Old style corkies?

Old age has struck and I'm drawing a blank on the name of the old style, hard shelled corkies. I bought some over 20 years ago, (that even in those days weren't made any more.) I've got 12 dozen I was going to put on craigslist, don't know what to call them.

Are you talking about Okie Drifters?

Like these?




Or are you just talking about the cork corkies?

That's the ones! Don't remember seeing the cork ones.

Thanks!

what colors do you have and what are you asking for them?

Get in line. I responded first.

depending on price ill give him 10 more bucks than you will..

HA!

Nick offered the value of one diamond

I've always been Nicer to you than these others Nate. I need pink Okies. Inquire within lol

You guys.... That old sht don't catch fish!

About half are red, the other half are the pink/yellow/white.

I have no idea on price but if someone in N. Sound wants to collect and sell them they can give the proceeds to PP. I've had good use of this web site over the years.

I can honestly say I've never fished an Oakie Drifter. Think I have a few stashed away someplace.

I always had other red/orange/peach/cerise/pink things that bonced along, floated off of, or was suspended off of the bottom as it drifted along. Seemed to work quite well for me.

Still have a ton of Birdie drifters. Loved those things. And Jensen Eggs. Haven't fished either in a million years. Apparently steelhead don't like those any more.

Funny how you go from plunking L20 and K9 Flatfish at the Ballard Locks....

..... to drift fishing......

......fishing rags and bait....

....to side drifting...

.....to running plugs.....

....to boondogging....

....to Flydogging....

.....to flow-At's and jigs...

....to flow-At's and a baitweight/bait

....to pitching pink worms.....

...to Flow-At's and wormies...and wormies on jigheads.

....to spoons....

....to spinners....

....to nymphing...

...to swinging flies.....

So far, I just said "no" to beads and centerpins. Don't think I've ever run a side planner, either.

What's the next "hot" technique?

Boraxed eggs,orange yarn.

OntheSauk,

I don't think you'll have a problem being relieved of your supply. List them on our classifieds here and they will sell in 5 minutes, probably to Nate.

I have a decent supply and will only fish them on special occasions or rivers. Like when the Sauk opens for example. I've never actually caught a fish on one, but that's mostly because I just never fish em'. The smaller pink pearlescent ones I have look pretty fishy to me, but what do I know.

Incorrect. It's skating Gurglers on the surface with the single hand for snappy summer runs whilst drinking single malt, smokin' Cohibas and talking about your latest tech puts and calls. Whining about how you had to trade your favorite 3 pc Scott for a 4 pc so it would fit in the new Mercedes.

Of course you’d respond.

Dude put a shirt on, it's the internet!

fb

Great eye.

Nice gut, stupid.

Oooohh gold nuggets..

What's sad in all this is that the way Steelheading has been lately with the lack of fish there is no sense wasting any of the Oakies. You're more likely to hook a rock or log then a fish.

"Bobber Doggin"
Not that new, but seems to be the latest craze. I anticipate it to spread even more.

I threw up in my mouth a little.

I caught my very first steelhead on an orange Okie drifter with a piece of yarn and a cluster of boraxed eggs. In those neophyte years I thought steelhead were particular about what they would bite. They aren't, but that took a little while to learn.

Collectors want Okie drifters in their collections, not because they are better steelhead lures than others, but because of their place in the evolution of lures used for steelheading. I think Okie drifters were second after the original red Cherry Bobber that was developed specifically for steelhead fishing.

I'm ahead of all of you. In my earlier years in enforcement, I caught two "steelheaders', one snagging and another dynamiting! Both on the Kalama in the 80's. I "retained" both of them. BTW, my first winter steelhead was caught on an Okie with yarn. Took a while to educate myself to what an egg bite felt like. It helped when I went from a heavy rod to my home built Lamiglas 7802.

This is a good post. Enjoying reading the history. I've got lots of old okies and corkies, and an original Cherry Bobber - somewhere.

)

In the earlier days in steelhead camp up on one of the skeena rivers, Willy korf had a cabin next to our camp. Willie was the original Cherry bobber inventor which of course evolved into everything else we see today in the Bobber or corkie world. He used to have a ton of stories that would be great to listen to & when everybody else was using flies and spoons and eggs he just kept using the old Cherry bobber. The pictures of fish he caught were out of this world. He actually was from Southwest Washington I think he said but ended up moving up to the skeena region. He loved it up there so much he gave his wife an ultimatum that she could move up there with him or leave him. She left him and he grew old and that old cabin. I don't think he had fished for 20 years when we last spoke. He lived on one of the best rivers in the world to boot.

When Brad’s first brought out their Oakie Drifter knockoff, the Orkie Drifter the colors were hideous.
It looks like they have some better colors now but regardless, I don’t think they fish as well as the originals.

I still have some cork corkies, birdie drifters and Sammy specials around my place somewhere.
SF

So gross.

Back in the day, 60's, 70's, all the items mentioned above plus my all time favoite "Sammie Special" worked very good. What the younger generation don't know or can't remember is: Lot's more wild steelhead, more hatchery fish, No Bolt Decision, No steelhead gill netting in most rivers, fewer drift boats, fewer jet boats, few guides and less people seeking fish.

The access on many rivers was very open, now so much is closed off. Hatchery plants have not kept pace with the growing fishing pressure.

I can't believe the "okie drifter" hasn't been reproduced, some tried just didn't work as good as the orginal.

Even worms worked better back then.

I used to use the small nail polish pink okies and did really well with them mostly on the Hump and the Satsop, then it seemed the fish wouldn't even look at them. Same goes with Aeroflies, they were all the rage on the Nooch back in the 90s before floats and jigs took over, and I used to clean up with them. After a year or so of steadily using them the fish seemed to lose interest and now I have a couple of plano boxes filled with them gathering dust next to the okies.

Never have caughts a fish on a corkie or anything close to it. Bait and yarn for me.

Really? I've caught steelhead on just about everything,leading me to believe that they bite stuff.

That's about when I switched to cigarette filters with a free sliding red button just above.



I have never caught a steelhead.

RabidAngler: "leading me to believe they bite stuff."

Yes they do or used to. Back in the 60's I bought oakies from Willy Slinker in Centralia by the 100's. ( 7 cents each) Catching steelhead was not difficult. I then decided to try something a little different. I collected pieces of pumice along the Toutle, drilled a hole in them and strung them on a string in a box and sprayed them florescent red usually. Worked nearly as well. And a lot cheaper. Those were the days, my friends.

I hope your steelhead and salmon fisheries rebound.

A few years before the mountain blew, on the Toutle I saw a guy catch a summer run on an oyster.

Not sure if they are the original or reproduction but if someone wants
all the okies and cork corkies i have shoot me a PM with shipping info and they are all yours. For free.

Except for Evo. You need to charge Evo some money + $10. As tax payers, we all want to be a part of this transaction.

BTW - Nate, plugs are for taxpayers.

I would totally go for that offer if I didn't already have too many corkies,birdys,spin and glos,wobble glos,oakies,cheaters,spinning cheaters,fish pills,et al.

Yeah, but were they the original pumice rocks, or from one of the more recent eruptions?

That's a damn generous offer right there. Good man.

Spoken for.
Throwing in a few old school kwiks and mag warts too since its going to a tax payer and all.

[snorting noises]

Only impressive if that oyster was still in it's shell!

The more I think about it, the more that wouldn't surprise me either.

Stupid steelhats.....

Back in the early 70's a guy caught a winter steelhead on the upper Puyallup. As a kid I watched him gut it and inside it's gut was what looked like a half digested sparrow or some small bird. Everyone was amazed.

My buddy caught a summer run on the Cowlitz that had a partially digested water ouzel in its belly.

Summer steelhead will eat your ass if they can.

They are dumb & greedy aren't they? I've caught several 20" plus regular ol' trout with mice, sparrows, voles and what not already crammed into their bellies and yet, they were still hungry for more. My favorite "after dark" top water fly for big browns is a spun hair bass mouse slammed hard against the shoreline / weedline. I've caught a just "few" 10 pound+ browns on mice. Biggest damn near 20 lbs. Big fish eat big meat. Shocking.

Where?? I want in!

Done the same on a "never-tell" stream in Wyoming. Used 20 lb tippet to both handle the fish and pull those big flies back out of the brush without breaking off.

I've got some original Sunrise pink okies.

fp

CO, WY & UT in secret spots and private waters. For public, I'll give you one place. It's pretty much the single greatest inland fishing waters within the continental US - if you know what you are doing.

Flaming Gorge.

See one Del Canty (old friend of family - use Google). 2 am, Pitch black, headlamp, float tube tied off to truck bumper with a couple hundred yards of paracord. Freezing cold, cold even in summer. 7 wt to mouse or black Pike fly = getting towed all over to hell and back. It's beyond epic.

If you are really, really interested....PM me. Past that, I've already said too much on a public board. There's dudes out in CO & WY that just put a contract out on my arse (for real).

Shhh...

Fantastic.

FG's brown record = 33 lbs.

Sorry to hijack.

BTW - FG has lots of Kokanee. Ask Herzog about FG's Kokanee. 3 - 6 lb. Kokanee. All. over. the. place.

I'm dead. Sorry, but I want everyone to have fun. But yeah...I'm a dead man walking.

Sell a few?

Wow how cool is that?!

Back off Nickers.. i was gonna try and score a few...

Yeah...right? Those are non-adronomous!!!

One summer night out on FG, we had a late night squall come in around midnight. I was a couple hundred yards off shore and it promptly took me many several hundred yards away in the blink of an eye and maxed out my safety line. You MUST tie off. 2 - 3 ft. white caps in an old float tube in the pitch black is kinda scary eh! Once it passed and laid down, I was able to scratch out a 10, 13 & 15 lb brown in about an hour. They went nuts after that wind blew all kinds of feed into the water. Good times but long ago. I wonder if it's still like that. Probably, because most people are sane and don't float tube at 2 am. All I know is that if you want big browns, you must fish at night and give them something meaty.

I bet there are 40 pound browns in FG...and yes, 3# kokes are the norm, not the exception.

Fish on...

Todd

There are - no doubt. I hooked into something one night that actually scared me. Never got it close, but it towed me to hell and back for about 5 minutes before it smoked my reel and broke 30 lb backing off the arbor. Easily north of 30. Easily. Made 15 lb. browns seem like a small puppy.

This has got me horned up for the old days. Trip planning starts now. Who's in?

Jesus, dood. If we did 1/4 the trips we talk about we'd have to live to be 150 to do half of them.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. In.

Sounds like a chunky kokanee rigged Old Harbor style would be the perfect "meaty" bait for a BIG ol'brownie.

Qu

Quite a story! No embellishing.

Oh this is a fishing sight?

Plug cut..

Herzog did an entire feature article on the kokes in FG. The float tube fantasy sounds unreal!!

You are actually not far off. I used to really be into big Lakers in mountain reservoirs. 20, 30, 40+ pounds. in open water or through the ice. My personal biggest was around 35 lbs. Don't know officially because I couldn't get it through my ice fishing hole and I had to either break it off or kill the fish. Their is nothing better than ice fishing at 10K ft elevation in a January sunshine storm. January, pure brilliant sunshine, 65 degrees, 5 feet of snow, brats on the grill, beer in hand while waiting and watching tip-ups. The best big laker lure is a 4 - 5 inch white or glow tube grub w/ 2 - 3 oz lead inside, tipped with rotten sucker meat. Drop down and hold on. Also works for big bows and pike too.

+1

https://kutv.com/news/local/10-year-old-boy-catches-41-pound-lake-trout-at-flaming-gorge

There ya go.

Bigguns.

Fish on...

Todd

Wow! I've been shown up by a 10 year old kid, which is more than alright.
Nice going young man!

Says he released it, too.

5:4 odds says that kid not only showed you up, but will get laid before you do.

Book it!



Fish on...

Todd

Geez man....doubtful. But thanks for the sentiment anyway.

<insert snowflake emoji here>

See you in the morning, you can take out your frustration on a few sea dragons tomorrow.



Fish on...

Todd