Little Missouri Fly Fishing

To oversimplify things, a popper has a flat (or even concave) face that pushes a lot of water and makes a lot of commotion when you "pop" it.  A slider has a convex face that "slides" through the water easily.  A Gurgler usually has a lip that is in between a popper and a slider.  You can push a lot of water when on the surface, but once under water, it will slide through easier than a popper.

Sorry, nothing like the slider I'm talking about. Look at the fly in Jeff's speciality flies. That's what we call a slider.

Thought I would share with everyone they "Carlton" of one of the Louisiana fly fishing clubs, advised me today that they stocked here last Monday, the 6 of May I assume. I missed it, must have been taking my nap 😴. Guess that's why the river is so full of fish.

Water temps are still about 74 degrees at River Ridge and below and about 63 at River Side park. The fish are really active in this warmer water. 

No water has been run on the river since 18 April. That will be a month tomorrow. The lake is at 542'. Don't know the magic number for the Corp to crank up the bungers? I'll try and post as soon as the water comes by my house 🥴🥴.

In one of his reports, Mike, I think, mentioned having success with something called a "slider". I hadn't heard of a "slider". So I googled around. It seems like there's different versions. In fact one looks more like a bass popper than anything. Most of them however look something like a muddler minnow, sort of, with a craft fur tail, but several variations they're calling "sliders". I call them muddler-like because they incorporate a spun deer hair head and they're a kind of streamer after that. The main difference is that the slider incorporates dumbbell eyes within the deerhair head. (That is, if I have the right "slider".)

So I tried tying one of my own. Being as I'm constitutionally incapable of following instructions exactly, I used marabou for the tail instead of craft fur. That seemed to be fine. The hen saddle that you're supposed to palmer forward I struggled with. I couldn't get the fibers to stand up but lean to the rear. They wanted to lay flat on the hook shank, some forward and some rearward. I fought with them and ended up with them mostly standing up, but clumpy.

The spun deerhair collar and head was really an adventure. You have to work spinning the deerhair around the dumbbell eyes, behind the eyes and in front of them. The behind part was fairly straight-forward. That first big clump you tie in and spin, the ends facing back are going to be the collar. That's easy. The forward facing butts I just trim with scissors near the end of the whole process while making sure I don't cut the collar deer-hairs off.

Then my problems started. When I spun the big clump you need in front of the dumbbells it turned out I hadn't left enough space. I completely buried the eye, completely. Well I just pretended I hadn't for awhile. I whip finished as far back as I could mash a whip finish down. I trimmed the deerhair with razor blade and scissors. The head and collar turned out pretty decent looking after all! But the eye was still buried. I took my razor blade and scissors and trimmed and trimmed around the eye. I finally unburied the eye, nearly. My whip finished tying thread though, in this process I've shaved and shredded it till it's barely holding anything together. It could come loose at any moment and the whole thing begin to come apart.

But now, the place where a whip finish is supposed to go is pretty exposed with my shredded whip finish thread just on top of bare hook, barely hanging on. So I restarted the tying thread there and mashed a big  old triple whip finish over all of that, but where it's supposed to have gone in the first place. Then I applied some UV cement and UV light hardened it for a nice hard finish over my messed up part. I had to dig UV cement out of the eye with my bodkin. Now the eye is clear, just barely, but clear.

Maybe it will hold together to fish. If not, at least now I know to tie in the dumbbell eyes further back so I can maybe avoid these "issues". I'll try some more in the next few days. If no one minds I'll substitute UV Polar Chenille for the palmered saddle hackle. Easier for me. Should work fine, I think.

But anyway, besides all the unwanted adventures, is what I describe tying here a "slider"? I tie a muddler-ish thingy. It has a spun deerhair head without dumbbell eyes but with a marabou or bunny tail. It works pretty good! I'm anxious to try my "slider" concoction out.

Yes, thank you for the excellent reports! I'll probably be up there at the end of next week.

Mike, it was good seeing you Friday!  Your input and info is a blessing, thanks for taking your time to inform of river conditions.  We all appreciate you.

I was there earlier with my son.  They were definitely active, probably because water temps are rising. 

We C&R about 20 until a 5' gar swam within 3 feet of me and started chasing our catches.  Once that happened, we packed up and left.  I didn't want to feed the gar with a hooked trout.

At 5:00 on Saturday morning, just for all you weekenders, they are not running any water on the Lil' Mo'. It's now 23 days with no flow!!  It's a little scary because the water temperature at Hinds Bluff and River Ridge is 72 degreese!!  It's still 63 at the park because of the seepage from the dam. A little hot rain runoff into the river and we could start to lose some fish. That's the major problem with the condition of the generators, no regular flow means no cold water thus no trout!! 😬😬.

Still a lot of fish at the park but they have really been run over and pounded for the past week. They must all have the sore mouth. That much pressure all day long really slows the bite. I am however sure they are still there, I've only run off 2 sets of poachers since the catch and keep season ended. Of course I'm not at the park that often, fishing is still good all down river. Again I urge you, if you see people breaking the rules, TELL THEM!!

The lake is up to 541.70. Again I say the Corp could open a bunger valve at any time. Be vigilant!! 

Thanks for the updates Hen.  Hope to see you on the water again soon.

Hi Mark, thanks for all your efforts in getting information out to us.  I'd like to know more about the "Slider" you mentioned.  Not sure I understand what it is or how to tie it.  You mentioned the cut off for keeping fish, are there any park ranger or warden efforts to monitor this?  Thanks again!

MARK, you don't have to reply to this as I saw in Jeff's fly section he'd added two 'sliders'.  Good looking flies.