I Need Help! How Can I Catch Trout On Flies?

[Basketbreaker]

Hi all,

First time poster here. I am a grad student at the university of tulsa and have been in Oklahoma for a bit over a year and a half now but only just discovered the lower illinois trout. Since discovering the river(last monday) I have fished it 3 times, last monday, yesterday(stupid turbines) and today. I can get plenty of fish on small panther martins on 4lb test. Today i probably got 20-30 fish, with only 2 rainbows which were of any size. The rest were all small brown trout. I was surpised with the browns since i thought the numbers would be more skewed towards rainbows.

Well anyways, i also am a rather amateur fly fisherman, mostly for panfish. I am originally from Chicago and never did much river fishing, especially for trout. I have done some trout fishing in the Appalachians and Rockys with some success with a guide. However, I find this river to be considerably differnt than any other trout stream I have seen. I tried with resonable effort to hook up with my flys, used woolly buggers, a parachute fly thing, and a midge under an indicator. As far as I could tell, I never got a single bite. I did get some followers on the woolly but thats about it.

So how do you fly fisherman fish this river? I am getting frustrated, especially when I see a million fish jumping all around me laughing at me. The spinners are fun but I really want to get something on the fly. Also, how do you guys deal with all the algae? It's so early in the year I would think once it warms up more the river would be unfishable?

Thanks,

Mike

[Zach Bearden]

Unfortunately, the algae is just something we have to live with.

Your tippet may have been a bit too heavy. I usually can get away with 5x down here but recently have been going with 6x. Sounds to me like you were fishing the right flies, maybe just was your presentation. Today I fished a size 16 Pheasant Tail with an orange collar and caught quite a few. I also get frustrated with the fish down there, I can pick up a few with random dries but I usually get them on midge emerger style things.

[Hopper]

Hi all,

First time poster here. I am a grad student at the university of tulsa and have been in Oklahoma for a bit over a year and a half now but only just discovered the lower illinois trout. Since discovering the river(last monday) I have fished it 3 times, last monday, yesterday(stupid turbines) and today. I can get plenty of fish on small panther martins on 4lb test. Today i probably got 20-30 fish, with only 2 rainbows which were of any size. The rest were all small brown trout. I was surpised with the browns since i thought the numbers would be more skewed towards rainbows.

Well anyways, i also am a rather amateur fly fisherman, mostly for panfish. I am originally from Chicago and never did much river fishing, especially for trout. I have done some trout fishing in the Appalachians and Rockys with some success with a guide. However, I find this river to be considerably differnt than any other trout stream I have seen. I tried with resonable effort to hook up with my flys, used woolly buggers, a parachute fly thing, and a midge under an indicator. As far as I could tell, I never got a single bite. I did get some followers on the woolly but thats about it.

So how do you fly fisherman fish this river? I am getting frustrated, especially when I see a million fish jumping all around me laughing at me. The spinners are fun but I really want to get something on the fly. Also, how do you guys deal with all the algae? It's so early in the year I would think once it warms up more the river would be unfishable?

Thanks,

Mike

BBreaker,

PM me, I fish over there quite often, probably not as much as zack, or come to one of the Oklahoma fly fishers meetings Oklahomaflyfishers.org, third tuesday of the month @7:00 pm fulton learning center, web site has directions.

Gregg