Ha ha

9 ft.

I will apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings. I did say IMO. Again, In My Opion.

No problem. Mine's 10'.

Chris,

It's TarponFly's thread. Jesse, you or whomever, start your own. I can say you will catch more fish with Carey.

Caught two wild ones today.

Broken Bow has been fun the last couple weeks. Real fun. At least, on my side of the river.

Met my 5 guys at the river at 7 am and went for a walk. Deer were on the trail and wouldnt move till you got about 2-3 ft from them. That was wierd. Showed the guys the roll cast/how to land fish, and on the first cast, landed one. Pretty much how the day went. But, with a twist. The first fish of the day was a 15 incher. The second one was 10? Then I hear drag screaming down the river. I look over and one of my guys has something BIG on the line. Took him into his backing and went way way downstream ( medium current ), around a log, and wrapped him up. This went on for about 5 minutes before he wrapped up in a log jam. SAD. It was very very big whatever it was. Had to be a big mammoth of a brown trout IMO. My client is still smiling and texting about "the one that got away". This was his 5th cast of the day and first fly rod trip ever.

2 of the 5 guys- have fly fished before, so it didnt take them long to catch on and start catching fish. The other 3 were newbies to the sport of fly fishing, and boy did they get spoiled today. All of them. Took what pics I could when I was around to take them. Waiting on the other pics they took, when they get back into town.

We were all over the river today. I found a pattern the Monster fish were on. Today they were eating my Near Deer fly. Thats the pattern. We spot a fish and drift till it bites. Easy as that.

Evening Hole has another Rainbow/Salmon in it. This fish is an easy 28-30 incher. I had my guy beat it up for 15 mins or so. Finally I hear him say he got it! But freakin of course it got off again. But thats barbless for you....

So after that I had them walk the banks till they saw what they wanted to catch. Told them to skip all the 15-16 inch trout and only target the 17's and up.



No idea what thier tallys were.... but it was a lot.







21 inch Rainbow Trout (above)- They caught many of them.





After the trip was done, it was my turn. Mike drove out with me and I found him watering up at the truck. He said, look at this.




Spillway creek has big fish too.

So I head up the creek.....






-----------------------------------------

Hit the Evening Hole areas as well.





Then I decided it was time to hit Spillway Creek again. Then it happened. I spotted the fish I was going to catch before I left the park. I worked on her for about an hour. I had her turn on my fly 10-15 times and I think she took the fly once, but im 50/50 on that one. Could have been the bottom, but who knows .

So I sat down and watched her for 15 mins . She never opened her mouth, so she was not feeding on anything. hmmmm.

Started drifting the fly to her again for about 30 mins and again she would drift over to the fly or turn a bit, so I knew she would eat eventually....? Then I noticed something. Everytime she would drift over to my fly or turn a bit, it was only when I drifted on her left side. So every cast I started drifting to the left side of her. Then it was every 2 casts she would get a bit more excited. Then a freaking male moved in behind her and started biting at her. At this point, I get a bit upset. The male wouldnt stop picking on any of the fish in my spot here. So I moved up stream and followed it till it layed up and I could drift my fly to it.



As the fly landed 7 feet in front of him, He swam at full speed and attacked my fly and started to jump all over the place. So, I got him in and went back to the the fish I wanted to land before I left for the day.

Started to drift the left side of her and again she immediatly turned and took a short strike at the fly. Second cast, "HOOK-UP!

Up and down, up and down, the rapids she went. (This was all in 2 ft to 3 ft of water in Spillway Creek) 20 minutes later she starts to tire out. Then she turns downstream at full force and makes a run over a 4 ft waterfall, down into the next pool below me. I was following. -From the bank of course. 5 mins later she is beached.



29 inches

Now, the reason she was only turing to her left, was, she didnt have much of an eyeball in her right eye socket. Got popped awhile back at some point. So she was blind on her right side......


Now, this fish was in a major stocking point and had no chance in the world to live. She was going to get yanked out before the weekend would end. The next pool up, a guy had his limit of trout and all of them were 18-19 inchers and a 23 inch kicker. His daughter, had the same thing (7 Years old) and her kicker was a 22 incher. So since the fish would be taken within a couple days, I will be giving it a new home on the grill and inviting some friends over for some beer and grilled trout.

I had to go find Mike to take a picture, so she lost her colors.

Everywhere we went today there were big "old" trout swimming around. Fun day for sure and huge fish biting.

Mike 31 Trout
Me 51 Trout and a 6 inch Warmouth/RockBass

Hey TarponFly, don't wear yourself (or the fish) out until I get there for our trip on the 1st... Thanks for the great pics and info. I am counting the days till I get in the car and drive northwards.

I heard that the superb fisherman Michael had this trip, perfected his "cast between the branches", the "cast then retrieving fly from branches" and the ever popular "trolling for trout while taking pics of others catches".

Another great trip...

Anyone wanting to learn how to catch trout, big trout, and alot of trout, ANYWHERE, ANY ZONE on the LMF:

TarponFly

Anybody have a good recommendation on where to tent camp?

Also, I am dying to come up and fish the river. I grew up in Northern California and I miss trout fishing something fierce. I was thinking October, but it sounds like waiting till November would be wise?

Wow great report! Love the videos! I'm about to go and subscribe to your channel. Keep posting about your fun on the LMF!

What is the Magic Near Deer?



-Some say a jig, some say a jig-fly, blah blah blah. If your a purist - you hate it.
- If you love to catch fish on a fly made of fur and feathers, you will love this fly. I have reports from all over the States, they are landing fish on this fly when others are not. I still use midges, eggs, dries, blah blah blah. But for 95% stocked fish, the Near Deer is my GO-TO.




Magic Near Deer Fly in action: Part 1



Magic Near Deer: Part 2

those 90� jig hooks are indeed the bomb! Thanks for the video!

Carey, is that something you tied yourself? Looks interesting, I've not seen it around. Any typing instructions online anywhere?

Dan's dad came up with them. I tweaked it and matched the color of the prey in the creek. U won't find it anywhere but on my site At the moment. I am working a deal with some tackle companies as we speak.