Rob G Posted September 27, 2017 Report Share Posted September 27, 2017 Hit a favorite stream a couple days ago and of course the water is very low and very clear. I had found a couple decent fish when I finally came upon a pool which you could see held a lot of smaller fish. Since I hadn't yet connected with anything larger, thought maybe I could entertain myself with catching a bunch of smaller smallies. It was obvious that I was going to be forced to make long casts with my long leader. So as I'm looking in my flybox for a fly that I could cast a mile and thought wouldn't be too large for what I expected to be 8-10" smallies, I spotted Colin's fly that we had tied this year at one of our winter fly tying gatherings. The classic deer hair or bucktail streamer. I'm guessing this has to be one of the very first streamers that was ever tied hundreds of years ago because of its simplicity and widely available materials (minus the tinsel wrap of course). Well anyway, on it went and cast after cast yielded an aggresive smaller fish. After about a dozen caught I noticed a couple bigger boys were swimming thru the pool and with no time to cut and retie a larger fly, I made a cast and started stripping hard. One of the two turned and gave chase and as I'm stripping fast in order to make it appear as though that small baitfish is trying to flee, he nailed it. He came in at just over 18". I continued to fish that fly much of the day where I didn't need to get down too deep and it provided a few more decent fish. It's neat to see a fly that is hundreds of years old still catching fish today, so thank you Colin for reminding us of that classic bucktail streamer. . Tied on a Mustad 3xl size 4 streamer hook, lower wing of white bucktail fibers and top wing from the natural brown bucktail fibers on the top of the tail. . by robow 77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted September 27, 2017 Report Share Posted September 27, 2017 Very nice fishing Rob! That is a fine looking simple tie. You have been sticking some fine fish this year. Are those a couple of extra spines at the end of the dorsal fin, just above the tail, or is it my imagination? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted September 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2017 Very observant Johnny G, I had to go back and look at the other photo to be sure but it appears to have been just a leaf beneath the fish. Btw, ran into a school of Drum and so tied on your small crayfish and hopped it right in front of their noses. The line went taut and I thought, "All right", fish on and it's a good one, but when it grabbed some air, I realized it wasn't a drum but rather a real nice smallie. Unfortunately he came off but would have made for a nice story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted September 28, 2017 Report Share Posted September 28, 2017 Very observant Johnny G, I had to go back and look at the other photo to be sure but it appears to have been just a leaf beneath the fish. Btw, ran into a school of Drum and so tied on your small crayfish and hopped it right in front of their noses. The line went taut and I thought, "All right", fish on and it's a good one, but when it grabbed some air, I realized it wasn't a drum but rather a real nice smallie. Unfortunately he came off but would have made for a nice story. The drum of the lower Vermilion seem like hard nuts to crack. At least that little crawdaddy attracts the bass down there. Glad to hear that the bass had no abnormal bone growths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted September 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2017 The drum of the lower Vermilion seem like hard nuts to crack. At least that little crawdaddy attracts the bass down there. Yea, the Drum are winning. Drum....... 2 Rob G.......0 They have to eat something. Ever tried pulling a fairly large nymph in front of those ugly mugs? We used to always catch them on crawlers when I was a kid, maybe time to break out Rich's Worm fly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted September 28, 2017 Report Share Posted September 28, 2017 I never tried a nymph Rob. They have always hit the craw. They hit pearl colored crappie tubes in the Illinois river if you hop them on the bottom too. It may be Drum -2, Rob-0, right now ,but I think this is a challenge you will win in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshw Posted September 29, 2017 Report Share Posted September 29, 2017 I know drum feed on mussels a lot. Maybe try a carp fly like the Hybrid carp fly. A second choice would be the clouser swimming nymph (following the nymph suggestion above). It's a general nymph size pattern with some size too it (good smallmouth fly as well). I would start with those two and would be very interested in seeing how you do. If they hit the pearl crappie tube I can't see a small pearl clouser not working as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted September 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2017 Drum........3 Rob G......0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted September 30, 2017 Report Share Posted September 30, 2017 What did you throw at them this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted September 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2017 What did you throw at them this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 1, 2017 Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 These fish must swim to the beat of a different drum. Have you ever fished spin gear for them. I often catch them in the upper Vermilion bouncing a small crayfish crank bait along the bottom. The Rebel Deep WEE R catches quite a few. Kevin and I both had a few on cranks a few weeks back. I know the idea is to get them to hit a fly, but we need to find out if these fish are alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 I was reading on another board that many use a small 1-1.5" bright minnow pattern made mostly out of flashabou, similar to your grass carp fly. Going to try that and Josh's idea of a Clouser swimming nymph since I'm pretty sure I have a few of those somewhere, used in the past for carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 2, 2017 Report Share Posted October 2, 2017 Keep us up to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 3, 2017 Report Share Posted October 3, 2017 Rob, I was crappie fishing today and was thinking of you as I bounced my pearl jig through a rocky area that holds crappie and some drum when bang, this little guy hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2017 Oh, I hate you.....Ha I'm telling you, I have seen some really healthy sized drum this year, and hopefully I'll get a chance to post a photo. btw, I see that artistic thread wrap, very nice ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 4, 2017 Report Share Posted October 4, 2017 Thanks Rob, I haven't done one like that in some time. It's too rough on my eyes. I believe you'll show us at least one nice one on a fly before too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2017 OK, the Drum win, I'm waving the white flag. Spent a couple hours at these two pools which contained numerous drum, showed them small bright minnows, instead caught dink smallies, showed them Clouser swimmng nymph, instead caught dink smallies, and this one kills me to admit because I hate these things but I showed them a San Juan worm, you guessed it, caught a dink smallie. Small crayfish, again nope. I have better luck with carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Sorry about the Drum thing Rob. Don't give up on it though. Give it a rest then get after them next season. Do like the St. Louis Cardinals and try to work on a plan in the off season. Then you can give it your best when you meet them again. Maybe your drum eat mussels if they are more common. Maybe they feed on different things at different times of the year. Maybe they are as particular as the grass carp I have been chasing and can only focus on one thing at a time. Maybe they only eat at 5:00 am sharp. Maybe they like pink and you haven't dressed your fly in the proper color. Maybe a local fish biologist could shed some light on it. Maybe they all need glasses and don't know how to tell you they need help. ?????... By the looks of these posts, I think I stopped getting notifications after Oct 2. I received your Oct 2 reply but not the one from the 4th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted October 31, 2017 Report Share Posted October 31, 2017 Nice fishing Rob. You have had some monsters.For some reason I cannot pull up the photos. Actually, your post isn't even showing up in the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted November 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2017 OK Johnnie G. we'll see how this loads. This 19"+ came on a variant of Colin's deer hair streamer the other day but as we've now gotten more rain and the water has become more stained, not sure if this will be as appropriate as it was when the water was low, slow, and clear. What do you think? . by robow 77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted November 6, 2017 Report Share Posted November 6, 2017 Rob, that fish is a beauty. I think you are correct about the fly. Best used in clear, low, slow flow conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich mc Posted November 8, 2017 Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 you can win some of rob's flies as he has donated a nice assortment, simple bucktails. hollow pleyes and 3 articulated flies only at the early show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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