Turf Dawg - you should have some great weather this week! Lucky you. Lots of us floated and chilled on friday, froze on Saturday, and thawed Sunday. Lots of fish still in the system and at new places after the logs came out.

I am sure TF will post a more comprehensive report, but the fishing was good all weekend. Multiple BWO hatches, midges, and black caddis in Spillway. Surface action in Cold Hole was phenomenal for the smaller fish. Stock trucks put LOTS of 17-22" fish in the river. Weather was awful at times, but it made for great fishing. Water was slightly stained after friday's rain so bright colors worked well. I wish I could have stayed and fished a few extra days, damn job gets in the way.

Have fun!

Lower Mountain Fork River @ Beavers Bend State Park Guided Fishing Report:

Friday - Sunday

Freaking Awesome Fishing!


( above: this 32 inch Wild Stocked Brown Bow annihilated a Pink Near Deer. Might have been 18 inches but I didn't have a tape with me. )

20-24 inch fish all over the river. Most people we talked with were not doing well. Mainly because the water was stained due to it was raining the entire day- and the fish were starving. You could see the fish actually fighting over our flies. 5-10 always chasing it down if u didn't hook up.



I think everyone else must have been using a Plaid Hopper Dropper w/ a Dropper Hopper, with not much success. Fish cant see that little Parachute Adams when u can't see 2 ft down due to water clarity. But, they can see a Pink Near Deere with an pink egg dropped from it. Wacked them the whole week. Near Deeres in the morning till 11 am, then they wanted eggs bouncing the bottom till dark. Sunday was prob the best day as the water cleared up a bit. On Friday, we fished Spillway Creek and EH areas. The park was empty. No one there but 2-3 people. Picked up 15-20 nice fish out of The Evening Hole, a few out of Lost Creek, and lots out of Spillway Creek. Fridays client, Aurthur, had never fly fished in his life.



After we were done and he graduated from my fly fishing 101 class, he hit Spillway Creek and hit his limit of 6 rainbow trout within 45 mins all on his own. Roll casting, tying the rig, mending, and fighting the fish, he did perfect. Now he's hooked and is already talking about the sandbass and hybrid run in the spring on the fly rod. Sunday the weather cleared and water got crystal clear again.



I met up with Jeff and fished the whole river. At 2 pm, Jeff decided to finally listen to me, after he was about to break his rod in half out of frustrations or break offs/ no fish/ and watching me hook up into fish every five mins. He rigged up my way and made his leader longer and wouldn't ya know it.....? - he lands over 20 fish in less than an hour.



Saturday was slower as the air pressure was rising all day and just made it slow. Jeff said he caught 15 or so on his end. I didn't fish, so I don't know the true report.



The crowd was non existent till 3 pm Sunday. We walked out of Spillway Creek towards Cold Hole and ended up seeing 20 people with more showing up as we were moving spots. Went to the last spot of the day and there were people there, so we decided to just pack up and get out.



For the rising trout: 90% are under 12 inches that are rising, use Blue Winged Olives for topwater action or grey Rs2's for just under the surface. You will catch a few bigger ones on the small flies, but the bigger fish are wanting more protein than a small nat or ant.



All we threw were olive Near Deers/ Pink Near Deers/ Pink Eggs. Tried a few other stuff, but they love the pink eggs. I'm messing around with another egg pattern and did very well with it. So we will see what happens later with that pattern as the season goes on.




19.75 inches

Thats what happens when you follow instructions..... longer leader and better presentation get them every time. Carey had his eggs, I was using RS2's and midge larvae dropped off multi-hued Near Deere's. Real nice Sz16-18 BWO hatch helped the cause.

Saturday - yeah, air pressure and cold-a$$ weather. Good day on dries in Spillway and Cold Hole. I scored a couple of nice fish below EH Bridge on softhackles. at about 3 pm i couldn't feel my fingertips or toes, so I caught a nice 20 inch bow and took off. Stopped by the fly shop to say hello to Eddie and conversed while thawing out. I caught the bigger fish on his 'bonus' fly. Thanks, eddie.

I still suck at flyfishing, but its nice to have someone tell you what you're doing wrong. I guess I will stick to accounting and golfing.......

Hi, fellers. I'm thinking of going to Beaver's Bend on Christmas Eve, while the wife and mother-in-law are cooking up Christmas dinner. I was wondering, as someone mentioned black caddis hatches, what do you use if they're coming off? I'm thinking of an emerger fished kind of close to the surface, maybe swung in the current like a soft hackle and they'll likely hit it at the end of the swing. I've tied up some Gary Lafontaine sparkle pupas (if you know what those are) in about size 18, also have them in size 14. Are the black caddis pupa/emergers more green here or more tan colored? I've also got a brown hackle peacock soft hackle with a green butt called a "green butt", LOL, naturally. This worked for me at the White when I went.
I've never tried tying a caddis dry, especially a black one.
Thanks!
Jonbo

...but it looks like I've picked a bad part of the stocking cycle to go on. Oh well, I'll probably give it a shot anywho.
jonbo

Jonbo,

There will still be fish.... the park has been slow. The black caddis were sz 16-18. The pupae were green to black. I enjoyed swinging a sparkle soft hackle into the pools. Chartreuse beadheads with black fuzz worked some as well.

Stick with BWO dries when the fish are rising, maybe midges too.

Thanks Jeff!

A friend and I hit BB on Weds, and tore em up. We hit one spot near the paddle boat area and together pulled out 15 fish out of one 15x15 area. Evening hole was great too, I caught 2 well over 20", I thing together we caught 35-ish fish, none smaller than 12. Almost all were on WB or near-deers.

For stained water also try a "rainbow warrior" in red (Google it). It's basically a thread midge covered in flash. Very bright. It works for me.
Cheers, jonbo

jonbo, thanks for the midge tip! I Googled it, found a recipe on Charlie's Fly Box

Well, it looks like my group has to save up some money and get Carey to take us. I put some knots and tangles in my line that NASA could not figure out how I did it LOL. I did catch one in the 20" range on the egg/neer deer combo and a couple more on that trailer egg and a couple on pink neer deer without trailer. I personally caught around 10 fish in 4 days [not full days] on the fly rod. I stink at it but have a great time.

T.D., get with Carey for the fishing, but if you want some help with the knots and tangles come out to the Red River Rendevouz on Jan 18 at Eisenhower state park. If the weather cooperates, we can spend some time casting.

I'm going to be up there right after Christmas. hope I catch one or two-p-

Does it cost? Do you need a fishing license?

$10 includes access to the state park and helps us cover the cost of renting the facilities. Activities are included in that fee. No licenses are required within Texas state parks. I'll start a separate thread with more detail in a few days.