Jonn Graham

What did you think of the rod?

signed

AS of right now, the water level is not too bad. If we can escape the rains today and tomorrow, you guys should be all-right. I would make the outing, but my son has a baseball tourney................good luck to all............

Must remember that with braid, even 20 pound line has very small diameter as compared to mono. I use 20 on the baitcasters as well. Why not, as I am always slinging fast moving baits with my baitcaster. Fish could care less how heavy your line is as the swim jig, spinnerbait, crankbait, etc. is whizzing by them in the current.

I used to be a light line guy, but have found that river smallies could care less if the line is visible to them or not. River bass are looking at your lure, not your line.

The past few nights while whipping up some new flies, I have been doing this.................it works great. I have tons of flat eyes laying around that I use on my swim jigs. Now, I can turn any flat eye into a 3-D eye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMMLcYiM_qs

I used to be for removing all dams. With the appearance of Asian Carp, I am not for getting rid of all dams. Case in point, the North Vermilion River. The lower part of the river (below the Streator Dam) has many Asian Carp. Above the dam I have yet to see one. It is a tall dam (at least that is what I am told). Gotta believe the dam is saving the upper river.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in concerning strike indicators. I think I will continue to fish without them most of the time when fishing bottom flies.

Very cool!!

Boy, I sure wish I had the funds to scoop that property up. Of course, if I lived there, I would never go to work.

This season I am forcing myself to fish more bottom flies. Question..................how many of you use strike indicators when fishing bottom flies?

thanks

In my experiences, using a swim bait as a trailer outfishes a grub hands down! The action you get from using a swimbait causes the whole jig to wobble on the retrieve. A curly-tail grub does not elicit enough side to side action to cause the whole jig to wobble.

Tom Monsoor is considered the godfather of swim jigs. When I first started using swim jigs, Tom was one of the guys that I read about. If you are not throwing swim jigs, at least some of the time, you are truly missing out! One of the best search baits I have ever used.

In addition, the swim jig seems, at least for me, to select for larger sized smallies. Some of my biggest have come on swim jigs.

How about a picture of the hot fly?

I have been using the Z-poxy ever since I started making swim jigs. I use the five minute formula you referred to. I use it when attaching the weed guard to the jig. The stuff is great.............no doubt. But, you talk about the bottles lasting for years. Here is the problem I have experienced. After awhile, as you get toward the bottom of the bottle, the material begins to stiffen and becomes really tough to squeeze out of the applicator bottles. Not sure why? It gets so bad, that you either have to heat the bottle (I use my heat gun that I use when powder painting the jigheads) or just go buy two new bottles. I just bought some new bottles about six months ago and have tried to store the bottles in the box they came in when not in use. I am thinking maybe storing them outside the box is the problem.............who knows.

The stuff is great, but when it comes to fly tying, I go with CCG. I am an impatient man and love how you can complete the head of a fly with CCG in seconds...........

When did you have your heart attack? I did not know............

Definitely a resource worth protecting. What a are folks doing right now to help stop the operation? Seems like mega hog farms are popping up everywhere. I have two indoor confinements within a mile from my house.

Great news.....................didn't they start this project already? Seems like they already cleared the land around that bridge..............if I remember.

The fellow that wrote that article has a great blog.....................www.pilecast.net

Are you spinning or stacking the deer hair heads?

Yup, take a razor and cut the angle. Once you get the initial piece cut (3/8 inches wide), then cut the bill of the fly with the razor. There are some good tutorials online.

Rich:

I saw that article. Those are really cool looking wiggle flies. But, those flies are closer to Todd's Wiggle minnow than the standard Wiggle Bug. The wiggle bug uses flat foam and his wiggle flies used foam cylinders............probably the same basic effect but with different materials.

I have used Todd's wiggle minnows and was never impressed by how much they wiggle. I think the Tullis wiggle bug will wiggle much more.

Terry:

You are hilarious!!! The main reason not to come has nothing to do with you buys up in the NW region. The main reason is due to the weather. We live out in the country and things can get mighty dicey when the weather starts to get crappy. Normally, winter weather does not bother or scare me, but I have had ENOUGH this year. Tired of driving in it.

The baseball sign up thing is minor as I could have my wife handled that, but she did handle it one year and screwed it up. Baseball sign up weekend is a sure sign of spring.

chances are I won't be able to make it. They are calling for a wintry mix for Saturday down here in my parts. Also, got baseball sign up for junior.

If I make it up, I would like to show everyone in attendance this fly:

It is called the Tullis Wiggle Bug. I have been playing around of late making a few. Very cool diving fly that wiggles.

My rivers are frozen also...................that is why I am considering coming up..................don't really want to sit home all day on SAt./

I am considering coming up.................have to check with the powers to be