John Gillio

A friend of mine is downsizing and will be moving soon. He literally has a fly shop worth of materials for sale along with various other fishing paraphernalia. It all has to go quickly. He says the more you buy the better your deal. He can be reached by calling his landline 815-664-2889 and asking for Ray. He is located in Spring Valley. Cell number is 815-915-5854. He is also the maker of THE UNTWISTER, HARE MOUSE, a musky/ pike spinner bait.

I used 12# also. I’ve had good luck in the past with a small articulated seducer with the back hook cut off at the bend, unweighted, in shallow quiet pools or drifted slowly along shallow downed logs. The trombone is the first weighted articulated fly I’ve tied. It looks to be the same size as yours. I’m Interested in seeing how well it works.

Fine looking fly. Looks very similar to the Rusty trombone I just tied a couple weeks back. I used the same colors for the most part. I used a glass bead and mono to articulate the fly. Wondering how you did yours?

Just tied a few similar to the top one. The fellow that showed it too me called it a Muskie minnow. He has been using it as a surface fly over the past couple of years for smallies. He says it’s his favorite fly for smbass. He ties it on top of a 2.5-3” hook .

Ouch!

Me too.

Paul, I hope my story didn’t sound like I meant yours was a fabrication. I totally believe what you reported. You’ve had enough photos posted that you shouldn’t be doubted. Your post just brought back the Mepps related memory. The Mepps spinner has produced some great fishing memories for myself and many other anglers, such as yours and Scott’s story above.

Paul, that sounds like an amazing weekend. It reminds me of a Saturday morning that I reportedly had, but didn’t, in a booklet about fishing the Illinois River and Hennepin Canal.. Long story shorter, the fellow who wrote the booklet was interviewing me about something totally different when he asked if I had ever caught fish and what kind they were, on a Mepps spinner. I told him it was, at the time, my most used lure and gave him a list of different fish species I had caught on a Mepps. Some time later a friend showed up on my porch with a sports periodical that had my picture in it and a story in it about this fantastic Saturday morning I had on the Illinois river with this amazing multi species catch of fish all taken on a Mepps spinner. It was a total fabrication. It later showed up in his published booklet. Mepps had a major advertisement in it. I guess he figured he needed to write a story about their product. It seems what I told him wasn’t good enough, so he did some major embellishing. I had no idea what he was up to when we talked. As I said he wanted to talk to me about a totally different subject.

I don’t know Rich, but I do know that Mepps in-line spinners have taken a number of record fish. I just saw some fellow caught a state record striper/yellow bass hybrid (paradise bass) from theHennepin Canal with a # 4 Mepps Aglia spinner. Cool looking fish, Looks like a hibrid striper but yellow with darker stripes.

On one side there was about a half inch of the bone in the upper corner of the mouth protruding out enough that after hitting the Mepps in-line spinner time and time again after a number of casts it caught in the corner enough to hook him.

You are right, the fish looks the same, but I’m getting much better looking. 😂. Interesting fish tale. Another slow learner. The only time I have noticed anything like that is when I kept having a fish hit and miss my lure cast after cast. I finally hooked it. It was a 36” long, skinny as a rail, pike. Its upper jaw was missing from right in front of the eyes forward. It had healed over. I figured it had been lopped off by a boat prop.

I wonder if fish have nightmares of being abducted and examined, over and over again, by alien creatures from above the surface film.

😂 Terry, thank you for your input.

I’ve had that happen too, and wondered if it was the same fish.

That pike is definitely a slow learner. Or as you said, he was starving.