DaddyO

Guys, Thanks for the input. I've decided to go with the 2 piece rod. I'm purchasing the cabellas rod and reel combo on the cheap and on sale for $90 bucks. I figure, if I really get into fishing for striper and am not satisfied with this rod, I can always purchase a higher end setup. If I decide that I don't like the striper fishing experience then I've only lost $90 bucks. Again, thanks for all of the input. You guys are great.

I'm going to get a 9ft 8wt rod to begin my adventure of fly fishing for Stripers. I'm wondering what's the difference between a 2 piece rod and a 4 piece rod (besides the obvious answer of 2 more pieces). Is there a benefit of having 4 pieces vs 2 pieces?

Dan-o, Pull up Google Maps and type in From Cassvile, MO to Crane, MO. Just go to the City Park and fish behind the ball fields or follow the creek around and fish it.

When you say "score them up", what does that mean? I think one of you guys should do a youtube vidoe on how to clean suckers.

Hey! Don't Sir me!! I was wanting to go to Gore Saturday. I just noticed that they have their site working again and have also posted Fridays schedule which is 2 generators from midnight to midnight. I'm hoping the shut it down for the weekend. If they do, I'm going to go to Gore, if not I'll probably spend the weekend doing honey-do's. BTW - I found that TFO/BPS Hobbs combo that you referred to on the Arkansas River forum. I think that I will get that and tie up some more striper flies to prepare for a few jaunts over to the low water dam after work on a few evenings.

Thanks, Chance. I have that one already. It tells me what it is currently doing but it doesn't tell me what's scheduled. I like to look at the SWPA site to get an idea of how the flow for the day will be so I can decide whether or not I want to drive to Gore. They haven't posted for Thursday either and when I call the number they say 2 generators from 12 midnight to 12 midnight. We must've gotten a lot of water from those storms. This will be the 4th day in a row that they have had both generators going all day.

I've been, periodically, checking the SWPA Generation Website to see what the schedule is for Today. It hasn't been updated and is still showing Wednesday, March 25th. What's up with that?

Speaking of cleaning. I've never caught a spoonbill and I was wondering, how would you clean a spoonbill? Is there anything different about it?

Maybe I read that wrong. That looked like it said that I could buy a nonresident annual fishing license for 2.00 or I could buy a 3 day trip permit for 2.00. I must have read that wrong. Why would I buy a 3 day when I could get an annual for the same price.

I came across this Map of the Lower Illinois. I thought I would post it for you guys. LowerIllinoisRiver.pdf

Hopper and OKFlyFisher44, What type of equipment are you guys using to fish for Stripers? I have tied up some Deceivers and Clousers in the colors that you've mentioned. But, what weight Rod are you guys using? Will my 5wt Rod work?

Hopper, Nice Fish!! I'm going to have to get over there soon. Maybe this weekend depending on the weather.

I just talked to Zac. I told him about the brown fly. He said it was called a "Hair and Copper". Now I know what to call it.

Great Pics. It looks like you'all were having fun. It's good when the fish cooperate and play their part also.

Here are a few pictures. All 28 fish were caught on these 2 flies and most of the fish were the size of the 15 incher pictured in the net. The brown fly caught the most fish but I don't know what it's called. The white fly is called a BobWhite and is tied on a 1/80th jig head with white 6/0 thread as a base and wrapped with white Dental Floss. I was really surprised that this caught fish.

I fished with my brother and another friend (Ted) today. I had tied up a dozen of the Dental Floss BobWhite jigs and I divided them up amongst us. We fished the Watts area first. My brother and Ted fished just down river from the trout chute and I fished up river from it. I forgot my glasses in the truck and had to tie my flies on my line using my 47 year old eyes that are great for everything but reading and threading hooks. I threw some midges and pheasant tails and didn't get any hits. I tied on the BobWhite and caught 10 fish in the 12 to 15 inch range. We took a short break to warm up and my brother and Ted decided to call it a day. I moved up river to the First turn off on the road to the dam and fished the pool with the BobWhite. I caught 2 there and then moved up river above the pool in the open water. I tried the BobWhite there but didn't get any takers so I switched to a fly that worked the week before and caught 16 more fish in the 14 to 16 inch range. I don't know what this fly is called. I was just messing around trying to teach myself how to use dubbing. (I'm still a newbie to fly tying) I'll try to post a picture of it. Here's how I tie it. Thread: 6/0 Brown Hook: #12 Scud hook Bead: Copper colored Tungsten Bead Tail: Pheasant Tail fibers or Deer Body hair Rib: Copper wire Body: Brown Dubbing I just tie in the tail and the copper wire. Then I make a dubbing loop, tie in the loop and move the thread to the front. Then I wrap the dubbing to the back of the bead and tie it off. Next I create the rib with the copper wire and tie it off. Whip finish and it's done.

Yes. I've tied this fly. It worked well on the Lower Illinois river, here in Oklahoma. I tied it with a brown worm, brown thread and yellow and pink egg.

OKFlyFisher44, How was the fishing? I was thinking about going yesterday but decided to tie some flies instead.

Fly, I'm glad to see that you joined. I think that you will enjoy this site. There are some very friendly and knowledgeable individuals that post here. Go ahead and take the plunge and post in the new member introduce your self forum. It was a very rewarding day. My brother went down to the river the following day. He ran into the same gentleman that we talked to who was leaving when we got there. I thought the guy looked familiar. It turns out that he and my brother have a mutual friend. Anyway, they fished that same area that we were fishing (the Watts Area). He said that almost all of the fish that they caught were 17 to 18 inches. They caught the majority of their fish on a fly, that the older guy ties using Dental Floss, called a Bob White. I tied a couple up based on a conversation with my Brother. If it is the right thing, I'll post a pic with instructions.

Had a pretty good day fishing below the Dam today. I didn't get there until about Noon and I expected there to be a lot of people there. For some reason, there were only about 3 cars in the parking lot. There were only about 10 people within eyesight of me. A few more showed up later but it really wasn't croweded at all. Met a nice guy while I was there and it turned out that we were from the same town. I invited him to the forum. Maybe he'll turn up. Together, we caught about 40 or 50 fish. The water was a little low, no generation all day and it was crystal clear. I caught a couple of fish on a Pheasant Tail. Picked up 3 or 4 more on a black Zebra Midge. Caught about 18 or 19 on a Bead Head GRHE. With about an hour left of daylight, we moved down river to the Watts area. When we got there a hatch was coming off in clouds. The fish were going crazy and it looked like there were so many fish that you could've walked across the water on their backs but I couldn't get them to hit anything that I put on top. I finally switched to the fly that we fished the One Fly tournament with and caught a couple of fat ones. I forgot my camera or I would've posted a few pics. I'll try to remember it the next time.

Go to this website to check the flows. http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx You will have to look around 5pm or 5:30pm on Thursday to see the forecasted flows for Friday.

WOW!! Nice fish, MC. When the fish are that big, fishing becomes a Team Sport. Congrats to you on the catch with a nice assist to Net Boy!!

Interesting post and interesting comments. Along with 3 other partners, I own a couple of small businesses in the Tulsa, OK area. We have been diligently working to grow our businesses. None of the partners were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We have worked hard to be where we are. It is true that there is generally a "back story". My partners and I have all had to put our homes on the line to secure loans to grow our company. We have since, retired those loans. There have been times that we have lived off of our credit cards because we couldn't afford to pay ourselves and pay our employees so we chose our employees over ourselves. I can remember going 6 months without taking any money home. Of the 4 partners, 2 of us have taken other jobs and taken the burden of our salaries off of the company. Our choice was to layoff some of our "valued employees" or layoff ourselves. We chose to layoff ourselves and try to lookout for the best interest of our "valued employees" and their families. Based on some of the comments I've seen posted, I'm guessing that our management style is not the norm. We are all Christian men and we value God and Family. We view our "valued employees" as assets and I'm happy to say that they are as fiercely loyal to us as we are to them. Our business has been blessed and we are in a growth state during a down economy. I pray that it continues to follow that trend and that we can offer employment and stability to other families. Regards, DaddyO

Ditto to what Grant Miller said. I've only been to RR twice, but, both times I stopped by Tim's Fly Shop and Tim was spot-on with his advice. In addition to good advice, Tim also has good products. As long as you are stopping by to see him, give him your business too.

Greg, Nice fish. You look cold. I wanted to be out there also but I had church and family obligations. Did you catch those on clousers? What color were you throwing?