He is guiding on big lake now.

There is some kind of invasive otter (I think it is) that has wreaked havoc on the Blue River. Perhaps this same creature is torturing gullible trout at Bend-Bow. Technically, I don't think it is possible that the lake has turned over. Could it be algae, a bloom?

Hit the water last Saturday and had a 12/14 yr old learning to fly fish. They wouldn't touch an egg. Threw that throughout the day and only picked up a couple. Saw a 25 plus incher in the Evening Hole. It wouldn't lay up and kept swimming all over the place. The kids jumped a few in the am and caught a few. At 9'am I decided to break the trip up instead of doing a whole day straight due to the fishing was slow. Water was stained from massive rainfall through the night. So we picked back up at 430 pm. It was night and day. Kids graduated to the spillway creek, faster water. They both had the roll cast and mend down like pros. First hole jumped a 18 ish inch fish. Ten mins later the other kiddo landed a nice 17 inch bow. Moved our way up SC hitting small pockets and landed another 10-15. Nothing huge this trip. Saw 100 people, Texas/ OU weekend.

Near Deer's rules the day. Olive.

Dad has all the pics. I think he's a lurker though. Lol.

Halloween weekend they do a festival of some sort. That's the last busy weekend till spring break. Fly fish clubs will invade the river every now and then with 30-50 people crowding the Evening Hole. Just go up Spillway. Plenty of fish up there year round, after they stock.

Fish are going to start spawning soon. You will see a spawning redd/ bed, where the bottom is brownish gray, then a white patch. That is usually a Spawning redd/bed. Don't walk through them. Usually, when you cross the upper evening hole to fish the interchange, you'll be walking through Redds.

We fished it last week and spillway creek was the hotspot for us and your near deers caught more than anything else we pitched. Between the four of us we caught over a hundred in two days. I also saw some good size ones holding behind a rock by the bluffs but couldn't get them to take. Fun stuff

Reports are favorable that spawning has begun. Like Carey said - please stay away/off the light patches of rocks and gravel. Try to walk around rather than through the confluence area. Upper EH and in spillway at the lower washed out bridge are prime redd areas. Browns should be doing the deed over the next month or so. Can't wait to see how they are doing.....

Carey, Some friends of mine went to Beaver's Bend this past weekend. I was a little worried they'd have a bad experience. They're fairly new to fly-fishing and had never fished the LMF, at all. What with all the recent reports of tough fishing on LMF, I was afraid they'd come back with long faces. Well, they didn't. They had loaded up with Near Deeres that they got from you, and they did very well. I can't say if they mostly fished Spillway Creek or the Red Zone. I think he told me but I forgot. But it was olive ND's beneath an indicator, also pink, and with a midge dropper. I don't know if most of the strikes were on the ND or the midge. I think both were working. I had told them to fish deep. You may have too. So, folks, they're there. You have to find them, and present the right bait in a way they'll accept it. As someone else said, when the fishing gets tough on the LMF it's more that the fish have become more wild and wary than fresh-out-of-the-hatchery-domesticated-trout than that there are no fish there.

One trip I made this summer I fished the Confluence for over an hour without a bite. But it wasn't that there were no fish. There were plenty. I could see them laying deep. Couldn't get 'em to bite. Donno why. I guess they just weren't in the feeding mode and I couldn't figure out how to get a reaction strike. I don't know if flies really lend themselves to reaction strikes or not. Then I went up to the bluffs. Fish started rising. I tied on an emerger and caught three.

Fished the weekend of Nov 15-16. Saturday was crowded and nice weather, Sunday was wide open and crappy weather. Caught my share on flashtail mini eggs along the bottom, rs2's on dead drift, and black zebra midges. Lots of Browns actively spawning near the bluffs and the lost creek confluence area. Some bigger Browns have moved in as well - they are getting after it! I saw a few 20+" being landed.

PLease stay off the redds and avoid the cobble bottom areas if you possibly can. Give them all a fighting chance to make some baby brownies. Still a lot of nice rainbows holding over as well. Go deep and set the hook on any movement. Takes were very delicate most of the time.

BWO's hatching mid-day had a few fish rising. Most activity was still sub-surface though. Fish seemed to respond the lighter the pressure. Weekday fishing should be great this week.

Enjoy!

What an incredible weekend! With the forecasts for heavy rain, lightning, wind, and thunder, I was skeptical of heading up this past weekend. Boy am I glad we did! We ended up with about 1 hour of steady rain both Friday and Saturday mornings, but the rest of the daytime hours were perfect fishing weather. Temps in the 50's and 60's, full cloudcover, and rarely any wind. Perfect.

An absolutely fantastic weekend on the water. Andy, Dan and I met at EH bridge at 8am Friday. It was raining as we prepared, but it stopped shortly thereafter. We started below the bridge and blanked mostly, then worked our way up evening hole. We picked a few off here and there - mostly on midges. The river was definitely full of fish - both fresh stockers and holdovers. A few Browns were in the mix too. The downed tree in mid-evening hole was loaded with fish. I nabbed a couple and then BradBessett came along and got a few more. Andy landed a few in a pocket just above us. Brad was nice enough to allow me to catch his one-eyed-queen just below the island. She was a little over 20" and shaped like an NFL football. Probably the fattest fish I have ever caught in the river - maybe 4-5 lbs? I have a pic to post later. She only has a right eye - a fungus has taken her left eye. It seems she has been caught a few times and she is back in the river for the next guy. We broke for lunch after that. Dan grabbed a few nice fish on small streamers in the afternoon - a nice gentleman offered a few flies for him to use. I believe Andy continued his midge affair and caught a few nice ones at the confluence with Lost Creek. We hit a nice BWO hatch followed by more midges. I finally found the right fly combo and landed about 20 fish in an hour in that stretch. Red was the magic color - if it was red, fish killed it. We fished till almost dark and then hit Papa Pablanos for dinner. Yum.

Spawn update - Redds are everywhere. Bluffs area especially. The Island in upper EH too. Even the fall rainbows are getting busy. PLease, please try to avoid the scrubbed rock and gravel areas. There are a few fish available just above and below the spawners. The smaller Browns were really active at the Island. I saw a few good Browns in the 16-18" range, but nothing like the past weekend. Brad may have a report if he ran into some better fish.

Saturday was epic - at least in quantity. It was a great day for me because I got to help a few anglers catch some fish. We all started up Spillway creek at daybreak. White pipe run produced several smaller stockers and a few wild rainbows. Dan left to go toss streamers - I believe he got into a few below EH bridge. Andy ventured farther up spillway creek to fish the faster water. I hit the run below the trail - kind of the audience hole. Again, once I found the right flies, I was in business. Today it was pink neer deeres (no laughing) and caddis. Several 10-13" stockers, a few small browns, a wild rainbow or two, and a nice surprise. The first time I hooked into him I suffered the ignominy of a dunk in the water trying to get downstream. Jenny Woodruff witnessed my grace and gave me a thumbs up. The second time I hooked him was more successful. After a few tense moments of almost losing him downstream, I landed him. A nice male Brown. He took a beadhead soft hackle caddis. He was skinny, but measured just over 20". The only bad part of the day was when I realized I had not packed my camera in my sling pack. Oh well, still the best Brown I had ever caught from Spillway creek.

After lunch I moved up a hole to the area above the trail. A guide and clients had caught quite a few fish earlier in the day, so I gave it a shot. Holy cow.... the numbers were off the charts. It got so good that I was able to put three guys on fish. I am kind of a talkative guy when fishing, so I would strike up conversations with anglers that passed behind me when crossing. Often it was while I was 'fighting' a fish. I was hoping my buddies would show up at some point, but they had made their way back towards dallas. So.... if I found someone that was having a rough day, I had them step in an try their luck. Paul from Richardson caught about 15-20 in 45 minutes. These were all 10-14" stockers with an occasional larger fish. He finally broke off the caddis/caddis nymphing rig and headed downstream. Next up was Jonathan and his buddy. Once they got the drift down, it was fish after fish after fish. I left them on their own and packed it up. In about 4 hours, no kidding, we caught about 100-120 fish. The stockers were stacked up on top of one another and inhaling caddis. Hares ears, beadhead caddis, and wire caddis all caught fish. I caught a few on stimmy's and adams dries as well.

For the first time in my life, I kept some fish to eat. My friend Andy and his wife are cooking them up for us tomorrow night. Can't wait to try some trout!

I was going to stay for Sunday, but I figured it couldn't get any better. I came back to Euless and did my honey-do list Sunday (played golf too ). Wife is going with me Friday. I will try some trophy hunting for Browns or big 'bows - maybe even venture to Zone II if water is right.

Flies for the weekend - Zebra midges (small and colorful), pink mini-eggs, SJ worms, caddis of all shapes, sizes, and varieties, RED copper johns, RED ice cream cones, and soft hackles swung downstream. The stockers were in mid-water column. Wooly Buggers worked too. Winter fishing has arrived!

River is loaded with fish. Stockers, holdovers, small browns, some big browns..... you name it. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Football.

Nice one Jeff!!

I am now accepting trips to the Lower Mt. Fork River for December and January.

Special:

$300/3 anglers 8 hour day.

Not a huge report this time - I was there only Friday. Aaron and I went up Lost Creek and got a shock - some big spawners/brooders were hanging out in the deep holes. Evening Hole and Bluffs were quite crowded, so we moved up Spillway Creek. We did well on the little wild rainbows and Browns. The wild bows are getting to 6-9" or so. They will eat dries all day in the faster water. Aaron had some family obligations, so I stayed behind and worked my way down to the LC confluence. I saw a few big Browns moving upstream - they were resting a little in confluence hole. There were some large Rainbows buzzing around too. Some were paired up, but one in particular was not. He would swim down to the deeper pool, then chase smaller fish thru the riffle. I caught a few stockers trying to get the bigger one to take. I lost track of the big fish when landing one of the stockers. I targeted a nice rainbow feeding in the outside lane, but out of nowhere, the big fish came up and slammed my trailing copper john. He took me upstream to the island, into the brush, across to the cypress, then headed downstream at a good clip. 3 anglers were kind enough to allow me through while fighting him. Guide Kevin ? saw the battle and offered to help net this massive fish. I finally tired him out a little and Kevin scooped him up about 100 yards downstream from where we started. Several photos later, he was released to be sought after by others. I caught a few more after that, but my day was complete.

Red seemed to be the color again. The wild fish were loving Adams Irresistables in 16-20. BWO dries did well too. It was a great day on the water, but I had to get home for the weekend.

Here are the pics - 23"+ and about 7 lbs. Gorgeous Buck Rainbow.

Awesome story and report! You are on the big trout train!!

Good job Jeff.
I know this sounds crazy but I would love to hit some of those wild bows on my ultra light glass on some dries.