DaddyO

I have a question for the Brain Trust of Fly Tying Gentlemen of this Forum. I am venturing into the craft of Fly Tying and I want to make sure that I have an adequate supply of material and the proper tools to begin. My uncle sold me his Renzetti Traveler Vise (never used and still in the bubble wrap) and all the materials and tools that he had for $100. It wasn't a lot of material, so, I've been researching Threads, Hooks, Yarns, etc... I'm even more confused now than I was when I started. In the past posts that I have read, you Gentlemen have listed some of the flies that you think should be stock "go to" flies for the waters listed on this forum. My question is, what materials do I need to purchase to tie all of these flies? At this point, I don't kow 6/0 from 3/0. I have looked at a lot of the Fly Recipes on the forum as well as other boards. I've also watched a lot of youtube fly tying videos. So, naively, I think that I'm ready to begin. I just need you guys to point me in the right direction regarding material and any other "sage advice" you want to share. Thanks in advance.

That's righteous living paying off!!!

What a Day!! I pulled into the Dam access and put on my waders and tied on some new tippet. I didn't get on the river until about 9am. I threw to a few runs but without success. I definitely wasn't throwing what they were wanting. That "Goin' Throwin'" phrase that I used in the first post was starting to haunt me. To make matters worse, there was a water turkey in the water chasing fish. He was catchin them, so, at least I knew they were in there. Then I had an oriental family walk right into my backcast and crowd me out of the hole that I was fishing. I thought, oh well, I'll just move on. Then I saw this young man making his way upstream on the other side of the river. He started jumping from rock to rock making his way over to one of the runs that I had fished with no luck. The young man got into position and flipped his line into the water and started high sticking his nymph through the water. After a few casts, he had a fish on!! It wasn't a big fish but he was still a lot more productive than I had been and had done it in a fraction of the time. I'll have to say, it was very impressive. I made my way upstream and across from the young man. I asked him how he had been doing. He said that he had been there a couple of hours and had caught a couple of dozen. I then put 2 and 2 together and said, "Your name isn't Zach Bearden, is it?" He said, "Yes sir", and then made his way over to my side of the river. Zach turned me on to the right color for the day, "Pink" of all colors. I hear it's the new Black. haha He gave me one of his Pink "Frenchie's" and I commenced to losing it trying to set the hook in a fish and instead setting the hook in the upper branches of a tree in my backcast. After a few moments of self pitty, it occured to me that I had a supply of Pink Micro Jigs. I tied one of those on and put on a strike indicator (Hey! I'm not as good as Zach. I need a little assistance at identifying the strike) We went back downstream to the first turnoff on the Dam Access road and fished the other side of the island. I caught a few before Zach left. I then made my way back up to the Kiddie pool and caught a few out of there. I fished that same Pink micro jig until there were just a few threads and maribou left on the thing. It was so productive, I couldn't make myself throw it away, so, I stuck it in my fly vest to remember the day. I fished until dark. It was the best day that I've had on the river in a long time. I lost track of the number of fish that I caught somewhere between 30 and 40. About six of those were on a few flies that Zach gave me before he left. By the way, Zach, they were all productive. Zach, it was a pleasure meeting you and fishing with you. We'll have to hook up again sometime.

Well boys, this is probably the last opportunity that I am going to get to go fishin before the end of the year. So, I am going to get up Saturday morning and head out of Owasso, OK and hit the Lower Illinois river. The OWDC was supposed to have stocked the river again on the 3rd and hopefully the colder weather and football games will provide me with the opportunity to fish some good water without too much competition. Hopefully I will be goin' fishin' and not just goin' throwin'!!

How did you do? I could see pods of them too. I just couldn't get them interested in anything that I had to throw at them.

Zach, I should've checked the forum before I left. I would've stopped and picked you up. I went today. It was pretty crowded and it was cold. I caught 2 fish once I was able to get into a hole. One was a nice fish (couple of pounds) Olive wooly bugger was the trick. I used my camera on my phone to take a picture of the fish and didn't realize that I had to SAVE the picture until later when I couldn't find it. bummer.

My brother called me this morning and said that his buddy C&R'd about 75 fish on Wednesday and about 100 fish this morning. All on black wooly buggers and black zebra midges.

I was thinking "Yeeeee Haawwww". Then the thought occured to me that maybe that is what the stripers are thinking too!!

Thanks for the advice. I've seen the Beavers Bend Flyshop message board and have even registered on it. However, for some reason, I still cannot post a topic on it. I do frequent the board but it is not as active as this one is.

I'm going with my Dad and Brothers to fish the Lower Mountain Fork at Beaver's Bend State Park. This will be the first time that I've gone there. We are going the weekend of the 25th of October. Have any of you fished this water? What should I expect? How does it compare to fishing the Norfork Tailwaters?

Bob, Thank you for sharing this story with us. It brought back fond memories of hunts with my Dad, Brothers and Uncles behind some fine dogs.

Peal's. That's it. Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll look into Gene's also.

Getting ready for our annual Father and Sons fishing trip in October. Does anyone know the name of the Motel on Hwy 177 by Quarry Park? Is it open? What's the phone number? I think it's called the Pearl or something like that. Then again, I could be dreaming.

If you want to pay to fish, you could try this place. http://www.chimneyrockhollowok.com/About.html

Guys, What's the water clarity like? I noticed that the Generation schedule looks like they are dropping it off around 11pm until around 1pm the next day. Do you think they will keep that schedule throughout the week? I guess, I'll keep an eye on it. Right now, I'm planning on fishing there on Wednesday. I'm introducing my boss to fly fishing. He has always wanted to try it and even has a fly rod; but has never been. Hopefully, we will have a day of low generation with enough time to get him on some fish.

Brother, I hear you. I'm a desk jockey during the week and I live vicariously through the members on this forum until I can actually make it down to the river. I've been religiously watching the generation schedule and the water levels on the Upper and Lower Illinois. My Boss has a fly rod but has never been fly fishing nor has he ever floated the Upper Illinois and fished fro the smallies. Sometime during the week of the 7th I'm taking him to the Upper for smallies or Lower for trout depending on conditions. Good luck to you. I hope you eventually get to feed your habit.

Tim, it was great meeting you too. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us and share your insider information. It was much appreciated. I would've liked to have spent more time looking around your shop but I could hear the fish sirens calling my name. However, I did take time to make a purchase and I am now the proud owner of a "Tim's Flyshop" cap.

Sunday morning, my Dad and I visited the Crane Creek for the first time. We had the new map (Thanks to Phil and Tim) and advice from Tim to go in by the Ball fields. I'll have to say the we hooked more trees than we did fish but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were having no luck with the fish. Then we decided to go against the recommended methods and actually wade the creek. That is when we got into the fish. I drifted a hare's ear downstream and hooked a nice one that took to the air twice, dove under the bank once and definitely used the current to his advantage to work himself free. Fishing the Crane Creek was a "Bucket List" item for my Dad. So, I sent him down the creek ahead of me. He added some weight to a Prince Nymph and drifted it into a deep pool and was instantly rewarded with a hookup of a really nice fish. My visual realtime scale placed it at about 2 lbs. This being a "Bucket List" experience, I was busy taking pictures when he said "Get the net!!". Setting the camera aside, I pulled the net from it's handy magnet clasp and prepared for the netting process. Had I been smart enough to work my way around and downstream of the action, I would have a picture for this post. Unfortunately, the fish escaped. We waded further down the stream. Dad hooked a couple of more fish. Each time I was ready with the camera when they escaped. I have since determined that the fish in Crane Creek must be camera shy!

In the Tulsa area, Elmer's has the best BBQ sauce, hands down. If I'm buying an Off-the-shelf brand, I stick with Head Country BBQ.

Tim, Thanks for posting the report and pictures. I'm coming from the Tulsa area with my Dad on Friday evening the 20th. We plan on fishing the 21st and 22nd. I've never fished the Roaring River and I am anxious to give it a try. My Dad and Uncle have fished and camped at the park many times and really enjoyed it. I have enjoyed reading all of your posts and have turned my Dad on to your fly tying examples on photobucket. He is new to the whole Internet experience but is a quick study on everything that he does. We will stop by your shop when we are down. I look forward to more reports. Keep up the good work!

This is the site that I go to. http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx If you check the next day's link about 5pm they normally have the schedule posted.

Another good one, Terry. Thanks for sharing.

Terry, that was a good read. It was good to see something new. I've read all of your others. They allow this desk jockey to dream of summers in the sun with fishing rod in hand and brothers and cousins to compete against. Keep 'em coming!!

Has anyone fished the lower Illinois lately? I noticed that the generation schedule was zero yesterday and today. I was wondering if that is because of all of the rain or is the river wadeable?

Sounds like you had a good day. I'm anxious to see your response on how you fished the bugger. My brother is headed over there with a group of friends tomorrow. When you answer the bugger question can you also tell us how the water conditions are? Clear or cloudy, up, down or normal, fast, slow or normal.