Gavin

Looks like a spotted bass to me...but the color is a little off, not sure if its just the picture, but it may be a smallie/spot hybrid. We catch allot of smallie/spot hybrids on some of the streams around here. The tooth patch isnt a foolproof indicator...a small percentage of largemouth bass have it too.

There right there on the map, in blue or violet ;>)...

A biologist who posts over on OA posted this link...the National Fish Habitat Assessment.. My link Might help yall find some new spots...FWIW, I looked up 3 of my favorite spots, and 3 that suck...the 3 that suck, had habitat issues, the 3 good ones didnt...Cheers.

My link Brad & Jim are doing some fly casting classes in Belleville...If you havent seen either of them cast...you are in for a real treat. Plus they are very good intructors.

Jack...what kind of fishing do you intend to do with your new fly outfit? Fly rods are like golf clubs, and your choice of rod depends on allot of things. Size of the fly, dry fly, nymph, streamers, size of the fish. You mentioned the White & Norfork down in Arkansas..A 9-10' 5wt is a great rig for trout fishing with nymphs down there...and youll proabably want a 9' 7wt for tossing streamers. The 9' 7wt will work well for smallies too. Get a good weight forward floating line, and a disk drag reel...you can go cheap on the real, but youll end up upgrading it to a nice disc drag model once your cheapo malfunctions on a big White River brown. Cheers.

Pink definetly works in the clear streams in the Ozarks...so does Chartruese...so a combination should work too. Will have to tie some pink & yellow Murdich minnows for a test drive.

Had some fun...travel day on Tuesday...and I did a bit of blue lining around the Apple R, and Galena Lake....fished Galena Lake on Wednesday PM for an hour or so...tough to access on foot and it looked like didymo on lots of rocks...some snot moss too...tossed a gold Kastmaster till I caught a dink LMB...then switched to a 1/4oz twin spin and worked two downed logs....enced up with two fish...dink on the Kastmaster, and a 18-19" greenie on the twin spin. Thursday was a heck of allot better.....the lake sucked on foot, so I bagged the afternoon program and hit a couple blue lines...more driving than fishing in 3-4 hours..but I ended up with 20 or so......4-5 nice smallmouth in the 15-18" range, a few smaller, half dozen greenies, and two walleye....all on jigs...lucked into some dumb lightly fished bass IMO...but it was a heck of allot of fun. Cheers.

I'm a friend of Fred K...the guy who owns U.S. Reel here in St. Louis....the main flaw is that the drag nob on the front will cause it to foul on the bail occassionally...a quarter turn on the drag knob will fix that...dont get it wet in sub zero weather as well..Better than the junk Shimano trots out, but not perfect...Fishing some Abu Sorons these days...no complaints so far...but its only been a year..Cheers.

We take the kids down to Montauk State Park in MO, allot...nice Campground...Stocked trout in the park..and there are some very nice brown trout in the blue ribbon area below the park. Some great floating opportunaties too....plan your stay during the week to avoid the weekend party crowd, especially if you plan to float. Trout predominate in the 20 miles of water above Akers Ferry,but there is some decent smallie fishing if you head downriver for a float between Pulltite & Two Rivers. There are some nice National Park Service campgrounds at Pulltite, Round Spring, and Two Rivers. Cheers. http://www.missouricanoe.org/river-maps/current.html

Looks like a good line for short casts with heavy bugs...but I usually go with a line like the SA XXD or Rio Gold Tournament..they have longer heads so there allot better for distance & roll casting....not sure if distance matters on most IL waters, but a little extra distance can make heck of a difference on the clear streams here in the Missouri Ozarks. Cheers.

It depends...My distance vision is very good, but I need help in close...so I go with a pair of high quality polarized lenses in a copper color and a pair of 2.5x magnifiers clipped to my hat. Glass lenses are the best, but the polycarbonate lenses are pretty good too. Hard to go wrong with Smith or any of the better brands. Cheers.

Thanks for the tips!

Headed up to Eagle Ridge for a conference at the end of May...Lake Galena is right out front...may bring my canoe up, but is there any decent river fishing up that way? Any tips appreciated.

Hi Vis braid (yellow, or orange) & a flourocarbon leader makes a big difference when fishing plastics deep......Its easier to watch your line to detect hits on the fall. Plus you have much better feel.

Nice looking froggie......Blockhead heads are pretty easy to make...I look for big chunks of craft foam and cut it into cubes with a fine toothed saw...then I shape the cubes into blockhead form using a benchtop disk sander...takes a bit of practice, but you can shape one in about 30 seconds once you get the hang of it. Sand it to size in cube form...taper the back, then do the sides. Cheers. Benchtop Disk Sander http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-direct-drive-bench-top-disc-sander-43468.html

I have a shooting head setup on my 7wt...its a 30' fast sinking 8wt head, backed with 115' of Rio Slick Shooter Running Line..I can cast it a country mile...100-120' no problem, but youll need good form and a good double haul to do that...Its not a very versatile setup. Line management is an issue, but its great for for dredging streamers on big deep water. About the only time I use it is when I have the luxury of bringing more than one rigged rod along with me. Cheers.

The one in the video uses a loop to loop connection on each end of the furled section...you could use a braided loop or a whipped loop on your fly line connection, and a perfection loop to attach your tippet..The furled leader replaces a tapered leader that youd normally use for surface flies, or shallow running streamers with a floating line...For deep stuff your usually better off with a long section of straight flourocarbon IMO. For mono leaders...I usually go with a 3pc leader plus tippet...make each section of the leader 1/2 as long as the previous section...I rarely measure...but around 4'-5' of 35lb, 2'-3' of 25'b, and 18" or so of 15lb, plus some 8-12lb is usually works pretty well for decent sized surface lures. Cheers.

These hand furled leaders look intresting...havent tried them yet..but if they work for Capt. Sodie...they probably work well.

Those ties look great John. If your having trouble with the big stuff.... Here's a little trick that a fellow named Ken Collins taught me to toss some of his 12" long "half a chicken" musky flies...The trick is to water load your rod...put about 20' of line outside your rod tip....toss a straight back cast and let the fly hit the water & sink a bit...make a big haul, good stop, & shoot line or your forward cast. It works allot better from a boat and it helps if your using a heavy shooting head and a running line setup.. Dont know if any of your are interested...but Kelly Gallop will be giving an all day presentation to the Ozark Fly Fishers in St. Louis,MO on April 2nd. The meeting is open to the public and there are usually some great raffle items. More info here. Cheers. http://www.ozarkflyfishers.org/schedule.html

The seat is fine for my narrow butt, I just dont want to spill my beer!

Finally saw a Coosa in person at the Alpine Shop in STL yesterday..it sits pretty nice and its a well thought out design..Bought the only thing that I didnt like was the shallow can holder. Long wait to get one at the moment though. The one they had was sold,,,and the forecasted wait time was 6 months.

Thats a nice looking frog Mike. Very old school, kinda like something Joe Brook's would have used.

The doll eyes on the blockhead are one of the things I like best about it...They rattle and make plenty of noise when you twitch it. That can be a turn off, or a turn on...but bass tend to like rattles more than not. Cheers.

Been working on a few of em...I developed this version a couple years ago..I call it the the Leroy Brown....Blockhead Charlie Brown's badder brother. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89970&id=1647470288&l=02fd77b874 Its first victim... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=368354&l=1fb1dfc844&id=1647470288 Box full... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1582808&l=78fa9761eb&id=1647470288

I've played with that wiggle dub a bit.Its not the easiest material to work with, and you must use a dubbing loop like Brian uses in his video there. The fly he's tying there has been a good one for trout & the occassional smallmouth on the North Fork of the White in S. MO.... Cheers.