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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 15, 2017 12:25:02 GMT -6
Caught three rainbows on the Lower Illinois this morning. Two were pretty nice, a little over 12 inches, one of which was FAT. The third one was a little missile at about 9 inches. They looked to be in really good shape and had quite a lot of fight in them. All were caught on a Size 20 Copper Zebra Midge, as a dropper off of a few different nymphs. First fish I've ever caught on a fly tied by ... me.
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 22, 2017 18:30:20 GMT -6
About the same result on the Lower Illinois this morning. Hooked 3 but one got off about halfway to the net. All in the same spot. All action on a Copper Zebra Midge again. I was a little surprised but I had the entire Watts area to myself.
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Post by mirvc17 on Oct 23, 2017 13:54:13 GMT -6
Is that near the spillway area? We fished there yesterday for a little bit. Some water below some riffles was taken so I fished some shallow water. Caught one catfish and targetted some other bigger ones.
The river was like chocolate milk. The rivers O2 levels and temps are still bad so I wasn’t too concerned about getting a real shot at it.
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Post by troutbum54 on Oct 23, 2017 14:05:27 GMT -6
I went to the second area below the damn on Saturday and managed to pull out a redear sunfish and a small trout (both on a French nymph) and missed what I think was another small trout on a squirmy
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 23, 2017 14:30:02 GMT -6
Is that near the spillway area? The Watts area is a mile or two downstream from the spillway and powerhouse. There is a blue sign along highway 100 that says “WATTS WMU” that will tell you where to turn. The road into the Watts parking lot is freshly paved and striped so if you see that you’re on the right track.
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 23, 2017 14:49:09 GMT -6
The river was like chocolate milk. The rivers O2 levels and temps are still bad so I wasn’t too concerned about getting a real shot at it. The water is definitely murky. I estimated the clarity at about 1 foot. The water temperature is high but it is coming down with the cooler nights. The O2 level is low but the 1.25 inch rain on Saturday night definitely brought it up. The biggest issue I see is that the flow rate outside the generation hours is very low, hence the large day-to-night temp swings of 10 degrees or more before the flow goes way up for generation. A higher off-hour flow would help with the O2 level as well.
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Post by troutbum54 on Oct 23, 2017 15:18:28 GMT -6
An update on current conditions
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 23, 2017 15:50:44 GMT -6
Yep! I usually watch the graphs instead of the tables but it’s nice to see the O2 level above 6 which must be due to the recent rainfall. I can’t think of anything else that’s changed since last week.
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Post by troutbum54 on Oct 23, 2017 18:05:32 GMT -6
Not a clue but they’ve been fluctuating from 3s to 5.5s or 6s all week
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 23, 2017 18:18:16 GMT -6
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Post by mirvc17 on Oct 23, 2017 18:48:12 GMT -6
When I fished yesterday, we were up by powerhouse before that set of riffles. Visibility was about 2 inches. When I checked the O2 levels, there were a little less than 4 I think. Good that things are getting better.
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Post by darrelln09 on Oct 23, 2017 19:05:50 GMT -6
I rarely fish up by the powerhouse - too many bobbers. I almost always fish in the Watts Blue Zone and sometimes in the Red Zone. There is another area between the powerhouse and Watts that fly guys go to but I never have, although I think I’ve walked upstream almost that far from Watts. To get there you start down the powerhouse road and then take a quick right. There’s a gate that marks it, which was locked earlier this year during the heavy rains, but I’m sure it’s open now.
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Post by danimal on Oct 23, 2017 20:31:48 GMT -6
The muddy water means the lake's starting to turn over, which is good. About 3 more weeks things should be a lot better over there.
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Post by troutbum54 on Oct 23, 2017 21:55:04 GMT -6
Ya I’m ready for it to level out for the winter so I can go to my secret spot and slay
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 13, 2017 8:41:19 GMT -6
Another decent day at the LIR yesterday. My favorite spots were taken but I still managed to hook a few. The takers hooked A LOT. Most of my strikes came when casting just above rises with a red quill-bodied nymph (Hanak 450BL size 14 jig hook, silver tungsten slotted bead, CDL tail, red-dyed peacock quill abdomen, red blended hare’s ear/SLF dubbing thorax ball, and a thin black SLF dubbing puff tied on long like soft hackle. I noticed that the black SLF looks kind of smoky purple in the sunlight which was cool.) I didn’t need it to be a jig hook but that’s all I had in that color pattern.
The river is in pretty good shape now with the DO around 8 mg/l and the water temp about 60 degrees. The only negative is that the water is still stained. Visibility is maybe 12 inches or so which makes for difficult wading in the rocky areas.
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Post by troutbum54 on Nov 14, 2017 15:07:15 GMT -6
I did my best last Tuesday on a Walt’s worm, euro juju, and a fl chartreuse tagged hares ear with a peacock thorax
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 14, 2017 16:27:03 GMT -6
I need to tie some flies with fl. chartreuse in them. Thanks for the reminder!
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Post by troutbum54 on Nov 14, 2017 19:55:16 GMT -6
No problem! Fl chartreuse, fl orange, and fl pink are all phenomenal on the LIR
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Post by Fenwick on Nov 16, 2017 19:15:19 GMT -6
FWIW: content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OKDWC/bulletins/1c479c1
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 19, 2017 15:37:31 GMT -6
I did my best last Tuesday on a Walt’s worm, euro juju, and a fl chartreuse tagged hares ear with a peacock thorax Good times at the LIR this morning. A lot of fish being caught, some on black midges and some on yellowish-green woolly buggers. Most of mine were caught on a fl. chartreuse Sexy Walt’s Worm, a BWO Iron Lotus, and an olive Quill-body Nymph. Thanks again for the “chartreuse” reminder!
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Post by darrelln09 on Nov 25, 2017 6:41:36 GMT -6
My adult children came to visit for Thanksgiving so we took to the Lower Illinois on Black Friday. One of my sons had purchased a fly rod a few months back and had practiced casting in his backyard a little but that’s it. So I tied on some 4X tippet for him and a fl. chartreuse Sexy Walt’s Worm, and showed him where to stand. Within minutes he hooked up. And again. And again. And again. All morning long. We didn’t really count but I’m sure he caught 25 or more. The student outfished the teacher on the first day! Good times.
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Post by troutbum54 on Nov 25, 2017 19:30:34 GMT -6
I was out there on Friday as well! I had a fairly good night on an olive juju tied France fly style and a grey juju with a fl chartreuse collar
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