#1062982 - 12/04/23 09:11 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 12/01/18
Posts: 428
|
And the orange ball is kind of oblong. The one I have only have an orange ball.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062983 - 12/04/23 10:09 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
River Nutrients
Registered: 04/25/00
Posts: 5014
Loc: East of Aberdeen, West of Mont...
|
12/04/23
Lifter99..... Cherry Bobber is different......wish I could post pics, I have "a apple knocker, in the original package, says Apple Knocker.....
If memory serves me right, the Cherry Bobber was earlier, maybe back in the late 50's or 60's
_________________________
"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"
"I thought growing older, would take longer"
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062984 - 12/05/23 08:11 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Repeat Spawner
Registered: 12/06/07
Posts: 1438
|
I remember my Grandpa, who taught me Steelheading, talking about the "Cherry Bobber". I think he caught a 20#er on it. I was very young and never used one, but Lifter is correct. It had a col type blade above an oblong ball. Never heard or seen a "Apple Knocker"? Never posted pics here either. Way above my pay grade.
_________________________
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller.
Don't let the old man in!
"Hilight it, Daylight it, Mack it out"
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062985 - 12/05/23 08:22 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 12/01/18
Posts: 428
|
Ok. Thanks Drifter. I even have one that has like a silver okie drifter on the shaft instead of orange oblong ball. I think somebody gave a bag of these old lures a long time ago. The bag also has some old large spin n glos of different color on a metal shaft. Do you remember an old lures called a Bobble glo? I used to have one of those also. it had a hard body with a beveled lip like a very small plug. I also have two of the original Plueger Supreme bait caster reels that belonged to my dad. Really old from way back. They have the push button on the handle to release the spool for casting. My dad died many years ago but I still have a lot of his fishing stuff. Lots of memories. A few of the original nail polish okies. Two of the old Harnell black glass 9 ft salmon mooching rods.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062986 - 12/05/23 08:23 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 12/01/18
Posts: 428
|
Sorry. The old lure was a Wobble Glo. Not Bobble Glo.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062988 - 12/05/23 08:35 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Three Time Spawner
Registered: 02/24/00
Posts: 1520
|
caught alot of steelhead plunking a wobble glo.. use to get them at Failor's back in the day..
_________________________
Where Destroying Fishing in Washington..
mainly region 6
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062989 - 12/05/23 10:22 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
King of the Beach
Registered: 12/11/02
Posts: 5213
Loc: Carkeek Park
|
Back in the day, I saw a number of folks catch steelhead on the Puyallup using just a small piece of white foam, some with yarn. Some would add eggs, but not always.
Like of a smaller precursor to the steelhead rag.
SF
_________________________
Go Dawgs!
Founding Member - 2025 Pink Plague Opposition Party
#coholivesmatter
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062990 - 12/05/23 11:35 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Ornamental Rice Bowl
Registered: 11/24/03
Posts: 12620
|
I was introduced to the Okie Drifter in the 8th grade fishing for Ninilchik River kings in 1976. Back then, the cookie cutter hen was 22-24 pounds... and the cookie cutter buck was 25-27 pounds. Every weekend opener, someone in our posse would land one over 30 pounds. The good ol'days. Nowadays the cookie cutter adult king is 12 pounds.
Many of those fish succumbed to the venerable Okie... the lion's share of them taken on the magnum version in fluorescent flame and a piece of chartreuse GloBug yarn.
_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey) "If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)  The Keen Eye MDLong Live the Kings!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062991 - 12/05/23 12:53 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
My Area code makes me cooler than you
Registered: 01/27/15
Posts: 4571
|
Okie Drifter fished with a yellow Eagle Claw rod and a Dam Quick spinning reel for steelhead back in the day.
Man those were goooooood days!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062992 - 12/05/23 04:23 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Repeat Spawner
Registered: 12/06/07
Posts: 1438
|
I do remember my 1st drift caught Steelhead on an Okie was 1975 on the lower Puyallup. Had to look up the pic to get the year correct. Plunked there with my Gramps a couple years and he finally broke me in drift fishing. Had a Fenwick PLS75 rod, still have it, and a Winona reel. I inherited 5 of them, knuckle buster, backlasher classics. I'll never forget it because the weather that morning was freezing and that Winona reel had a finger thumb drag , all metal. My fingers were so cold I couldn't pinch hard enough to get it in. Finally did. Fingers went on fire warming them next to the campfire we would always have. Have to say I did little plunking after that. Got a Zebco Cardinal spinning reel on the same rod and was a drift fisherman from then on.
Edited by RUNnGUN (12/05/23 04:26 PM)
_________________________
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller.
Don't let the old man in!
"Hilight it, Daylight it, Mack it out"
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062994 - 12/05/23 07:53 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: RUNnGUN]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 03/06/14
Posts: 309
Loc: Tumwater
|
My first caught winter steelhead ever, was also on an Okie on the Cowlitz just downstream from Blue Creek about a mile. There were so many fish being caught in the winter of 1969. I saw people catching fish with crappie jigs on five foot bass rods. They just bit on everything for several years. The Okie I used that day was kind of an ugly light tan - almost buff color - with a blush of pinkish orange on part of it. (Don't know how to describe it otherwise). I put orange yarn in the bait loop. I think most of us beginners back then just cast the Okie out and if it stopped we set the hook. And sometimes there was a fish on it. How times have changed. I still have lots of corkies and Okies. Fun subject.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062996 - 12/05/23 09:40 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 12/01/18
Posts: 428
|
Another thing we used to use was our own homemade bobbers. WE would take a small cork test tube stopper. Dip it in paint and put polka dots on it. Similar to the old clown drifters. Fished them above the hook like a corky Biggest steelhead I ever landed, which is now a replica mount on my living room wall, was caught in 2001 on a cork stopper dipped in pink nail polish with dark red dots and gob of eggs on the hook. 24 lbs. on the Hump. Lost one a week later in the same drift that was bigger. I still have some of those cork bobbers.
The old stories are all we have now. Now we struggle to even have a steelhead season open to us recs on most rivers.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1062997 - 12/06/23 09:38 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: RUNnGUN]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 02/15/21
Posts: 405
|
I do remember my 1st drift caught Steelhead on an Okie was 1975 on the lower Puyallup. Had to look up the pic to get the year correct. Plunked there with my Gramps a couple years and he finally broke me in drift fishing. Had a Fenwick PLS75 rod, still have it, and a Winona reel. I inherited 5 of them, knuckle buster, backlasher classics. I'll never forget it because the weather that morning was freezing and that Winona reel had a finger thumb drag , all metal. My fingers were so cold I couldn't pinch hard enough to get it in. Finally did. Fingers went on fire warming them next to the campfire we would always have. Have to say I did little plunking after that. Got a Zebco Cardinal spinning reel on the same rod and was a drift fisherman from then on. No way ! A drift fisher using a Spinning Reel ? A “semi drift fisher” at best, but then again, you did start out with a Winona, so many extra drift fishing street creed points do overcome the spinning reel, and it was a Cardinal, so - never mind ! 
_________________________
Making Puget Sound Great Again - 2025 Year of the Pinks!
South Sound’s Humpy Promotional Director.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063008 - 12/06/23 07:07 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
My Area code makes me cooler than you
Registered: 01/27/15
Posts: 4571
|
Anyone remember all the plunking shacks at the old brewery???
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063011 - 12/06/23 07:56 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: 28 Gage]
|
Repeat Spawner
Registered: 12/06/07
Posts: 1438
|
I do remember my 1st drift caught Steelhead on an Okie was 1975 on the lower Puyallup. Had to look up the pic to get the year correct. Plunked there with my Gramps a couple years and he finally broke me in drift fishing. Had a Fenwick PLS75 rod, still have it, and a Winona reel. I inherited 5 of them, knuckle buster, backlasher classics. I'll never forget it because the weather that morning was freezing and that Winona reel had a finger thumb drag , all metal. My fingers were so cold I couldn't pinch hard enough to get it in. Finally did. Fingers went on fire warming them next to the campfire we would always have. Have to say I did little plunking after that. Got a Zebco Cardinal spinning reel on the same rod and was a drift fisherman from then on. No way ! A drift fisher using a Spinning Reel ? A “semi drift fisher” at best, but then again, you did start out with a Winona, so many extra drift fishing street creed points do overcome the spinning reel, and it was a Cardinal, so - never mind ! More memories? That's about all we have left! Don't get me started! The spinning set up lasted another year or 2. I witnessed some guys around McMillin on the Puyallup, that used a fly rod w/ a Johnson closed faced reel. Was sold on that. My gramps had stipped fished for years using the strip fly set up. Loaded my Pflueger w/ mono, used his belt strip basket, and caught and lost quite a few short lining the mid and upper Puyallup on that. Kick ass fight on a fly rod! Next. 1981? Upgrade? If you want to call it that? Got a Fenwick Eagle Graphite FS83C baitcaster, and a Ryobi "V" Mag levelwind reel. Man, I caught lots on that, but hated the right hand retrieive...I'm a left hand retrieve guy...(different debate). The 1983-84-85 seasons were lights out on the Puyallup, and I lived a mile away. I know I touched over a 100 in one season! Everywhrere in the state was hot then....Really good smolt survival. Tackle technology really took off in the 80's, w/ all kinds of graphite rods produced. I still have my GLoomis IM6 1141C, purchased new, from Andy's Tackle Box on top the hill above Blue Creek, on the Cowlitz. Funny thing over the last 30 yrs since, I went back to light spinning tackle for most all river fishing. Do spey cast swing a fly a little now when able, and wish I could hit my local riv. swinging a fly in some those old beats. But everything is closed. Sucks Balls! Thanks for sharing.
Edited by RUNnGUN (12/06/23 08:07 PM)
_________________________
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller.
Don't let the old man in!
"Hilight it, Daylight it, Mack it out"
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063015 - 12/07/23 08:47 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: RUNnGUN]
|
King of the Beach
Registered: 12/11/02
Posts: 5213
Loc: Carkeek Park
|
I do remember my 1st drift caught Steelhead on an Okie was 1975 on the lower Puyallup. Had to look up the pic to get the year correct. Plunked there with my Gramps a couple years and he finally broke me in drift fishing. Had a Fenwick PLS75 rod, still have it, and a Winona reel. I inherited 5 of them, knuckle buster, backlasher classics. I'll never forget it because the weather that morning was freezing and that Winona reel had a finger thumb drag , all metal. My fingers were so cold I couldn't pinch hard enough to get it in. Finally did. Fingers went on fire warming them next to the campfire we would always have. Have to say I did little plunking after that. Got a Zebco Cardinal spinning reel on the same rod and was a drift fisherman from then on. No way ! A drift fisher using a Spinning Reel ? A “semi drift fisher” at best, but then again, you did start out with a Winona, so many extra drift fishing street creed points do overcome the spinning reel, and it was a Cardinal, so - never mind ! More memories? That's about all we have left! Don't get me started! The spinning set up lasted another year or 2. I witnessed some guys around McMillin on the Puyallup, that used a fly rod w/ a Johnson closed faced reel. Was sold on that. My gramps had stipped fished for years using the strip fly set up. Loaded my Pflueger w/ mono, used his belt strip basket, and caught and lost quite a few short lining the mid and upper Puyallup on that. Kick ass fight on a fly rod! Next. 1981? Upgrade? If you want to call it that? Got a Fenwick Eagle Graphite FS83C baitcaster, and a Ryobi "V" Mag levelwind reel. Man, I caught lots on that, but hated the right hand retrieive...I'm a left hand retrieve guy...(different debate). The 1983-84-85 seasons were lights out on the Puyallup, and I lived a mile away. I know I touched over a 100 in one season! Everywhrere in the state was hot then....Really good smolt survival. Tackle technology really took off in the 80's, w/ all kinds of graphite rods produced. I still have my GLoomis IM6 1141C, purchased new, from Andy's Tackle Box on top the hill above Blue Creek, on the Cowlitz. Funny thing over the last 30 yrs since, I went back to light spinning tackle for most all river fishing. Do spey cast swing a fly a little now when able, and wish I could hit my local riv. swinging a fly in some those old beats. But everything is closed. Sucks Balls! Thanks for sharing. I still have my IM6 1141S and 1141C. Two rods I'll never sell. Caught a lot of nice fish on both. I used a few different Bantams on the 1141C and a Cardinal on the 1141S. In the winter, I used to take the 1141S down by the grain terminals on Schuster Parkway and fish for blackmouth off the shore. Single hook, no weight other then a small swivel and a herring strip. Catching 5-8 lb BM with an occasional teener off the shore was a blast. Unfortunately another fishery of the past. SF
_________________________
Go Dawgs!
Founding Member - 2025 Pink Plague Opposition Party
#coholivesmatter
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063016 - 12/07/23 09:26 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
My Area code makes me cooler than you
Registered: 01/27/15
Posts: 4571
|
Late 70's netting Okies, corkies, hot shots and everything else that floated down the Cowlitz.
I swear most of our near death experiences came trying to scoop up a $.10 lure out of the 1977 Hewes.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063017 - 12/07/23 10:10 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: WDFW X 1 = 0]
|
River Nutrients
Registered: 10/28/09
Posts: 3348
|
Late 70's netting Okies, corkies, hot shots and everything else that floated down the Cowlitz.
I swear most of our near death experiences came trying to scoop up a $.10 lure out of the 1977 Hewes. Yup. Anglers simply can't resist the "lure" of free gear. I've gotten into a situation or two that way myself, and half the time, I'm retrieving gear I never even use. Like birds with shiny objects I guess.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063019 - 12/07/23 10:42 AM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
Returning Adult
Registered: 12/01/18
Posts: 428
|
Yeah Stone, It wa great blackmouth fishing down by the Grain elevators here in Commencement Bay. I used to troll from Old Town down to the Grain elevator in the fall and ealry winter. Another fishery that WDFW has closed at that time of the year in Area 11. Area 11 was open in Nov-Dec the last couple of years but it never got to Dec because of a puny harvest and sublegal quota. This year Area 11 is closed and doesn't open until Mar. 1 (to April 15 ) with another puny quota.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1063020 - 12/07/23 12:15 PM
Re: Okie Drifter is Back
[Re: dizzy fisherman]
|
River Nutrients
Registered: 11/21/07
Posts: 7731
Loc: Olema,California,Planet Earth
|
Cowrker used to snorkel the Kalama as part of the steelhead study there. Had a wall full of recovered lures and one or two rods and reels. I found a couple of spoons the one time I snorkeled it.
Most of the salmon hatcheries have extensive collections of lures and hooks found in the spawners. One must be careful when grabbing ahold.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 registered (),
574
Guests and
2
Spiders online. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
11505 Members
17 Forums
73006 Topics
825904 Posts
Max Online: 3937 @ 07/19/24 03:28 AM
|
|
|
Previous Topic
Index
