Has anyone tries fly fishing the rivers below the dams at a lake before?

Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Texoma, Lavon, Tawakoni, as well as many other lakes around here have lower dam fishing areas and rivers open to the public, and I’m thinking about taking a fly rod with and going on a day when it’s not too busy.

Many of the rivers below dams have great fly fishing for white bass, striper, trout and many other species. Restricted areas remove some of the great fishing spots, but there are still plenty of good areas to fly fish.

In years past I would fly fish below the Whitney dam. A clouser is your friend there along with various popping bugs.

That’s good to know! I’m not fussy about what I catch, I just want to have some fun on a fly. All I’ve caught so far since I started is some small bluegills, I would love to hook into something bigger that puts up a fight. A striper would be an amazing catch I think.

I have some clousers, will give them a shot. Next time I’m in a fly shop I’ll grab a few poppers to try out. Any colors you would recommend?

Had good success at Denison Dam - tailrace to Texoma. Caughy my PB on the fly Striped Bass there back in November 2015. Originally was headed to the Blue River for trout but a call to Scotty at Scotty's One Stop suggested otherwise... lots of rain and the water was muddy. Fly fishing for trout would have been a tough go.

Lucikly had tied clousers the night before and made the switch to fish the dam. Ended up catching several Striped Bass including a 29" one and did lose another that I could not turn away from the rocks.... was using a 9ft 5wt that morning.

Here is the video for reference...

That looks like an absolute blast! Those stripers look like they put up a nice fight on there. Now I’m really looking forward to giving this a try.

YouTube broke?

What? The video played fine for me if that’s what you are talking about.

It is fun but lately has been slow on the fly for me. Last few trips live shad as well as frozen shad were working for others... went Saturday and caught one a live bluegill. Group next to us limited out with frozen shad.

Here's the video... a catch and cook video since only one. There is some footage of the river. They were discharging a little water but not generating power. They did start later that day but we left as the alarms were sounded.

You can forget about below Ray Roberts.

Do you find that the fly fishing will tend to pick up later in the year when the weather cools off and the water temps begin to drop? Fishing overall seems to have slowed down substantially since the spring no matter what kind of rods or bait you’re using.

Why is that? I me and my buddies used to go there all the time and fish catfish. The past few times that I’ve driven past lately the water lever looks good and seems to be plenty of people down there fishing.

I figure if I can hike a little ways downstream to get away from the crowd, I might be able to find a spot to throw some flies.

Agreed, it used to be a great spot. However, as of 2018 wade fishing is no longer allowed below Whitney.

Is there any reasoning behind that? Liability thing?