What a trip Pavsky. Seriously awesome fishing. I really would like to check out Broken Bow pretty soon. Looks like an awesome fishery closer to home than most. Trout are there year round correct?

Yes. Every three weeks they stock all year. Avoid holidays if u can.

Saturday Feb 8 - Cold, wet, dreary. Ice fog for a few hours in the morning. Nasty stuff. The weatherman missed his forecast by about 20 degrees. Managed about 10 fish from 9am till 1pm. Some big fish were surface feeding on Brownish mayflies - assumed they were early march browns. Watched a nice 20+ fish gobble about half a dozen, then chase the hatch downstream jumping clear out of the water. Never saw that before. I stayed from the slow water in EH to just below the bridge. Olive deeres drifted dead and swung produced the fish. Largest I caught was a 20" fatty. Lost quite a few hookups to bad knots - couldn't tie them with frozen hands. Helped a nice guy sight fish (and catch) a nice 22" in the EH fast water. Planned to stay Sunday, but more cold weather forecast and frozen toes and fingers forced the dog and I to come home. Decent day on the water - a bonus day for this tax accountant.

Jeff: What do you mean when you say "dead drift" a near deere? Do you mean under an indicator, or do you mean swung in the current like we do other streamers. Partly why I ask this is it seems to me if you swing it like a streamer, it can't be called a "dead drift" because when you swing or strip a streamer you're always maintaining tension between you and the streamer if for nothing else so that you can feel the strike when it comes. So I'm taking it you mean that it was under an indy. You were doing some of each.

The main reason I ask is because, so far, I haven't had awesome luck with near deeres, just kind of average, about like blind fishing a nymph in any hole. So I think maybe I'm doing something a little bit wrong with them. I think maybe I don't go quite deep enough sometimes. I think I'm afraid to because I don't feel like hanging on the bottom and having to tie a new fly on. I donno. I know I do hook the dreaded rock-fish some.

Ozark: One time you want to avoid nowadays is the week before they're about to stock. In the 3rd week after stocking the river tends to get a little fished out. It has fairly enormous pressure on it. If my calculations are correct they should be stocking again around Thursday, Feb 13. I plan to go the next week. So (again, if I'm correct. I think I am) the next stocking after that would be about the first Thursday in March, and so on.
But like this Monday, when they're gonna stock Thursday (probably), not so good.

Jonbo,

Deeres drifted under an indicator in the slow water like the evening hole. I try to go 1.5x the depth of the water from indicator to Deere. IN faster water, i use 4-5 feet of 4lb mono between indicator and fly. If no strike during the drift, I let it swing at the end - across the current. I still use the indy to help see the 'tug' The smaller fish in particular love the swing - they chase it. So yes, I use the deere in both ways. Hooking bottom is always an issue. IN this cold weather, the fish are often glued to the bottom. You need to get the fly there. That is also one of the reasons eggs are working so well right now. Bouncing them off the rocks does the trick.

The third week after stock is OK in the Red Zones. Spillway is almost void of fish in the popular spots. You have to search them out in the pocket water. Third week is great for exploring new water since the crowds are lighter.

We went this past weekend for the first time and had an awesome time even though we had a tough time finding them. It was only my 3rd time fly fishing and feel that things are getting progressively better. What is the best way to get the eggs on the bottom to bounce of the rocks?

Stucdan,

Find a way to weight the eggs....be creative. The smaller the egg the better. In faster water just use a weighted fly above the egg, it will drag the egg along.

I probably saw y'all at some point. If you saw the large black dog on the banks, I was in the water nearby.

New fishies on Thursday/friday, easier catching anyway.

U can buy fly fishing split shots from the fly shops.

I had some split shots but don't think the weighed enough. I was in the Evening Hole pretty much the whole time but didn't explore too much upstream, stayed near the bridge for the most part. How far upstream does it go?

stucdan:

You can use a little bit of splitshot about 8" up. You can trail the egg behind a weighted nymph, like a beadhead Hare's Ear. You can use a beadhead egg. You can trail the egg behind a Near Deere which you can buy from Carey (tarponfly) on his website: http://texasoklahomafishingguide.com/. This is a very popular and effective combo on the LMF. The Neare Deere is like a Wooly Bugger on a weighted jig head.

To make the trailer rig tie the front, weighted fly to the tippet. On the bend of that hook tie about 15" of the next smaller size tippet. (Say you put a Neere Deere on 4x tippet. Tie 15" of 5x tippet material to the bend. Tie your egg to that. That way if you hang the egg and it breaks off it probably won't take the rest of the rig with it.

Another variation is to add the 15" of smaller tippet to the original tippet with a double or triple surgeon's knot. Tie it so it leaves a 4" tag end of your original tippet. Instead of cutting it off like normal, you tie your front fly to it. That leaves the front fly more free. It seems better, except that at some point, while casting or drifting, I'm not sure, I always get it tangled. So I use the first method I described. It's safer for me.

I use adjustable football indicators a lot. That's because whatever water I'm fishing I can adjust it so the fly fishes on or close to the bottom. (The foam Palsa-types are better "indicators" as they're more sensitive, but they don't adjust.) You know you're right when your indy dips on most casts whether or not you get a bite. So when you go to set there's nothing there. If that happens a lot you know your reaching bottom. I think my problem is, subconsciously I don't want to fish the bottom, because it's aggravating to keep trying to set the hook with nothing there. But you have to. I can KIND OF tell the difference between a bite and the bottom, but not really. Neither can anyone else, it seems. You're supposed to strike on EVERYTHING when fishing under indicators. You're also going to lose a lot of rigs on the bottom. But it's the price you pay because it's probably the most productive way, in general, to fly-fish for trout. And the big ones tend to stay deep. Ask anyone here.

Also mend a lot to get a dead drift. That is, keep tossing your line upstream so it doesn't drag the indy. If your indy is not moving right with the foam on the water, that's a big no-no when indy fishing. Repeat: do NOT let the line drag the indy.
jonbo

Great info, thank you!

Stay away from the bridges. They are fished superhard by all the bait anglers. Walk 50% of the way up the evening hole and fish all the way to the cold hole

I did see a lot while I was there, guess we should've walked further up, lessons learned. I will definitely be back.

I caught a decent sized brown there last year. It was about 16" and it was definitely a brown. I got it from under the tree with exposed roots in the water in the riffles between cold hole and the first bend.

They stocked today.