Rob G

"Puglisi's Smallie" Say that three times real fast

Craig, you're definitely right, the single flies are much more interesting. I edited the initial photos. Bear with me and we'll get this down.

Joseph, you're definitely right in that these size 4's are similar to a lot of size 6 hooks I've used in the past. A lot of people will use a Mustad 3366 because Mustad doesn't price them as a fly tying hook and they have to be the least expensive decent hook on the planet. Bob told me he often used these as well since he didn't mind throwing them up in a log pile and losing one, but I notice on his youtube video that he used something else.

Better yet Steve, you can watch Bob tie one himself

Sorry Mike, will that do?

Rich, I've use various hooks over the years for Clousers and you will find many suggestions from even Bob himself but these were tied on Mustad Signature sz #4 C52S BLN. I like them because of the straight eye, silver, 2X long and a nice gap size. Most of the time they are fairly sharp out of the box but like most Mustads, I find myself touching them up with a file before they ever see the water.

Steve, does that look better? I really need to hone my photography skills and find a happy medium on file size. Can someone tell me why when I click on a photo I submit in a thread, that I'm taken to the home page of ISA and can not blow up the photo as desired?

Ok, I'll play along. These three Clousers are what I toss probably 50% of the time. A sculpin or crayfish (whatever you think) brown over orange. I personally on my home waters find this the least effective but I have friends that find it their most effective in many other places. Next is what I call "baby smallmouth" mixed olive and yellow over white. It very closely matches the coloration of our smallies. And finally my creek chub or shiner, grey over white. Does anyone have color combinations they really like as I would love to hear about them, but please don't tell me chartreuse over white.

Ok, I'll play along. These three Clousers are what I toss probably 50% of the time. A sculpin or crayfish (whatever you think) brown over orange. I personally on my home waters find this the least effective but I have friends that find it their most effective in many other places. Next is what I call "baby smallmouth" mixed olive and yellow over white. It very closely matches the coloration of our smallies. And finally my creek chub or shiner, grey over white. Does anyone have color combinations they really like as I would love to hear about them, but please don't tell me chartreuse over white?

My brother-in-law has asked that I build him a rod for Christmas on a TFO Professional 9 ft 5 wt. blank. Does anyone have any experience with this blank or rod? I have built one other TFO Professional series rod for a gentleman and he liked it very much as shown below. Thanks for your input.

Tim, if you're interested, one of the top government biologists on the subject of Asian carp here in the states is a fellow named Duane Chapman, a very nice fellow presently residing in Iowa. If you google him, you will find a ton of research and information he has done on the subject. I know he traveled to China not that long ago to study the fish in their original habitat. When you think about the fact that these carp made their way up the Mississippi then into the Illinois River and then all the way to Decatur via the Sangamon, and now only a few years later they're coming in via the east by going from the Mississippi, to the Ohio, up the Wabash, and then west into the Vermilion River, Mr. Chapman's data is staggering. I'm sorry to have taken the original topic slightly off course, but one neat thing if they did take out the Danville dam, is I could easily canoe from Potomac, IL all the way to New Orleans and never have to portage.

Tim, I grew up as a boy in south Decatur and have lived in Danville for now 16 years and I agree completely with you that the Sangamon and Vermilion Rivers appear to be very similar in nature. As to have we eaten the Asian carp, yes, and they are actually quite good. First you must realize these are nothing like the common carp. The meat is white, mild and flavorful. They feed on the plankton and not the bottom crap. The only problem is their skeletal system contains more bones and makes filleting them more difficult. But with a 25 lb fish, even after you cut away all the external fatty tissue, and the reddish lateral line (mud vein), You still have a lot of excellent white meat. I really like them smoked using apple and alder wood as they have just enough oil (not anything like the salmonoids), to really produce a nice fillet that is not too dry. If we ever have an ISA get together, I'll bring some along, many like it better than smoked salmon as it has a milder flavor. Your question about being stacked up by the dam, yes they were and also there is an old abandoned gravel pit that is attached to the Sangamon River just to the west where they also seem to stack up. I haven't been downstream a long way so I can't tell you about that but since they are coming up from the Illinois River, it only makes sense to me that they must be all along that corridor.

"There are definitely Asian carp in smaller rivers like the Sangamon right now, but unless some one wants to come forward with some new data I haven't seen, they aren't abundant there." Tim, my friend and I took this Bighead carp almost 9 years ago on the Sangamon River just below the little dam in Decatur. We didn't even know what it was at the time but there were a bunch of these weird fish swimming around with eyes on the lower part of their head. Two years later they were all in the 12 lb class, another year later and now they were in the 15-18 lb range and they were thick. The next year bunches over 20 lbs and we took a couple barrels full. I haven't been back over there in three years now but I can tell you that they are not sparse and they aren't getting fewer in number and they aren't decreasing in size. But better yet, come join me in my canoe next summer on a warm quiet night and we'll go see for ourselves on the Sangamon below Decatur. Sounds like a great road trip.

Mike, it sounds very expensive to me and unfortunately our state is so badly in the red when it comes to anything DNR related, I can't imagine it would ever be funded correctly. The other thing I don't understand is what would keep the invasives from coming back upstream? You're corect in that I'm not sure if the Asians would come to inhabit the Middle Fork and Salt Fork upstream but I can guarantee the lower Vermilion River would be prime habitat. It would be nice to have some good data to base the decision on, because once that low head dam is gone, it's never going to be rebuilt and you may have opened Pandora's Box.

"I cannot remember which biologist told me this, but I don't think the asian carp are coming that far upstream on the Vermilion to reach that dam." Marc, please understand, I'm neither pro nor con the dam removal in Danville, IL and although not an aquatic expert, I do have a degree in zoology and know Asian Silver carp when I see one and/or am hit by one and they're in the Wabash River farther north than the Vermilion and up our river presently. In the next several years they will be up here in numbers, there is absolutely nothing that will stop them unless the plankton count diminishes as you head upstream. If you understand what has happened in 15 short years, I don't think we can get our brains around what the situation will be like in another 15 or 20 years. Just my 2 cents (which is actually even worth less with the sinking $)

Bt, you're right, the Silvers will take to the air and I've been hit several times by them but fortunately the Bigheads rarely go airborne.

Mike, you're right about the Scenic River status of the Vermilion River, we fought hard for that way back there because there were so many that wanted to dam it up and make another large impoundment like Lake Shelbyville for obvious economic reasons. Now that it has that status, it will be almost impossible for them to ever do that to our river. But I'm not sure what the Scenic River status means to removing the dam that we have. The invasives that I'm talking about are the Asian Carp, both the Silvers and the Bigheads that are already up to our dam here in town. Now they are not in significant numbers yet but they will be for sure. You can't put the Genie back in the bottle. The one in the photo I took was 44 lbs and and they can get twice that size. The problem is they're filter feeders and grow like a pound a month and can quickly displace all the native fish in no time at all.

Mike dam removal continues to be a hot topic here in Danville, IL. We have an old worthless (more or less) dam right here in town on the Vermilion River. A couple of deaths have ocurred in the last few years there and is in study to remove it by the U of I engineers and others. I'm not sure it has been decided yet but I can see the opposing views. It would supposedly only slightly lower the water level upstream but I have been told that generally the fishing improves?, not sure how? The one concern we have is that our Vermilion River feeds directly into the Wabash River which of course is connected to the Ohio River and that means that these invasive species (see the photo below) will definitely over time make their way upstream and that can't be good for our smallies.

Tim that's witty, I wonder if this one is a distant cousin or subspecies, Joe Bugle Mouth Bass It was caught at Clinton, IL Nuclear Power Plant Lake

John, I really enjoy building my own sticks and have done so for years. I'm only an hour and a half from Indy, so let me know as I would like to make it. Probably the best web site for rod builders in my opinion, as many of these guys have been custom builders for years and really know the technical side. http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2

Joseph, do you have any idea how to keep these things from twisting the heck out of your leader short of using a swivel. In still water, it was not as much a problem but streamside, they wanted to play Chubby Checker.

I know it's not quite the same thing as a spinner bait but I felt bad enough by bastardizing a classic.

After reading some hype on another forum about the Davy Wotten knot, I tried it throughout this past season. Yes, it is extremely quick and simple to tie. Yes, it leaves a very small knot on a #16 dry and I found it adequate if I'm fishing the local bluegill pond but if there's a chance a bass might end up on the other end of the line, this would not be the knot for me as it doesn't seem to have the consistant break strength of others. I will continue to use my orvis or palomar knot for the smallies and larger game fish.