Feb 13-16 will be pretty packed. There is a Holiday Monday (Presidents Day). Also, the locals now know the stocking will be held on Thursday. That being said, there will be a lot of fish available.

Cabins and tent sites were pretty booked for the weekend.

Fishing is excellent right now..... we had a great weekend.

Report from February 6-8:

A great weekend on the water. Nothing huge, but a lot of very fat, strong 14-18" fish. I was joined by my friends Steve and Joe Saturday and Sunday, I fished Friday on my own.

Friday - started below EH bridge and found the right fly color. Red was the ticket. red worms, red zebra midges, and red copper johns all caught fish. Most of these were the standard 11-14" stockers. One or two hit the 16" mark. After a visit to see Roberta in the fly shop (and a snack for Magick), we hit a few more obscure areas in Blue Zones and one area in Zone II. Wow. One particular area I netted about 20 nice fish. All of these were 14-18" and several were colored up. Some had bright orange stripes and gill plates. Some were more dark yellow bodied and had huge shoulders. Several bait chunkers were looking on as I netted fish after fish. Some I had to chase 50 yards downstream, so I passed a few folks on the way. These were the strongest LMF fish I have encountered. When you see the pics below, just look at the shapes. Footballs. In the afternoon I hit Evening hole and managed another 10 fish or so. Nothing big and nothing colorful, just stockers. Flies of the day were BWO nymphs, BH soft-hackles, and RS2's on the swing. Cream and green zebra midges also picked off a few EH fish.

Saturday - Knowing the place to be, I took my friends back to start the day. In all, we landed about 120 fish and lost about as many more. All were again in the 14-18 range. Several were dropping milt when they hit the net, so we got them back as quickly as possible. One nice hen was dropping eggs already. I guess the spring spawn is on! We had blast congratulating one another and jeering at the guy who had lost a good fish or stumbled chasing a fish downstream (that would have been me Magick ran up and down the banks and inspected several fish during the day. At about 2pm my buddies called it day, so Magick and I caught a few more and then headed to the EH. I caught fish in a place I had never had success - the S curve area. One was a small brown, the rest were nicely colored stockers. We chased a nice male rainbow in the riffle area with no success. Magick gave me his "I'm tired and Hungry" look, so we headed back to the house for some steaks, trout, baked potatoes, and fixins. A great day followed by a great evening with friends. Flies for the day were again olive RS2's, black zebra midges (even during a BWO hatch) and in the blue zones Olive near deeres. Lots fish were in mid-water column and feeding heavily, so we did not have to go as deep as usual.

Sunday - we tried a little of Zone II since no generation had occurred. Joe had quite a few break offs, Steve caught about 10, and I had a lot of success with bigger Rs2's. Lots of small browns swimming around in deep pools. We also hit the blue zone again and did well again. My last fish in this area was a mail spawner who had a little issue - his mouth was permanently open. Pic Below. After that, Joe headed home, Steve and I hit Spillway Creek. I picked up a few wild little guys and lost one nice fish. By 2:30, we were on the road, heading home to DFW. Magick slept the whole way....

All in all, nothing to brag about, but we had a great time catching a lot of nice, strong fish. Good fishing, good food, good friends, and good company. for me, RS2's from 14-20 ruled the day. Any emerger on the swing got a lot of strikes, it was just harder to hook up. I know several guys tossing streamers were picking up larger fish as well. Crowds were decent - the sun brought out a lot of families on Sunday. Great 3 day trip and really enjoyed hitting some new areas.

Something I forgot to mention - several of the rainbows such as the one in pic #2 had red spots near the tail. I had not seen this in a rainbow before. The black spots were larger and thicker, the bellies were yellow, and the red spots congregated at the base of the tail. Pretty neat. Here is pic of the red-spotted rainbows. This one was a 16-17" male.

Brown Bow!

Ill be up there all wekkend, Ill post what I find. Here below is a video from yesterdays adventure. 3 mins long, no music. Fish got his revenge before release.

Went through every color midge today. And of course, they wanted the very last color I tried. We got one or two on every color, but WHITE zebra midges were ticket. Ran out of those pretty quick, switched to white maggot cluster 1/2 inch a arms cluster with arms. Anything white. Zebras were getting nailed better than any other color. Whole river loaded with fish except main stocking holes with easy parking. I think we got a lot more sea run trout that came up this time cause there are more fish than I have seen in a long while. - or is it a stocking truck that puts them in?

Most fish are 13-14's. Couple 17-22's. Bait chunkers out in force. Evening hole loaded. Fish the bottom please. You will catch more fish.

Same experience I had...few fish on until I tied on white bead head wooly bouncing the bottom. All of the sudden fish were hitting it hard. Saw u drive by cold hole in the morning while I was rigging up. Olive Near Deer's pulled in a few on my way to EH. Thanks for the great reports, let me know when to book stripers on the fly at Texoma!

good to know.

Last week it was black, this week it was white. Did these fish attend KKK class during the week?

Good report. I bet Carey's clients had fun. Several of us will be there in two weeks for the foundation events.

What's the foundation events? Thinking about going this weekend, but don't want to if the crowd will be big.

Not sure what you mean by Foundation? Mystery Fly Tournament? Yeah, it will be packed. Always draws a crowd. I was there last year and didn't realize it was going on. Sat on my hole for an hour to myself, then looked up and it looked like am army of fly rod guys heading down the bank. Took me a bit to figure it out. LOL!

I've not been there for the one fly tournament, but the tournament only lasts from 7-noon, and I'm guessing most participants would head directly to the evening hole/lost creek area and probably spillway creek as these are the most popular fly fishing areas. I'm gonna be there Friday-Sunday and my plan is to not be anywhere near those areas when that tournament is going on. Hopefully this weekend won't be too crowded otherwise as I'm hoping the cold weather would keep a lot of people home.

I might have to reconsider guiding up there on the weekends now. Its just crazy. Every hole on the river, Saturday was locked up. Lots of fish in the river, but to many dang people. Fish were majorly spooked and also the front didn't help us out much. The fish would bite in sessions it seemed. Everyone around would hook a fish for 5 mins and then no bites for another 20-30 mins. BWO's hatching everyday gets them going a bit. We would switch color flies, catch a few, switch again, catch a few.....ect. There was no secret fly this weekend. No pattern. Just picked at them all day.

White midges still produced most fish on my end.

They stock again Thursday, so im sure the park will be packed again.

My season is done till October for the LMF. I now move to sandies in the creeks and striper at Texoma. I think I will be only guiding up there on the weekdays from now on. I don't handle those crowds very well.

They had like 6 game wardens out there Saturday. Saw some from Lake Texoma all the way at the river due to so many people they said.

The New River report.

The Lower Mt. Fork River is amazing. It's just plain fun now. It's not very user friendly in a lot of spots now. So if you have back issues, use extreme caution. Spillway Creek is very slick and jagged. Some human goat trails are starting to form. The river is fishing extremely well. I have logged a lot of hours on the newly changed river, and I now feel comfortable in taking people on guided fishing trips now. Please book to my website if you're interested. As I said the River has changed for the better in my eyes. All the new nooks and cranies holding fish. When it gets colder, it's going to be even more fun. I called David the other day and he hitched a ride for my last scouting trip. He was my test dummy. All he has ever caught were Sandies at the creek during the run, now he's hooked. Especially since he could see these fish come up and inhale the fly. He didn't think we would actually be catching big fat trout. Most of the fish they have been stocking have been 14-18 inches. Lots of 20+ inch trout as well are lurking the River system. Not to mention the bonus walleye! Denny landed a 8+ pound monster not to long ago. Lots of 13-18 inch walleye in the the deeper pockets. White and chartreuse clousers work great. Trout will nab at it every once and a while too. Anyways, David landed 60+ rainbows from 14-18 inches. I stopped at 72 and it was just too freaking hot. We left at 2:30 PM. He had a few 20's but all went over a small waterfall, lol. He had one of the best fishing trips ever, and a bad one at the same time. I watched him set the hook on a 16-17 inch fish and the rod snapped right in half. That fish went over the water fall and snapped the line. He got his other rod and two fish later, "Snap!" He sets the hook and same thing happens. Fish goes over water fall and snaps line. I give him my back up rod. Nothing else happens bad. He starts catching fish again. The sun is awful. No shade. It gets hot hot down there. I am not going to post senery pics cause they look like everyone else's. The pics do nothing. When you get here, then you will realize what happened. Aside from the terrible loss of businesses and lives, the flood made the River actually seem like a trout stream now. You don't have to go far to find fish. I have caught them everywhere up and down spillway creek and the evening hole. I think there are more fish in spillway than ever before. They can spread out a little better and hide from the bank fisherman that have no waders. If you have ever been to wild trout streams/river, and you were good at locating fish there, you will have a ton of fun up here. Just cast everywhere! Evening hole is easier to fish now, I think. Not the terrain. I'm talking about easier to find the fish. Because they are everywhere. I saw four people pass the tree island where the water cuts through the trees down stream of bluffs. There were fish hanging on the root balls and they had to have almost kicked them. There are many many deep holes now. In my time on the water I have seen over a dozen people stand on wet slates of granite and slid to the bottom of the hole. Some 8 ft plus. Be carful and watch the kids. It's not like you can navigate the river and just stand up if you fall in now. If you fall in the water now you're probably going to have to swim out. Flies I'm throwing are the famous Near Deer in Olive 1/80th, white and red midges, and a woolly booger in Olive colors. Water has been clear enough to site fish most of the day. So an indicator was not nessesary most of the time. I have seen some monster bass in a bunch of spots. Some pushing 7-8 lbs. Most are 1-3 lbs. I added a couple pics at the end of the video.

I think it's time for another "Wild Stocker Rainbow Trout Tournament". A percentage will go to the Lower Mountain Fork Federation.

Great report and video TarponFly!