I just got back from Vegas Sunday night. I flew in Friday afternoon. Thankfully, I only had minor delays and the trip back to Tulsa was a straight shot. A lot of ppl I work with weren't so lucky. It was a MESS

Jeff,

Like what you did for that little guy. On more than one occasion my buddy Dan and I have enabled children not catching fish, to catch them. Makes a good trip even better.

Great story Jeff!!!

No reason for a long report. All day 16-24 inchers. Clients caught fish on first cast and last cast and a [censored] ton in-between. My clients actually gave up and had enough - cutting the trip early. They were actually tired of catching big fish. The stupid Near Deers bored my clients.



Everyone was catching fish left and right. One of the guys always had a fish on.

Then I fished for two hours and Brad was with me as a tag a long. We both agreed we had enough too, brad landed over 50 with some huge monsters and I got about 25 ish in two hours 80% over 20 inches. Brad and I were horsing in 18 inchers or trying to get them to shake the hook out so we could hit the bigger ones. Crazy. - but, it got boring. Weird to say that, but its true.























We had a lot of great runs and jumps. Fun times.

PS. Brads Monster.

Boredom is a good thing!

Brads monster.

Thanks for the Trip Carey! Good times. My partners didn't have much sleep leading up to the morning. Somehow, you got their rods to bend. That many fish in that short of time= Carey "Easy money" Thorn. I've fished a lot of rivers, and good timing or not, that is a quality fishery.

Holiday weekend at the river! I didn't realize it when I booked trips up there. Fortunately, they were all able to push them to a later date I do not think its fair to my client to have to wait for a hole or walk till u can slip into one. So please think about booking trips during the holidays and don't get pissy when u get to the Evening Hole and there are 50 peeps in it.

I fished the EH yesterday from 7:30 am till 5pm and saw about 15 people all day. Beautiful! I will have a detailed report later, but the big boy bite was still on.

Still some big fish left. Caught 25 or so on Thursday. biggest was 22-23". Caught a cuttbow too! Pic attached. Tarpon's neer deeres kool-aid mid water column, softhackles on the swing, and eggs bouncing off the bottom were working. High pressure made it a little difficult, but the bite was on in spurts. Magick the dog met a few new peeps and chased some squirrels and herons. Thank you to all who stopped to pet him. Last cast of the day netted a nice 20" buck with 2 (barbed) hooks still in him (in the evening hole red zone). Also had a first for the LMF - two separate fish put me into my backing. Lost one and netted the other. All in all a great day on the water - no crowds, great weather, good people, canine companionship, and some nice fish.

for some reason I cannot upload pics - will try again later.

Jeff's pics from the other day. I just helped post them up for him.

Fat Rainbow



Magick's Meal for the day.



Cutbow




13 inch cutbow

Any body planning on fishing the river this weekend? I believe it should be warmer, hopefully the pressure lowers and stabilizes? What do yall think? Would the stocking be on time or delayed?

They stocked yesterday. I'll be up here all weekend. And Monday.

Lower Mountain Fork River Fishing Report:

Dink fest. They mainly released 10-13 inchers this stocking. I told Michael all about the big ones swimming in the river so he was excited to land one. He usually catches one a day there and his biggest was 8-9 inches. He caught four in four casts when we got there and missed a couple within 15 mins. By the time we made it to the holes with the big fish, Jeff had already covered the area and landed a bunch of the big brooders.



So we didn't have luck with the big girls. One of my buddies was there and he was targeting 2 brooders 22-24 inches. No one could catch them all day. They just didn't want to eat. My buddy asked if I had anything else to throw at them. And I did. I was messing around with the Pom Pom eggs and made just one test fly. Glued 4 eggs on it instead of 1.



About 15 mins later I see him hooked up on one of the monsters on my test fly. Maybe he will post the pic.

I had one last final spot to hit on the way out of the river that had a 10% chance of holding a hidden monster. And there he was! Personal Best for Michael.





Later that afternoon, Jeff landed that 27 incher. I'm sure he will post a pic. A nice 28-30 incher is still there. Most of the brooders are already getting skin diseases and are getting fitted in running shoes and running away from the river, cause there is only a 1/4, if that, left of big big ones. Anything pink was king and olive Near Deers.

Wow, what a weekend! Lighter crowds, fresh fish, a few brooders left over, and perfect weather. No generation as well, so Z2 and Z3 were productive. My buddy Steve and I (Magick too) had a blast. Steve just recently picked up fly fishing after a 10 year absence and he got better by the hour. I think he totaled about 20-25 fish for the weekend. I think he had the most fun at Z3 re-reg and the lost creek dump in. His very last cast produced his biggest trout to date - a 17 incher - pic below. Steve used the same pink neer deere all day sunday and caught over a dozen fish. He didn't take a swim or bath this weekend, so he is getting better!

Overall report: Steady midge hatches, some BWO activity, and a larger mayfly I could not determine. Any midge larvae, soft hackle, RS2, or small egg dropped off a lead fly worked really well. The olive deeres were great as a lead fly - and I caught my 3 largest fish on it. On the eggs, the smaller and heavier the better. It had to bounce to get fish. Z3 was productive early Sunday. We fished the bathtub below the re-reg and caught 20 or so in 2 hours. I fished the fast water and tossed a small dead drifted streamer and did OK. Lost a real nice Brown or Walleye in the whitewater. All the stocked areas in Spillway and EH were obviously loaded with fish. I think I heard someone say that the Foundation dumped a bunch of 4-6" browns in the EH too. They were rising all weekend. Beautiful fish, I hope they get to grow up. Cold Hole was great for dries and small fish. To the idiot that cleaned about 30 fish and dumped the remains in lost creek: grow a courtesy sack.

Carey's post above mentioned that the brooders were leaving. May be true, but I bet they are dying too. I caught a 23" buck that was yellow and the scales were flaking off. That was my pic in Carey post. Since he was legal, my buddy cooked him later. I estimate there were still 75-100 20+ inch fish left. Some are actively trying to spawn - best of luck to 'em, science isn't on their side. Sight fishing in the upper EH was fun to these big guys. I do hope they can stick around for awhile, but I have my doubts. I caught about 10 fish in the 18-23 range and one much larger. Special props to Allen for the assist and picture taking late in the day. 2nd pic below.

All in all Steve and I caught about 75 in two full days. PLenty enough to keep him coming back. Magick the dog had a good time too, thanks to all those that stopped to pet him or compliment him on his behavior. We had fun hiking a little and exploring some new areas. Steve's new waders and boots held up pretty well. We are going to try camping next time - another first for this city guy.

Note: pics wil not upload again - WTH? Try again later.