Stream Cleanup Tomorrow 12/5 9am dam parking lot - low water scheduled

[dgames]

The OKC and Tulsa Trout Unlimited Chapters work together twice a year to have a stream cleanup on the Lower Illinois river.  We are having one tomorrow morning December 5 - meeting at 9am at the dam parking lot.  We usually work with the corps of engineers on these to schedule low water.  They are showing this window of low water on the schedule tomorrow.  This may be the last shot of low water for a while on the LI with all the rain we have had.  

Meet us at the dam at 9am and help pick up trash for an hour or two.  After that, fish the low water and stop by for a chili lunch at noonish at the Watts parking lot.  Hope to see some of you there.  

[dgames]

Ended up being a pretty successful outing.  We had about 30 people show up.  After a little over an hour, trash had been picked pretty clean.  Ended up filling the bed on one of the ODWC pickup trucks with trash.  

For fishing, they kept the water off until about 3:30, so had a fair amount of time to fish after the trash pickup.  Pretty much everyone I talked with caught fish.  I got to fish a while late morning with Daddy-O  and we both caught fish at the pool above the rock weir downstream of the gravel lot.  We both caught a number of fish before breaking for lunch.  

Lunch was chili at the Watts parking lot make by one of the OKC guys.  A

fter lunch, Phil fished watts and I went back up to the gravel lot and did really well back in that same hole.  Ended up messing around trying different flies after a while and everything I threw seemed to work.   

[DaddyO]

It was good to have fish in the river again.  I think David was catching at least 2 or more fish to my 1.  He was kind enough to give me a shot at his fishing spot.  I missed about 5 of them before it occurred to me to check the status of my fly.  It seems that I broke the hook off at the bend on the previously netted fly!  Tied on another PTN and started catching fish again.

As David mentioned, I did stay and fish the Watts area.  I probably would've headed back to the Lower Parking lot, but my buddy, Jim, had never fished the Watts area.  So, we stayed and fished the Watts area.  It was Really crowded.  But the fish cooperated.  Another friend of mine, gave me a Soft Hackle March Brown that produced some nice fish in one of the riffles.  Most of them took it on the swing.  Lots of fun.

[Danimal]

My buddy Tim and I fished (and picked up trash) around the Watts area. Took me about 30 minutes of experimenting with different patterns to hook up, but when I tied on a #18 red copper john it was one fish right after another for 2 solid hours. The chili was very good too -- great day on the water!

[BFTMASTER]

Thanks everyone who helped with the trash pick-up. I was not there, but wanted to let everyone know that we appreciate the hard work.