DaddyO

I am not a member of any of those organizations, so, I don't know if they are involved in this kind of thing.

Duk, did you land that fish, in the picture, on the lower Illinois? Regardless, nice fish and welcome to the forum.

Maybe changing the divisor to 1000 instead of 775 would yield more accurate results?

Buzz, is that a fish or a football? Congrats!

Disregard my post to your other topic. Chance have give you all the information you will need. I highly recommend that you print out his post and keep it with you when you go to Bass Pro/Cabellas/Local Fly Shop, etc.... Good Job, Chance.

I hear your, brother, and totally agree with you.

Corky, If you are buying flies, I recommend #16-#20 Black and silver Zebra midges, #14-#16 BeadHead Pheasant Tails, #14-#18 sow bugs (gray and brown), Wooly Buggers (white, black, olive) various sizes, San Juan worms various colors and sizes and #14-#18 soft hackles. Good Luck and have fun!

I fished, Saturday, with my Dad, Brother and Nephew. I hit several spots that day. I started out right below the Dam and picked up 5 fish. I moved down river and fished the slack water above the kiddie pool and picked up 15 or more fish. We took a break for lunch and had a Jimbo's Cheeseburger. Headed to T&M and picked up another 10 fish before the turned the water on. There are fish all over this river and I am really enjoying the fishing, right now. I caught several nice fish in the 2lb range. I used to say that was a good fish for this river. However, I am seeing larger fish caught. I realize that we will not have any spawning fish in this river, but, as long as more people will practice good catch and release methods, we could wind up with a very good fishery. All of my fish were caught on the BobWhite, Hair and Copper or Rick Pike's River Crack. My Dad and Brother had a lot of success on Zebra Midges. I forgot to take my camera, so, I don't have any pics for you. Tight Lines.

Pull up Google Maps and see where highway 10 intersects 412. Follow hwy 10 south until you see the Chewey Road. That Road crosses the Illinois River. Where it crosses is the Chewey Bridge. If you stay on that road, it will take you to the small town of Chewey. Blink and you will miss it.

BobWhite Recipe: Hook: 1/80th Lead Head Jig. (You can find it at BassPro) Thread: White 6/0 Body: White Dental Floss (tapered from just above the hook point to the head) I either use white fingernail polish on the lead head or white powder coat. Lay down a thread base. Tie in the Dental floss, about 24 inches of it, and wrap back and forth building a tapered body to the head. Whip finish and coat all of the Dental floss with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails. I fish it under a strike indicator. Try to get as long a drift as possible. Good Luck!

Chance, Put in at the Chewey Bridge. Call the people at Riverside floats and ask if you can take out at their spot. They might even haul you up river and let you park at their facilities, for a fee. But that stretch from Chewey Bridge to Riverside used to be good producer for us. Call me if you want anymore info.

This probably wont be a popular comment but I'll make it anyway. I was in Bass Pro today and they had their 9ft 2 piece 5wt combo on sale for $70. It is a cheaper alternative. Some will say that you get what you pay for, which is a relative statement. I own a couple of these that I use as loaners when I take friends fishing. They are good intro combos. If that is what you are looking for, it's a good deal. If you are looking for more, maybe the St. Croix is a better deal. My 2 cents.

Chance, What section of the river are you seeing the Striper in?

Had a good day and good time fishing today with my brother and nephew. I got down to the river early and fished the tree hole by the island. The hole was full of brush. It completely changes the dynamic of that hole. I used the Hair and Copper and picked up five fish from that hole. Two of them were small browns between 6 and 9 inches. That was a nice surprise. I hope they get a chance to grow bigger and don't just become striper fodder. Next I went up to the deep slack water above the kidde pool. There were a lot of people lined up there and I just went up river to the end of the line and started fishing. I used the BobWhite and picked up ten fish pretty quickly and then they turned off. I switched to the Hair and Copper and it was game on, again. I picked up another 10 fish before my brother called and said they were waiting on me at Jimbo's. I met him and his son there and had a tasty cheeseburger. We headed to the T&M gravel pit with the intention of hiking to the car hole, however, while I was waiting on my brother to gear up, I started fishing the first pool at the gravel pit. We never left the pool. The fish were stacked up there and they were nice size fish. Here is a picture of the largest fish of the day. I think it may be the biggest fish that I have caught on this river. I'm guessing it to be about 3 lbs. Again, it was caught on the Hair and Copper (and safely released to grow bigger)

Put this in google maps and see if it is what you are looking for. "Mineral Fork, Kingston, Washington, Missouri"

Cole, Check out this link: http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/webdata/gagedata/TENO2.current.html If the current level is above 632 the Corps will, generally, open the flow until the lake comes down to 632. You can watch the Inflow CFS column and the Release CFS column to get a little bit of an idea as to how long they will have to generate/flow until the lake level comes down. You can also look at this link to get an idea of how much is going to be flowing into Lake Tenkiller after a good rain in the Upper Illinois watershed.http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07196500 3 to 4 feet is the norm. If it is 5ft or higher, you can just about bet that they will start letting water out on the other end.

I like those sculpins and cdads also. Can you provide recipes for those?

Guys, thanks for the info. I'll actually be staying in Fall Creek Falls State Park and will be open to any fishing opportunity. I'll check into the Caney situation and I'm not opposed to traveling to the Smokies. I just don't know if the family will want to make that drive with me just to watch me fish.

I'm going to be going to Spencer, TN in a few weeks. It is about 3hrs from the Smokey Mountains. I've noticed that there are lots of rivers and streams that are supposed to be stocked with trout. Have any of you guys ever fished this area of the country? If so, do you have any recomendations on rivers, flies to use, etc..?

Zach, It's good to see you posting in the forum again. We haven't heard from you in a while. OTF6, I wish I had time to come down this weekend, but I have family commitments to keep this weekend. Maybe another time. Good luck!

Greg, I like the way that Solo turned out. It is a work of art. The Drift Boat is looking good also. Where are you going to do the maiden voyage?

OTF6, I, actually, have better luck with the Hair and Copper above the Kiddie Pool. Sometimes the BobWhite works but the Hair & Copper looks more bug-like and generally produces better. The BobWhite seems to do better in about 4ft of water with a very slow to slow current. It sounds like you had a good day. I wish I could've been down there with ya! Phil

Chance, Where did you guys park to access the river that far down by PSO? Did you park in the Pedestrian bridge parking lot and hike all the way down there? Thanks, Phil

Fished the island area Friday morning. Caught lots of fish. They seemed to be a little smaller. However, I did catch one nice one before lunch. Went to the Watts area after lunch and caught another one that was bigger than the previous nice one. I didn't get a picture of that one. I dropped it before my buddy could snap the picture. Here's a pic of the first one that was caught in the Kiddie Pool above the island. This is the first fish that I have fought that actually jumped up over the rocks and tried to break me off and then went up river. I let her run and then brought her back down into the pool and finally landed her. What a lot of fun!! Hair and Copper and BobWhite, again, were the big producers. I tried lots of different midges in various sizes while my buddy stuck with the Hair and Copper. He outfished me 2 to 1. I wound up with about 25 fish for the day and he ended up with about 45 fish. Which was fine with me as it was his first time out this year. He had a blast. We both did.

Wow! Great information! Thanks,