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Post by danimal on Nov 12, 2018 10:02:33 GMT -6
Wish I'd known you were over there Darrell. I just got home. Had a pretty good day! You must have stayed right up to sunset? Where did you fish? Fished at Watts (hiked down to the end of the eagle nest hole then worked back up) and per usual I was the last one out of the parking lot LOL. Had a newbie with me and had to spend some time getting him up to snuff, but he's the manager of a new outdoor shop in Ft. Smith that has a fly shop within (so there's a chance of some "perks" for my efforts ). He caught several on a small FBPT and a #20 jujubee midge. I had a good day with my usual selection of midges. Color didn't seem to matter so long as it was #20 or smaller.
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 12, 2018 12:44:43 GMT -6
That’s a great connection to build on! Should work out well.
I fished the upper end of the Watts Red Zone, in the faster water. I thought about going down to the Eagles Nest but went up to that really shallow area just below the fallen sycamore (?) tree. That’s where the dry fly action was. Tiny flies were definitely the ticket.
I think all my nymph hookups were on size 14 and 16. And my Polish Nymphs are size 12. I had a 20 Jujubee on as a tag dropper for a while but never saw any action on it. Eventually it got tangled up so I just clipped it off. I’ll try that again next weekend.
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 18, 2018 19:14:19 GMT -6
Improved clinch knots on both end of the tippet ring, seem to do just fine for me. Otherwise a blood knot without the ring Two more line breaks on Saturday, leaving a bare tippet ring each time. Both were tied on with Improved Clinch knots. Frustrating. It’s not like they were big fish or anything. Perhaps my tippet ring had a sharp edge on it. Yet again I was able to retrieve my strike indicators (Corqs this time) and flies. The first one eventually got spit out and hung up on a sand bar just deep enough for me to flood my hip boots by half an inch. The second one is quite a story. The little bugger couldn’t spit out the hook so my strike indicator kept going round and round this big pool I was in. There’s a very shallow riffle both above and below it so he didn’t go far. He just kept swimming back and forth between two parts of the pool. He would even come around and hang out right in front of me not 10 yard away. When he did that though, he was very line-shy, even on the drift. As soon as my line hit the water near him he scooted away. After a while I just forgot about him and went about hooking his pals. Then as I was about to call it a day he came back and I managed to swing my fly over him and snag my old tippet and bring him into the net. He had that big ol’ Polish nymph in his lip for nearly 3 hours! I was very relieved to release him back into the pool and he seemed no worse for wear when I did.
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 18, 2018 19:29:45 GMT -6
Another fine weekend of fishing on the Lower Illinois in spite of extremely low water flows. I just focused on the few areas that are narrow or shallow where the water speeds up a little. Saturday was so good that I went back on Sunday. I quit counting but I’m guessing I caught between 2 and 3 dozen each day. On both days, I had fairly steady action on many of my go-to flies: Rainbow Warrior, Polish Woven Nymph, Mohawk PT, Sexy Walt’s, and Zebra Midges. I finished the weekend off with some tremendous dry fly action. A #18 Catskill-Style BWO was the ticket. The strikes were so sudden and aggressive in the shallow pool I waded into and to my surprise, very few LDR’s. I eventually got in the middle of it and was able to cast out in all directions and cover the entire pool. For me, it doesn’t get any better than that.
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Post by troutbum54 on Nov 18, 2018 22:28:27 GMT -6
You might try a 6 turn San Diego jam knot on your tippet ring! It’s all I use on mine and haven’t had breakoffs except when using cheaper tippet, especially in small sizes
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Post by slim on Dec 1, 2018 10:38:37 GMT -6
LIR Cleanup
Location: Tenkiller Dam Parking Lot
Date/Time: December 8, 9:00 am - 11:30 am
The 89ers Chapter of Trout Unlimited is hosting a LIR Cleanup. We will meet at the Tenkiller Dam parking lot, and receive trash bags and instructions. Lunch will be provided around 11:30 by the 89ers. The afternoon will be devoted to fishing.
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Post by darrelln09 on Dec 1, 2018 16:35:09 GMT -6
LIR Cleanup Location: Tenkiller Dam Parking Lot Date/Time: December 8, 9:00 am - 11:30 am The 89ers Chapter of Trout Unlimited is hosting a LIR Cleanup. We will meet at the Tenkiller Dam parking lot, and receive trash bags and instructions. Lunch will be provided around 11:30 by the 89ers. The afternoon will be devoted to fishing. Ugh. That’s Trout Camp weekend. ☹️
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Post by flyfishermann1955 on Dec 1, 2018 20:56:46 GMT -6
The "Winter Cleanup", hosted by the Eighty-niner (OK City) Chapter of TU, is always scheduled for the 2nd Saturday in Dec. That de-conflicts it from Big 12 football.
The weather forecast for 8 Dec doesn't look promising; perhaps the cleanup will be re-scheduled!
Tight Lines- Ken
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Post by flyfishermann1955 on Dec 4, 2018 20:12:39 GMT -6
The Eighty-niner (OK City) Chapter of TU had a Board of Directors meeting tonight (Tue, 4 Dec). The Winter Cleanup for this Saturday (8 Dec) is cancelled. You should receive an e-mail if you're a chapter member. Watch for an announcement with a new date.
Tight Lines- Ken
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Post by darrelln09 on Dec 16, 2018 9:49:45 GMT -6
Had another fun day of fishing on the Lower Illinois yesterday. The water flow and level were up quite a bit from the rain over the past few days. The wind died down around noon so the water was like glass in the flats. And the sun was shining like it wasn’t at Trout Camp!
All that added up to rising trout and great dry fly action. There were lots of tiny midges in the air and on the water but also a few March Browns drying themselves on the surface. Not all that many came by but everyone that did got attacked. Thus I had many takes on flies from bulky size 12’s to tiny size 22’s. Adams and March Brown dry flies were very effective in the larger sizes and Adams parachutes were best in the smaller ones.
The only downside was that my 6X tippet didn’t hold up very well. Because of that and some very lively fish, I ended up changing flies a little more often than I should have. Oh well, time to tie up some more!
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