Fishing Report 11/13/2010

[DaddyO]

Well, it's been a while since the Lower Illinois has had some wadeable water on the weekend. I saw that this was going to happen according to the generation schedule Friday evening. I also noticed that it was going to be cold Saturday morning. The combination created a "Perfect Storm". (Wadeable water and no crowd)

I left the house early, for me, 5:15am. Ran though Mickey D's for a couple of Sausage Burritos and a Bottle of Water. (I'm on a diet and had to stop drinking my Dr. Peppers) Anyway, I pulled into the grassy parking lot below the Dam at 6:30am and was geared up and on the water 15 minutes later. I had a short leader of about 5ft of 4lb test from a previous pond hopping trip. Rather than tie on new leader and tippet, I decided to tie on one of Leonards Olive Hibernators. I walked across the up river tip of the island and hit the stump water below the kiddie pool. I stripped out some line and tossed the fly into the water right in front of a downed tree. I started stripping it as soon as it hit the water and a nice little Rainbow slammed it immediately!! 1 drift, 1 fish. What a way to start the day. After 5 fish in 5 drifts, I soon realized that this was going to be a good day.

I eventually lost the Hibernator to a hard hitting Rainbow. By that time, I'd caught about 10 fish and was getting a little tired. I decided to tie on a Hair and Copper under and indicator, thinking that I'd be able to fish a little slower than the fast and furious streamer fishing. I was wrong. The fish imediatley began hitting the Hair and Copper nymph which broke off a couple of fish later. (I forgot to mention that I tied on a new leader and 6x tippet) After catching a few more fish and losing another Hair and Copper, I decided to tie Rick Pikes River Crack. The fish were actually fighting each other to get to this fly!!

I decided to move up river after losing the River Crack. I wasn't too disappointed to lose the fly. I'd already caught another 3 or 4 fish on it. So, I decided to tie on a BobWhite and see if I could get any interest in the Kiddie Pool. There were two guys working the pool. One young guy, having some C&R success on a San Juan worm and one old guy fishing Power Bait and keeping fish for the frying pan. It turns out the old guy was sharing his faith with anybody within listening distance. The young guy got tired of listening and left. I had a nice conversation with the old gentleman. Turns out that it was his 83rd birthday. He said that he'd been "Com'in down here for over 50 years! Of course, when you get my age all you can do is sit on a bucket and fish. Sometimes I fall off of my bucket!" I told him that falling off the bucket was better than kicking the bucket!

I fished the BobWhite in the pool for a while and landed several more fish. The old man had struck another faith conversation with another young angler. It was nice to see the young guy being patient and respectfull with the old guy. It made me smile. I fished the big water above the Kiddie Pool, but it was too slow. So, I clipped off the BobWhite and tied on a BeadHead White Wooly Bugger with Grizly Hackle. That was my fly of choice for the rest of the day. I used this fly to fish the shallow water right above the Kiddie Pool. After landing 4 more fish, I moved to the rocks right above the Kiddie Pool. Casting my line to the very back of the pool, I stripped the bugger back to me. It was running shallow and I could see the fish swipe and miss it. When they hit it, it was a blast! I caught several more nice fish doing this.

Needing a little break from casting and stripping, I reeled in my line and walked down river to the trees, again. Being a glutton for punishment, I threw the bugger in amongst the stumps. I picked up 4 more fish before, finally, losing the bugger. At that point, my stomach began telling me that it was time for some nourishment. Looking at my phone clock, I determined that it was 11:00am. Seemed like a good time to break for lunch and head home.

I grabbed a "Bunless" Burger at Jimbo's (remember the diet?) and headed home. Beautiful Fall day and great fishing. What a day!!

I didn't take any pics. All of the fish were between 10 and 15 inches.

[On The Fly 6]

Sounds like a great time, wish I couldve been on the river that day. Plus, I love listening to stories from the old and wise!