Went out to LLELA on Saturday for a few hours. Caught a couple small fish, greenie, bass, small cat, and had a long distance release on a small white bass or hybrid. Also had a 2-3ft gar chase down my fly only to think better of it at the last second.

My question: is it possible to catch the buffs that hang out there? I must have seen 10 of them in fairly shallow water and threw nearly every sinking fly i have at them. Any hints/tips would be appreciated.

Buffs as I have experienced them are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get unless you find a feeding fish. If you find one feeding, they are about like carp with their willingness to take a fly

Me and other pals have caught several of those 4 + lb dark demonic looking buffalos on dark woolies, striper fishing in the RedR, below Texoma.

Now...

Why were we casting dark woolie boogers, whilst supposedly fishing for stripers ?

Eh, I dont even know, but I am guessing the bite had turned off towards slow.

I caught one below Dension Dam on a white clouser , pretty sure it was a fluke 'cause I've cast a bunch since then & my stuff don't appeal to them.

Here you go ScootieAg

White clouser 1
Dark Wooly 3


And remember, them fish, no matter how u catch 'em, they're still kinda smelly, kinda very smelly actually.

they are super tough to catch but have been known to take a fly occasionally. I was lucky enough to catch two in the same day at llela but have to get another one since . You just have to be in the right place with the right fly

Ok well I am glad my efforts were not in vain. It was pretty cool to sight cast at those beasts. Most didnt look like they were feeding. Just kinda hanging out and not doing anything.

My sons and I were striper fishing below Denison Dam and got into a school of buffalo. We took a half dozen of them on gray Cat's Whiskers, ranging from 5 to 14 lbs. The 14 pounder was my middle son's biggest ever fish on a fly. His picture is now mounted on the wall of a fly shop in Port Angeles, Washington. The fly shop owner was the one who sold me the Arctic Fox I used to tie the Cat's Whiskers. He says it's the only fish pic on the wall that isn't a steelhead, trout, or salmon, so he gets lots of questions about it.

Was it a clouser or a fluke??? just askin...

I have always found those buffs at LLELA to be pretty easy to catch - but maybe I have just been lucky.

From the lower dirt parking lot, walk down to the 'beach', turn upstream and cast an olive bugger with a little flash and a few split shot out toward that little island. Slowly strip the bugger back toward you through the eddy behind the island. Hang on.

Also, when the water is up a little bit, walk south down the dirt road to where the picnic tables are and there are those high cut banks on river right. Let the swirling currents right there at the bank suck that same wooly bugger (olive w/ flash) down into the depths of that bend in the channel. A bunch of buffs hang out right there, and they'll hit that bugger somewhat predictably. This approach doesn't feel so much like fly fishing as it does vertical jigging, but the fight is the same nonetheless.

great reply!