John Gillio

The Half and Half and Red and White have accounted for a good number of my larger bass over the years. The Half and Half is hands down my favorite subsurface fly for hybrid stripers. I'm sure most of us who cast a fly have read articles/books or have seen videos about casting, from the master.

Thanks for sharing. He is a true legend.

Tom, thanks for sharing. Bucktail jigs are a staple for many of the sauger/walleye fisbhermen in the area. I break them out every spring myself. Remember the old bucktail Pinky crappie jig?

I have been guilty for the occasional bass on the dry ground photo as of late. I know better. There is really no excuse for it. The education campaign is a good idea Terry. It will also serve as a reminder to those of us who know better.

Once I started getting notifications in my emails again, many of the notifications I had missed popped up. They were not in proper sequence either. All appears to be fine now. Very strange.

That was great Rob. Thanks for the laughs.

I owned a 5-6 and a 7-8 model for about 2-3 yrs. I also recommended them, especially for the price. Both reels worked very well for the short time that they worked. I bought them as backups for my Cabela's Prestige Reels that I have used since I started fly fishing years ago. Both Wind River reels started acting up at the same time. The 7-8 model had only been used about 4 times and worked great even on some nice sized salmon and some pike. At the start of this fishing season it started locking up when I was practicing my cast. It would not release line at all on occasion. I had used the 5-6 model quite a bit more (It looked good on the rod). The first outing of this season it also started doing the same thing as the heavier model, as well as going into freespool quite often. On the same day I was having problems, I ran into another fisherman who was having the same problems with his Wind River 5-6 reel. He said his 7-8 model had done the same thing earlier in the yr. After a call to Cabela's and sending the reels back to them for inspection, they gave me a refund and I upgraded.

All seems well here too. Thank you to those involved in fixing the problem.

I also have changed nothing, and my email has remained the same. My notifications stopped at around the same time as Kevin's.

The only time I have used the "follow this topic" box is when I have not replied to a post but was interested in what people were saying about the subject. When I reply I am automatically put into the reply loop.My email is notified that someone has replied to the given subject.

Interesting to see that Rob's reply showed up today as a notification, but Kevin's did not nor did a new post by Gordon P. ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ... Kevin, one way or the other we appear to be in the same boat. Hopefully it is a 2 man yak and not an cruise ship. More company wouldn't be good in this situation.

No it did not. I have been keeping my eye on the Open Discussion Forum. Your Homer Simpson face showed up there .

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.

Thanks for the quick reply Scott. The email is the same as it has always been. Rob, I don't even know how to reply to that. ? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ????????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????????? ?...

For some reason I do not seem to be getting notifications of new posts. How can this be rectified? This has been over the past few days. I have to go into forums to find anything new. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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.

You will do a fine job Terry.Thanks for your efforts.

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.

Keep us up to date.

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.

What did you throw at them this time?

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.

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.

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?

Saw this on You-Tube. Don't know what it is though.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZbqYfNoWNM