Go as far up spillway as possible. Mid-day is best. Go to cardiac and hike downstream or just start at trail hole and go a mile upstream. It was fun catching and admiring these little wild guys. Every now and then I would hook one and a larger fish would follow it.

Fished Sunday the 14th. Great weather, decent bug activity, small crowds, and a boatload of fish in the river.

Bessett's big brown was the talk of the river Sunday. It had grown 3" overnight and was now 28" according to word of mouth. What an amazing fish. There is one only marginally smaller that is hiding out in Lost Creek. I saw him Saturday night while I was walking my dog.

Flies - midges (cream worked best), bwo emergers, and hares ears worked for me. Egg activity was slower than recent trips. Tan San Juans nabbed quite a few stockers in Spillway Creek. Spillway is still loaded with fish - all 10-14" it seems. Bigger ones are there, but are a little harder to catch. Lots of big fish feeding in the faster water between the elbow and Bluffs. I was tossing a heavy stonefly trailed by various beadheads to get them down to the fish. Red flash seemed to work well. Copper Johns, tung midges, and soft hackles worked too.

Hooray for the masses. the revised stocking schedule coupled with an influx of spawning fish has really made this fishery fantastic. You can't walk 10 feet without spooking a few fish.

The little male deer that lives in EH area is apparently quite fond of dogs, too. Magick had a great time playing with him. They shared a bowl of dog food and parted agreeing to Facebook each other. Fun end to the trip - pic attached.

While not nearly as impressive as Brad's pig, the big rainbows were on the move and catchable. I landed a 19, 20, 21, and 22 incher from a small run above the bluffs. The rainbows were really colorful - the best colors I have ever seen in the LMF. There were a few browns there as well, but they are so much harder to fool. TA and Kevin from a local fly shop were hanging around looking for monsters as well. Had a nice chat with them while netting a few 20"+ fish. The river was full of big fish and sight fishing was fantastic.

Several holes and runs in Spillway had over 100 fish holding in the light riffles. I caught 15 or so in an hour and just decided to move on.

All in all, a fun one day trip. I met Finny, Turf Dawg, and few others from the blog world. Nice to see y'all.

more pics. Check out the colors on these rainbows! Also snagged a large midge. The red striped 20" hen looked even cooler under water.

You mean grew 2" over night. He was about 26" after checking the mark on my net when I got home, but then again, who's counting

Great pics, we are seeing better now colors because the Crystal Lake fish are way prettier than those silver ones from Nebraska.

Are they stocking every two weeks now? Do we have a reference date to keep track off of?

Great pics Jeff and thanks for all the updates.

TW

There are thousands of fish available in the heavily fished 2.2 mile stretch. No need to worry about stocking at this point. There is no set schedule anymore for stocking - two different hatcheries are supplying fish.

Good report thanks! We will be going back soon hopefully next week

very nice!

Events have transpired over the last few days on the Lower Mountain Fork. There is a very long story behind this, but suffice to say that the river has not, and will not be stocked in the near future. The creator of this thread reports that there are still holdover fish in the river, but no new fish are scheduled for the foreseeable future.

The EH to bluffs areas are still holding some big rainbows and smaller browns. A good day can still be had, but you may have to work harder.

We will post here if there are significant changes to the matter. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Well, now you have our attention. What's up with the fish?

I have no first hand knowledge..... but it sounds like an issue between the NE and MO hatcheries with the State of OK in the middle. $$$$ issues and contractual issues.

That is not good. Hopefully, it will be resolved quickly.

I hope so also. I do not get to go as much as I like and this last trip was a blast because of the number of fish and the way they are biting.

Would not surprise me one bit. I bet OK didn't pay their bar tab!

Great pics!

Jonesing to get out there this weekend...

GoldSpoonr