John Gillio

Colin, those are nice looking jigs, and Mike 👍. This zonker strip/squirrel tail bug is tied on a walleye jig from Bass Pro Shops. I tie it on a 1/8 oz to 1/2 oz jig head. It works best when hopped along the bottom like a squirrel. It seems to attract about anything. I've had good luck fishing it for smallies, early season white bass when they are running deep, walleye, sauger, and drum, and have picked up many other species with it. I use a variety of colors. I call it the Squirrely J.

What Rob said for me too. I'll add this. I like chartreuse for sauger and walleye. I've also done well in the fall with orange/yellow for sm bass.

Can't say I've seen that before. Very creative.

That's a neat idea!

Thanks for posting that Mike.

The water runs low this time of year. The creek used to meander back and forthe from bank to bank through the sand and gravel substrate. With deeper pools here and there. Any cover was from downed timber and what I think were water willows. I don't know but would say that the creek bed was moved around with a dozer to give it more of a v shape so the creek would run down the middle. My guess is it was done to prevent the creek from undercutting the fields which flank it here. The creek can rage through here in the spring. It was probably cutting into the fields. It is private property.

Hit the creek yesterday with my buddy. We fished about 5 hrs hitting the creek you and I were going to fish. You didn't miss much. The water was very low with poor visibility. I thought topwaters would be the ticket so I threw them about 50% of the time. Not even a bump on top or on any of the streamers thrown until about 3 hours into it when a large smallie hit then threw a large white articulated fly I was throwing. Our only other action came on a size 10 black woolly bugger and a size 8 chartreuse crayfish which accounted for about a dozen shiners and green sunnies along with 4 smallies the largest going 12".

It appears that the lower reaches of one of my favorite creeks is becoming a drainage ditch. It made my stomach turn when I saw this. There had been some nice holes in this stretch of creek. Looks like it will run right down the middle from here maybe to the mouth. I didn't drive to the next bridge downstream to see.

Thanks for the fly info. As for the long walks, I feel the same way. They just haven't been as long this season. I was saving that long one for you, but as long as you are going to be biking it looks like I'll be hitting that little creek with another fellow who just got into fly fishing /creek fishing last yr. I'll let you know how it goes. It would be nice if he found that Brutus that may be around the next bend.

That was quite a walk Rob. The last time I got close to that was a past outing with you. Between the walking and the cycling your calves must look like the bicyclist on the Gyco adds 🙂.Those are very nice fish on a very nice fly. Is that a special material over the yellow foam on the flies underside to give it a buggier look, or is it your handiwork with a pen?

Indeed! We, just a few weeks back, had a huge fish kill in the pool below lock 14 on the I&M canal. A stinky mass of almost all Asian silver carp. It was supposedly due to their sheer numbers and the heat causing a lack of oxygen in the water. Indeed again! Unlike some who have been catching some dandy smallies this season as proven by some very nice photos, I have been having a so so season with only a couple fish hitting 17". I have yet to find a topwater bite. This is a fly I've been wanting to try. The pattern is from the forums here, but I can't think of who posted it for the life of me. It looks like a good one that is easy to tie.

Rob, I'd like to comment on the gar situation. The Vermilion, between its mouth and the Wildcats, has had a large population of shortnose gar since I was a boy. Their size and numbers have dropped dramatically since the arrival of Asian carp species, in this case silver, bighead, and grass carp. The gar always fed on the large population of shad which have also all but disappeared from the river since the arrival of the Asian carp. For some reason the rivers large emerald shiner population crashed long before the arrival of the carp. In my opinion the gar have little to feed on compared to past times. I would say there are smaller numbers of native fish in general, since the Asian carp arrived, except for maybe sauger and walleye which are stocked as fongerlings.The Asian carps impact on both the Illinois and Vermilion Rivers has been dramatic. As for what to do when an Asian carp is landed, I was also told by the IDNR to kill them and throw the carcasses back into the river. It's a bad situation with seemingly no good solution. I

Rob, you pretty much have to wait until they drop their snout under the water then stick them. Sometimes I get too anxious. Wait too long and they may spit it out. The tinsel fly is usually on a size 4 hook. The leaf flies that I have had luck on have been on an 8. The larger ones on a size 4, but no luck with them yet. The bomber on a size 4. Mustard 3366.

The same deal.today, but very few leaves on the water. Tinsel and leaf flies ignored again today.Yesterday the bomber was taken all 3 times without hesitation. Today they often showed hesitation or no interest at all. I gave it about 2.5 hours. Had 6 good takes. I struck too soon on the 1st three but hooked and landed the last 3. I had about 5 false takes where the fish were about to gulp the fly in but then turned, gulped next to it then swam away. There were also about 5 times when they mouthed it without a take. (Walnut oil?) A number of nudges and suspicious looks. The black bomber has been the ticket.

The small leaf flies have worked in the past. None worked today. I may get out tomorrow and try again, but start with "Da Bomber". We had a bunch of rain this past week but the river only came up 0.5" with a little stain. I haven't resorted to smashing walnuts or boiling leaves yet, but it is in the back of my mind.

I forgot to mention above that "yes", the larger leaf fly almost always lands with the foam facing up. Here is a better photo of the first smaller fish:

After a poor yr trying to find some European carp to sight fish for, and going 0 for 4 on the ones I did see, I had my first outing for grass carp. Finding them was no problem. They were thick in both spots I checked. No leaves on the water, so the tinsel fly was in order. I no sooner had it rigged and the wind went bonkers and sent the leaves flying. The catp started eating them immediately. The tinsel fly was a bust. Switched to leaf flies of various sizes and colors to no avail as well as a yellow popper,nothing.not even a look. The same at the next spot. Spent an hour total experimenting before I thought of Rob and his black stealth bomber. The next half hour was a blast landing 3 before I had to leave. THANKS ROB: This was the big one at 32". . .

That is a good idea Ed. My thought was to boil some walnut leaves in a small amount of water then soak the foam bug in it. You may want to try a silver tinsel or flashabou streamer on a size 4 hook tied clouser style with a silver bead chain head. They will often chase it when they are not focused on other things. A size 3 silver Mepps Aglia often is the ticket with spin gear. A steady retrieve seems to work best for both baits.

Yes. This one is on a size 4 hook. I have not yet thrown it, but those I tied on my original size 8 hooks always land hook down. The smaller ones often go unnoticed. I thought maybe a larger one would attract more attention.

Here are a couple photos: fish see this.

The only reason I stopped using the Rebel craw was that I had too many smallies engulfing it and swallowing it deep. Mike, so true about Mepps being a weed and rock magnet but such a good bait.

Thanks for sharing. They are part of my arsenal.

Interesting about the walnut leaves. For a leaf pattern I have had some luck with a zonker strip tied to a craft foam strip to keep it afloat.

Nicely done Rob. I like that wing.

They can be addictive. That black bomber would most likely work well during a periodic cicada hatch also. They love the cicadas.I noticed them feeding on them many yrs ago. They just sat In a lane like trout waiting for a cicada to drift by. A small black popper was just the ticket for an afternoon of fun picking off fish from the back of the pack. Have fun with them Rob.