Herb and Kevin search hellgramites.

August 26, 1979 Herb Shaw and his son Kevin seine for hellgrammites. Herb stirs them out of the rocks and into the net Major League Averages Angler Reveals Secret Bait For Change of Luck, Go to Hellgrammites "Hellgrammites were a well-kept secret for a number of years. People from other parts of the state didn't know about them, but some of the local fishermen here on the Illinois River nearly always caught fish. When you ask what they were using, they would answer, ‘live bait," but, they wouldn't get around to telling you what live bait," says Midwest City angler Herb Shaw. Shaw started fishing the Illinois River above Tahlequah about 23 years ago He came from Colorado where he believed that trout alone were game fish, and all other species such as bass were trash fish. Then he met up with the smallmouth bass. He discovered that many of his trout stream fishing techniques transferred well to stream fishing for "Oklahoma trout.” Everything was fine except that some of the local anglers were out- fishing him on the tough days. Then he found out about hellgrammites. "One day, just below Round Head Hollow, I watched an old man and two kids seining in the river — and it wasn't for minnows. I watched them catch hellgrammites, and then kept an eye on how they used them,” he said. Hellgrammites are the larva of the dobsonfly, an insect that grows to be three to four inches long in the adult stage and has a wing span of up to five inches. They are not true flies, which have two functional wings, but more like dragonflies with four wings. Under the overhanging leaves of trees and shrubs that grow by the stream, the adult dobsonfly lays its eggs. Upon hatching, the young ant-size hellgrammites fall or crawl into the water where they cling to the underside of submerged ( Glenn Titus ) stones. They usually prefer flat rocks in a fast riffle where they grow to as long as three inches feeding on the larva of other insects. In two to three years as their final metamorphosis approaches, they will crawl out of the water and find some damp leaves or moss where they pupate before emerging as adult dobsonflies. Hellgrammites, with their overgrown pincers, bite. If one isn’t careful baiting them, they will draw blood. On a fishing trip on Buffalo Creek in southeast Oklahoma a few years ago, my youngest son was using hellgrammites for bait. He felt a tug on his line and pulled in a small perch about three inches long. The perch, however, was not hooked but was securely held in the pincers of the hellgrammite. "Pinching Pete,” as hellgrammites are sometimes known, can be gathered one at a time by finding a shallow riffle and in quick succession, turning over a rock and grabbing the multi-legged worm before it scoots away, Shaw said. Then Shaw and his 15-year-old son, Kevin, waded out into a riffle about ankle deep. Kevin held the seine between two poles, just downstream from where Herb was stirring up the rocks on the bottom with a small rake. As the hellgrammites were dislodged from their hiding places, the current washed them into the net. "I like to keep them in a small foam ice chest with a few rocks and a couple inch­ es of water," said Herb. About any arrangement to keep the larva cool and moist will maintain them in good condition for a week or longer. However, they should not be refrigerated. ^Crumpled up newspaper that has been moistened is excellent for long-term storage. The paper gives the hellgrammites some cover to hide from one another, without which the little cannibals will eat each other, and there may be only one out of a dozen left when it's time to go fishing. For fishing with hellgrammites, Herb uses a small light wire hook tied to the terminal end of his line. This permits the bait to drift naturaly even in slow moving water. Where the water is fast and deep, Herb adds just enough split shot to keep the bait near the bottom during the drift. Hellgrammites can be tail hooked or hooked under the collar just behind the head. Herb prefers the tail hook as he believes the bait stays on the hook longer. About any type of tackle from an ul­ tralight spinning outfit to a cane pole can be used to fish hellgrammites, but Herb and Kevin both use flyrods. i'Just drift this bait through the riffles or gently drop it into the deep hole on the downstream side of a large rock and then set the hook when the fish tries to take it away from you,” Shaw said. "In the Illinois, this technique will likely get you hooked up to a smallmouth bass. Don't be suprised, though, if you catch a channel cat, drum, white bass or a perch for about all the fish in that river feed on hellgrammites." With all those instructions, he gave me several of the wiggling pincers in a pop can, and by my third cast, I had a small­ mouth tugging on my line.