Jonn Graham

Brian:

I would love to fish with your 8 weight especially. Thanks for the offer and I will cya tomorrow morning.

Cannot send PMs from this computer unless somebody sends me one first. Either send me a PM or give me your phone number and I will give you a call. I am interested in hearing what you have.

I had a client today who brought along a few flyrods and a couple of spinning rods. At around 9:00 while switching river locations, he asked if I wanted to try out one of his flyrods. I said, "you bet". He gave me a quick 10 minute fly fishing lesson next to the truck. He liked my casting enough to let me handle the long rod down on the river.

Amazingly, I was casting fairly well right off the bat. My client was impressed and gave me lots of encouragment. I was having a ball. Using an 8 weight, I started off using a small deer hair popper. Nothing on that so I switched to a clouser and had one strike. Next, I tried a very small wooly bugger and caught three smallies. Though they were small, it was awesome. Actually, catching the fish was bonus - I was having a great time just getting better and longer casts. I ended the day casting a big deer bug that kinda looked like a frog. Though I did not get any strikes on the deer hair bug, I enjoyed using that big boy the most. I can tell when I get a fly rod (which won't be long now), I am going to favor large poppers and popping bugs.

Anybody out there want to sell me a used 8 wt. with a reel, line, and backing............maybe a carrying case as well? I will entertain all offers.

Yah, I have not stopped throwing them since being introduced to the power of the swim jig last fall. I have not had too many trips where at least a few bronzies were caught on the swim jig.

For those of you swim jig junkies, I have been field testing some new color patterns that I will be releasing very soon. These new patterns are:

Sexy Shad

Pattonsburg Perch

Q's Mojo

Around the middle of this month I will post pictures of all three new colors. In the meantime, for all of you that have bought my swim jigs, thanks and keep "chucking" them at our friend, the smallmouth. For those of you who have not purchased any, I look forward to talking with you soon. Fall is just around the corner and the swim jig will reign supreme when water temps. cool.

Reel magic is simply silicone in a can. Somebody let me in on that secret a few years ago. I have went to the local hardware store and bought huge can of spray silicone for about half the price. Worked the same as reel magic

17" Brown Trout out of a little tributary of the Rock River.

In my neck of the woods I have found that clear water is the paramount key. If you don't have clear water, fishing will be tough. My theory is that my river's are normally clear, and when they are not, fish feed very poorly or sporadically.

Now, when it comes to cloudy vs. sunny, I have had great days in both conditions. I will say for the Vermilion River my records have shown cloudy days have normally equaled great topwater action and high fish numbers. Sunny days cause the topwater bite to cease, but I have had some great numbers days when the sun is shining brightly. A final note concerns the Fox. The Fox River is not really a clear water river. That river seems to fish very well when it is up and dirty. Could it be the fact that the fish are used to the turbid water? Sure seems to be the case.

Ken:

I understand totally what you are saying, but you will never convince me that it costs $50 for all the "parts" of shipping and handling you mentioned. Loomis is making a few bucks on that $50. Other rod companies do not charge $50 to ship and handle a rod? Are the costs extra for Loomis but not other rod companies???? C' mon

To answer the initial question:

In my opinion, the 6'3" medium power, extra fast action Avid spinning rod is the best I have ever fished with. It can basically do it all for stream fishing.

I have shipped jigs and other stuff across this great country and have never had to pay anything close to $50 for shipping. Sorry, it does not cost $50 for Loomis to ship a rod to your door in three to four days. Don't get me wrong, that is a decent warranty, but don't tell me that Loomis is not getting some of that $50 so called shipping fee.

Ron:

I purchased the Featherlights years ago when they first came out. I purchased them due to the cheap price. Well, they did not last long. Matter of fact, I think I went through two pairs in relatively short order. Right now I use the Cabelas waist high breathables. Though I only wear waders when the water and air temp. call for it. I love to wet wade whenever I can.

Two ways that have worked for me when it comes to finding holes in waders:

1. Get in a dark room and shine a flashlight into the waders. The hole will be visible with a small beam of light exiting the hole.

2. Take a leaf blower or any mechanism that blows air and fill your waders up like a balloon and listen for the "hiss" as air exits the hole.

Both of these techniqes and are safe for the waders.

Nick:

Give me a call at home and we can talk about your jig order...............thanks.

jonn

HA! Very funny post. I guess I will need to start marketing my jigs to the Gar Angling community. I have yet to catch a gar on my swim jigs, but I am sure it will happen as soon as the Mackinaw goes down. I did have a decent day yesterday throwing the swim jig in a trib. of the Rock River.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm............that is weird. I ordered my Subwalks online from Cabelas and they were only a little over $7

Once again, big money wins! Sure is sad. I am moving to Canada.

I just bought four of the Sub Walks from Rapala. I took them down to my local creek and made one cast with them and said..............."WOW"! That bait is going to be deadly on river bronzebacks. I am glad I bought four of them.

I used to be a die-hard mono/copolymer guy. The last two years has seen me basically go with all braid. I have tried Cortland, Fireline, and Power Pro, but prefer Suffix hands down! Couple more things about braid that I have figured out:

While the palamar knot is the best knot to use with any line, the improved clinch knot will not slip with braid.

Most of today's rods have good enough guides that will not groove with superlines. Many of the guides that grooved were early on in the superline era.

Mono backing works great under the superline, but also wrapping your spool with one layer of electrical tape works just as well.

Suffix does not lose its inherent color like other braids on the market (In addition, Suffix has a rebate offer going on right now..............I know, I know, I sound like a commercial, but when I like a product I like to sing the praises of that product).

Braid gives you far less headaches on a spinning reel than mono or copolymer. I found this out first-hand while guiding newcomers fishing with spinning reels. I started using McCoy copolymer on all my clients reels. What a disaster! While I had no problem controlling copolymer on my spinning reels, my clients with very limited experience had a different experience. I was respooling reels at least once a day along the river. Decided to try braid on the clients' reels and have never looked back. Matter of fact, that is what caused me to switch over to braid.

While some companies call their chatterbaits, "swim jigs", make no mistake that swim jigs and chatterbaits are not the same. Rick, I think you are referring to chatterbaits while others are talking about actual "swim jigs". Just thought I needed to clear that up.

I agree!!! Suffix Braid in my opinion is the best braid on the market today.

Fished on Saturday with an old acquaintance. He told me he had a hot bite on a creek way upstream from where I had ever fished. Up so far that the creek was channelized and very narrow and shallow. I thought he was nuts but I had to try and call his "bluff". He was not bluffing!!! Long story short, we fished from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM and landed 101 smallies!!! Yes, that is right 101 smallmouth bass. We also lost at least 30 more. Almost all fish were 11 inches and larger. Biggest smallies were sixteen and seventeen inches long with tons of fish in the 12-15 inch range. I lost one bass that was an easy 18 incher or larger.

If you want to read the "rest of the story", make sure to pick up the June issue of the Outdoor Notebook. All the details and pictures will be found under the article title of, "We're Going to Fish Where?"

Warrior is the name of our little company - Warrior Jigs.

Scout is the name for the swim jigs that I make.

Best colors have been Silver Shad, Threadfin Shad, and Bull Gill for me. Many anglers are ordering a few light colored ones and a few dark colored ones. If you stick with that theory, I think you will be alright.

Here is a new spin on my swim jigs. This jig is called the Scout jr. It is slightly different than the normal Scout that has been so successful this year.

This smaller swim jig does have some neat advantages:

1. The head is triangular in shape, much like a minnow's head. This triangular shape cuts through current great.

2. Sparser skirt leads to a smaller, finesse swim jig - great for smaller waters

3. Smaller 4/0 hook

4. The shape of the head allows the bait to skip on the water. This is really great when trying to get the swim jig back under trees and other cover.

5. The head shape also provides a very neat rocking motion when reeled through the water.

6. The Scout jr. comes in lighter sizes than the standard Scout - 1/8 and 3/16 oz.

I will be offering these for a limited time at an introductory price of $2.50 each and a dozen for $24. This price is only for alliance members and will only last until July 1st. If you are interested, please email me grahamj@district87.org or jaden@mtco.com. Or call me at 309-399-7055.

I have played around with scents over the years but usually forget to pack it when I head out to fish. So, I have really not used scents enough to form an opinion.