jdmidwest

Fired up and ready to leave. Packed to NW airlines standards with a few pounds to spare. Driving to TN after work tomorrow and catching the plane at Memphis on Sat. May drop by and look for Elvis while I go thru. Had to pick up a catfish pole, my buddy has lost his faith in the fly rod. Last time the spinning rods never came out. I don't plan on it this time unless we hit the open water of the ocean and need to fling a spoon. I am sure the fly fishing will be fine. The rivers are getting some rain and the forcast is for more next week. The salmon were needing some more water to start pushing up stream. The fish gods are working right for the streams I have planned. I will see all new waters this trip if everything goes as planned. The nice thing about our trip, no schedules, no reservations, no place to be. Touch down in Alaska, pick up a rental car, and go fishing. Just good friends having a good time in the best waters in the US. I will post if I hit a wireless connection, maybe even send a few pics. Otherwise, I will catch up in about 10 days or so.

Never will know?? What did the mechanics say was wrong with it?

Does any one have a pattern for the PMS fly? I assume it is blood red.....

I posted a while back about the same thing. Ed Story would have had the patent on the pattern if there was such a thing. Although, Feather-Craft has deviated from the original pattern over the years, you would only have to look at the current catalog/newsletter for the current materials necessary. The pattern from the original "MO. Trout Flies, How to Tye them and Fish Them" 1991 edition 2 is as follows: Size 12 dry fly hook Prewaxed 8/0 or 6/0 thread 2 strands peacock herl for back Spin Dubbed pale olive synthetic material Flyrite #41 Furnace hackle I have always thought the pattern resembles the Catalapa worm in coloration, a deadly bait if anyone has ever used them as live bait. Ed calls the pattern a Dry Wooly, but later on he refers to a method of skating them subsurface like a wet fly. I always grease them good and fish them dry. I use a yellow micro chenille for the body in lieu of the dubbing.

Thanks for the report, it helps on the decision on where to go. I was wanting to go north to the Montana Creek. I am interested in the Quartz and did a little research, we might give it a try. All tyed up and getting ready to go. Spent the weekend tying flies and picking up the last few items for the trip. Time to pack up the tying stuff for the trip. Any last minute patterns? You mentioned the Parks Highway streams, which ones did you fish? Last trip, we had 2 out of 7 days that had good sun. The rest was overcast and sprinkles. But you could fish in it. Only one afternoon at Skilak and a few hours at the Russian was a washout and I spent the afternoon in the tent reading and snoozing.

1 week and 2 days or less and I am getting pumped. Our area is getting up in the 70's of a day and the 20 Mile river is spiking a little during the heat of the day according to USGS due to melting of the glacier. Fishing report from John shows good runs of Pinks, Reds, Chums and a few Silvers coming in good. 70 degrees will be a nice break, my readout at 2:00 on the truck in the shade was 101. Last weekend at home, tying flies and getting stuff together. Other backup streams looking good, Russian River is just now getting peak Red run. Talkeetna area is doing good on the Silvers. Time flies when you are gonna have fun....

Feather-Craft in STL used to sell Awesome Possum that was great for buggy nymphs. Great material for scuds.

A man would be a fool not to fish the cool waters of the 11 pt in weather like this. The springs keep the temp of the water low enough and the trout feed good this time of year unlike other streams in MO. You will probably run into a few trout feeding on some kind of a hatch this time of year. Alot of other trout streams are too warm for the fish to get turned on to feeding in this kind of weather except around major springs. I know Lane Springs and the Little Piney are pretty well turned off in this type of heat. Take a stream thermometer and check temps. Anything around 60 or 70 is usually shutting off time. Early mornings or late afternoons is the best. Fish shut in areas where canopy or bluffs shade the water most of the time.

I agree, Java or Visual would be the key ones. What college are you looking at that offers COBOL any more, that was pretty well gone back in the 80's except for some unix apps. Never been much of a programmer. too boring. I like support or hardware. I have always had a knack for looking at a new piece of software and figuring it out. And my electronics background helps in hardware. But currently I sell stuff for a living and am not using my 22 years of computer experience. Your best bet will be to go to ITT or IET that specializes in this kind of stuff with a accelerated program and good placement. Most colleges will not get you far in the IT world unfortunately. Most everything in the future will involve Internet based apps, Java, Visual (Basic?), and other web based progs are the ones to know.

A bag of sand or rocks would do well and would not snag as easy. A short piece of pvc pipe with 2 ends filled with some form of weight is what I use. I put an eyebolt in one end to tie to. I usually anchor only in still water and try to use vegetation or a tree, limb, or rock to rest against in moving water.

I used to take descriptions and walk back to the hatchery and wait for an agent to show up. I have a low tolerance to blatant game violations, they are stealing from me and you and they just put me in a bad mood. There are times it is not worth the hassle like Sunday. Most of the time a glare or some extra attention on my part usually gets them to move along or revert to legal methods. Verbal confrontation is usually bad, I will say something if someone appears to not know the area regs and have been thanked for it. I fished the lower part of Bennett Springs with a fly not realizing that there was a bait required area till someone pointed it out. And if you have ever fished the park at the horn, I am sure everyone can remember some newbie walking up and starting to fish while everyone is half cocked waiting for the horn. If there was an agent fishing thru the fly area every Sat or Sunday, they could have a good revenue and stop some of the crap. And we would probably have more trout in the long run. But, they are probably looking for titties and beer violations on the lower Current, Meramec, Niagua, Huzzah, or other NPS rivers. With their powers, they can go anywhere and have better powers of search and seizure than most local law enforcement or Highway Patrolman. They get diverted to other jobs other than game violations. This time of year, they should be concentrating on fishing violations as hunting is still to come barring the spotlighters.

I waded this trip. I have seen people float thru the park. One time they put in at the handicap access, another time was the lowater bridge. Park officials got pretty excited about it.

Drove up and camped Saturday night with some friends and fished below Baptist access on Sat afternoon. Pretty slow, only fished for a couple of hours. River was low and full of swimmers at the access. They had the stream muddied up somehow. I awoke before the horn on Sun, drank my coffee, showered, relaxed and started fishing at 8. I started in the C&R for the first hour and caught a few. Not much to it since you can reach across it with your arm, the fish all pile up. My first encounter with another fisherman was the hole below the spring hole. It was a father/son spinfishing combo standing in the head of the hole drifting down stream. I started well below them and watched for a while. Dad would replenish the bait on the hook from a little jar in his vest. When dad would stick a fish, he would hand the rod to his son to reel it in. Seems like dad already had 4 fish so he was done. He filled his sons stringer and they were done. At least they did not keep too many fish. For those that have not caught on, I was in the Flies only area! Funny thing that really torqued me was when son asked why it was fly fishing only, Joe the flyfisher had only caught one during this time, and he could not understand why I was fly fishing. Dad replyed that he could not figure out why the area was for flyfishers either and they went on their way probably to change clothes and catch another limit somewhere else. Meanwhile, downstream on the bluff, "guy who forgot his waders" was fishing the bluff side and hollering at his buddy across the stream the whole time. Another group with a dog and 3 kids was wading upstream from the hole below. As the hole cleared out leaving only "guy who forget his waders" on the bank, I worked my way down. He spotted me and tromped up the opposite bank to fish in front of me. As this seemed to turn fish off, I moved further down stream. Here he come and started to cast his plastic jig in front of me. His other nickname was "too stupid to land a fish?, as he broke off a couple while I fished the hole. Me being of higher intellect, I remember that I can fish other holes and I dropped down to the next hole where he would have to get wet. I fished it for a while and was doing well. A teenage kid came to fish there and broke off a fish. He was "guy who forget his waders" kid and he returned with his dad to try to catch the fish that had his lure in its mouth. They decorated another fish before we bumped elbows and I went down stream. The crowds all left and most of the idiots, leaving a stream full of good sized fish. I had a very good day on Sat landing around 40 fish and 5 in the 16-18 inch range. Monday was better, the first hole I rolled into was dimpled with rising trout. I spotted some small light colored flies floating in the seam of feeding trout and tied on a CDC Cahill size 18. It worked well and I played around the hole for a while. I worked up to the next hole and was trying to work my way around a guy fishing from the bank when he motioned me in front of him. He was so excited to tell me he had released a 5 lb fish before I got there. He was spinfishing with a purple and red plastic grub. He was the only violater that I run across on Monday, but I did not see too many people. I had the fly area to myself for the most part and had a ball. Most of the fish were on drys, beetles, coachmans, and other flys that had not been out of the box for a while. None of the circus that is a part of the weekends. Monday afternoon, I had an opportunity to fish a bamboo rod I picked up on Ebay. It is a Horrocks Ibbotson Governor series 8.5 ft 3pc. It was mint when I got it except a broken tip on the spare section. A friend of mine cautioned me that it may fly apart if it was not well taken care of. I started out with a 5wt line in the C&R area with a beetle pattern. I got into the rhythm of the rods and stated laying out a good cast. I released a 16" and 15" rainbow and a 18" brown with it along with a few smaller bows. Not a creak out of the rod and I am in love. Gotta have some more bamboo. Looking for some old Heddon or Herters. I may get a new Orvis. All in all, sure beat working a Monday stress day. I just wish the MDC would make it harder on the violaters. One generation just passes it along to the next and my kid will have to deal with them later.

Was doing a search for Everglow material for my Alaska flies and this website popped up, Cascade Crest Tools. Not wanting to just order a few materials, I poked around and found alot of interesting materials and tools. Service was excellent, prices were great, and they sent me a sampler pack of some of their materials. Nasty little trick on the part of the sales staff, the stuff in the sampler looks better in person than on the web so another order will have to be placed to get some of them. Not wanting to step on any retail shops toes on here, I am over 100 miles from any flyshop, so I order most of my material. I have become a J Stockard customer as the results of reports on another web forum, Flytyingforum.com, and have been impressed with their products and service. Here is a Link to Cascade Crest Tools

It starts near Fredricktown MO and ends at the Diversion Channel near Cape Girardeau. Wading waters are above HWY 34 in Bollinger County. Google it or look on the MDC website, they maintain several accesss and own alot of public land around it.

Akers Ferry and below for smallies. There are a few above in the trout area, but the smallies start below Akers. It is not that far of a drive below Montauk.

Great info, there was a shortage of grayling info last time. Our friend had never targeted them. We plan to stay overnight in the Talkeetna area this trip, last time we just drove up and fished it for the afternoon. Now I know what to look for. Have a great trip.

I floated the Castor River 2 weeks back. Been too busy to post a report. Taking the night off tying Alaska Flies to catch up. We set up camp and I put in the middle part for a float. I remembered why I first bought a kayak, if my buddies could not make it, I can still float. That is what happened and I set out on my own. The float fished pretty poor, the previous day, the local stream teams had went thru picking up trash out of the river. It may have affected the fishing. It may have been the low flows due to the drought. I had lost a good one in a tree filled bend, probably 16" or better. I drifted into this long hole with a bluff on the right side and lots of rocks on the bottom. I cast the Rapala J9 gold and black in front of the kayak several yards and the water erupted. For several minutes, I had a motor pulling me around. I guided the boat with the rod and fish till I made it to the shallows. I brought him into the boat and took the pic. I laid him on the paddle and measured it when I got back. 20"+ and estimated 3-4 lbs. Nicest fish of the season so far. The rest of the day was uneventful, just a wonderful day on the stream. The temps were nice and the humidity was low. A great July weekend.

Ak, let me know how the Sue fishes. I want to go back to Montana Creek this time. I have read that there are grayling there but did not catch any last time . We did catch some pretty bows there. Any thoughts on the where the grayling may be on that stream? Good luck.

This will be the second trip for me and the fourth trip that I have tyed for and not been. I have tyed a large selection of flies to cover all bases up there except for the Russian River special. It is tyed with bucktail and was cheaper to buy onsite than to tye myself. My other posts show some specific flies, this one has all of the others. Various egg patterns, some with crystal flash, some with egg yarn, some with chenille. I have to tye or make some hot glue eggs. I have a bunch of beads. Other patterns include various flash patterns, comets, egg sucking wooleys, and the pink fly. The pink fly was the other good fly for the silvers. I don't know the name of the Pink Fly but here is the recipe. Targus #2 hook Pink maribou for the tail Pink estaz for the body Pink saddle hackle Lead or Bead chain eyes Flour orange medium chenille for the head

This one is a new one this trip. I did not have any last time. Internet searches and Feather-Craft in STL recommends them for the silvers. It is the lure for the work class record fish I believe. Its the Davis Spanker in various colors and forms. I tyed them in a variety of colors and styles, some with lead eyes, bead chain eyes, no eyes. I used a holographic flash material I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few years back for the tail. It was Christmas Icicles. Looks great and works great. Davis Spanker Ice chenille in various colors Pearlescent Tail material Some kind of weight Targus #2 Nymph hooks

This pattern was a killer last time on the Silvers (COHO). I tyed them on too weak of a hook and straightened them out. This time, I used a heavier hook. I had trouble finding the Everglow material, Cascade Crest Tools carries it and they have some other hard to find stuff. They also have a few great tools, cheap. Like some of my other flies, it glows in the dark, emitting in a frequency that seems to attract fish. Extremely helpful in glacier waters or muddied streams Alaskan Everglow Everglow Tubing Material, medium, red or green Targus 3761 Nymph Hooks Size 2 .35 lead wire Flour. Thread, Wapsi 70 To tye the fly, cut a piece of the tubing about 2" longer than the hook and remove the center filler. Tye the lead in and run the thread to the back of the hook. Fray out 1" of the Everglow and slip it on the hook, tye off and whip finish the back of the hook to make the tail. Scrunch up the remaining material on the hook, re-tye the thread at the eye. Fray out the front of the material and pull it back over the eye, leaving some of the material solid to form the body. Tye in the front at the eye, fold over the frayed material to make a wing, form a head and finish off. You can add some spay hackle or just leave it all Everglow. I have pics both ways. Save the filler material, it works great on dry spinners and winging material.

Been tying alot lately and missing out on alot of stream fishing. It's tough to sit out a 97 degree day in the AC and tye flies. This part will cover the bunny flies. I purchase whole skins from Hobby Lobby and cut the strips myself. The ginger ones are tough to find, but a $4 to $6 skin tyes alot of flies compared the the small packets you buy at a fly shop. I still used those for some colors. Egg Sucking Bunny Leech #2 Mustad 3366 Hook Crosscut Rabbit in Purple, Ginger, Black Thread color to match 6/0 McFly Foam Egg Yarn Mcroe .35 lead wire Carcass, Flesh Flies #2 Mustad 3366 Hook Crosscut Rabbit in White, Ginger, Grey 6/0 Thread .35 lead wire

Any reports on the hot flies this season? I leave out the 18th for the 20 mile river near Girdwood. I am in the thick of tying up flies for the group.

Technical in equipment only. If you dunk around here, you walk back to the truck. If you see a meth head coming down the river in a stagger, you can avoid him around here. In Alaska, you dunk in glacier water, it can be critical. If you see a Grizzly charging down the stream, it can be critical. The fishing is great and the equipment is upscale from down here. The temps and and the climate is great this time of year. If I break something here, I go replace it. Up there, I am screwed if it happens and we will be a long way from help or a store. Last time, I had a weak tent, 40 degree bag, mostly cotton clothing, neoprene waders, and cheap raingear. The temps were down in the 20's of a night and the winds were in the 30 mph range. All of the equipment would do well around here, but up there it was marginal. I will be better prepared this time and more comfortable. I look forward to the post. Any special patterns doing well this year? I am tying for 2 and will be targeting the trout, dollies, and silvers. If the rain blows us out, we can find other things to do. We will have a rental car and camping gear. We could wander north or south. I hope to hit the 20 Mile river, Russian, and Montana Creek at least. I want some grayling this time so we may venture farther north and take a better look at Denali. I read today that a new alpine trail just was improved at Girdwood, a hike may be nice also, it will be close to "base camp".