Just found out they stocked Friday the 28th. Guess they'll stock again somewhere around the 17th or 18th if they keep to their rough 3 week schedule. Here's the OK Wildlife Dept fishing report which will tell when last stocking was made if anyone else wants to bookmark it.
http://wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/fishse.htm
jonbo

I have to hand it to TarponFly, those near deers work. I tied up a couple of olive ones before going to the river last weekend and here was the result. This one was about 26'-27" and my buddy caught a 20"+ right before this one. Most of our other fish were on egg patterns but there were several on the near deer. There were about 50 fish to hand between 3 of us.

Teaser - great weekend on the LMF. Also witnessed and photographed a really rare fish. I cannot find any official record of one being caught in Oklahoma let alone the LMF. Story and pics later. Waiting on biologist confirmation.....

The techie above was using TArponFly's neer deeres and official tape measure C'mon Bessett, weigh in on that one!

I went up to Beavers Bend with a new friend, a co-worker of my wife. He is an avid fly fisher, but had never dipped a line in the LMF. He came away totally impressed and the last I talked to him he couldn't wait to go back. Based on our discussions, he probably caught 30-40 fish Friday and Saturday. He landed a personal best 21.5 inch rainbow hen on his last cast Saturday evening. Love to see a grown man with an ear to ear smile! Pics below (I hope).




Lots to report, but suffice to say just about everything was working - SJ worms, eggs in a variety of colors, anything resembling a Nymph or adult Blue winged Olive (RS2's killed 'em), midges larvae, and even the olive near deeres. We didn't see a ton of surface catching, but the hatches were BWO's, a few lingering March Browns, very small midges (yellow!), and some caddis when the sun came out. The bite seemed to go in spurts - 20-30 minutes at a time it seemed every good drift produced a strike. I had my most success on peach micro-eggs, a chartreuse egg, and size 16-20 RS2's. Both of my friends' big fish came on RS2's trailing an attractor nymph. Lots of fish being caught (the stockers were smaller this go-round), and still several big fish in the system. My best was taped 21.5 (pic below) and I saw a few much bigger than that. There is one really nice fish lurking (it may be the one Bessett caught) and I witnessed it being caught once Saturday. I think there is one fish in the same hole/area that may approach record status. Several of us watched it for a few minutes Saturday late afternoon. If you caught a fish in the pool, this fish would frantically swim around before settling back in to feed/rest. It is BIG.




Personally I had a good numbers day Saturday. Lots of fresh stockers, a few 3-6 week holdovers, and 2 or 3 brooders. The biggest fish my buddy and I caught drew crowds as we battled them. It was kinda cool to have an audience I even managed to dunk myself trying to land his big hen. where is GoPro when you need it? Crowds were surprisingly lite for a nice April Saturday. Cold hole was busy, but from the hole below to EH Bridge had maybe 30 anglers. Plenty of room to shift around and it was nice visiting with people. Magick the dog is a great conversation starter. He made some new friends and generally sat on the bank and watched us fish. Thanks to the man who gave him some crackers in EH. He now grabs his travel pack when he sees me putting waders in the car. Love that dog.




It seems like everyone I talked to had caught several fish. I cannot recall anyone saying they got skunked or that is was really slow. Sure seems like it was a good weekend for everyone on the river.




Now for the response to the teaser I dropped earlier....... The fish I am going to write about is, from everything I have gathered, a one in a million fish. It is not uncommon in Colorado and Wyoming, but it is VERY hard to catch due to its preferred habitat. Let me preface the report by saying that I have gotten feedback from a wildlife biologist, OK wildlife, and done my own personal searches on this fish. This fish has no real business being in Oklahoma, in a tailwater, or in ANY water over 50-55 degrees. I have seen no reports of any ever being stocked in Oklahoma, anywhere. I cannot say for sure if the Nebraska hatchery has any of these fish. I found no record of them being reared. I personally did NOT catch this fish, but I witnessed it being caught, I identified the fish, and I took pictures of the fish. It was at the toppish of the Evening Hole, just downstream from the first pool after the island. I was fishing the tailout just above him and catching a good number of 13 inchers. The gentleman was doing quite well about 30 yards downstream from me. I see him land a fish and he looked at it for a few seconds. I heard him say, " I think this is brown, but it doesn't look like the other browns I have caught". I could see the fish was about 14-16" and dark colored. I asked him to net the fish and hold it in the water for a few seconds while I waded downstream. I am no expert, but I read enough and study enough that I can readily identify most types of 'Trout'. Aaron knows his cutts, but this was obviously not a cutthroat. As I got closer I started to notice the spots. NOT brown trout spots. No yellow tints anywhere, no black spots, no red spots. Not a rainbow either, not a chance. The man, who has allowed me to give his name, introduced himself as Chris McCorkle from Denton, TX (highland village). He knew he had something different, but had no idea what it was. He offered the fish to me.... and I was shocked. Something to the effect of, "Dude, you just caught a one in a million fish!" I knew what it was based on pictures I have seen and fish studies I have read. For those of you bothering to read this instead of just scanning down to the pics..... amber brown eyes, dark green body, roundish white to yellow spots, slightly forked tail, white leading edges on the fins, orange tinted fins, and a mouth that ended behind the eye. And here was the kicker, NO vermiculations on the back and no red or haloed spots. A Brook trout would be rare enough for the Lower Mountain Fork, but this was not a garden variety Brookie (I have caught hundreds of them). The other fish that COULD be colored in the same manner is a Lake Trout (also in the Char family). But, this fish had a mostly square tail and true round 'spots' rather than irregular markings of the Mackinaw or Lake Trout. This fish was Salvelinus namaycush X Salvelinus fontinalis, or a 'Splake'. Disclaimer - without taking a biopsy of this fish's intestinal tract, it is impossible to know 100% for sure its genetics. However, each of the physical descriptions above fit this Char family representative. It is a cross between a male Brook Trout and a female Lake trout. They are rarely found outside of Canadian Lakes and a few deep, cold lakes in Colorado and Wyoming. They are a popular game fish for stocking purposes because they very rarely reproduce due to their mixed up genetics. Their habitat usually is deep, dark lakes where the water stays 40-55 degrees year round. I have caught exactly one of them - in a feeder creek to Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming during a spawning period. Simply put, these fish should not be in the Lower Mountain Fork. Unless the hatchery messed up, we have no idea how this fish got here. I couldn't even find record of Brook Trout in Broken Bow lake or the river, let alone Lake Trout or hybrids. If someone knows differently, please speak up. Pics below (if they upload). Love to hear what anyone else thinks of this catch. We did put the fish back in the water because we knew of no laws against having this fish in the river. I hope this was as rare as I think it is. After CPR, we shook hands and went back to fishing. Funny end to the story..... as we were photo'ing the fish, Chris let his fly drift downstream. As he picked it back up to cast, he found a nice 17 inch rainbow attached to the end of his line. Nice lazy man's way to catch fish

Very cool. Never seen one like that.

Thanks for posting and adding pics Jeff.
I have to keep looking at what y'all are catching because I have been too busy to go. It is driving me crazy.

Definitely a fish in the char family. I've seen Dolly Varden in Alaska with very similar colorings & markings. Lakers get similar colorings in the fall. A Brookie would have pink spots.

I would LOVE to see some Brookies in LMF, but I know how they just about take over a fishery.

Cool conversation topic!

JR

SCR - yeah, that is a problem with Brookies, they do overrun the place, especially in Stillwaters. The LMF would likely get a little too warm for them in the summer though, so they may die off.

There is talk of introducing a trout 'slam' on the LMF now that we have proof of Rainbows, Browns, Cutties, and Char (of some type). This new hatchery is keeping things interesting!

Hit the river a couple times this month. Red Zones are always producing bigger fish. Blue Zones are getting wiped out really fast. It is incredible how fast a pocket of trout vanishes within 2 days on the weekends. Any fish in Lost Creek only last 1-1.5 weeks and they will all be caught out. But, if you find those hard to get to pockets, there are fish waiting for you. We didnt wack them last week, just a steady flow of 12-17 inchers and one toad 22 incher



Olive Near Deers were getting them off the bottom. Then later during the rain, the Woolly Bugger bite picked up and that's always fun.

Goofed around and tied some Near Deers in ridiculous colors and still caught them. The fish are just starving. They will try anything once or twice.

Also found me one of those cut bows

If you have to hold the fish upside down and zoom in to get the pic, it's hardly worth calling it a cutbow.

All this excitement over nothing special.

Now this is a cutbow...

Anybody going up this weekend?

This message is for the general an that owns a cabin in the park. Denny? Please PM me ur number for clients to book your cabin and also another guy has a questions or two for you.

Seeing how no one has posted much recently.....

I made two trips up to LMF recently. May 9-11 was a stocking weekend and we caught several fresh fish. Caddis are everywhere right now with a mix of midges in the morning, sulphurs in the afternoon, and a few stoneflies. Small midges still are king - zebra, chocolate, and red sizes 18-24. My buddy Shawn had a great hour or two at the Bluffs on Sunday 11th. He landed several 18-21" and had one larger fish run him all the way down to the Lost Creek confluence. The big fish are still there.

May 16-17 was a good trip also. My buddy Dan brought along a friend and he managed his first 3 trout on a fly rod. Justin got it right.... first a 7" brown, then a 13" rainbow, then a real nice and fat 19" rainbow to end the day. We fished the entire Spillway creek from Cold Hole to the cardiac hill hole. We caught a few fish out of every plunge pool and run. The little 6-9" browns are everywhere in Spillway, especially from the white pipe up past the first whitewater section. They are eating caddis and eggs. We ended the day in Evening Hole. Sight fishing to fish below spawners was fun. The other guys had never sight fished, so it was fun showing them the ropes. Bushy caddis and small reddish midges worked really well in the fast water. We had some explosive takes on the caddis. Also, Pink Squirrels worked well sight fishing.

Lots of fun and a good day for the new guy. The crowds will arrive in force for Memorial Day weekend. Beavers Bend will be a tough sell for the next few months.....

tight lines.