper, Olive and Silver, Red and Silver 2. Pheasant Tail size #12 and smaller 3. Gold Ribbed Hares Ear #12 and smaller 4. Wooly Buggers and MoHair Leeches #10 and smaller, Olive, Black, Brown, etc... 5. Hair and Copper #12-#14, Brown 6. Bob White (See my other forum posts) 7. Small Micro Jigs 1/80th Pink, Olive, Brown 8. Prince Nymphs and Sow Bugs in various sizes. 9. San Juan Worm Pink, Red and Brown. Locations: I'll start from the Dam and work my way down river. 1. PowerSite Access Road - Drive all the way to the end of the road and park by the fence. Walk down the hill next to the fence. Walk into the river and stand right behind the big rocks and cast up stream and let it drift down to you. Be careful as the rock are slick. 2. Turn around from the Big Rocks and fish the runs that are down river about 100 yards. 3. PowerSite Access Road - Take the first turnoff to the right that drops down into the grassy parking lot. You can fish the area about 200 to 300 yards in front of the island and all the way down past the island as far as you feel like hiking. Be sure to work all of the downed trees. 4. Watts Area - From Gore, you will come to this before the PowerSite Access road. I think the road number is E990 and it is about the only paved road besides the PowerSite Access Road. Drive all the way to the end of the road and it will end in a paved parking lot by the river. You can fish up river and down river from the parking lot. 5. T&M Gravel Pits - You'll just have to become familiar with the area to find this so ask me about it when you find it. 6. MarVal - Park in the designated areas and fish wherever you think looks like it would hold fish. It's really kind of a small area to fish, but it is a good quick fix considering it's proximity from Tulsa. Good Luck and Have fun. Maybe we can hook up sometime.

I'm waiting to see what the generation schedule and weather have in store before I make any plans. If I go, it will probably be on Saturday and I will head out from Owasso. However, I will be surprised if they stop generating until the get the lake down to flood pool. By my estimate, that will happen just about Thanksgiving weekend.

Sign me up for some Clouser Minnows.

Thanks for the post, Al. It reminds me of the times that I've fished with my Dad. He is still my favorite fishing buddy.

Ness and Cricket, Thank you for this bit of correspondence. I was sitting at my desk reading this and I laughed out loud at Ness' responses to the letters.

I didn't get to go this weekend, but I did pass along some flies to my brother who went Sunday morning and fished until they turned the generators on around noon. He went to the Gravel pit and went down to the Car Hole. He said he made 30 casts and caught 25 fish. He said that he thought he could've stood there all day and produced those kinds of numbers but he wanted to look at more of the river. Anyway, he went up to the Watts area and caught a few more fish and then went up to the Island off of the Powersite access road and caught a few more fish before the water came up. Again, the fly of the day for him was the Bob White. He also caught a few fish on a bead head Pink Chenille fly that is tied with black thread and wrapped like a Greenie Weenie without the tail on a #12 Scud hook. I don't have a picture of it, but you can look at one of my earlier posts in the TaneyComo forum "Father and Sons annual trip". The picture of me and my Dad with the Brook Trout has this fly hanging out of the fish's mouth.

The smallest I've tied is a #20 and I don't do that on a regular basis. I've had the most success catching fish on #18 and larger.

Bead head Pheasant Tails #12-#16 Black and Copper Zebra Midge #16-#18 BobWhite 1/80th Jig Head with gold hook Hair and Copper #12 - #14

Good report. Welcome to the pleasurable insanity/addiction of fly fishing and fly tying.