Lower Mt Fork River - Fishing Guide Report with Video and Pictures

Friday was a pretty good morning to fish. Fish were active and feeding. Everyone caught fish and missed lots more.




Around noon, everything changed as a front blew in. Air pressure soared over night and fish got lock jawed.






TFF member and friend, Baffinbay, drove up for the afternoon, and we was close to me while he hooked up with a nice rainbow trout. He said he wont forget the net next time.






Saturday AM was stupid cold. Stayed under 28 degrees till 2 pm or so. Reel Feel at 7 am was 8 degrees. We battled ice on the guide of the rod all morning. Couple of break offs due to it as well.







Trout flies for the day were: RS2's, eggs, Near Deers, BWO's, Pink San Juan Worms.







Saturday with the coldness, came along with a terrible cold wind. 20-30 mph gusts. Every other angler we ran into had snot running down thier faces.... It was very slow. Air pressure was over 30.50 and fish were shut down. We still managed about 20 fish or so.

I like the Pressure around 29.95-30.20 and steady or dropping slowly.



The river got pretty stained up and had a 2 ft vis. Fish were hugging the bottom most of the day. About 3 pm a hatch started, but ended before we tied on new droppers and all.... small fish were rising, none of the bigger fish were really feeding. But we got lucky here and there and sqweezed out some 18 inchers.....



My otther buddy came up Friday night and tried to night fish. You can see him on the bottom right, little spec standing there.



I saved this for last. The Dad told me his son needed a Fly Fishing Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. I said no problem. When it was time to teach him the ropes, and I thought he was ready, we hit the water. I told him where to cast the fly and saw him walk up to the water. Then, his mom walked up and I had to re-tie her fly on. Meanwhile, I hear the little Boy Scout ( 7 Years Old ), say, "Carey, I got One!!" I told him to do what I taught him. After an epic battle with jumps and runs, his brother help land it and did a perfect net job.

1st cast, first fish ever, first time fly fishing.



22 inch monster. He almost couldnt hold it up.

The smile on that kids face makes the cold feeling go away I bet. Can't wait for my son to be old enouph to go out with me.

Sounds like a hot fishing trip in the cold.Great job Carey!!

H it the road at 430 am Monday morning and off to the river again....



That was yesterday, above pic. 1 inch of snow and ice pellets over night. Water coolled down 6 degrees over night. Fish didnt like that very much. Still managed 20 or so. Lost both monsters yesterday afternoon. one broke off and one hook pulled out. It was suppose to snow all morning till 2-3 pm and then rain. NOPE: freezing rain all morning, rods were icing up, and fish were locked pretty much. The little baby fish were rising 3-6 inchers, but we were after the monsters. It was not super action yesterday, so I was Home before most of yall even clocked out of work.

Even though we didnt catch a ton of fish, there were only 3 other cars in the park. We fished every part of the river above Zone II. Power Fished actually. That was what my client wanted for the day, to know all the holes and wont have to scout.

On my way back in 17 hours again!

Todays Fishing Report 2/15/12: Epic.



Met my client for the morning trip at the river, and hit the water at 7 am. The rain was on and off till about 9 am and stopped all together, and it was beautiful day, compared to the last couple of days up there. Upper 50's no wind, clear water, not one person on the river but us and the very hungry Trout. The water was 6 inches or so lower than usual, so it made fun for spot fishing.



The morning bite was absolutely outstanding. We started at the bottom of the Evening Hole, working our way upstream, and spot fished only 17+ inch fish or any sized Brown Trout, passing up all the smaller trout, if we could help it. But, sometimes a smaller trout would bite while drifting a fly to a larger one.



When we would find deeper pockets, I had my client work them hard till we knew we hit every corner with 3 different flies, and, then again, we would just keep on the move looking for the big girls. When we would spot one, I had him cast 4 ft upstream of the target and drift the fly of the hour, in the trout’s faces.....



We would drift the fly to the target about 5 times, then switch rods with a different fly, and do the same thing. If that didn’t work, I had another rod ready, with another fly. Out of one of the three flies/rods we had, 90% of the time we would get at least a hit or swipe from the target. A couple of the fish, were so aggressive, that they came 4-5 ft and attack the fly. When we would see one charging on the fly, we knew it was going to go aerial. Due to a couple before hand did the same thing.



I think we had one of the 18 incher's jump 11 times, pulling drag till the end. A fish like that jumping out of the water a foot and belly flopping is a classic site.



We hit the Bluffs and blanked there. Moved up to the next pool and worked the swift water and seams. Again throwing all three flies and moving. He picked up about three good ones in that pool before moving on to the next area.



We hit last elbow before it goes up to the Cold Hole, and blanked. Water was a bit lower and fish moved downstream. So we walked up to the 1st hole below the Cold Hole. Then I spotted one of the massive 25 inch PLUS Rainbow Trout a couple pics down you will see it. Started casting at her with no looks. Tried one of the backup flies and she took it immediately, jumping half way out of the water and doing a massive head shake like a Big Gulf Speckled Trout does. Amazing and beautiful site. During the head shake, he shook the barbless hook right out. It was a sad moment till the next cast produced a 19 inch solid fat female. We picked up a few more and moved up to the Cold Hole.



Then I spotted a dull shape in the water and told him to land next to the floating leaf that was in front of the targeted fish. He lands the fly perfect, mends perfect, and gives the rod a twitch. Then the reel starts singing! He even jumped the beast once, clear out of the water. I wish I had my Video Cam out for that one. So, we ended the morning with a massive fish. -Cold Hole Fish at that!



The release:

Hold fish upright with its nose in the current and hold the fish with out moving it back and forth.

The fish will start to power back up as you are holding it still.



Do not release the fish until it kicks out of your hand on its own power.



The fishing started to slow to a trickle as the front moved in at about 1030. The air pressure started to rise and the fish started to shut down.



A blue wing olive hatch was going on most of the day till about 2 pm, and the dinks (5-8 inchers) were popping the surface most of the day. Got a bunch on a dry fly, but they were not catching my attention. So I went to spot I had not been at in a long time due to there are so many people there usually. No one was there when I arrived. So quiet, so nice, and FULL of big fish. I have never had a trout, at the Lower Mt. Fork River, take me into my backing. Today was the day. It was a 15-20 minute battle, 24.5 inches and fat. Not my personal best there, but it was a memorable fight I won’t forget. She had a bad injury from being stocked on her gill plate. Actually the whole gill plate was pretty much gone. Harvested her with a few 18’s, for the grill. They were so big and fat, I only needed 4 of them.

Great day!

Dang, TarponFly! You're showin us how its done!

-Tom

Waiting for the next report !!!

Saturday was a bit busy at the river. But, Sunday, Holy Cr&p. Every Fly Fishing Club was at the river at the same time. One came on a bus from Alabama. I thought Spring Break was bad.

Fish were hammered all day 12 hours a day. Even saw head lamps at night twinkling in the river, trying to land some monsters in the night.

But, we still managed to land some fish.



At one point I counted 37 people in the Evening Hole.







Miss Cloud and her Father had come to Broken Bow in the past, and the guided trip they had that time bombed with no fish. So, they looked to a Texan to do the deed.

Took a bit to figure out what the fish wanted, -A break is all.





I decided to not fish dead water and hold some ground for awhile. We would fish it hard for 10 mins, then give the spot a rest for 10 mins. Worked out very good in the long run. The upper portions in the Red Zones were just over fished by 10 am.

Mr Cloud was loving life after he landed his 1st Brown Trout.

-I saw one of the biggest hatches of multiple insects, that I have ever seen before. March Browns, black Midges, Stone Fly, Blue Wing Olives, all at the same time for an hour. Landed about a dozen on Dry Flies during that period.




Later they decided to keep a limit for the cabins grill.

Flies of the Day:

March Brown Drys
Grey RS2's (#1 PRODUCING FLY) Size #22
Near Deers 1/100th
Eggs#18
Black Woolly Buggers
BWO'S

We were the first on the river and the last off the river yesterday Started my Client for the day, Jeff, in the Evening Hole and worked our way up, after he blew ten years of dust off his reel. Second cast we landed a fish.



Water was lower than usual, so deep small pockets were very good.



Not one other angler in site, till 9 am. Saw a total of 7 other people. Till spring Break.....




Fish were biting all day long.



I was excited to go to Lost Creek, because Brad said it was loaded with lots of fish last week.

-Not anymore. There were like 5 or 6 per hole. Small ones. -And I wonder they they went. They should have just made the whole river a blue zone.

Jeff ended up with 14 and missed triple that and had a blast.



At noon, I sat down and tied some more flies up and hit the Evening Hole. Spot fished for 3 hours up and down it. Landed 87 bows and 2 of which were browns. They were smashing the Near Deers.



A Husband and Wife looked over at me every minute and a half watching in disbelif as I landed fish after fish in the spot they just fished. Landed over 20 and asked them if they had caught anything, they said a couple. So, I gave them one of my Near Deers and by the time I got 20 yards up to a pocket I looked back at them, they were landing a fish already

Turns out they they are TFF members. Nice to meet ya'll.



Bugs were hatching all day. The weather is so nice up there, you wouldnt think to bring OFF. I had a blood sucker land on me as soon as we got out of the truck. He died instantly. sprayed some Off on and we were good for the day.

Little guys were feasting in the shallow pools on something very very small. No hook can match. But, a RS2 was tricking them.

Most fish were 14-17 inches. Near the end of the day, Jeff hooked a monster and took him for a spin. Ran 75 yards downstream. 25 plus inches. Ended up breaking his main fly line. Like I said, he dusted off 10 years of dust of the rod its been that long. He was smiles all day long. He said he would eat lunch and fish 2 more hours. I ended up at 5 pm dragging him off the river to go eat dinner and get back to Dallas, lol. Its hard to leave this place with so many fish and the beautiful area.

I had a blast yesterday getting reintroduced to fly fishing yesterday with Carey. He was like a golf caddy carrying around 2 extra fly rods and telling me how and where to cast. When the trout didn't like one fly, he would hand me another fly rod with a different fly rather than waste time tying a new fly on. When I snagged and lost one of his Near Deer flys, he handed me another rod to continue fishing while he tied a new fly on my rod. I really learned a lot and will be going back to perfect some of the techniques.

Thanks Carey.

Report 3/7/2012: Epic trip again.


-Fish after fish, after fish. You can see mark in the background landing a fish too.

Met my clients for the day at the rivers edge. Hit the Evening Hole first and worked all the Red Zone. Moved all over the river and where ever we went, the fish were biting. We were on a full day trip, so we found a lot of big schools of fish,but we were on the move the whole day, trying to show my clients the whole river and hotspots.



Cloudy the whole day resulting in a never ending hatch all day long. Everything was hatching.



Blue Wing Olives
Black Stone Flies
March Browns
White Nats- to small for a fly, but the little tiny trout were eating them up all day long. I have never seen so many trout compacted feeding in a small area till yesterday. Over 50+ 10 inch Rainbow Trout were all feeding at the same time. You could see thier noses feeding on the surface. 20 ft/20ft spot. Amazing to watch.



The fish were tearing up "Near Deer Flies" Dan went with me finally and hitch a ride up there. He used Near Deers as well and landed 61 I think he said.



Tried some of the normal flies, but action was slow on them. Stuck to Near Deers all day and landed fish after fish after fish.



Mark- 77 Rainbow Trout
Marks Buddy- 68 Rainbow Trout
Dan- 61 Rainbows
Me (When they took breaks I'd fish)- 20-25 Rainbows and one Sandbass.



Another report coming up soon. We are going to fish tomorrow in the rain. Should be cold fun!



Biggest fish for the day was a 18.25 inch Rainbow. Most averaged 14-15 inches. A couple Walleye to 24 inches are being landed now. Some Hybrid stripers have been showing up too.

Only time for a sneak peak from my report yesterday:


Saw a kid not catching anything, while we were landing fish after fish. So I called him over and rigged him up. Did this with 3 kids yesterday. -all in the full report in a couple days.....

Off to the river again for the weekend.





End Result:

Good on ya, Carey! That face says it all. There is a future ambassador for our past time.

Kirk

Looks like some fish are finally being stocked in zone 3?!?

They are always there. Just can't fish it when they generate. Takes about 6 hours for it to drop to perfect fishing water. 100-150 cfi is perfect.

Mike only caught one fish over 18 there. Everything else was small. We only fished there for an hour or so and went to the park.

Simple fast report.

Caught fish on nothing but Near Deers. Hooked some monsters but my client kept thinking he was bass fishing so he broke all fish off that were massive. Biggest he landed was 21 inches. Lost a couple over 25 inches. Most averaged 15-16 inches. They even stocked a ton of 6 inchers at re reg dam. We got bored of those within an hour and moved on to the the park.












And one of three random kids that I helped out catch some fish.




Second kid. The third kid caught 7 fish but we walked off and forgot a pic

I knew where the Walleye, Sandbass, Trout and I think I saw some stripers. Anyways he got a 22 inch Rainbow Trout ( for his biggest trout of the day) and a 19 inch Walleye.







I landed another albino trout.





Total tallys for the day:

Client: 101 Rainbow Trout
Mike: 103 Rainbow Trout & 1 Walleye
Me: 68 Rainbows and lost a 30 plus inch Brown Trout. I'll never forget that one.

Random kids: 20 plus while I was there.

Fish after fish after fish in the vids below. A bite or a fish every minute.

Warning, these vids are 10 mins each. Just me landing trout after trout. Most were 13-15 inchers. All on Near Deer Flies. Something to watch while you are at work.

Almighty Dan is in the background.

I only caught 102 rainbows...

Oops.... Sorry for the mistake.

Below, is what I look like after lossing a fish of a lifetime. The brown trout I had hooked was over 30 inches. another 2-3 minutes, I would have landed her. Sad day.



Anyways, it was raining, so not a lot of pics for the last trip, but below, Sarah caught 30 plus fish all over 18 inches. Then the water stained bad from the rain and it was over.

so you are saying you caught 270 trout in one day. Seems like an awful lot for one day or did I read it wrong. Are those recently stocked fish?

No rest for the synthetic fish! Good to see they are stocking all the way down in Z3 though?

You guys crack me up. YES. Between the three of us, we caught that many trout. I caught 102. It was a Wednesday, a WHOLE day before they stocked. Epic day.

Awesome post !!!

anatolian red speckled salmon naturally, get a picture of us

You in Turkey?

"The Majic Near Deere Jig Fly"

4-19-12

"It is a little bit slow here today" Was waiting for that guy in the background to kick you in the water and take your spot. Nice video.

what pound test were u using, 2 or 4?

Just made an order for some near deers. Looking forward to fishing LMF with out snow and sleet.

Carey,

Which Near Deere fly is best to use, the sparkling olive one? I think I read somewhere you have a special color too that isn't on your site. I could use some help with landing fish.

I just realized you have me in one of your pics, on the first page of this post, the third one from top (it was the really really COLD day back on 2/12).

When you order them, order the crawfish pattern. Then email me letting me know you want the colors I use mainly.

Please allow 2 weeks for delivery. I tie per order.

4 lb Vanish during the week.
2 lb Vanish during the weekends.

I dont buy tippit anymore. Same stuff as buying a whole spool of Vanish and you get 300 yards instead of 30 yards.

http://www.basspro.com/Berkley-Vanish-Fl...roductname_link

http://www.basspro.com/RIO-Fluoroflex-Plus-Fluorocarbon-Tippet/product/97163/82603

The Diameter is minimal. Plus the whole sppol of Vanish will last you a long long time. I pull off 8 ft at a time and have 7 ft left over after tying and all. Slap on an indicator. Fish it right off the bottom or if they are higher up in the column, raise it up.

Another 22" rainbow caught on a Near Deere.

Same deal different day. The stocking truck dumped 100 trout in one small hole on lost creek, and 40 in the deep hole. Lazy.

No clue on the trout tally, but we caught lots.

I decided to take the guys to zone three to look for a walleye. Trout were no where that day. Saw four walleye and Bill got one! Also some crappie and some 9 inch sunfish.





Passed by a kid in the Evening Hole at about 8 am. He had nothing so far. Handed him a Near Deere and said "have fun". Passed him again and he said he landed a 17 incher. Two hours later, he had 19 trout to hand.

Nothing big this trip. Saw diff people hauling limits out of Spillway Creek. They were bumping minnows on the bottom. They each bought 12 minnows and one guy used 1 minnow, rehooking it, for five of his six fish. They all limited in 15 mins. Summertime fishing at it's best.

Near Deere's Ruled the Day.

Sorry, but if you think a spool of Vanish is the same as a spool of quality tippit you are completely wrong.

look at the facts

2 lb vanish is .006" diameter

5x (5 lb)Rio Fluroflex tippit is .006" diameter

you can get 2.5x stronger line in the same diameter by using a quality tippit, that is why it cost more.

Yes this is very minimal, especially when you are talking about hatchery fish, and when it comes to warm water species i use a spool of flourocarbon over tippit spools. But on more technical waters it can make a big difference.

Vanish is cheaper. And they are stockers.

When I go to Utah to fish the Green, I use what all the purists use. Wild trout are way different than stockers. My clients have an option of traditional midge/dry fly fishing the Purist Way, or just there to get a high talley with big fish thrown in, and a chance at a couple walleye. Most pick, just there to catch a ton of fish. Every client has their own ideas of what they want out of a trip, I follow what they want and I have never had one complaint.

Like I said, I'm no purist with stocked fish. I can catch them your way and I can catch them my way. What ever you opinion on how high up the Purist Totum Poll you wanna go, that's your deal. Not mine. I like to catch a ton of fish after putting 150 miles on the truck. That way my big fish ratio goes way up. 20-25 inchers are why I'm there. Not a small trout with par markings. Cool to see wild trout, but when it hits 12-14 inches, I bet it ends up on a grill somewhere, no matter what zone it grows up in.

Again, I use vanish cause it's economical. Tapered leader is expensive, tippet is expensive. Most people want to throw the Near Deere and just plain catch fish.

Well it was to windy to crappie fish today and i just so happened to have a fly fishing trip for trout in Broken Bow.



This was my view all day. 4 ft 11 tall client. Made it really easy being able to see everything he sees. Also being able to correct him in an instant. 2 of the fish I help set the hook while he was looking at scenery. Lots of "why " questions, but they were actually all about fishing. I quizzed him a little while later to see if he was actually asking for a reason, and amazingly he retained every bit. Grandpa landed a couple dozen off on his own and said he hooked a 20 plus inch brown trout in the evening hole. Took him for a spin for around five minutes and broke him off in one of those deeper ditches. Sad. But he was all smiles telling me about it.



Little guy got 17 for his first ever fly fishing trip. Picked it up very fast.





Ran into a lot of people on the river. Nice to meet y'all!

My Secret Fly caught them all and missed some others.

Nice post Senor. He looks to be one happy kiddo with some good looking fish. What was the water temp like? I assume very cool seeing as how it's coming from the bottom of the lake.

It will numb your feet. Mid day is ok, but still cold.

( Photo by Dan)


I have not thrown a report up in a bit so here's one.

The fishing is the same as always. Its good fishing, period.

Put first timer Corey on 11 Rainbows today. For the first hour he missed a couple dozen trying to set the hook like a bass fisherman. After I got him calmed down, he started to land fish here and there, but still missed a ton of them.



Fish really liked the fly on the swing today or even dragged they were nailing the fly.....

Finished up with Corey and I hit the water for two hours. By then the sun was way up and it was hot outside, but, the water was perfect. No waders needed. Saws bunch of neoprene fisherman. Man, I bet that was not very fun. Been seeing the Neo-Waders for three weeks now.

I had already walked the river with my client in the morning, so I knew where all the big fish were layed up that we missed. Pulled out a few 18-19's and a bunch of dink 12 inchers. Dan was on his way to another hole as , I landed an 18 incher so he got a pic.



I has my eye on three monsters of the day, so for about an hour, I was hopping back and forth drifting a fly to the monsters. Hooked one well over 20, but she pulled off. So after an hour of that, I went to the truck to rehydrate. After that I headed up Spillway Creek. ( video is 8 mins. Nothing really fun. Got bored really quick and all I had on my mind was those big trout and I wanted a 20+ inch trout before I got back on the road, so after this video, I headed right back to them.missed a bunch in the vid. As I was letting it dangle at the end of the run, )



One of the pools had four deformed bows in it.






Very weird to watch them swim. They hobbled over to take my fly it seemed. Their tails were stuck crooked.

Then I finally land my 22 incher. After 50-100 drifts, she finally gave me a fight. Ten mins later we were in the truck coming back to Dallas. Just in time to avoid rush hour.



Totals for the half day:

Corey 11
Dan 27
Me. 37

Air temps are hot this time of year. So is Beavers Bend trout fishing. Inbeween crappie trips I have snuck away to put some peeps on some rainbows.



Saw a kid using a walmart hopper, as I walked by three of us were watching his drift and a monster brown came up and missed. Next drift he got it. 22 inch brown trout. Maybe he will post it up later....?

Fish are best in the early AM and move into the shade and deeper pockets. This makes it a bit more difficult for new anglers due to you have to side cast it under structure and over hanging trees. But when u can get a good drift through the shade, it's usually a bite. I'd recommend fishing red zone Evening Hole Area to Cold Hole. Then about 10 am move to the mid part of Spillway Creek and start fishing in the shady stuff. Some fish are holding in the cracks and shallows. As deep as 6 inches. So don't just cast in the deep pockets, get that fly to drift in every spot before moving on. It's not 100 fish average anymore due to the high water temps, but we are averaging a solid 15-30 fish every half day. Traditional black and red midges, San Juan worms in pink and red, Near Deer's all are working well right now. Lots of 20 inch fish in the upper Evening Hole below the rapids and where Lost Creek dumps back into the river. Bluffs have a few fish, but that area never gets stocked, so the fish have to swim there. Zone two sucked. I walked two miles and never saw a trout. Caught three small mouth bass on the cruise and saw lots of blue gill and one walleye.

So again, I said this last year, fish the shade.

Lower Mountain Fork River Fly Fishing Report:

So yup. Same thing everyday up there. I have been up there once a week or so for the last couple months. Nothing has changed. Crowds have gotten way smaller since school is in now. We saw 4 other anglers on the red zone all day.



Night and day compared to the last couple months. In two weeks it will be a ghost town and no group of kids everywhere. All the canoes going downstream all day long, was ruining a lot of my holes and the fish were super spooky. But now, they are starting to come out and feed again. Caught a lot of fish that have been in the river for awhile.



Super pretty colors. Lost Creek and Evening Hole was stocked full of fish. A few good fish have made their way to the bluffs again. So fishing the whole river has started to get better. But, here comes the heat again......




lol, Fish will always be there though. Just have to throw what they want to eat. Spillway Creek fished pretty good. You really need to focus on the shady spots when the sun is up. They will stack up on top of each other and there will be 20-30 fish balled up in a shady pocket the sized of a large trash can lid. When you go into lost creek, watch what they are doing since they are easy to see there. Then take the pattern you have just learned from them and hike up Spillway Creek. Lots of fun but mending and high sticking is very important. Side casting is too. Some casts need to be thrown up under a over hang to get the fly to drift in some hidden pockets. Don't just drift the obvious spots. Drift the fly in every spot you can everywhere.




The browns have been hiding under the small grassy overhangs along the shore lines. Very tough to get out. Most of them are caught before dark and on WB's at night.









Cant wait till Nov/Dec when it gets cold. No pressure from anglers, so they stock 4200 fish 0n top of the last stocking that barley got a dent in it. Great winter fishing up there and views. The cabins are super nice too.

Mike Landed 32 rainbows
Chris landed 15-20
I landed 75 and quit and went home while they were still biting.

Fly of choice: Near Deer's 1/100th oz- matching the same colors and size as the crawdads, that are under every rock in the river.

Carey-

Thanks for the report! I wanted to go back to LMF but the summer crowds have kept me away. Its good to know that the pressure is off, and the fish have come alive.

Please keep posting your reports. Waiting for October/November.

Bill

During the week will be almost void of people. Weekends won't be as bad. But ya, October will be good, but November - February will be best.

Thanks for the great update! I love to fish but I am new to this whole Trout thing. I am already hooked ! We have booked a cabin on LMF just below Hwy 70. We will be there from 9/23-9/28. I have reserved a guide named Jesse as a guide for a 1/2 day trip. Hope it cools off a little by then. Anyway, thanks again for the pics, Ive REALLY got the fever now !

Bill

Should have reserved me as a guide. You would have caught more fish. IMO.

Tarponfly> I will know better next time . I have already gave Jesse a deposit. You know how us newbies are, we just call the first quide in the book. ha . Im sure I will be going back up this fall.

Gone-Fishin: You will have a fantastic time on the LMFR and as for booking Jesse as your guide, you should be more than happy with your choice! If you are being guided by the Jesse I know, (Jesse King of Three Rivers Fly Shop) then you will have a blast! Jesse and Linda King are both quality individuals and run a very nice shop in Hochatown! They do a great job of giving back to the river and do a wonderful job of keeping local fly fishers outfitted! I stop in to say hello every time I pass through. The Kings and another guide friend of mine, Rob Woodruff, do more for the LMFR than I can tell! Enjoy your trip and have a blast catching fish!

TarponFly: You post some great pics on here and do a great job of keeping people in the know on how the LMFR is fishing. I am sure many on this forum have benefited from your knowledge and passion for the sport. However, to say that someone should have booked you as a guide because they "would have caught more fish" is very self serving and in my professional opinion VERY inappropriate. I am a full time guide and fly shop owner and I greatly respect people who make their living in the wonderful sport of fly fishing. The point of whether a person will or will not catch more fish with a certain guide is irrelevant -- what matters is, that they will be shown a beautiful river with wonderful fish by an individual that knows it well! Comments like the one you posted above are just flat out unnecessary and really do not reflect the true heart behind fly fishing. I wish you well in all of your guiding endeavors and I hope that your business multiplies exponentially for your benefit and the greater good of the sport. I would ask that you please not grow your business at the expense of others reputations - especially your fly fishing brethren! Take care and God Bless!

Tight Lines,

Chris Johnson
Living Waters Fly Fishing

Thanks for posting the pictures, been warm water fishing lately, but after seeing those I'm wanting to go back to LMF.

T Fly, what length is your fly rod?

kinda personal question ain't it ?

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 90º 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.

So yeah, fishing has been very good if the weather holds up.
Fronts have been nasty mean to the fisherman, shutting the fish down to a slow trickle.

No crazy numbers but a solid 12-25 fish per morning and the same in the late afternoon. Fish the shade.

New stocking truck.

Just throw a Near Deer when in doubt. :-)


Beavers Bend Fly’s

MAIN FLIES:

Near Deers
Bead Head Pheasant Tails (Size: 14-18)
Hares Ear (Size: 14-18)
Orange Soft Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Red Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Bead Headed Wollybuggers (Colors: Olive, White, Black, Rust) (Size: 10-20, I like Big WB’S)
Black Midges (Size: 12-22)
Red Midges (Size: 12-22)
Blue Winged Olive (Size:16-22)
Sulpher (Size: )
Cahill (Size: 18-22)
San Juan Worm

January:

Hatches: Baetis, Blue Winged Olive, Light Cahill, Midge
Flies to use: Pheasant tails, Red Fox Squirrel, San Juan worm, Egg Patterns, Griffiths Gnat, Adult Caddis, Emergers


February:

Hatches: Mayflies, Midges, March Brown

Flies to use: March Browns, Bead Headed Black and Red Midges (size 12-14), San Juan worms, egg patterns, Griffiths gnat, CDC, Emerger Patterns, Soft hackle

March:

Hatches: Blue winged Olive, Midges

Wet Flies to use:
Soft Hackle, Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails, Egg patterns, Red Fox squirrels, crane fly

Dry Flies to use: Griffiths Gnats, Hares Ears, March Brown (mayfly), Blue Winged Olive (mayfly)

Flies to use: Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, Thread Midges, and Caddis Pupae Flies, Soft Hackles, Midges, Hares ears, Pheasant tails, Prince nymphs


April:

Hatchs: Flying Ants, Caddis, Mayflies, Crane flies, Midges

Flies to use: Red Soft Hackle, Elk Hair Caddis, Midges, Ants,

May:

Hatches: Baetis, Beetles ,Blue Winged Olive, Brown Caddis, March Brown ,Tan Caddis

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Cream Colored Soft Hackles, Nymphs, Adam Parachutes 12-16, Hare's ear Nymphs, Elk hair caddis

Dry flies to use: CDC Caddis and CDC Mayfly Emergers, EHC, Adam Parachutes


June:
Hatches: Mayfly, PMD's, Sulphurs
Flies to use: Grasshoppers, Ants, Midges, Mayflies, Caddis

July:
Hatches: Mayflies, Midges
Flies to use: Copper Johns, Griffiths Gnats, EHC, Ants, Griffiths Gnats, Soft Hackles, Hoppers, Soft Hackles

August:

Hatches: Midge, Hexagenia, Caddis, Mayflies, Mosquitoes
Dry Flies: Caddis and Mayflies (including dry, emergers, and cripples)
Flies to use: Soft Hackles, Midges, Pheasant Tails, Copper Johns, Small Mayfly Imitations, Caddis Pupae, Emergers



September:

Hatches: PMD/s, BWO's Yellow Sally, Grass Hoppers and Katy-Dids, Hexagenia Mayflies

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Green Bead Head Caddis Nymph imitations in about size 14-16, Egg patterns, San Juan Worm, Various Soft Hackles, Light Cahill, Grasshopper, Ant, Hex Nymph

Dry flies to use: Stimulators on a size 10 hook, Elk hair Caddis, Hex

October:

Hatches: Caddis, Grey Mayflies, Blue Quills Blue Winged Olives Midges, Sulfurs
Flies to use: Miracle Midge, Zebra Midge, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worm

November:

Hatches: Small Tan Caddis, Small Black Caddis, Midges
Flies to use: Thread Midges, Caddis Emergers, spiders, Copper John, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worms

December:

Hatches: Black Caddis, Blue Winged Olives (mayfly) and Midges.
Flies to use: Emergers, Caddis, Mayfly, Midges, Egg patterns
Dry flies to use: Griffiths Gnat, Blue Winged Olive, Black Caddis

Hey Carey,

Are the flies you listed for October/November all wet flies? Does that mean you don't even bother with the surface?

sorry for the newb question...

Blue winged olives, elk hair caddis as your dries.

I'm mainly throwing the Near Deer 90% of the time.

October-November, I throw the micro eggs and rs2's

Carey,

I'm heading to LMF for the Nov 2nd weekend. I was hoping to buy a couple flies from your website. Which specific colors of the Near Deer to you recommend?

Order all crawfish color. Then email me and ask to change order to the secret color. I will have that issue fixed soon in my store.

Cary , where are you finding the fish? I went there a couple of weeks ago and fished the Evening hole and the fish were just not there. The ones I did see were not interested in anything that I was throwing out there. The water seemed warmer than usual. I caught very few fish in two days. I guess it could be the fisherman... lol

Hey Cary are you going be up there this weekend(Saturday)? If so can we meet up? I"d like to buy some flies from you, interested in stocking up on the near deers

I'll be there Friday and Saturday. Might stay till Sunday. Text me when ur going to the river. I'm all over the place so I never know where I'll be.

The fish are everywhere. Most are near the major stocking points. Evening hole got hammered, so did the rest of the river last week. Fall break for Okies. There were people everywhere. 20 people were fishing off the bridge at the end of the evening hole. 40-50 peeps in the evening hole itself. No camp grounds or RV slots open. It was bad. But thankfully I was booked for crappie at Lavon all week. BaffinBay said he went and told me the crazy was there.

I always forget about that "fall break", must be nice. They stocked again this week right?

I’ve got to give credit where credit is do…Carey Thorne is not only a great fisherman but also a hell of a nice guy. This past weekend I went fishing up in Oklahoma’s beautiful Beavers Bend state park. I’ve spent countless hours fishing there throughout the years(at least 4 trips every yr for the last 15yrs). The two past years I have started fly fishing, prior to that it was all spinning gear. Since switching to fly-fishing my catch total had drop considerably along with my overall confidence in skills and tactics. So anyway back to Carey, since I was going up there I wanted to see if Carey was available to hire as a guide for the day. I texted him Friday to see if was available, he responded quickly but not with answer I imagined. I asked he could take out me Saturday and he quickly shot back “the park is to busy for me to guide but lets meet up and I’ll put you on the right path”. Sure enough Saturday morning I get a text from Carey telling me when and where we can meet up. As soon as we meet up Carey goes into guide mood, quickly inspecting my setup and making the necessary changes to help me along. Carey also showed me in a matter of minutes how I could considerably save money on leaders and tippets. After setting up my leader Carey gave me an incredible deal on his hand tied flies, I think I bought as many he gave me, lol... After quick education on the do’s and don’ts of beavers bend flyfishing we hit the river. On Carey’s first cast I quickly saw his flies in action, on the first drift a beautiful 15in rainbow turned and inhaled his near deer fly. For next hour and half Carey and I fished side-by-side all the while Carey instructed on locations and tactics. In those 90 minutes I caught 6 trout and Carey caught 13, needless to say his flies just straight up work. I found that I could go right behind someone fishing a hole (once they were done) and pull a trout out when they couldn’t. Carey went well above any expectation I had for our meet and greet. I’ve taken out few guides in my time, some were good, some were bad and few have been great! Carey definitely falls in the great category. I’m not sure many guides would turn down money due the conditions and still guide for a little over an hour. Carey is not only a great guy but also a true great ambassador of fishing. While we were fishing he was giving pointers and striking up conversation with nearby fishermen. Once Carey felt confident in my ability he left to go to another part of the river. However, throughout the day he texted me and continued to give me pointers on fly selection and presentation. At the days end Carey texted me once more to see how I finished. All in all it was a great day I caught 18 rainbows, 13 coming from his flies. If your every in need of a great guide give Carey a call and I know he will take care you.

Been up there last two weekends. As luck would have it, some region of Oklahoma was on it's fall break. More people than I have ever seen there (30+ years). Major fishing pressure everywhere. Everyone was real friendly and courteous. Weather was great.

Camping in Cypress

Parking at Cold Hole

My kids and FIRE...

Do you think it will be that crowded for the Nov 2 weekend?

Don't know.

I will be there that weekend too. Hope it ain't to bad.

great write up...thats great to hear....have a trip with Carey on Saturday....cant wait

Golden trout not albino.

Be up there camping and fishing this weekend. If you see me give a holler...

Men's weekend. Usually camp in Fern or Cypress.

I'll be up there tomorrow. Hopefully the crowds aren't too bad.

Carey my name is Troy and I met you up on the river last year and visited a while !! Around the cano run!!! On the flys u sell what's best!! And witch one is the secret weapon ?? Are do u sell it? I usually do pretty good my self, but !!! Your fly will be one more option!!! I've been keeping up with u for a few years now and your flys seam to be a great addition to a persons arsenal !!! Thanks for any info, and look foward to meeting u aging in the future!!!

Today was SLOW to say the least. Fished all over the place, and only managed 2 browns, and 1 rainbow. One brown was 18-20". Pics will be posted soon.

Today was SLOW to say the least. Fished all over the place, and only managed 2 browns, and 1 rainbow. One brown was 18-20". Pics will be posted soon.

Nice brownie...

Originally Posted By: Mckinneycrappiecatcher

. . . managed 2 browns . . . One . . . 18-20".

You could've called it a "great day" and still been right.

Golden Rainbow Trout actually.

http://www.crystallakefisheries.com/index.php?page=golden

Fall Break For Okies. That looks like a tent hatch in the campgrounds

Jeff

Carey,

Are you available for a guide trip to LMF on Dec 8 or Dec 9? If not, can you recommend another guide? Thanks

Rob Woodruff - http://www.flyfishingfork.com/

I'll let you know Sunday when I get back to Dallas.

They Didn't stock lost creek today. But there r some good fish in ther right now, a few. Most of the bigger fish are at the rapids above the bluffs----> mid part of the EH. Or u can hike up the spillway and find a few big ones over 20. Brown Trout including a nice 19-20 inch brown and 7-8 other smaller browns, are spawning right where people walk thru at the bluffs.

Full report up when I get back Sunday. . Yesterday I landed 43. Today I fished 3 hours and landed 23 bow and a small 12 inch brown. Lots of 18-22 inchers in the bunch

Near Deers
RS2's grey #20
eggs

Smaller fish on RS2's and eggs.
Bigger fish on Near Deers.

A couple of 24-25 inchers are still swimming around...... I have one I will be targeting before Brad gets up here.

Carey,

I am new to the forum and new to fly fishing as well. Excuse my ignorance but I see a lot of talk of these near deer flys. I am in beavers bend state park this weekend with my buddy who is just learning as well. Is there somewhere you could recommend I get the flies I need and possibly lead me in the right direction. We are struggling up here. We can see the fish just can't get them on. Thanks very much for your time. You seem to have a great reputation.

Thanks for the report Carey! Do you know what the stocking schedule is for Thanksgiving week? I will be there this week.

Guys I also want to give Carey thanks for taking care of me on an order I placed. I ordered some Near Deers and after placing the order I realized I forgot to get another color so I had to place another one and it cost another $2 shipping. No big deal because the flies are a great price anyway. Well Carey added a few extra flies in my order that offset the cost. Big THANKS!

Report coming up......

Sorry Fly_Finger, I only can get internet while at the hotel and I didnt go back after that. But maybe this report or the past reports will help out a bit for next time.

Reports:

Best flies to use on my end of the river:

RS2 Grey #22
Near Deer #1/100 (Secret Color) <---Just for you BB
Red Midges #20-22
Black Midges
Eggs (as small as you can get work best) red, pink, yellow

The fish are feeding mainly on the bottom, so weight them down a little bit w/ a small split shot. If you dont see fish in the pool you are fishing, dont cast there.....

Every day we nailed 50-75 fish each, to the net. Most were 15-16 inches with a lot of 18-19's and a few 20's. Best bite was around 10-3 pm while the BWO's were hatching. Spillway Creek was where the best bite was. Zone 2 ( Evening Hole area) was good too, but was getting hammered by people. So I mainly fished Spillway Creek 90% of the time.

When a front rolls through, the fish slow way down while the Air Pressure rises. Small flies work best during the fronts. If the air pressure is stable, the Near Deers are all that I throw at them. -No need for anything else.







If you see this above, at Zone III, its blown out and very hard to fish. This area is terrible right now for trout. I dont think they are stocking it yet.....? Its still good for small mouth bass and walleye though. I deleted my Walleye pics somehow..... But they are there. Biggest was 22 inches. Most were 16-18. Caught 14 walleye and some small small mouth bass here on Saturday. Clousers-















And, im sure yall have seen the monster in the lower end of Cardiac Hill just teasing you for the last 3 months.....Well, I decided that on Friday we were going to sit on the hole till we hooked it. I ran out of RS2's, so I walked back up to the truck and tied a dozen up really fast. After I walked back to the guys, I handed Howard a couple and he tied one one. There was a Blue Wingged Olive hatch going on and a Black Caddis hatch at the same time. (They didnt want anything black, mainly red midges and Grey RS2's were murdering them. The Near Deers were best in the early morning and evening.) So, anyways, Howard proceeds to land a dozen rainbows within the first half hour of changing to an RS2. Then I see the monster flash where his fly drifted. Three more passes and a magestic fight was in place. 20 mins later he brings the monster I have been targeting for 3 months..... Every time Howard comes up, he lands a monster with me.





26 inch Male Rainbow Trout.

Hammerin Howard does it again. I was glad to witness that Spectacluar catch. Watching him catch that beast Absolutely made the trip. All that time he was in there and it took the smallest fly I've ever seen to hook his a$$. GREATNESS!

Great report carey

The rs2s are emergers right?

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/print.cfm?parentID=169

I use peacock frill as the wings though, it's more green and bluish.

I've never fished an RS2... is it fished like a nymph or in the film as a dry? Assuming it looks like a midge?

Yes, no weight or fish it with weight. I usually drop it from an egg.

I want you to know that I hooked that fish about 4 weeks ago while swinging one of my own whooly bugger variations past the bolder in the middle of that pool! He flashed at it twice before I twitched it past his nose on the third cast & he nailed it! I was using myTFO 3wt with 3.5lb Tippett, I played him for at least 10 minutes before I got him into slack water next to the bank! My heart was racing as I reach up and got my net off my back, as I knelt down to slip him into the net he spooked & ran breaking off before I could spool him, if you were there you would have heard me scream at the top of my lungs! It would have been a new personal best on one of my own flies! I was just sick to my stomach! The lesson in all of this? When you see a giant trout flash at one of your flies and your fishing 3.5lb Tippett? STOP WHAT YOUR DOING GRAB YOUR 7lb TIPPETT AND RE-TIE!!!!! I hope this monster is still living in that pool!

Well today for me they had lock jaw!!!! Hope tomorrow's better!! Carry I seen u I think today when u jumped up on a rock at the crossing to rest!! I was the one fishing where the crossing is!!! Was going to holler at u and I looked up and u where headed back down stream!! Maybe next time !!

I was pissed you were there, lol.....- There is a 22 incher under the tree right in front of you. I was wondering why you looked at me funny. But, the monster 25+ incher is in the pool right below. Right where the trail ends there is some timber sunk there. It's right smack in the middle of it. Every week it's there, or behind the boulder. This weekend was to busy and I couldn't get to it. If you see me, Just holler, I'll come chat with ya.

Report: Hit the river a few times since I last posted. Fishing is still good. Not great, but good. The park was packed again for the holidays. Not a ton of fish left in the river as people yanked them out left and right all day. Didnt get any hero pics. all fish caught were under 17 inches. We landed 25-30 fish each, in 4-5 hour days on the river, each day.Spillway Creek has been fishing the best latley. Due to the fact they didnt stock the EH or Lost Creek. They filled up the bridges and SC mainly with the stockers. I dont think i am to fond of these silver looking trout they are now putting in the river. They just dont have the colors the last ones did.





RS2's (grey #22)
Micro eggs ( pink or yellow)
Near Deers
Red Midges

I have RS2's if anyone need them. Just order the Rusted Midge and email me you want RS2's. If you forget to email me, I will email you back confiming your order. Please let me know if you need them ASAP. otherwise it will take a week or two to get them.

Out of three days fishing, these two were the only thing worth getting thier pics taken.

Did they not stock this week like it says on the schedule?

Yes

I am headed up there Thursday morning. I have fished the special red zone from bridge to bridge that covers Evening Hole and The Bluffs. Where is Spillway Creek? Should I start there in the morning?

Spillway is just upstream from where you were. There is the area I call the old fart hole right by the road (lots of people just sit and park and fish with powerbait there) Upstream of there is what I've always referred to as spillway creek, all the way up to, well... the spillway. Several points to go in.

As to when to fish, I usually start in the Evening Hole and then move up, but anytime is good. Sometimes it's determined by water clarity.

I know where the old fart hole is that you are referring to. Which side of the river do I want to be on as I walk upstream from the old fart hole?

Walk up with the river on your left. Please leave some fish, as I plan on being there Friday

I will let them know you are coming.

Me too. [censored] man, is EVERYONE going to be there?

Baby trout. They stocked 35,000 of them. They are everywhere you go. Can't miss them.. I hope the vid quality is good, I'm just now messing around with the GoPro.



A spawning colored up Rainbow Trout just chilling.



Fat trout caught my my client Monday.



Monster Male Rainbow Trout on a Near Deer.



Eggs and Near Deers were all we threw at them. Caught well over 30 trout each on Monday. Never even thought of a tally. I was messing with the go pro. The next ones will be edited.. The park was void of people. We saw one other fly fisherman and a flywoman. Baby brown all over the place. They will eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths.

Strong fish!

That's a big rainbow.

I love these new fish from the new hatchery. They fight a lot harder than the AK fish. The fish are way more active now thats the water is chilled off the summers heat. If you like dragging a Woolly Bugger, now is the time. They are smashing them. Nothing has changed. Near Deers, Black and Red Zebra Midges, Woolly Buggers olive, Grey RS2's #22. At the end of the day, my camera was out of juice. And, wouln't you know it, the trout turned on like wild fire. Caught over 30 near the Evening Hole within an hour. Met one of our Lurkers here, who was camping with his dog, and he got in on the fun. I now have an extra battery for the GoPro so I can get the entire day on video. Talley was over 50 bows and 1 baby brown.





My guys had a blast and stayed the night and caught a bunch before the rain hit.

I had a trip cancel for this Sunday AM. If you would like to go, Ill do $150 2 people 4-5 hours. Email me, call me, pm me, or text me. Spinning Gear or Fly Fishing

Totally agree with this as well. The December stocking put a bunch of fat, healthy, hard fighting trouts in the river. Is the flow out of spillway creek still a bit low?

I wish I would have seen this earlier because I really thought about heading up there today!

Tips at Zone III



Put Tia on an 18 incher in the Evening Hole.

Started at the bottom of the Evening Hole and power fished all the way to the Spillway. We threw Pink San Juan Worms w/ a Grey RS2 #22 dropped from it/ Olive Woolly Buggers/ Near Deers. (90% came off Near Deers.)



My client for the day, (above) Landed over "120" trout from 8-5 pm. We stopped counting at 120ish trout and it was only 3 pm. The trout were fighting over the flies as soon as they hit the water. If one pulled free during a fight, another trout would pick it back up immediatly. When we found a Woolly Bugger bite, as soon as the fly hit the water, 8-10 trout would come fight over it. This is when I got mad. The GoPro was in the truck and so was my phone. Would have been some great footage.

As we were landing fish after fish after fish, a group came up with a kid. I asked the little guy if he wanted to take a shot at it and catch a fish. 1st cast he did. And the second cast. And the 3rd cast he caught one, lol. The river was on fire!



Called Brad and told him what was going on down there and he drove up today to fish the hot spots I told him about. Tried to text him to see what his talley was, but no answer so far.

Hit the river Saturday morning and had some fun up in Spillway Creek. Keith had not fly fished in awhile, but it didnt take him long to land his first fish. Within 2 minutes he was hooked up on a 14 incher. Landed about 10 nice fish out of Spillway and headed to the Red Zone. Picked out 10 more or so from the Evening Hole to the Bluffs. The Bluffs are starting to hold more fish these days. Lots of great fish are still in the Evening Hole. A lot of 20 plus inch fish are still roaming around.

I decided to stay the night due to I found a spot loaded to the T with fish. So I woke up Sunday morning after the rain stopped pouring down. My spot was not to secret. So, I left and figured by 11 they would be gone. Yup. No one there for hours after I showed up. As rediculous as this may sound, as it was, I landed 147 Rainbows out of a spot the size of a car. And the crazy thing thing, is there was another school of them 50 ft away with 500 fish strong that I could see at any given moment. So after I quit at a stupid number, I walked back to the truck and watched the water for awhile. About 4 pm, some Dallas guys showed up and hauled butt to the river. One did a superman dog dive into the water on the way out. Didnt stop him but he was on his way to the wrong spot. 20 mins later I told him the secret hole and him and his buddy landed a butt load of them. They came in right befiore dark and we chatted for an hour and we all got on the road back to Dallas. -Fun times.
I had the GoPro on the entire time I was fishing and captured the trip. -There is just way to much to edit and I just dont have the time. It was every cast or a fish every minute. Nothing really over 16 inches at all. Saw a few sandbass in the buch but the trout would beat them to the fly. Maybe next week. Ill try to posts pics and more vids then. Hitting it again Friday.......

Near Deers
RS2's
Red or Black Midges (most people were using Red that I chatted with and did well.)
San Juan Worms Pink or Red
Pheasant Tail

You might have laughed at my last post, lol.. Crazy T-Fly with another off the wall ridiculous post. I chatted with people at river that laughed at me when I said that.....

You meanies! You hurt my feelings.

It was pretty far out though, 147 trout, not possible. Not heard of really is it? So, I will apologize to everyone for lying. -It was "147" Trout and "1" Red Ear Sunfish, forgot about him! -I forget about one fish and you laugh at me and "think" I am lying.

So here below is 11 trout in 15 mins.



I have the entire 4.12 hours on video, of me, catching 147 trout. YouTube only allows me a 15 min slot. So with that said, If you want to come over and eat some popcorn and see me rip 147 trouts lips on the big screen, come on over. Proof is right here.

So I took 15 mins of video and edited it out. I was there 4-4.5 hours.

10 fish every 15 mins
That equals about 40 trout per hour
I was there say 4 hours? = 160

Just found this thread. Absolutely crazy about going to Broken Bow now.

Thats just retarded...

But the man does catch fish....

LMF February 23-24

Saturday was the LMF one fly tournament. Dozens of anglers throwing March Browns in the EH area. If anyhone knows of a winner or result, please post it. The area was a zoo for most of the day. Spillway had fewer fish than normal - possibly due to slightly lower stock rates and an earlier stock date. We still managed to catch 15-20 among the crowds. For fun today I counted the total number of anglers on the 1.2 mile stretch of spillway creek. Counting the cold hole, from top to bottom, 231 rods in the water. About 2/3 were bait or spinners. No ulterior motive here, just having fun.

Sunday I hooked up with TarponFly and a few clients in Z3 below the rereg dam. Great weather, postcard sunrise, and hungry fish. In about 3 hours we totaled about 75-100 fish. The three main pools all held hundreds of fish. They had 4 gates open, so the water was churning a little more than normal. No Sand Bass or stripers yet, but we did see a few Walleye. The big riffle and pool about 100 yards below the dam was on fire, too. Slightly larger fish in this area. I had a new fish toy to try out, so I dug it out here. It is a small hand held scale. Here is what I learned: average 12" rainbow weighed about 11 ounces, 16" bow was 23 ounces. A few small browns (6") were 3 ounces. Interesting stuff if you like numbers and pay attention to the new hatchery reports. Z3 has easy fishing right now. Until the 8 foot no hackle dry flies show up around Memorial day!

All in all a great weekend on the LMF. I just couldn't leave work behind so I counted everything I could

Report: He said it above.

NOTE: I will not be taking trips in the month of March In Beavers Bend State Park. Due to the amount of people that will be occupying the park, during spring break, is not fair to my clients to guide them in the metro mess of people. I will resume my guide service up in Broken Bow at the Lower Mountain Fork River in the month of April. Sorry if this is an inconvenience to you.

Otherwise, If you want to get your Flyfishing fix, and don't want to deal with all the people, I am guiding Sandbass/Hybrid Striper on the fly rod and conventional gear in surrounding creeks in the DFW area, for the annual spawn.

what have been the recent hatches at lmf and what will they be in late march?

Yesterday was BWOs. It was the first hatch i have ever experienced and man was the fishing eating. I only had one fly that looked like a BWO. Since I have bassed fished all my life an am a rookie to fly fishing I sent the fly into the trees a couple of times on hook sets, but climbed the trees to get it back. Had a great time.

I am taking some inexperienced kids fishing during spring break. I know its going to be busy but its the only time I can do this. My question is do yall have any recommendations for beginners, besides power bait,to get them to catch their first trout? Also is there any other locations besides cold hole that we can use lures and/or bait that might not be as crowded? Thank you for any tips given.

OBD - Not sure where you are located, but you might want to take the kids to the Athens Fish hatchery. Pretty much guaranteed that they will catch fish and no waders needed.

JR

http://berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/powerbait/power-floating-trout-worm
Thread a small 1/32 1/64 or 1/80 th oz jig head on the power worm. Cast, slowly twitch back in. This would prob be the best lure right now. Bubble gum, is the number one color.
Pinch the barb and u can fish anywhere in the park u want. The whole area just below EH all the way up to CH is good right now. There are a ton of fish in the stretch behind the fly shop. Most are at the upper end. Put the kids in deeper holes where ever a truck can get to and dump fish. During spring break, the fish get yanked out fast. 100 lbs-200 lbs per hole of stocked fish, gets yanked out quick by just 20 people fishing the holes that know what they r doing. Cover lots of water. Power fish. But again, u might have to wait in line for a hole.

Drop shoting minnows or Carolina rig them with small bb split shot with a size 18-16 midge hook, hooked thru the bottom jaw and out through a nostril. If u hooked it thru the tail, u will kill the minnow as u drag it back to you for a re cast. The trout will bite the minnow a couple times before eating it. So let it take it for 10 seconds and a short hook set is all that's needed. A Bassmaster Classic hook set, will rip right out.

2-4 lb berkley vanish spooled on a spinning rod. .

Thanks for all the info. Will let you know how we do.

From Utah to Broken Bow, the trout love to play with my flies.




( A new friend I met at the creek above. Copper Head Snake. Yes, they are out in force now. Keep your head pointed at the trail and not the landscapes while walking around. Go "around" the rocks at Cold Hole as there is a family of them living in there. Also the pines beside the river at EH has a couple wasp nests in them. As for the snakes. Please do not kill them oout of hate. Thats when people get bit. The venomous snakes keep the rodents in check as well as a few other things. If its in your house or yard, thats another thing. We are entering thier world and they need to be left alone. I see people here in Dallas kill Non-Venomous water snakes, because they are in the water and assume they are automaticlly a cotton mouth/ water moccisan. No need for that BS. )

Once again, its that time of year: Less Trout in the River System. The Summer, always, is harder due to all the people yanking fish out of the river at huge ratios. In the afternoon, you can see all the fish in the river when the sun gets to a good point. So, you can actually count 90% of the fish in front of you or in a pool. I showed some "friends" the ropes yesterday at the river and they both landed about a dozen nice fish and broke and LDR'ed a lot more than usual. Now, due to the small amounts of fish in the system, I am not going to post up the pictures ( they look like trout as usual and nothing over 18 inches, most were 13-16 inches). I dont want everyone converging on the 4-5 spots I figured out where they are stacked up at. But again, there are still enough fish to have fun and they will stock again and again. Like peeps have said in the post, schedule a trip close to when you "think" they are going to stock and plan your trip around that to increase the odds of landing more fish. One thing you really need to understand is, you "cannot stay in one spot to long". Keep on the move after you find out what they want to eat and hop pools every 10-15 mins. If you have ever seen me down there, I am always on the move. I will fish the Evening Hole in less than 1/2 hour - 45 mins, and pull 10 fish out of it easy. -But im not standing in one spot. Its plain retarted to stay in one spot all day long. Just because you see 30 fish in one spot doesnt mean your going to pick them all off. You need to find feeding fish or that one hungry fish willing to eat on a power walk. It only takes me 15-20 mins till I figure out that Magic fly for the day that is going to land the fish and make my trip a good one. Once you see a trout turn its head and look at your fly, " That fish is def catchable!" you just need to figure out why he didnt want to eat the fly on the drif. Drop a size down on the fly, your tippit is to heavy, your tag end on the knot is to long, wrong color, ect.

It was night and day when I got there compared to my Green River Trip. The stockers dont spook at all compared to the wild trout and we are super spoiled at BB. My "friends" were trailing behind me and stopping and saying, " theres a fish right there!" They wanted to catch it. . Ok, well ya, we can catch it, but I want you to target something bigger than a 12-13 inch fish. I wont stop and target a fish unless its 16 inches or over. It's just not worth my time. I will say this though, The trout at BB are a very curious fish and will usually take any fly you throw at them within reason. They have to learn what to eat now. There are not any pellets floating down the river anymore. So they will try any fly at least once till they get in the groove of being a new "Wild -semi- Trout".

The Near Deers worked ok, but not the best this trip. They wanted Brad B's (we will call it the BB Egg for now) -a "secret" Egg pattern that Brad told me not to tell the whole world about. If we targeted a fish with the BB Egg, we would hook it, break it off, or catch it 80% of the time. Other than that, yesterday there really was not much of a hatch going on. Saw a few, under 20, BWO's flying around. Other than that, just mosqitoes and gnats.

Sparkling RS2's trailed behind the BB Eggs was key but not nessesary. The right color and size was the ticket all day. After my " friends" went back to the hotel, I went to the hot spots I located and pulled out 23 on Brads BB egg, and 12 on the Sparkling RS2, and 17 on the new fly pattern I saw at Utah's Fly Shop (Purple and Red Zebra Midge). They were almost swallowing the BradBasset's Egg patern.



Purple & Red Zebra Midge #18



Sparkling RS2 #22 & #24

No more than 8 people I saw at anytime, when I drove by the EH at any given moment Monday. Park was empty. It was greatness. Put a couple names to screen names and it was nice to meet ya'll! Try posting and not being a lurker........

I believe the improper word you were trying to use is spelled "retarded". (ironic)

The R-word, retard(ed), was used in the past to describe a person with an intellectual or developmental disability. Since then, it has morphed into a slang word to mean things like “stupid” or “idiotic.” Many people think it is socially acceptable to use the r-word in this way but the truth is, it hurts and dehumanizes those with an intellectual disability and their family and friends. The Spread the Word to End the Word movement was created to end the pejorative use of the R-word and promote dignity and respect for people with intellectual disabilities. Join the movement by pledging to end the r-word at r-word.org

I was up there last week with a friend and we both did very well, each took about 8 or so from right near the spillway (the first big pool) on caddis. Easily missed the same amount right there also. They were small browns, but fun to catch.
Got in on a small hatch of March Browns late afternoon and caught several in the evening hole, one close to 20". Spillway was not as productive, but of course still fun to be there.

Spillway gets hammered and fish get taken out of that area in huge and fast numbers this time of year. I'll hit it righ after a stocking but within a week, not many fish left there. Winter is best time to hit SC.

Starting next month I'll be back in the mountains guiding for trout half the time, and back in Dallas guiding the Winter Crappie Run up the creeks and rivers. Weather is starting to cool down keeping the high pressure of tourists and kids swimming and throwing rocks in the Evening Hole and other areas of the river, making it great fishing and its only going to get better the colder it gets.

Half day trips and full day trips available.


Click Here for Guided Fishing Trip info

I will teach y'all how to fish the river all on your own within 4 hours. You will be able to come back to the river on your own, anytime of year, and fly fish or using conventional gear, to catch these trout. If you know how to / or want to learn to tie flies, I'll show you how to tie up the top flies for the river, next to the river. After we cover all the hot spots and secret holes, I will stay by your side till I'm sure you will be good to go on your own.

Text me, call me, email me: with booking questions. Or just fill out the request form on the link above or below.

Reports: Pictures: Tips: Videos: - Coming soon.

The fly list:
Just throw a Near Deer when in doubt. :-)


Beavers Bend Fly’s

MAIN FLIES:

Near Deers
Bead Head Pheasant Tails (Size: 14-18)
Hares Ear (Size: 14-18)
Orange Soft Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Red Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Bead Headed Wollybuggers (Colors: Olive, White, Black, Rust) (Size: 10-20, I like Big WB’S)
Black Midges (Size: 12-22)
Red Midges (Size: 12-22)
Blue Winged Olive (Size:16-22)
Sulpher (Size: )
Cahill (Size: 18-22)
San Juan Worm

January:

Hatches: Baetis, Blue Winged Olive, Light Cahill, Midge
Flies to use: Pheasant tails, Red Fox Squirrel, San Juan worm, Egg Patterns, Griffiths Gnat, Adult Caddis, Emergers


February:

Hatches: Mayflies, Midges, March Brown

Flies to use: March Browns, Bead Headed Black and Red Midges (size 12-14), San Juan worms, egg patterns, Griffiths gnat, CDC, Emerger Patterns, Soft hackle

March:

Hatches: Blue winged Olive, Midges

Wet Flies to use:
Soft Hackle, Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails, Egg patterns, Red Fox squirrels, crane fly

Dry Flies to use: Griffiths Gnats, Hares Ears, March Brown (mayfly), Blue Winged Olive (mayfly)

Flies to use: Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, Thread Midges, and Caddis Pupae Flies, Soft Hackles, Midges, Hares ears, Pheasant tails, Prince nymphs


April:

Hatchs: Flying Ants, Caddis, Mayflies, Crane flies, Midges

Flies to use: Red Soft Hackle, Elk Hair Caddis, Midges, Ants,

May:

Hatches: Baetis, Beetles ,Blue Winged Olive, Brown Caddis, March Brown ,Tan Caddis

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Cream Colored Soft Hackles, Nymphs, Adam Parachutes 12-16, Hare's ear Nymphs, Elk hair caddis

Dry flies to use: CDC Caddis and CDC Mayfly Emergers, EHC, Adam Parachutes


June:
Hatches: Mayfly, PMD's, Sulphurs
Flies to use: Grasshoppers, Ants, Midges, Mayflies, Caddis

July:
Hatches: Mayflies, Midges
Flies to use: Copper Johns, Griffiths Gnats, EHC, Ants, Griffiths Gnats, Soft Hackles, Hoppers, Soft Hackles

August:

Hatches: Midge, Hexagenia, Caddis, Mayflies, Mosquitoes
Dry Flies: Caddis and Mayflies (including dry, emergers, and cripples)
Flies to use: Soft Hackles, Midges, Pheasant Tails, Copper Johns, Small Mayfly Imitations, Caddis Pupae, Emergers



September:

Hatches: PMD/s, BWO's Yellow Sally, Grass Hoppers and Katy-Dids, Hexagenia Mayflies

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Green Bead Head Caddis Nymph imitations in about size 14-16, Egg patterns, San Juan Worm, Various Soft Hackles, Light Cahill, Grasshopper, Ant, Hex Nymph

Dry flies to use: Stimulators on a size 10 hook, Elk hair Caddis, Hex

October:

Hatches: Caddis, Grey Mayflies, Blue Quills Blue Winged Olives Midges, Sulfurs
Flies to use: Miracle Midge, Zebra Midge, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worm

November:

Hatches: Small Tan Caddis, Small Black Caddis, Midges
Flies to use: Thread Midges, Caddis Emergers, spiders, Copper John, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worms

December:

Hatches: Black Caddis, Blue Winged Olives (mayfly) and Midges.
Flies to use: Emergers, Caddis, Mayfly, Midges, Egg patterns
Dry flies to use: Griffiths Gnat, Blue Winged Olive, Black Caddis

Very nice run down...

Report:

Flies: pink eggs rock, pink and green creek chub colored Near Deers, and a few on grey RS2's



Above: fish took an RS2



Every trout he caught was exciting!







Grasshopper patterns worked well too. Got to sink them though. 2-3 inch patterns. They were nailing them.

Landed 50-60 fish. Biggest was 18 inches. Most were 14-17 on average. There were actually some fish in Lost Creek! First time I have seen fish in there since last sept. Hopefully they put more in there!

Thanks for posting some more pics. Was thinking about BB the other morning when it was cool outside. Been a couple of months so I need to head back up there, the OK license is running out fast lol

Report: yesterday wins for the worst fishing day ever. This three week stocking program is terrible in my eyes. All the major stocking points are void of fish. Red zone is only place to get a consintant bite. And even in the red zone there are not that many fish like usual. I know we came off the busy time of year and it should start to get better. Expecially when the stop logs come out at the end of the month and drops the river down in some spots. So, we will see.

So they are stocking every 3 weeks instead of every two weeks now? Wow.

Are you talking about the ones across Spillway creek in different areas?

Power house bridge and fly shop bridge stop logs.

Doesn't sound good. Hope it shifts.

Thank you for the answer. I never really hit those areas, maybe I need to for smallmouth. I just gernerally go from the spillway to Evening Hole.

Has anyone hear how is this 3 week stocking affecting the local economy?
In my opinion if there is no negative effect on the economy, then there is no chance for the stocking to return to how it was.

Any comments from the fly shops or the LMFRF?

Rob Woodruff & Pat Waters Clarify Stocking at Lower Mountain Fork Sounds like it should have a good effect. I don't know if that link qualifies as "pimped," or not?

I have gone twice in the last few months once right after stocking and once right before. The trip right before stocking I did cover a lot of ground but still had a great day of trout fishing. I think that artical had valid points the fish seemed to be distributed well. a dead drift was key once the sun got up you could see fish about to take then make a wrong mend in the line and they turned away quick. I think it will be a great winter of fishing on the lmf.

Fishing Guide Report w/ Carey Thorn :



This weeked was pretty good fishing. Average at least at Beavers Bend State Park, The Lower Mountain Fork River.

I was fishing the first pool below the wooden bridge in Lost Creek. There were about 20 fish in it the day before. Then this day there were 9.

A lady drops her bobber off the bridge into the hole we were fishing ( Red Zone ). She asks how the fishing is. We said fine. Then she tells us she caught 2 big rainbows and a brown trout out of this hole. I asked if she ate them. She said yes! And they were very tasty she said. Then I told her the law and what she had done. She promptly moved to the Cold Hole. Then her husband walked up to her and they chatted. 2 mins later I see him tell them to follow him below the CH to the pool below it in the red zone. They quickly filled a stringer of trout for a 4 person stringer. So there are 24 less trout, some big ones at that, in the red zone.

I see it everyday I'm there. I gave up calling the warden years ago. Waist of time in my eyes. Here in Texas, they show up 75% of the time. The day I did get checked by a warden, I asked him why. He said there are 4-6 wardens that patrol the area. They r not worried about stocked trout. They are mainly concerned about the big game and drugs. So that's my story about that. Never changes. And won't till they get bigger signs.

As for the trout fishing. Spillway creek is ok but nothin what it was. As usual, the winter months will be better with all the vacationers that can't read the signs. When I fish Spillway Creek, I fish the pools one up and one down from the main stocking pools. The main holes get fished out fast but when people loose a battle with a fish and its tired, they will float down stream and revive sometimes. Or, ill catch one out of a stocking point and move it down to the next pool or move it to a very small slough that a bait chunked wouldnt fish.



This last week has been good with eggs, Near Deers, RS2's when there is a hatch. The last 2 weeks I have been there, not many hatches have happened.

I noticed all the grass hoppers everywhere. At one point last week , I hit one out of the air and I grabbed it. Threw it in the water and watched 5-6 trout fight over it. So I went back to the hotel and tried to match the hatch, so to speak. Made a doz of the best I could do with some beers to help and hit the river. It was a hit. Got tons of short strikes and caught a couple doz from 7-11 am the past Sunday all on the hopper. They really wanted it close to the surface but there were some I had to sink down to catch them.



Fished with Ethan, another guide there, for an hour in the Evening Hole and we had the whole stretch to ourselves with fish biting topwater for two hours before dark. Fun.



The fishing usually gets better, as I have said before, in the winter time with less people taking fish. Upper Evening hole to the Bluffs is the best fishing at the moment. When the stop logs come out, it will get really fun.





Above, Mike finally learned to trout fish! Had him using a hopper dropper with a dropper hopper. Lol

Every five mins I would hear him mutter a bad word. He was having issues setting the hook. Most of the time, he was so slow to the hook set, the fish pooped it out before he would set the hook. Good times.

I was there yesterday, not much luck, a couple on caddis, hooked one nice one on a grasshopper in the Evening Hole, but he got off.

It seemed to me that the water in Spillway Creek seemed warmer than normal. Has anyone else noticed this? May have been my imagination, but my buddy thought the same thing. We were in 2 of the deep holes created by the logs.

Anyone ever catch any decent sized brown trout on LMF? All I ever see is pics of rainbows.

Getting close to turn over will cause slightly warmer water. Lone stare husked there are some very nice browns in the lmf. They are just not stocked heavily hopefully the use of vibert boxes will help aid in natural production. Browns are there for sure though.

I have seen a lot of 12-16 inch browns and a few 20+

They r in there, just tough to catch cause they blend in so well. Very hard to see them. There are not tons of them.

I heard there were 25 people in the EH last night. The park is packed. No RV site left. 25 cars at each fishing spot. OU weekend. I decided to go to the fair and deal with people there, instead of the river.

Last fall I caught a 15 inch brown under a deadfall near the 90 degree bend right after cold hole.

That's the only decent brown I've ever taken at LMF. The rest have always been little tiny fingerlings.

Im headed to lower mt fork next weekend, ive only fly fished once and caught some bluegill thats it. What all types of fish are there in the river to catch? Id be happy catching anything, doesnt have to be trout. Also I have a big assortment of flies, but they all are barbed, there are regulations against using barbed flies there right? Can I just bend the barb back with some pliers and use them?

Thanks for any info.

The wife and I made our first trip to LMF last week and it was awesome. We were supposed to be chasing trout in the Black Hills of South Dakota but winter storm Atlas made us scramble for a backup plan. We caught a ton of fish and I was amazed at the size. Fished Spillway Creek, Lost Creek and the evening hole. We were lucky and were there during the week ...the weekend fishing crowd was arriving in groves as we were leaving on Friday. The campgrounds were super crowded all week as we found out that a lot of OK schools were on fall break so we did not have the nice and quiet campfire evenings that we had hoped for, however those families were not fishing so the river was not crowded.

We never made it down to the red zone below the low water dam ..what is the water like there? Hope to make it back during the winter months when all the crowds will be gone.

Another question ...I did catch one fish on Spillway Creek that had obvious cut marks ...anyone else ever caught cutbows up there?

Zone three has all species swimming in it. Only red zones do u have to mash down the barb. Pliers work fine.

Never have I seen a cut bow there.

-Just brown bows-

@dbltea yea caught a cut bow about two months ago just a mix up in the hatchery wish they would try pure cutts my self.

I was at BB on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fishing was pretty slow and the river kind of looked like the fish had been cleaned out. The normal places in evening hole where you used to see fish stacked were barren. I spotted very few fish.

Nothing really worked consistently and nobody I talked to was having any luck either. I didn't see anyone (except me) catch a single fish. No pattern was a consistent producer so I just kept changing. I took a couple on a red midge larva, a couple on a brown wooly bugger, a couple on a green and black near deer, and a couple on a peach egg. Wednesday afternoon I had decent success (relatively speaking) on a black wooly bugger with a yellow soft hackle dropper.

I caught 2 browns in spillway creek. They were 10 to 11 inches, so those little fry have grown up some without being slaughtered.

Every single fish I caught looked like it had been caught before. They all had sore spots or holes in their lips - every singe one, including the 20 inch hog I pulled out of evening hole.

Also, I ran across plenty of evidence of bait chuckers in the red zone. I could see hooks snagged in the trees with some kind of 20 lb catfish line. I also pulled up a few snags from the bottom, complete with super heavy line, tons of split shot, and barbed treble hooks. WTF man?!?!

Thats a nice cutbow for LMF.

Last couple weeks have been below average on numbers. We have not been catching more than 15-20 per outing with 2-3 clients. This morning I cancelled my trip at 930 am cause fishing was awful with just three fish landed and they were little guys with the biggest being 15 inches. First time ever I told my clients lets try later in the day and maybe they will stock. Everyone in the park was not happy with the amount of fish in the river including some locals. They r not happy with the three week schedule and the fish get yanked out fast. Some people say these fish spread out? What does that mean? Are they in the bushes? They have no where to spread out. They might make it to the pool above or below where they were stocked, but they for sure are not spreading out cause they r a new speicies of trout, different from the last vendor. They r just plain getting yanked out to fast. Period.




Walleye fishing is very good right now right at dark below the dams, on white and chart clousers. Some walleye up to 24 inches have been landed. An 18 inch sandbass and some 18-20 inch browns as well.

Then the stocking truck rolled in at 3 pm. My clients showed back up for round two retry. They stocked 80% bigger fish than 15 inches this time. Fish up to 22 inches all over the park. Lost creek is choked with 17-20 fish now. Fun stuff, till they get yanked out shortly.

Only threw Near Deers after the trucks dumped wild stockers in the majestic river.



I'll try and get more pics as the season rolls on with pictures of the spots themselves. Vids will be coming later as well.

They dumped two net fills in each hole. Looked to be about 15-20 fish per net. Bigger fish though. Three weeks is a long time to wait for two more net fulls.

Fact. The Hochatown Lodge has lost business from disgusted anglers who either will not be back (me and my group)or those anglers cutting their trip short because hardly any trout are left in Zone 1 or they are beat up. The other thing I'm greatly disappointed in is the new owner of the park fly shop has yet to get the message board back up. My guess is that he knows what will be discussed in detail if he does. He's a Guide and can see when they stock. The Board has been down for months now. I'm a life member of the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation and cannot get them to answer my questions regarding stockings. A number of Guides are in this group. Carey you are not in this category. I have great respect for you. I use to get answers from the OWDC at the beginning of the change in stocking vendors but do not any more. When you live over 200 miles away it's difficult to know how it is. Especially with the Cedar Springs Trout Farm in Broadwater Nebraska no longer telling you when they will be at Beavers Bend. Most of us are not wealthy and enjoy catching fish. That's why we plan short trips around stocking time. Shouldn't take a genius to figure this out. Many Texans support the local economy up there and decision makers have not factored that into the equation of "we'll stock whenever the feeling hits us." There are several businesses in that area who said they'd appeal to the OWDC and I hope they do. Also, I have a draft of a letter I plan to send to Mr. Richard Hatcher, Director of the OWDC with questions about changing contract requirements in the middle of the stream so to speak. No pun intended. How is that fair to another vendor bidding on a set of specs that are changed after the bid is awarded not giving consideration to a hatchery that lost the bid and can meet the original specs. Actually sounds unlawful. They are not even stocking every 3 weeks and I have proof. They've stocked within a 2 week period, stocked on Wed. or Thurs. or Fri. At the beginning when they got the contract I could call and they would say when they are stocking. Now, they do not answer the phone and do not return calls. I sent them a Facebook message and got a maybe, could be, not sure answer about stocking this past week. This whole stocking thing is covered in secrecy. I don't think local anglers care much about when they stock as they can drive to the park and find out or they have a contact in the park system who tells them like the park workers who told us this past Wed. they would stock yesterday. I'm done and greatly disappointed that all involved in this have made this a covert operation that a special privileged few know about. Would like to know what caused the change.

maybe the new hatchery has kin folks in politics????sounds like it!
Tarpon fly, I appreciate your posts and look forward to them. I think you tell it like it is; good, bad, or indifferent and I appreciate that. If someone can post where we might write to vent about this situation, maybe if we send enough negatives they'll react positively; course being in texas we don't have a vote, but they get plenty of our money-p-

I suspect that someone, or someones, new have entered into the whole process. The details are where the devil will be found.
Time to start pulling strings, doing some investigating. An entirely different form of fishing!

Mr. Richard Hatcher is the Director of the ODWC.

email address at info@odwc.state.ok.us

Address your email in the text to him.

FYI: you have a good week ahead, to have the opportunity to land a 20+ inch fish. I'd say you only have about a week and a half before they all get yanked out. One of my buddies that lives there was in the cold hole when they Stocked it. He said the same thing, approximately 40 to 50 were released in the cold hole.

So 10 people, using power bait and knowing how to use it, that will equal 60 fish on their limit. 20 to 30 people go through the cold hole every day. Again, it's gonna be a long wait for the next two "net fulls". I have video of the old hatchery releasing fish. They released 4-5 net fulls at every spot with all sizes of fish.

One of my other buddies called the local fly shop asking why they had not stocked on the 31st. They claim somebody was blocking one of the entrances preventing the hatchery stocking people from releasing the fish? So the fly shop told him they would be releasing them the next day at noon ( they showed up at 3:15 pm.. So does that mean all the fish sat in the truck for two days? I don't even know what's going on anymore. But again if you can get up there within the next week you have a very good opportunity of catching a big fish. It is what it is.

Thanks Carey. The Nebraska Hatchery spends the night in Oklahoma City when they come to Beavers Bend. It's a commercial licensing thing concerning mileage driven in one day. Then the next day they drive in to Beavers Bend. The trout are in the truck at least 2 days. When all this "new" deal started I could get information to plan a trip. Someone has put a lid on all of it, unless you are a park worker (ha!).If I had known they were going to stock Friday I would have come up there Monday. I HATE weekends up there. Hit or miss does not work for my buddies and I. Oh well...............

Been awhile since I have logged on....

Cutbows are considered rainbows at most if not all hatcheries. They are not protected by the laws on 'native' fish. So the cutbows brought in by the hatchery are just part of the stocking program. I have caught a few with a very light 'cut' marking. The farther down the evolutionary tree you go, the fainter the marking.

Browns - Carey will confirm, but there are Browns all over the river. They are harder to catch, more secretive, and they do spread out a lot better than stocker rainbows. I caught a nice 15" brown in Spillway on Friday before sunup. Browns by nature like undercut banks, trees, and heavy cover. They have earned their reputation for being harder to fool.

Chatter - I totally agree with you on the stocking program issues. The secrecy is like a government project. When you travel 200+miles to fish, it always nice to catch a few fish or at least have a number of them available. Chasing the trucks isn't fun - it almost seems like poaching. I like to fish the several days after a stocking when fish are evident, but not pushovers. It would certainly be nice to know when the trucks will show and plan trips around that schedule. I do understand the driving and time constraints the NE hatchery has to abide by. I wish we had a manageable hatchery closer to Broken Bow.

Carey - as always, thank you for the reports and the updates. Even if you are the reason BBFS won't put the message board up again The new owner LOVES you! Wish I could have stayed for the weekend and tried out some of the larger fish. The crowds are down, the weather is cooling, the stop logs are coming out soon, and the state lady says a planned release of 'thousands' of fish is set for Z3 in December. That should be fun. Nice pic of your client and that buck rainbow. Maybe I will see you up there Nov 21-24?

On the subject of Zones and regulations: It does need to be marked better. The signage they have now is inadequate and often hidden around bushes. On nearly every trip I find bait guys fishing the hole below Cold Hole and taking the fish home. Either no one understands the maps, or they just say f#*k it and fish anyway. Personally I don't understand this, but I am only one out-of-town flyguy. I will say, some of the people that I mention the regulations to, they are families with kids. Once they are informed of the regs, they pack up and move to a bait and keep area. Lost Creek has several of these because of its easy access and easy fishing. I still find a few jerks and idiots who blow me off, but it works for some people. I actually have fun crowding some of ignorant people. I am 6'2 and 270 lbs so I am hard to ignore Like everyone else, I wish the laws would be adhered to. But since that won't always be the case, you have to live with it I guess. do your best to help the system, but try to have fun anwyay.

My two cents are in...... enjoy!

You called it Carey! I called my buddy Dan yesterday afternoon based on your assessment of the stocking. Golfer Jeff, it has been 4 days since stocking but of no avail to the fish. There were less of them but Dan and I had 77 trout between us and many were 16-20" (measured). There were several large bows that freed themselves from our tiny barbless lures when jumping one or more times. Fantastic! Worth the 460 mile day. I personally spoke with several OWDC personnel and we had a good discussion. The main reason for not posting the stocking schedule is that many people complained when the schedule was not followed. Crystal Lake was like clockwork when they stocked so I assume the complaints must be on the Nebraska Hatchery. The reality of all this is no matter how clandestine the trout stocking is, someone will find out and the word will spread and Zone 1 will be fished out between stockings per usual. Beavers Bend is fished by anglers every day of the year. Even in the harshest of winters with sleet and snow. I speak from experience. Unless my friends and I can know for certain Beavers Bend has been stocked, we'll fish for Texas trout which are squirts but with light tackle, fun to catch.

Friday's Report:

Had my clients in Evening Hole, Bluffs and Lost Creek in the morning. Fourth roll cast one of my guy guys hooked up, but LDR'ed it. Let him be and took the newbie on a training course. After about 10 mins he lands his first fly rod trout. He was on a roll, so I went and checked on his buddy. He had already landed a couple and missed a bunch. Then Newbie hooks the 20+ inch monster that was in the pocket I had him fishing. After 10 mins of battling the hook pulled. But, at the end of the trip we hit one more pocket and newbie lands a solid 18 incher.



I bet this poor miss guided client had a terrible time.


Ended the day with 15-20 in the AM in Red Zone 1, with many many missed bites. After they had their fun I decided to fish spillway creek and goof around. I was drinking some water and all of the sudden a hatch started. And man it was a big hatch. Bugs all over the rocks. So did what anyone would do and "matched the Hatch and I tied on the new S.C. Pink Near Deer and caught 17 bows within a half hour, till a kid and his dad walked up asking what I was using cause nothin had worked for them all day. I cut my S.C. Near Deer off and rigged the kids fly rod up and let them have my spot. I left on his first cast, as he was battling a 18-20 inch bow while his dad was telling him how to land it. Split Cane Near Deer's, rule.

Only tied up one of the New Secret S.C. Near Deers, so I went to the secret pink egg color pattern. Ended up landing 37 in spillway creek power fishing whatever holes didn't require slipping on the slick boulders. The whole creek has some good fish and if I landed a fish in the main stocking holes, I would release it in a rapid or below the stocking holes. Might live a bit longer. Went near the fly shop and hit a shallow area and landed 11 in a 50 yard stretch on the egg things. Decided to head home, but then decided to hit the red zone one more time. I hit one pool and quickly landed two fish. A board member from the Dallas Fly Fishing Association stopped by and said he landed a couple fish. Within the 20 mins of him standing there, I landed 6 fish and jumped a 20 plus inch bow and amazed the DFA board member. He didn't know huge trout like that, will hold over in a small pocket like the one I was in. But remember, these are not wild trout. These are Wild Stockers, and remember to mash down the barbs so they will live a little longer -till a Pink Bubble Gum Power Worm swims by -within the hour.

Don't use anything with sent in red zones. It's bad.

All the fish in the making of this report were hurt. Including the other 40-50. Six of them did not make it and ended up being smoked, including the massive 38 inch Wild Brown Bow below. He dead.

Report:

Fishing has been pretty good. Still a bunch of people there, but the fish are starting to move up the river to spawn. So fish below and above the stocking holes and small pockets with gravel to get your numbers up and keep on the move, or go to Split Cane's spots and use a size 22 midge and you can catch the heck out of 2-3 fish. Fish with Pink Eggs or a Pink Bubble Gum Near Deer ( Sorry Split Cane, I had to rename it and I didn't want to send you royalties.)

Below is what happens when you use a Near Deer:



Sunday we started at the upper end of Spillway Creek and landed 20-25 bows on the secret Pink Egg pattern, Pink (BGND), Purple/Black and Olive Near Deers.

There was a guy fishing the pool above us and was doing just as good as we were. The pool he was in was only 2-3 ft deep and had a small drop to 3 ft at the end of the run. Some guys saw him catching fish and planted themselves around his hole invading his space. So he went to the next pool after he got crowded out. The invaders didn't catch squat. Watched the guy that got invaded start catching on the next pool he went to. Then one of the guys thought all the trout were where we were and headed over to make a cast. I bet he never tries that again after I learned him.




Hit the lower end of spillway and caught some toads. The big fish average 18-24 inches right now. They stocked a bunch of little ones this time and they are readily taking dry flies. BWO's and Grey RS2's are best bet. Midges, I'd use black or red ones if I was to target the smaller fish ( big fish eat small flies too, but the Near Deer and Secret Egg pattern are killing them right now. Black stone flies and BWO's are hatching everyday. On one of the Logs that the water rolls over in Spillway Creek, I hooked a 22-23 inch Rainbow. for about 5 mins out of the 15 I was playing it, the fish sat in one spot and never moved, I couldn't turn it or anything, just sat there. Finally she started to move around. She was just about wore out and headed down to the log/waterfall. I was prepared to chase it down to the next pool and it did something I have never had happen to me. Instead of going over the log/waterfall, the freakin fish went under the log/waterfall into the next pool. snapped me off fast on that one. So if you catch a 22 ish plus fish with a Split Cane Near Deer, I mean Bubble Gum Near Deer, you get a bonus fly and a great looking fish!

After the spillway, we hit Evening Hole area. Caught another 20-30 fish with 10 or so over 20 inches. Most were off the Secret Egg pattern, and the rest off Near Deers.

End of the day, I decided I needed a couple fish to put on the new smoker. Tooke a whole 2 casts to get them.




Don't walk through the spawning beds. they look like a brighter white patch where they are fanning the beds/redds. Fish with egg patterns below the beds. There always feeding trout near them willing to take a fly.

Disclaimer: ( All fish in the making of this report were hurt )

So nice of you to mention me in your posts on an ongoing basis, Carey. It will be good for my split cane rod business.

I, too, was at the Lower Mountain Fork on Sunday morning. Ice forming in the guides, I did manage to catch one or two or ten or, ya know, I just lost count of the fish I caught. Seriously... more big, beautiful rainbows were hammering, as Carey mentioned, egg patterns. They are also taking hare's ear.

Let's not forget to mention soft hackles swung in the current, especially redass soft hackles. Fish them in just about any current, swing them downstream, and just hold on. Fish hit them with reckless abandon.

Yes, the fish are also hitting #22 midges if you have the patience to figure that out. You, too, might catch one or two, just like me.

AWESOME day on Sunday at the LMF! You really don't have to follow the tracks of the stocking truck to catch fish!


JR

Swinging soft hackles in the current is a hell of a lot of fun. You can almost tell the size of the fish from the strike. The 10-14's kinda nibble and shake and you have to set the hook. The bigger fish just take the fly and buzz downstream and hook themselves. A few more days till the logs come out, but the EH bridge was a good place last weekend.

Stream is full of smaller fish eating dries too, for those of you that enjoy tossing small bugs to rising fish. I had a blast Friday catching 8-12" fish in cold hole and below. There are a few Browns in the mix, too.

For trophy hunters - there are several 24+ browns dumped in and they are spawned out from what I could see. Leave the redds and spawners alone and toss eggs as TF and SCR described.

Can't wait to get back up there....... love the cold weather!

There are 18" and larger fish taking midges in the surface film.

Jeff, the vibert boxes were planted by volunteers. No brown trout were stocked. All those brown trout you're seeing are there year-round. Exactly my point in saying to stop worrying about the stocking schedule and go fishing!

Not flaming anyone here. Enough of that already. There are some trophy trout in the waters at LMF. I don't tell everything I know. I'm not in the entertainment business. When people don't catch fish, they go away unhappy. They have to blame someone or something.

Soft hackles is a great pattern at LMF. It represents a lot of different aquatic bug life. They're almost fool- proof. I even caught 'bonus fish' by just hanging the fly while I washed slime out of my net. LOL!! What a surprise that one was!!

JR

Plan to go this weekend, thanks guys for the info, pics videos. So cool the amount of information on this thread.

Looks like fun . I am heading out early sunday morning from Midlothian ( Ft worth) What type fly should I be throwing at EH.? Are they spawning yet. I am a semi newbie to fishing for trout so I am never real sure what to present. Dry or wet for this time of year. I have only fished dry and streamers in the past.

Last couple days have been a bit slow due to the super high air pressure. But the fish r biting. I'd call it steady. U catch a fish out of each hole at least. Then they seem to spook. Go back to the hole 20-30 mins later and you will catch another one or at least get bit again. Don't lay up in one hole all day. You need to move around to find the feeding fish. There was a caddis hatch in spillway, but not EH.

Stop logs came out and the water is lower now, opening up 2-3 more miles of fishable river with lots of wild stockers. For the next couple of weeks I expect to see a bunch of smallmouth caught.




The water has been stained as they have been discharging a bit more water than normal out the spillway dam. The north wind has been bashing against the dam creating a sandy muddy film staining the river as well.

Black and Red midges, RS2's, woolly buggers, eggs, and Near Deers.

Lots of dry fly action in Spillway Creek. They r laying up in the shallows too. So don't over look anything. Drift that fly everywhere.

They put new signs up and boot cleaning stations.





Way better signs!

But, they put them at the opposite sides of the parking lots, where the trails lead to the river. Why they didn't put them at the trail heads, baffles me. If they put one on the Lost Creek bridge, it would save a lot of headache for the red zone. IMO.

Jeff, the vibert boxes were planted by volunteers. No brown trout were stocked. All those brown trout you're seeing are there year-round. Exactly my point in saying to stop worrying about the stocking schedule and go fishing!

I actually fished with a gentleman who reportedly was with the LMF foundation. They had put the boxes in Wednesday or Thursday and he also said that they had put some large Browns in at the same time. Of course, I could have been misinformed, but he seemed like a knowledgeable guy. I am not up there as often as some of you, but I haven't seen 24"+ browns in the EH like I did last weekend. I have caught some big ones on the Dream Stream in Colorado, and these fish rivaled the ones I caught.

Looks like another winter storm is coming in. The Browns should really be getting after it if they haven't already. I hope to make it back to LMF before the year is out - stocking or not. The logs came out, so you can now wade a lot more water.

See y'all on the water!

Hi James. There were no brown trout stocked when the Vibert boxes were planted.

Roger

Jeff, I just wanted to make absolutely sure, so I emailed the guy that heads up this project. I can PM his contact info to you if you like. Those big browns hang out in the '40 foot hole' and in the river bend area until they get the spawning urge. The riffles under the bridge are a cakewalk for these fish when they want to go upstream. Few people fish in the river bend area for them. Get a kayak or some other type of flotation, and you, too, can find them. They are there year round! I promise!

JR

Hmmmm.... OK then. I just got some bad intel. They sure were pretty sitting at the lost creek confluence and upper EH.

I wish I could get a kayak or float tube up there. My sports sedan doesn't have room. I know some guys that have them on the South PLatte resovoirs and they love 'em.

Carey - the new signs are nice, even if in the wrong place. One of them saved my [censored] when I got caught in a downpour. Nice little roof on them

Lower Mountain Fork: November 22. Stocked 2,295 lbs., approximately 4,150 rainbow trout, on November 21. Report submitted by April Drake, secretary at the southeast regional office.

Average fish was only about 9oz or 11" this time. lots of 'em in spillway and Lost Creek. Seemed like they were all either rising or eating eggs.

My family and I rented a cabin over the thanksgiving weekend just outside of beavers bend so i got some time to give my trout addiction a fixing. The "hillbilly heaven" cabin just off of 259 wasn't the best, but was nice and homey inside. The sound of Semi Trucks going 60 down the highway isn't the most peaceful sound to fall asleep to.



I arrived at the EH parking lot on saturday morning and worked my way up to Lost Creek with multiple flies.



At one of the first pools in Lost Creek, I saw about 5 fish feeding a few feet under the surface. After a few casts with a size 24 fly, and I was fighting a rainbow over 18 inches. He swam underneath a log, but with 7X tippet, there was no way I could pull her out. She swam back out from the log, shook her head, and the fly popped right out.

I continued working my way up the creek and landed two wild ones, then lost a little brown.





Almost to the bait chucker area, I fought another fish over 18 inches, and like the last one, came unhooked after the head shake. Not any big fish Saturday, but beauties.

Sunday was very unsuccessful with only one 12 inch rainbow on a hares ear. At that point I had tried everything in the fly box within reason.



Monday morning was very foggy and was time to pack up and head home. I was able to sneak down to the upper section of Spillway Creek. Eggs and Worms werent working well at all. I saw a fish rise downstream so i switched to a tiny caddis. After a few drifts, he came to the surface, inspected the fly for a couple seconds and slurped it under. He put up a good fight for the size, and was my very first brown trout. Beautiful fish.

Very pretty brown.

I hear ya on the Cabin rental along the highway, great to learn if you want a secluded, private road inside the Park Mine is available here... http://www.beaversbendgetaways.com/cabins/new-cabin/
It's 1.4 miles from Spillway Creek across from the Water Plant on 259 a north.

Denny

Beautiful Brown! Love those fall colors.

Holy crapomoly, is that your personall cabin you rent out or just one you like to stay at?

Update on fly orders: they will be 2-3 days late due to the icing conditions in Dallas. I actually tried to mail some today but the post office is closed. Sorry for the delay. Nature called. So if you were expecting them soon, add another 2-3 days on order.

Carey do you tie any flies for ice fishing? Or do you use the Near Deer for that also? :-)

I'll try ice fishing tomorrow!

Did they stock Thursday

Yes. There are a lots of wild stockers in there now, a lot of 20 inch plus fish.

Thank you, that is great news to us. We will see if we can put some of those on a hook Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

It's all mine that I rent the 2 weekends a month when we're not there...

Denny

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.

Pink Near Deers and Pink eggs, wacked them today. My group and a pair of past clients had the river to ourselves. Fish were biting on the first cast. Clients jumped a bunch and caught a bunch. Every pocket we fished, produced a trout. Lots of huge 25-30 inch browns roaming around. Near Deers and eggs ruled the day. Water stained. Pink was king.





Everyday we hook into 2-3 fish over 25 inches. Very illusive and hard to spot. Big fish yes, but they blend in perfect with the surrounding.

Had a great time!! Thanks again Carey! Hope to do it again!! Here is the link to a short video from that weekend!

[url=Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzQ8reXQjk][url=Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzQ8reXQjk][url=Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzQ8reXQjk]Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzQ8reXQjk[/url][/url][/url]

Wish I had better video of the bigger ones!!

Can someone help ID the hatch? I don't know if I have enough information, but I'll give y'all what I have.
OK. So, the 24th, Christmas Eve, I'm there at Beaver's Bend at, I think, the Cold Hole, the diversion dealy for Lost Creek, anyhow. It's about noon. There's 3 of us fly-fishers there, and a hatch going on. Trout rising all over the hole. Well, none of us can seem to match the hatch. Each of us is getting bit occasionally, but obviously we haven't found the right fly, or we'd be getting bit all the time right then. I've been using soft hackles and emergers as most of the trout are not quite breaking the surface, or just a little. I've used midge emergers, a GLF sparkle emerger, a BWO emerger, Jeff Guerin's "smidge". Couple other things, I forget. They all work a little as they often will when there's no hatch.

This is what I observed. The bugs leaving the surface were really zooming and scattered so I couldn't get a clear look. They were very blond, not quite white, but light tan. They were kind of wispy, more like mayflies or mosquito-types than fluffy like caddises, but I don't know. They COULD have been caddises. Maybe. They looked to be about size 18. I tried a size 16 light cahill dry, but it looked a little big and the fish weren't interested.

Then I saw something I had never been able to see. I think I saw an emerger rise to the surface. It was very light tan and moving purposefully as though propelling itself to the surface, rather than drifting. It looked like about 1/2 inch long, segmented, without a clear head, like some caddis larvae flies I've seen in pictures. Then it got intercepted by a trout and that was that. So I don't know if I really saw it completely clearly. It was neat to see, though.

I don't know if the other fellows ever "solved" the mystery of what the hatch was. I had to leave to go build a playset for the grandkids Christmas.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Anyway, besides those several scattered 11-12" trout at Cold Hole I caught a very nice 18 incher in Spillway Creek in a deep pocket on a rainbow warrior. Egg patterns didn't do me any good that morning, nor did any of the midge larvae droppers to the eggs that usually work for me.

Is anyone catching anything in Spillway if they walk up it quite a ways, like 3 or 4 log weirs from the nature trail parking area? I didn't. There were fish all over the Cold Hole, and, I imagine, throughout the red zone. That was just a tough hatch for me and the others.

JB - if it was cloudy, they were BWO's. They are an 18 or a 20. The wings are grayish, bodies are tan to olive. Adams Irresistable, Parachute Adams, and Ethawings have worked for me. They have been hatching between 11am and 1 pm on these cool days - when the sun is overhead (out or not). Spillway has black caddis and BWO's. The fish are hacking the emergers and only surface when the prey gets a head start. Fun to watch....

Throw a #22 grey rs2. 90% are the smaller fish rising. The big girls are hugging the bottom. When the BWO's or black caddis are hatching, I match the hatch spot on, and drag a pink egg or pink near deer. Or do what Jeff said.

Thanks, fellers. They were smaller trout rising, and I caught the bigger fish deep. Eggs weren't working for me for some reason, I donno. I'm fixing to tie up some BWO emergers and some parachute Adams for my next trip. Carey do you sell any Near Deer in the shop at the park or the shop just outside the park?

I tie them at home. Eggs/ rs2's/ Near Deers/ red and black midges/ woolly buggers/ -really don't throw anything other than eggs and Near Deers anymore. Unless, the clients intention is to be a purist when he or she grows up, then we fish with midges and Adams. 99% of my cliental, just wants to catch fish and learn the basics. I try to teach catch fish first, learn to cast later.

U need eggs half the size of a real salmon egg. The bigger ones don't work well. Hence, mico-eggs. If ur not on the bottom, bouncing along the pebbles and rocks, or your indicator is not drifting exactly with the bubbles- you are trying to fish/ not fishing.

If your not mending as soon as it lands, the current is going to bend out your line and drag it. When u have your indicator going faster than the bubbles, you force the egg up off the bottom and up in the upper water column. Cast/ Mend / Rod Tip Down -pointing at line or high stick/ Set Hook/ Land Fish ------ I have caught more fish on the egg this year than any other year. They love them. But main thing is, it has to be on the bottom. Couple trips ago, Jeff finally did what I was telling him after 6 hours, as I did here, and when he did, he lands 20 within 1 hour. These r stocked fish. Not wild fish.

Typically, hatchery fish will eat as soon as the same day and seems to be about 2-3 hours after stocked, all the fish will eat. Easiest time for the handicapped peeps. However, for the next week to three weeks, they are still, by trout standards, considered "hatchery fish" and will very readily take power baits, as it is very similar to the food they grew up on in the hatchery. The Brown and Black Near Deer is a favorite due to trout pellets and is the same color as a creek chub. Thats why they get yanked out so fast there. 2 net fulls in each major stocking point, doesnt equal a healthy river in my eyes. 50 fish in pool as big as ur bath tub? When is the last time u saw a hatch big enough to sustain 50 fish in a small pocket in Lost Creek? I dont think I have really ever seen a hatch in there. Prob because the water is not oxygenated enough to sustain the little flies. As this becomes less and less available, natural instinct kicks in and they will begin to eat aquatic life (bugs, worms, etc). That's if they can elude pink power bait. They r curious and now starving. They r not being fed everyday by thier hatchery, so they have to learn to be a trout. In turn, they will try and eat anything basically.

These trout they stock, the species, if untouched and left alone, get to 20 lbs and over. Is what I read somewhere. They r are a schooling species as well. So they don't lay up as often as the other species and like to roam around. It appears that a very few stockers even survive very long, I'm there 4-7 times a week in winter time. I can't name a fish for longer than 2 months till it just vanishes; never to be seen again. If they remain in “trout water” ( which like said before in the deeper pools downstream of the fly shop, powerhouse, and zone 2 w/ deeper water than 20 ft in some places) they become “holdovers” and live by drift feeding and/or aggressive pursuit feeding of larger prey items. Pursuit feeders, btw, have the opportunity to outgrow strict drift feeders. Hatchery trout, raised in crowded raceways, and fed tossed pelleted food, develop aggressive feeding behavior, and those that are the best at it, grow fastest. And that’s just what a hatchery manager wants, to meet stocking size range requirements. Some drop-outs may find pockets of cool water down the watershed, where there is often larger habitat and more food, and such fish can grow LARGE. Some wild fish find their way to these places too, either by having the penchant to migrate, swept from flooding, or possibly as descendants of successful holdovers.

Moral of the story: Don't over think it. But if you do want to over think it, I used to be a purist. So this is what I used to throw at them pre Near Deer days.

Beavers Bend Fly’s
MAIN FLIES:
Eggs
Near Deers
Bead Head Pheasant Tails (Size: 14-18)
Hares Ear (Size: 14-18)
Orange Soft Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Red Hackles (Size: 16-18)
Bead Headed Wollybuggers (Colors: Olive, White, Black, Rust) (Size: 10-20, I like Big WB’S)
Black Midges (Size: 12-22)
Red Midges (Size: 12-22)
Blue Winged Olive (Size:16-22)
Sulpher (Size: )
Cahill (Size: 18-22)
San Juan Worm
Rs2 #22 grey

January:

Hatches: Baetis, Blue Winged Olive, Light Cahill, Midge
Flies to use: Pheasant tails, Red Fox Squirrel, San Juan worm, Egg Patterns, Griffiths Gnat, Adult Caddis, Emergers


February:

Hatches: Mayflies, Midges, March Brown

Flies to use: March Browns, Bead Headed Black and Red Midges (size 12-14), San Juan worms, egg patterns, Griffiths gnat, CDC, Emerger Patterns, Soft hackle

March:

Hatches: Blue winged Olive, Midges

Wet Flies to use:
Soft Hackle, Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails, Egg patterns, Red Fox squirrels, crane fly

Dry Flies to use: Griffiths Gnats, Hares Ears, March Brown (mayfly), Blue Winged Olive (mayfly)

Flies to use: Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, Thread Midges, and Caddis Pupae Flies, Soft Hackles, Midges, Hares ears, Pheasant tails, Prince nymphs


April:

Hatchs: Flying Ants, Caddis, Mayflies, Crane flies, Midges

Flies to use: Red Soft Hackle, Elk Hair Caddis, Midges, Ants,

May:

Hatches: Baetis, Beetles ,Blue Winged Olive, Brown Caddis, March Brown ,Tan Caddis

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Cream Colored Soft Hackles, Nymphs, Adam Parachutes 12-16, Hare's ear Nymphs, Elk hair caddis

Dry flies to use: CDC Caddis and CDC Mayfly Emergers, EHC, Adam Parachutes


June:
Hatches: Mayfly, PMD's, Sulphurs
Flies to use: Grasshoppers, Ants, Midges, Mayflies, Caddis

July:
Hatches: Mayflies, Midges
Flies to use: Copper Johns, Griffiths Gnats, EHC, Ants, Griffiths Gnats, Soft Hackles, Hoppers, Soft Hackles

August:

Hatches: Midge, Hexagenia, Caddis, Mayflies, Mosquitoes
Dry Flies: Caddis and Mayflies (including dry, emergers, and cripples)
Flies to use: Soft Hackles, Midges, Pheasant Tails, Copper Johns, Small Mayfly Imitations, Caddis Pupae, Emergers



September:

Hatches: PMD/s, BWO's Yellow Sally, Grass Hoppers and Katy-Dids, Hexagenia Mayflies

Wet flies (nymphs) to use: Green Bead Head Caddis Nymph imitations in about size 14-16, Egg patterns, San Juan Worm, Various Soft Hackles, Light Cahill, Grasshopper, Ant, Hex Nymph

Dry flies to use: Stimulators on a size 10 hook, Elk hair Caddis, Hex

October:

Hatches: Caddis, Grey Mayflies, Blue Quills Blue Winged Olives Midges, Sulfurs
Flies to use: Miracle Midge, Zebra Midge, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worm

November:

Hatches: Small Tan Caddis, Small Black Caddis, Midges
Flies to use: Thread Midges, Caddis Emergers, spiders, Copper John, Egg Patterns, San Juan Worms
December:
Hatches: Black Caddis, Blue Winged Olives (mayfly) and Midges.
Flies to use: Emergers, Caddis, Mayfly, Midges, Egg patterns
Dry flies to use: Griffiths Gnat, Blue Winged Olive, Black Caddis

December: same as above.

Carey you're a treasure trove. Thanks as always for sharing. Now I know why eggs weren't working for me. I was using Y2k's. (They're gigantic.) Really I use them as attractors and trail with a midge larva. It's always the midge that gets bit. I'm going to tie up some micro-eggs. I'm starting to understand the importance of mending also. Also fish downstream some.
Later, jonbo.

When y'all trail eggs or other things behind the deers, how do you tie the deers on? We just tied them even with the line (they do not dip down) with the eggs around 12" behind. We were using #4 split shot a couple of inches above the egg to keep it from floating up.

Carey, is there anyway you could post a pic the way you tie on your setup?

Again:

I don't use tapered leader or tippits at Broken Bow anymore. Don't wear a vest or a back pack either. No reason for all the trinkets at this river.

Berkley Vanish 110 yards is $6
Floro fly fishing tippit is 10-20 for 30 meters.

Vanish - .007
Fly tippit floro- .006

Very small difference in size between the two when fishing for stockers. Obviously it doesn't matter if you use either one. Just cheaper to use flat out Fluorocarbon.

All I use is Berkley Vanish 4 lb for non busy days.

2 lb for busy days when the park is packed or the barometric air pressure is out of wack.

For more on how the air pressure affects fish (IMO) click the blue words
Air pressure (click here)

I tie the Vanish ( 7 ft strip ) directly to my floating fly line. Then, tie on the fly of your choice. Slap an indicator at 3.5 foot average for the river. Drift it, twitch it, swing it. ( near deer )

On the egg, cast/mend/ drift it without moving the indicator. It has to go with the bubbles.

I tie on the ND. Then, I tie on 2.5 ft of more vanish and tie it on the ND's hook eye closest to the barb. Then tie on egg.

Wow Carey! You are one of the most generous guides with information and details that I've ever seen.

I found a 200' spool of Cabellas brand 4# floro so I bought that yesterday per your advise [is way cheaper than floro tippet]. I did go ahead and buy my son and I some Cortland braided loops and a couple of floro loop leaders so we would not have to worry about knots for awhile, well hope so anyway. Thank you for explaing the length and how you tie to the deer. I was not trailing near that long and was not sure on using one knot or tying to the hook.

how small are those eggs you use Tarponfly?-p-

Hey y'all, I tied some "micro" eggs in hot pink. I bought some pink sparkly dubbing, antron maybe, from the outfitter in Hot Springs. I slipped a tungsten bead onto a size 18 scud hook. I wrapped a bed of thread behind it to the bend. I dropped a drop of head cement onto that thread bed to make everything more secure. Then I just dubbed like a big giant thorax behind the tungsten bead in the pink antron. My thread was red so it didn't stand out at all from the pink. After my thorax/egg was built I criss-crossed it once or twice with the thread to help secure the whole thing and whip finished between the egg and the bead. It's sparkly pink, fairly round, and you can't see the thread, just the pink.

Does that sound like it will work? I'm fixin' to try it on Tuesday if I can. I hope it does as it's simple as can be to tie.

Free advice is not always good advice, it's simply free.

LOL!

+1

Ok, on this tip of the day, you might bust my jewels on it, like the Near Deer when I introduced some of y'all to it on here, but most peeps I think are going to like this one. This is not my secret egg pattern. But this the easiest egg pattern out there and it's a Perfect Egg ----> no matter how bad u suck at tying flies anyone can do it. I actually can tie this fly with out a vise. I can do it with my fingers alone. And I catch plenty of fish on it. Lots of y'all are catching fish on them as we speak.

I live near Hobby Lobby, and as some of y'all know, it's a mini gold mine of Flyfishing materials. You don't ever go there looking for something, you go there and stroll down every single isle. And you will find all kinds I near tying material, or in this case, a super short cut micro egg.

Ingredients:

1. Thread
2. Loctight Super Glue
3. # 22 dry fly hook/ - ya, very small small. The actual trout eggs are the size of BB's.These eggs are two times the sizes but a bit smaller. -and the trout want to eat them so they can bake on a grill.
3. Pom Pom's ( what? ) ya, PomPoms from Hobby Lobby.












Step 1- start a base thread on hook from the eye and back 25% toward the hook shank. Tie it off and cut thread.

Step 2- put a small drop of glue on the thread of the hook.

Step 3- pinch on Pom Pom till all the fibers to completely around the hook as picture above looks.

The perfect/ cheapest/ easiest Egg out there.

120 plus eggs for $0.99 and the price of the hooks $5 probably. Pays for the materials on the 4 eggs u make. Way way less mess and materials needed.


Don't over think wild stockers. They r not very smart. If it looks like food, they will eat it. Most of y'all sit in one spot of the river for hours. You need to power fish and cover water looking for the fish that are feeding and have not been caught the same day. I'll fish the Evening Hole within 30-45 mins and pick up a bunch of fish within that time and then I'm gone to another area.

On my trips, I walk you all over the river system and show u everything I know. I don't just take you to one hole in Spillway Creek for 2 hours and set u up and have u cast ur brains out, then set you in at the Bluffs for 2 hours. ( watch out for those lazy fellers. You don't learn much fishing two spots on the river. Keep on the move. If you can see the bottom, and u don't see a fish there, don't cast there!

I completely ignore the rising fish as 90% are 12 inchers and not what I'm looking to catch. Bigger fish are hugging the bottom eating those small risers! Lol








.

You have to be kidding me. I can barely tie those little things to the line so I know I wount be able to glue them on a hook. I guess I will just have to keep buying from you lol

Drat! I was in Hot Springs 2 days ago. Forgot to buy "Pom Poms". Now I'm leaving for the river in an hour. Carey if you're at the river today you better watch out for me. I'm planning to mug ya! "Give me your "Pom Poms", %$#!!"
"My what?!!"
"Your "POM POMS!!"
"Hey man,... I don't know what you..."
"You know what I mean! Give me your "Pom Poms!"
"Brother, I'm sorry!...I don't know..."
"Is you're name Carey?"
"No,... man,... it's Dave.!
"Oh!... uh,... Buddy I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Have you seen a guy named Carey?"

would adding some lead to the hook help get em to the bottom? Or do you add weight on the line?-p-

Gene, the one bit of advice that is spot on is to go deep. If you can, add lead wire to the egg fly. You would still do good by adding split shot. I tie an egg pattern on a Gamakatsu #12 hook, so I will tell you that tiny is not always best. A pink San Juan worm is killer!!

PM me your phone number. I would like to fish with you at LMF when you go. Tie up some soft hackles & hare's ear patterns. 3x tippet is what you'll need most times.

Not giving away any more secrets.

JR

I use split shots to get them down. Or the ND will sink them as a dropper.

I'm in Vegas. Won't be back on the river till the 4 th.

I fish a lot of orange and olive jig flies;catch a few fish that way; soft hackles, olive streamers with a beadhead in sizes 16 and 18 are my top producer; not a very good trout fisherman; I'm old and slow with two really bad knees so I wear out a hole rather than move a lot. I detest crowds so I fish mudholes rather than going kung-fu; its fun though; had a nice 8 point buck jump right into the hole I was fishing;another group of deer climbed the cliffs right above me like mountain goats; pretty cool!-p-

Another note: when getting the PomPoms pick the bag with the smallest ones. Some of them are to big.

Well, just got back from BB. The little bitty eggs I tied didn't do nothin'. Caught one. I think they're too lumpy the way I do it, but standard micro-eggs (which are bigger than the ones Carey's describing) weren't working either. I was bouncing bottom pretty regularly, don't think that was it.

Ended up with my old standby, tungsten-bead brown midge larva fished deep behind a flashy nymph. Caught a 19 - 20 incher at the upper end of the bluffs in the deep pocket. Fought it for 10 minutes. My arm got tired.

Went down to the Evening Hole to meet my fishing partner. He had also caught a good sized fish, on a hopper. He'd seen it feeding on the surface and targeted it. We went to lunch in Hochatown. I thought we were going to go back and try to get into a hatch, but we came home instead. All in all a good day of fishing.
jonbo

Jon, it wasn't your technique, it was simply all the fish were gone.

The few that was there are full of hooks and salmon eggs, and corn and earth worms and lead sinkers and ....

Denny

Well, then, I guess we had a good day!

I fished Monday and Tuesday with my dog and (sometimes) my wife. Magick the dog had a lot of fun visiting new humans. I visited a few fish each day, but not many. Park was crowded and I didn't have the car to escape. I 'caught' a 20lb test line rigged with a 3" spoon and enough weight to get to the bottom of the Columbia. I guess Chinook have invaded the LMF. BWO's everyday from about 11am till 2pm. Had fun chatting up a few new people. I did have the delight of seeing a 4 year old with a new snoopy rod catch a 21" bow in the cold hole. He was so excited he fell in the river when his dad tried to release it!

More fishies expected on Thursday. A bunch of golfers are headed back up for the long weekend.

I saw the Eastern guy fishing with the gold spoon and 6'6" Bass rod with baitcaster in S-Creek early last week. He ditched it once his buddies lit 'em up on E-Worms.

They filled a 5 gallon bucket with 20" trout.

D

check your PM's. i think we may have met you

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to introduce myself,my name is Tyler and I am sure I have seen some of you at LMF in the past month. I have just been getting back into fly fishing and have been trying out LMF with varying degrees of success. Reading the posts on this thread make me realize I have a lot to learn and re-learn.

I was up there this last Monday and only caught 4 smaller ones, and lost two more due to poor hook setting.

Most of my success has come on red zebra midges size 20. Also have had luck on size 20 micro egg and beadhead red collar pheasants.

Hoping to go up this weekend, so if you see me feel free to say hey and chat.

This guy was on a red zebra midge.

Man it is amazing you caught anything wearing that gawd awful Tea-Sip hat LOL.

Nice fish and congrats. We were up there Dec 15th-20th and went back this last Monday also, not much luck Monday. We met Golfer Jeff Monday without knowing it and might have crossed your path, but I think I would remember that gawd awful hat. If you would have seen me you would have remembered because I am 5'6"-250lbs and wear camo neoprene waders, it is tough to get that image out of your mind, but I do wear a pretty MAROON jacket under there.

I wouldn't call that one smaller. It's a nice looking fish. It seems LMF is getting a bit "fished out" between stockings this year, so you picked a poor time to go, as did I (Saturday). I, too, have my best luck on midges, usually. There's been pretty good hatches in the afternoons, however, on mayflies and caddis. Good to have you around. My "home" stream is the Little Missouri River at Murfreesboro, AR, but I love to fish the LMF whenever I get the chance because it's a great trout fishing stream.

Nice fish / Bad hat

With the assistance of the ODWC, the fishing at the LMF was great this weekend. Good hatches of BWO's, midges in morning fog, and some early caddis on spillway creek. I had a novice buddy along this time and he had a great time. He caught 8-10 in Spillway Friday (and missed about a hundred more!) and followed that up with a decent day Saturday. Sunday was too darn cold and windy to fish, so we returned to DFW. Being barely above novice myself, it was interesting to 'teach' someone how to fish the LMF. We had a lot of fun trying some new areas and meeting some good peeps.

Flies for the weekend included chartreuse eggs 12-18, red or black midge droppers, BWO emergers (I had RS2's), and yes, even Olive Neer Deeres. Anything fished bumping the bottom on the drift (eggs) or rising in the water column on the swing (RS2's, soft hackles) worked well. The bigger fish loved the Neer Deere's.

Park was pretty crowded, especially after it warmed up each day. Jostling for position on Spillway and Evening hole was pretty standard. You had to move downstream to find some open water. I did not see any instances or 'run rage', but I could see some frustrated fly fisherman.

On a side note - my fishing partner introduced me to several 'firsts' this weekend. Mock me all you want (i am an easy target), but I did all of these things for the first time: Kept a stringer of trout (i Had to catch 15 just to get a stringer of 6!), ate a trout (a 19" rainbow), made a campfire, drank single malt whiskey, smoked a cigar streamside, and helped a little kid catch his first fly rod trout (More on that later). It was a great weekend, even with Sunday being an ice-out. Catching large numbers of fish sure didn't hurt.

On the little kid story..... I know Carey and other guides probably have several of these kinds of stories, but this was a first for me. I am fishing the white pipe in Spillway Creek, having great success and catching a fish about every other drift. This little kid and his dad are in the corner, tossing some heavy tackle in a little 10 foot window. Little dude is having fun, but I think he may have caught only one in about 2 hours. They were being very mindful of my drift zone, so I thought I could have little fun with the kid. I asked the dad if his son would like to catch a fish on a fly rod. He said, "Sure, I bet he would love that!". So I rigged up a hares ear and an egg, set my rod aside, waded across the stream, talked to the little kid (name was Harry), and asked him to come with me to fish the fly rod. He was a little hesitant, but his dad told him to go ahead and try it. So I carried him across the stream (dad took video), plopped him down on a midstream rock, and showed him how to cast and drift. He picked it up pretty quick. Together we cast the flies upstream and got a great drift over the hit zone. With four hands on the rod, we watched the indicator bobble and weave. we set the hook and FISH ON! I gave the rod to Harry and he tried to reel it in like a Zebco... so I quickly explained how to bring in a fly rod fish. he did great and about 2-3 minutes later we landed a nice 15" bow. We CPR'd (Catch, photo, release) the fish and hi-fived. Dad was grinning the whole time. The bite was still on, so we tried it again. This time Harry did the casting. I sat back and watched this little guy handle the rod with ease. He cast a 2nd time and got a really nice drift. Indicator goes completely under and screams downstream, hook set, FISH ON! Harry handles this all by himself, plays the fish for a minute or two, then I net it for him. 10 minutes, two fish. CPR again and Harry is lit up like a Xmas tree. This was the result (i hope the pic uploads). . I know he doesn't have it held properly, but I did what I could. Harry released this one on his own. Rig down, fireman's carry across the stream to dad, sent the photo's to dad. It was really cool to see the kid enjoy himself and dad seemed appreciative too. Maybe a fly-fishing convert someday

Made my day complete........ Thanks for indulging and reading!

Can't wait to get back....... hope y'all had fun this weekend!

Hope you enjoyed the story, here are a few more pics from the weekend.




The Brown was a nice surprise - before dawn. My first campfire was fun too.

Jeff, that was a great story and photo with the youg man. I bet that is something he remembers for a very long time.

What it is all about!

Jeff, are you sure you are not atleast Mark Zona's brother?

Third photo down Jeffs brother Mark

OK, I admit, kinda looks a little like me. I am grayer and maybe a tad thinner. No sponsor either

Well, I was stuck at Vegas airport for 3 days. Worst experience I think I have had. My socks felt like they had catfish slime in them. Our bags went to dallas three days before, so no cloths. The snow storm up north was backing planes up for hours up to days. We were flying stand-by, tickets from parents for free due to they work for American Airlines. So, we kept getting bumped down in the order. We had two options left, otherwise the ticket agent said we might be there another 4 days. 1- go to Chicago then Dallas and hope the storm settles down, 2- a buddy was in Vegas for work and we could drive to San Diego where he lives( 4 1/2 hours) and try there, with the option of staying with him if we got stuck there.

We got there to san diego with the last flight out to Dallas, 22 mins to spare and two seats open. We finally made it to Dallas!

Our friend is still stuck at the airport. He has been there for 5 days and expected to sit there for another 4-5 days. He decided to stay in Vegas and and try to get on later flights. Horrible. Sorry if the mess affected you too. Seeing it on the news is one thing. Experiencing it, is another. There was a line 300 yards long, outside the airport before even getting inside to check in. The line started 3 hours after we got there the first day. Good thing we were inside already before that mess started. Took those people almost 5 hours to 8 hours, just to get to their gate, then to find out they are stuck there, with us. - ok, I'm done.

Buy new clothes, free tickets are not always good tickets, must be a fast [censored] car to do Vegas to San Diego in 4.5 hours, congratulations on getting home, the LMF was awesome even without you, and how is this relevant to this thread

Welcome back Carey!

It's revel net to the thread cause I missed 3 trips and had to reschedule, and some fly orders may be a bit late as well till I catch up.

Well thank goodness you cleared that up, because I was thinking you were going and try and sell us some stink bait made out of your socks and not so tidy whities.

Think of the peeps that are still stuck after 8 days now!

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.

I spent all weekend at the Lower Mountain Fork and pulled this 22" rainbow out of the Evening Hole on a size 20 pheasant tail. I haven't been there in 3 years and I'm surely no expert, but I managed to catch 5 or 6 every day, including this one and another 18"er. Most were caught on the pheasant tail or an orange/yellow egg.

BTW, everything I caught is still there unharmed.

This was the 27,..... more pics later. Just for context, remember I am 6'2, 260lbs and I am NOT shoving him out to the camera

I can attest to Jeff's enormity, he walked past me one day at the EH and it got dark.

Great Fish GJ let's Tee it up sometime when the fish aren't biting.

Denny

thats good size nthere.

I need some advice on recognizing strikes when fishing with a pinch on indicator in quick current like spillway creek. Am I waiting for full on take downs? do you set right away or give it a second or two?

Any advice is welcome!

Thanks for all of the great info in this thread. I have been able to catch some trout on flies I've tied, and this time 2 years ago I had never even touched a fly rod.

When in doubt set the hook. In swifter water I watch that thing like a hawk, a pause, bump, or dip of the indicator could mean a fish.

Anything that you did not do to that indicator, and it twitches moves or whatever as stated above, set the hook. Hooks sets are free

Earlier this week I caught a big, about 22", brown just below Cold Hole. I couldn't figure out what she was doing there. Thought all the browns at the Park were juveniles. Someone told me later that the hatchery accidently loaded some brooder-stock browns one of the last time they stocked and decided to just deliver them rather than try to retrieve them from the tank. Anyway, I caught one of them, I think. It was on a pink Near Deer fished on the bottom. It was somewhat beat up which told me it was probably one of the stockers as a native would know its way around the river better, or so I figure.

Jonbo - did you get a pic of the Brown? The Browns spawned a month or two ago and there may be a straggler left over, but it may be a sick Rainbow as well. I caught a few rainbows that were yellow bellied and had no bright color to them.

Ursus - What TarponFly said, plus if you see it move laterally at all, just raise the rod tip. either a fish or you can continue to drift.

Here's Michael S.'s 23 inch bow. 22 minute fight cut way down.

I donno, man. Looked like a brown to me. Could have been a sick rainbow, I guess. It's nose was pretty torn up. No pic, I don't have a camera and my phone doesn't take very good pictures.

Black spots: rainbow
Red spots: brown

It had red spots. 'Twas a brown, I guess. It's nose was all torn up was its main physical problem. Could that be from guarding its redd (is that what its called?) or was it most likely because it's one of the recent delivery fish (see my comment above about someone-said-someone-said they delivered some brooder-stock browns) and it's just gotten beaten up a lot because it's in a worse neighborhood than it's used to, like the other big stockers, and hasn't learned how to act (so to speak).
jonbo

Near Deers Are on my website. In the store. This is for the people that don't read the whole thread. 90% of your questions will be answered within this thread.

They are basically a woolly bugger on a 1/80 or 1/100 jig head.

Powder paint the jig head of choice.
Tie in marabou half way from head.
Tie in chenille of choice and wrap two times
Whip Finnish and ur done.




Part 1



Part 2



There are a ton of videos on my YouTube channel from catching trout to catching bait. My channel is TexasOklahomaFishing

Epic trip Saturday, Feb 1st through Tuesday the 4th! Pulled in Saturday morning to some crowds, but thinned pretty quickly as the day wore on. Hooked a monster bow at the swimming hole on my custom Woolly Bugger I tie, got it to my net and it turned and ran breaking my line. Guessing 25-inch range. Caught this next beauty on the horseshoe by the RV sites drifting an olive Near Deer. Thanks for the flies Carey, they were awesome! Finished Saturday with around 20 fish between the two of us, most in the 14-16-inch range.

[img:left][/img]

Got to the Evening Hole around 0800 Sunday and there were 3 other fisherman. They stayed about 30-minutes and then my buddy and I had the river, practically the entire park, to ourselves. We did not see another person the entire rest of the day on Evening Hole, the Bluffs, Cold Hole or Lost Creek! Caught my personal best (23") on a pink micro egg fished under an olive Near Deer.

[img:left][/img]

My buddy also caught his personal best using a fly he created just messing around one night on the vise. Basically a big scary version of a soft hackle with a bit of a tail! Fished Evening Hole and the Bluffs pretty much all day and ended with about 25-30 fish between the two of us. All were in the 18-23 inch range! The rain and cold on Saturday and Sunday was brutal, but the quality of fish and lack of pressure was well worth it.

[img:left][/img]

Monday brought warm temperatures and sunny skies and the fish were nuts for my buddy's original fly. Landed another 20 plus fish between the two of us including this chunk below. A great trip full of the best fish I have ever caught at Beavers Bend!

[img:left][/img] [img:left][URL=http://s1130.photobucket.com/user/pavsky/media/20140202_104813_resized.jpg.html][

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.

Awesome! It looks like I planned my Thursday and Friday trip perfectly!

It will also give me a chance to test out the new fly I invented: The Pellet (basically a small egg cut to a small cylindrical shape and colored with a brown marker)

Report: sorry for the delayed reports. I have been in broken bow for the last week straight. I have seen the fish dwindle away in some of the pools. 40-50 fish in one pocket. Today there were 3 left. But that was just that pool. The whole park is still loaded from the delayed stocking. They stocked on Tuesday.

Flies I have been using:

Grey RS2's dropped from a Near Deer.
Pink micro egg dropped from Near Deer

Or no dropper when they are feeding heavy and I'll just throw one of the three flies. All year I have been throwing the same 3 flies and averaging 40-50 fish every 3-4 hours. There are some monster still left in the system. My last 4 trips, my clients have broke of the 25 incher in the Evening Hole.

Today was slow is the am and picked up throughout the day. Fished from 8-12 and picked off 51 before packing it up. Lots of 19-21 inch average rainbows in spillway. Landed one that surprised me in less than a ft of water while working a pod of browns. 22 incher was not the log I thought it was.

More pics and vids when I get done with the trout trips next week.

Crazy thing happened today. They stocked about 4 pm. Again! These fish apparently came from Arkansas.

They called it a supplemental stock. They were going upstream to put more in. They had 2 trucks.

I would expect tomorrow to be another 100 fish day easy. My clients have no idea they stocked so they will have a big surprise tomorrow. Guaranteed a bite on the first cast! - and the last.

Well, Friday was just as I planned and more. Got a bite on the first cast. Client missed a bite in all 11 casts and on the 12th, he landed his first one. Then is was game on. He and his buddy landed well over 100 fish easily. 90% came off of olive Near Deers in 4 hours. Others came off of the secret pink egg. Park was pretty busy for a Friday. Lots of good 18-20's roaming around. After the Tourneyment my trips up there are very limited due to the sandbass and hybrid Striper run and the crappie spawn here in DFW. So I'll be guiding the that.. Plus I don't like dealing with the summer crowd.

Holy [censored]. 75 degrees on Saturday and 25 degrees Sunday afternoon. A few of us made the trip from DFW Sunday. We only fished for about 5hours - it got too cold, windy, and rainy. We hit ice, snow, and sleet on the way home. Thank goodness our driver had a 5000 pound automobile.


Bessett managed 'about 25' on steak and eggs setup. He had a nice little run at the lost creek confluence - looked like he pulled in 10-15 there. Nothing of any size unfortunately. I got to about 10 fish and only one pushed 18". Neer deeres (olive) and small eggs bounced on the bottom worked for me. Fingers frozen by 1pm so I gave up. No bugs at all..... just wind. We can still see several 20"+ roaming around, but they are getting harder to fool. I think we only saw about 10 people all day.


Not sure if new fish are coming this week or not.... the schedule got messed up last time. I will be back on the water Friday thru Sunday - probably with the dog.


Gonna go thaw out.....

Admire your fortitude, Jeff. BTW, it's weird, I don't have as much luck with eggs as I do midges. I'm doing something wrong with the eggs, but I don't worry much because I do pretty well with little zebra midges.

JB - I caught a few on zebra midges, but when it gets so cold, my fat fingers cant twist and tie knots on sz22 hooks. I go to eggs and I can still fish anyway. For me, I put a small weight above the egg and let it bounce on the bottom. I also only fish them in spots where the first thing the fish sees is the egg - my indicator is 6-8 feet upstream or closer to my position on most strikes.

Looking like seasonal weather this weekend. Fingers crossed......

Thanks for the tip, Jeff! I haven't thought of trying to hide the indy. I have been trying to pile or tuck cast but can't seem to figure that out.

Report:

Fishing was great. Took repeat adventure clients to Broken Bow this time. Brian and his son Riley had a blast landing fish and watching them jump clear out of the water.



Doubles were very common.



Near Deers in Olive shades were wacking them.

Above is Riley with a huge rainbow trout. Good job man!!!!!

where's the kid's big one? Thanks for letting me tag along to start the day. Thanks as well for giving me the popular run and allowing me to tell the story in the next post......

New fishies on Thursday and Friday. Literally a ton of 11-16" fish all over the river. Crowds were surprisingly lite for Combined TX/OK Spring Break weekend. I certainly have seen much worse. Lots of hikers and families along the river, too.

I spent Friday and Saturday on the river. Sunday was looking to be cold, windy, and wet, so the Caddy headed back to DFW. Friday I mainly targeted big fish. Lots of fresh stockers sometimes got in the way and ate the flies. Still managed a good set of 19-21" fish, with a couple dozen 11-14's. As in recent past, eggs bouncing on the bottom ruled the day. March Brown nymphs (pheasant tail, dark hares ear) caught some good fish too. Fresh stockers were gobbling near deeres and SJ worms as well. Several people I talked to along the river reported small midges and RS2's were hot. As for dries it seemed like March Browns and tiny BWO were working. Eddie reported some nice big fish being caught below his bridge and in Zone II on MB's. The 12 foot no hackle wet bottoms were too heavy for me to venture below the EH Bridge. A canoe hatch broke out about 2pm. My last cast of the day netted a real pretty and fat 17" - I headed to the Wesley to get some needed sleep.

Saturday I met TarponFly and his clients (of the above post) in upper Spillway at 6:30 am. Nothing like a little pre-dawn fishing to start the day! The kid was barely taller than the 3' deep water, but he could cast and he knew his stuff. We all pulled a few out of Honey Hole and headed south. Nothing huge, but nice fresh fish to get the day going. We separated for a little while, I headed to the run below cold hole. I admired the zoo at Cold Hole while having the entire run to myself for a few stretches of time. Lots of 12" fish later (all on eggs and olive ND's), I headed to the bluffs. Lots of families with spin tackle there, so I kept going to upper EH. I managed a few in the fast water around the bend - a first for me. Once in EH area, I met back up with TF and clients. The kid was knockin' em out pretty regularly on Olive ND's. One was a nice 20" that gave him a long fight. I think at one point the gentleman next to us borrowed one of TF's flies and started catching a bunch too. The group marched on downstream to end their guide trip and Carey gave the run to me. I have heard rumors of a real nice fish landed by the kid, but TF will hopefully verify later. Anyway, I pulled in a quick 3-4 fish and then my day got even better.

Another guy and his son (Jack) were lurking behind me watching me net fish after fish. I guess Jack had never managed to catch a trout on a fly yet, so I did my best guide impersonation and rigged him up for LMF stockers. I know its not for everyone, especially purists, but simple 7-8 feet of 4lb fluorocarbon will catch stocked fish. Jack hit the hot spot and 5 minutes later (after a few swings and misses) he had his first trout on the line. Catch, photo, release and back at it. Kid fished while I rigged up dad and briefed him on LMF flies and setups. The three of us and one other older gentleman shared the hole for the next 2 hours, taking turns drifting a popular area and catching dozens of fish. Jack even nailed a real nice 19-20" all on his own. After several more photo ops and fish, the rain drove them off the river. The bite during the rain was insane - any dropper with brown or light brown hackle caught fish. We had a real nice March Brown hatch and (seemingly) spinnerfall. Fish went nuts - I had never seen anything like it on that stretch of river. At one point 4 of us within a 75 foot run all had fish on together. I started trying different sizes and droppers just to evaluate, and they all caught a fish or two. The bite ended and I moved downstream about 2pm. Caught a few in the riffle and moved down to the bottom of the run. EH was pretty busy, but still room to maneuver. For the first time this year, I found a dry fly game of something larger than a sz20 bwo. Large March Browns were hatching after the rain let up. These were size 12-16 and I could actually see them floating downstream. Re-rigged and tossed some big bugs to rising fish at top of EH. I caught a few 12-14's, but I wanted a large riser that kept refusing. Solution: fish it in the film and twitch it. 2 casts was all it took to hook and land a pretty, dark silver rainbow of about 17". Back to MB nymphs after that and managed to net a few more with TF's clients just upstream. A quick phone check determined that a good sized storm was about 1/2 hour away, so I packed it up and got out just in time. Saturday was the 2nd best numbers day I have ever had - somewhere around 50-60 fish. All that and a few good stories on father son teams as well. If either of the Dad's happen to read this - send me a message, I would love to see the pics.

The 3 hour trip home took 4 hours due to flooding rain, storms, wind, and excess mud in a few construction zones. God's light show was pretty awesome.

Sorry to say I probably can't make it back for over a month, but this sure as heck was a great trip to end the winter season on the LMF. Great fishing and good, courteous people. Thanks for letting me share...... pic of 21.5" below.

Hey Jeff and Carey, thank y'all very much for the update and pics. I needed a little fix since we have not gotten to go in awhile and it will still be a few more weeks.

Hey Jeff so if they stocked last Thursday and Friday then do you think the stocking schedule is now moved out a week due and will stay that way because to the delay from the previous stocking? Not sure if I articulated that very well so this might clarify... so based on the three week schedule they were on they should have stocked the week before Carey's Tournament... but since the previous stocking was delayed they are now a week ahead... so the next stocking will most likely be April 3rd or 4th?

Not that I should base my fishing on the stocking schedule, and I don't, but sometimes I really appreciate the new dumb fish.

Thanks!

It appears that this is the new schedule.... April 3, April 24, etc..... I wouldn't place a bet on it, but it seems to be the plan.

The new dumb fish were very gracious this past weekend. I think you could have tied on a piece of bubblegum and caught a few. Lots of full stringers in spillway and lots of happy faces in RedZones.

Report: addition to last.

Dad ( Brian ) catches his PB of 17 inches in spillway creek.



After we left Spillway Creek, we arrived in the Red Zone. It was a bit busy. We started out near the bluffs and then I hear Riley say he has one! 10 mins later he lands a nice 19-20 inchers for a new personal best.



A bit later we move downstream and slip into a spot that I located a big fish in. I pointed it out and said only target that one. A couple of us guys were watching this 10 year old cast like he has been doing this since he was young, lol. The kid is a champ.

A couple mins into it, we see him set the hook. "I got one!" He says.



He relizes what he has hooked and he looks down stream for his dad to let him know he hooked up again. Dad was half way down the Evening Hole. I yelled at his dad and he heard me and started his way towards us.

Meanwhile, Riley is battling the little minnow up and down the pool like a pro.



The little fish decided it wanted to swim around the top of the rapids and I could tell it was thinking about going straight down the rapids to get get away from the little kiddo. And it did! Riley was a pro and kept that fish hooked up the whole time.

The dad finally showed up to watch his son fight an incredible battle with this fish.



Then the time came to net the little fishy.

We had broken 2 personal bests already this day. But, this fish might be the PB that sticks for a long time.




23-24 inch male Rainbow Trout caught by Riley.

Awesome!

Heck of a story, in pictures and words. That kid's NOT going to be satisfied catching regular trout anymore! He did an awesome job catching that fish, and you did the same assisting him.

Got a new phone today ( someone stole mine yesterday ), pain in the butt..

I lost everyones numbers and names.

if we text or chat on the phone, please text me your name and screen name. I have no idea what we chatted about previousin my text logs, so please update me on the conversations we were having at the time.

SYNC SYNC SYNC mr thorn!

Last time phone pinged was at this location. Ironic it's in a fishy neighborhood. FTW

Trout Tourney Pics:

Did Jeff ever give Magic a turn?

I may be in your tourney next year, which will give me a full year to practice my cast.

I practice roll cast few times already. I got few pointers at Basspro when I did my fly rod purchase.

moonriver - orvis also offers free fly fishing lessons. the show a few different casts. Basspro and Cabelas I believe also offer free classes. Just FYI.

Made it up on the weekend of the 15th with bassprojd and I had actually never fly fished for trout before then. I have caught everything from bass to carp and buffalo and everything between but never trout. But after some trial and error we got them figured out and I felt like I did pretty darn good haha also ran into t fly and his clients on our way out to the truck. Right after we had said hi to him I was able to stick a pretty good one in an out of the way hole off to the side to end the trip off right!

This next fish was my first fish I landed Saturday morning not long after daylight


And then this last picture was just an awesome looking fish! Probably the coolest rainbow I've ever seen


Caught a lot of smaller fish also but those top two were my best if the trip! Can Wait To Get Back Up there!

All those r sweet man! The freckled trout is really neat.

Next time tell me ur screen name. It's been a very long time since I have seen you. Ur older looking. I couldn't remember ur SN but I remember ya. Good job man!

Love the leopard rainbow. Cool fish

Way cool Fish! but please don't lay them on the dirt if you're releasing them.

D

Oh I see adam... don't show off my fish!

Does anyone know did they stock this week? There's been bad weather. I'm thinking of taking a friend next week. If they haven't stocked I might wait till the week after that to give them a chance to stock. Thanks!
jonbo

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.

PM sent Carey... www.beaversbendgetaways.com Cabin name is Mountain Fork Lodge...

Denny 972-841-3278 Text or cell

Thanks.

The Near Deer in action. This was taken in Lost Creek. When fishing this small creek, keep a low profile. They get hammered all day by other people and when you look like a bear standing 3 ft from them, they won't bite very well. -but again, it's the LMF and they can't resist a Near Deer as shown.








Zone III action with video tips. I pulled 147 trout out of this hole one day in 4 hours. Time before that, BaffinBay pulled out 109 trout and a 19 inch walleye standing in one spot. Never lost his Near Deer he was using that day. Trout tore it to shreds with just the chenille left dangling. Winter fishing at its best.

I don't always use the ND. If the air pressure is wacky or the are is highly pressured with people, you might have to drop down to smaller flies.

Great Vids!

Hi my friend, where have you been? Topwater action was sooooo good last month. We caught lots big mammas.

Report: Summer pattern is still going strong. Saturdays are crazy busy still. Sunday after 12 pm, the river empty's out as people have to check out of their cabins and hotels by 11 am. 95% of the vacationers go home at that point. The fish seem to know when its a Saturday, and they get hammered all day long. Sunday afternoons till dark--> Friday's are best times to hit the river. Some days we have the whole river to ourselves and can roam freely and hit any hole we want. Fishing deep in the pools is the main key to catching the bigger fish. The baby trout are hugging most of the banks and in shallow runs avoiding the bigger fish from being eaten by them. They can get a bit annoying, by striking your fly all the time and when you go to set the hook, a 3-5 inch trout will go wizzing by your ear. ( Fingerlings with par marks are not the reason I drove 2 hours to the river. The first one is cool to see I guess, but I am after the 20+ inchers.) We saw on one drift, 15-20 babies strike at our fly. Irritating, cause when your on a drift and you cant see in the water, your indicator twitches 5-10 times from them pecking at it. In the Evening Hole we had a 20 plus inch Brown Trout grab one of the small babies off our line and ate it. Didn't even feel it grab it off the line.

Grass Hoppers are starting to show up pretty good. So, the Woolly Bugger bite is very good mornings and evenings. You can still coax out a few during the day, but most of the fish shut down a bit as the sun is at its highest. I have the most fun in the Evening Hole stripping woolly buggers cause you can see them chase it down and eat the fly. Throw that bugger in every crevasse and behind any structure you see and also hit the bank almost all over the Evening Hole. The Browns are very active at night an for the first 30 mins of daylight.

Walleye bite in the river is off the chain. Every time we hit them we have been limiting on 19-22 inchers. 20 mins before dark and 2-3 hours into it is the best bite. A buddy went down there with the spinning rod and small cranks and as well limited out. We are throwing white/chart clousers 3 inches long. They hammer the flies. Not a long fight, but very very tasty. I took a buddy up there and he didn't know anything about them. He landed a fat 23 incher and if I had known, I would have told him not to lip them. That fish made a nice head shake the second he lipped it. The result was a punctured bloody thumb. That fish plopped back in the river 2 seconds later.

Back to the trout. Spillway Creek is fishing best early in the morning. Most of the fish come from the sides of the river bank in the AM, which I think they are feeding on the fingerlings. We are drifting an Olive Near Deer 90% of the time and that seems to be the ticket at the moment for the larger fish. When there is a hatch and I see the bigger fish sipping the surface, they are liking a #22 Grey RS2's.



I can fish this fly as a dry or even a wet. I use a bunch of flash fibers for the wings and green hackle for the tail. The fibers sit on the surface and hold it up. Or, Ill give it a twitch and it will sink down about an inch under the surface. And last, Ill put a small split shot on it and sink it.

A lot of the times when bigger flies are not working well, Ill drag an egg and drop one of the RS2's behind it. Deadly in the winter. But right now the fingerlings get annoying with this rig. We were actually getting a few doubles. 2 baby rainbows on one cast.

I have seen a couple copper heads on the trails and one in the rock garden at Cold Hole. I also saw a snake I have yet to see or ID for that matter, but I think it was a Black Racer. Thick as most peoples finger but 5-6 ft long and very fast. Lost sight of it after 10 seconds, after spotting it.

Down from Cardiac Hill, the Otters have been helping themselves to the trout stuck in the smaller pools. Watched one of the adults eat 3 trout in 10 mins. The babies ate the scraps mom was dropping. Another group of otters live in the pool above the Bluff Pool. They have a nice hole in the mountain. Ever notice scattered crawfish carcasses on some of the boulders? Especially in Zone III. The otter prop themselves on a boulder and eat em! Amazing the size of some of these Crawfish.

Not a lot of pics cause we are wet wading and I only take what will fit in my shirt pocket. The morning is a bit chilly in the water till about 9 am. Then it feels great. Wear OFF w/ DEET, ticks are out. Lost Creek has a lot of them hanging on the brush ready to eat you.

super nice.

Thanks for the great report! Enjoyed it. I won't be making it to the LMF, probably, for a month or two. Gonna try the "Narrows" on the Lil' Mo' over here in my neck. Try "French Nymphing" technique on long slow shallow pools just a little below dam. Those fish are hard to entice during the dead heat of summer, lemme tell you. A definite challenge. Anyway, I'm gonna try sneaking up on them with a 15' "French" leader while tightlining nymphs. Something to try.

My last two trips have been suicide missions.... get up at 3am, river by 6:30, fish all day, then drive back to DFW. I don't stick around for the evening hatches unfortunately.

The otters i have seen were in the middle of Evening Hole. Lots of raccoons, whitetail deer, night herons, blue herons, and baby rainbows. The baby rainbows are beautiful, annoying, growing, frustrating, and welcome all at the same time. You can't drift in Spillway Creek without a dozen attacking small flies. The Browns have grown to about 7-10" in Spillway, and getting their colors. Topwater action on them is superb with caddis and stimulators. Drop a beadhead anything off of that and you have a winning ticket.

Crowds have been lighter than usual this summer, except, as Carey said, for Saturdays. fridays and sundays are fishable. Still a fair amount of illegal activity (Barbs, swimming at the bluffs, Browns on stringers) and the worst is people scooping up the baby rainbows in nets. Trash has not been bad this year. Snakes not too bad either, although a little copperhead got me in the finger last week. A quick tourniquet solved that issue. Got a little headache from it. The foliage around spillway and evening hole is thick. Lots of ticks and mosquitoes. Take DEET as Carey said.

Can't wait for fall on the LMF. Time to head to the mountains for a few weeks (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming). I will try to post pics and stories from each.

Please give more details on the Copperhead bite. How did it happen? Why didn't you go to a hospital?

I would say it was one of those "hold my beer and watch this moments" but since Jeff doesn't really drink I would like to hear this story also.

IF the story is true, (witnesses?, photos?) it will certify Jeff's bonafides as a true fisherman. Put a tourniquet on and kept fishing!

All I have left to show for it is two small black dots on my fingertip. Copperheads just don't affect me anymore. I did have to take a 15 minute break to chug some benadryl and tie some 0x line around the finger. There was a witness, but he probably just thought I had embedded myself on a hook. No big deal. A rattler would have been a TOTALLY different story. Immediate drive to emergency room....

Just below cold hole, in the weeds/rocks next to that little area of stagnant water. Little baby 16" still had his yellow tail. Not a whole lot bigger than some of the night crawlers I see being fished in cold hole.

And TD is correct - I don't drink and I am not a daredevil. Just isn't in my CPA DNA I entered his territory and he bit me. My stupid fault, not his. He is back under the rocks he came from.

I'm glad I am not the only one that had to walk back there and get my fly loose.

The only copperhead my buddy Dan and I saw at Beavers Bend was very early one morning after we'd crossed Spillway Creek (where the south footbridge use to be) and headed up the Nature Trail to fish the holes there. Slithering across the trail, heading to the creek was the biggest copperhead we've seen up there. Wish I'd of tried to photograph it. We stopped our trek briefly to yield to the snake................

Watch out for Cotton Mouths too. They love the reeds and the places most people aren't walking. We ran into a few in May.

The only snake I have ever seen was one that went across the muddy part between the parking and evening hole.
Now you guys have got me scared to wet wade in shorts and my old tennis shoes.

I DO NOT like snakes

This one was 34" without the head n neck and tail past the poop hole...

DFW Airport Bear creek Golf Course...

Denny

That's the biggest copper head I have seen. Wow.

Nice Copper, Denny! Glad he didn't bite me. I haven't played Bear Creek in abou 3 years.

What are you going to do with that skin?

I have been up in broken bow a lot the last month. Stocking trucks seemed to come last Thursday. Definitely before Friday sometime. All the fish are are under 15 inches for the most part. Not hero pics at all. Olive Near Deers caught more than any other fly we threw.

Woolly buggers caught them too if you cover a lot of water. Once u find the pockets of fish, they r hungry. They didn't stock all the holes they normally do. Seems that just a few got stocked. Out of the 25 spots they drop fish, 5-6 were loaded and the rest void of life. Crowds are still crazy.

Looks as if the crowds are starting to die. I have been at the river 1-2 times a week, and this last Saturday was almost a ghost town. Evening hole never had more than 5 people in it all day. Should be like this till at least OU weekend. Then back to low foot traffic for the winter fisherman. 20-25 fish days are not uncommon.

To have a 20 plus fish day ( not counting the wild dinks) you need to set the hook when your indicator stops, twitches, or goes under. Set the hook before the fish poops out your fly.

If you catch me on the river, I will be using the Olive Near Deer 99% of the time. Why? Lol, cause it flat out catches the fish. Stocked fish, not wild here. -----ok yes, there are naturally born rainbows in there that are 10 inches long or smaller, but I didn't drive 100 miles to catch a par marked dink. I go to the river to catch the biggest stockers they have stocked.

While fishing for stocked fish, I keep my gear simple. I don't use tapered leader or tippet. All I do is take 8 ft strip of Berkley Vanish 4 lb line. I tie that directly to my fly line loop ( the colorful line on your reel). I just use a improved clinch knot. Then I tie on my fly at the end of the 8 foot strip. And then, I just slap an indicator on it to make my fly just bounce the bottom or an inch off the bottom. At the end of the drift, let it swing. When the fly line is completely straightened out, lift your rod tip as fast as a minnow would swim leaving the fly a quarter of an inch underwater and drag it back up to you. If nothing is following it or you don't get a strike on that, swivel your head to where you're going to cast, and roll cast it back up and repeat. In slack water, give your fly a small twitch here and there and wake it up. Make it hop around. Even while dead drifting, give the fly a twitch here and there. The fish will tell you what they want and how they want you to present it to them. You just have to remember: they are stocked fish. Their life all depended on a guy with a coffee can full of pellets till they took a 800+ mile trip, while spending the night in a hotel parking lot in Oklahoma City, then the next morning they get dumped into a majestic river full of hungry people, blue herons, otters, and poachers. I don't care what people say, the fish "do not" spread out and hide from us. They just get put on a stringer one day. Put & Take Fisheries. More taking than putting in the summer months.

Winter is almost here, so pink eggs will be right up there with the Near Deers. On harder days when there are a lot of people, grey RS2's will land them too.

I like to use pinch on foam indicators. Once you pinch them on usually you cannot move them again. But if you squeeze them and pull them up or down the mono, you can usually move them once or twice. I like to use those more than a perfectly round decatur. The pinch on foam indicators are obtuse. You can read them way better than a perfectly round indicator. And, they are cheaper.

If you're a purist, you can scroll back through this thread and you will see all the purest flies to use each month of the year. I listed every fly I would throw if I had purists out on a trip.

All of October is booked solid. I've moved out of Dallas and moved up to Lake Texoma hitting stripers. Way more fun than my small warm water lakes here in Dallas. The drought absolutely is killing me at the local lakes. So the last month I've been hitting the stripers. Heck of a lot of fun. I have joined up with StripersExpress.com on Texoma and we are wacking the fish every day. Fish up to 12 and 15 pounds. Boxfish ( 13-19 inches) Will keep you busy for at least three hours in the morning with a few overs thrown in. I will also be guiding smallmouth, carp, Buffalo, and gar- on the side- conventional tackle or flyfishing. The big Buffalo schools are in shallow flats. All over the flats. Had a couple go into my backing. The stripers, when they get over 8 to 10 pounds, they take about 15 to 20 minutes per fish to get in. Very fun stuff. If you're hooked pulls or you miss a fish swiping at your fly, there will be another one right behind it to pick it up.

I will not be taking any trips until November December for broken bow. If you're thinking of planning a trip with me I suggest you book the trip between now and mid October. I'm already starting to fill up those months, so if you want to fish this winter: Hurry Up!

If you're in need of Near Deers or any of the other flies I tie, I suggest you order between now and October. October I'm just gonna be way too busy to be tying flies in October. If anybody tells you that a woolly bugger is just as good as an Near Deer, they are smoking something. If you don't agree with that statement, put your money where your mouth is and we can fish side by side, and the proof is in the pudding. My fish numbers and my clients numbers of fish to net, speaks for itself.

I noticed some snot algae at the bend below cold hole. I have not seen that in about two years. There are kiosks located at all the major parking lots. Please wash your boots off before you enter the river and when you leave the river to prevent the spread of invasive species and unwanted plants and algae's. I have boots for my White Bass Run, Utah's Green River, and LMFR. So I have three pair. I don't like the idea of transferring invasive species, so I made sure I wouldn't be a part of that mumbo jumbo.

I would also suggest that you wear felt or studded boots. Studded boots gray the boulders and dig through the algae keeping you from falling in and getting wet. Felt is also a good contributor to the spread of invasive species. The felt will wear down eventually making you buy new boots. The studded boots should last you forever. Once the studs wear down all you do is screw new ones in! Without boots sometimes there's just too much algae on the boulders preventing the felt from gripping the actual Boulder itself. The steel studded boots, dig through the algae making contact with the boulders and grip them.

There are still a few Golden Trout, or whatever you want to call them, left in the river. You mainly have one shot at them in the morning. They are very easy to spot, so they get every fly thrown at them throughout the day. If they hit your fly and feel the hook, that fish is done, move on to the next one. Don't stay in one spot unless you are catching fish. If you have drifted your fly in every spot where you are fishing and no results, MOVE! When I am by myself, I will start at the Evening Hole and work my way up to Spillway Dam by foot. I will cover the area within 4 hours. By the time you reach the dam, you will have a good idea of where the heavier concentrations of fish are. When the sun comes up, fish the shade and deeper pockets. Have fun and bring an extra pair of cloths incase you take a dip.

Aside from the stocking schedule, which is a guess at best, the above post has everything you need to know. Use the Near Deer's- they work. My biggest fish have come off the bottom.
Bring food. You will lose an hour leaving the park to get food. If you want to be alone, go during the week and work up spillway creek. Bigger stockers will come soon. They opt for quantity in the Summer months due to stress from people and heat.
If you go once you will want to go back.

TarponFly, we are planning a trip on the 23-27 of this month, how can I get some near deers

On my webpage, go to the store. Order all crawfish colors. I will send you all the colors I would throw. Ordering all crawfish colors, tells me to send you a guide pack of the best colors to catch these majestic wild stockers.

Will do, would you be available for guide on the 24 or 25th

Wow Carey, you put a lot of information in your 9/8 post.

Yes he did. I always look forward to his reports, Jeff's too, because they usually have good pics also.
Carey just forgot the pics this time lol

The 24th and the 25th of this month are open. Problem with those dates is, you're on the third week after a stocking. Won't be a lot of fish in there, but will still catch a few.

On 9/8, I would type a little bit take a break type a little bit take a break. I eventually send it after eight hours.

Taking pictures of fish 18 inches and under just isn't fun anymore. During the winter more pictures will come after they stock some breeders. If I took pictures of every fish we caught 10 to 15 inches : it gets a little boring. Plus you have to stick that fish way up in the camera and extend your arms way out to make them look bigger!

[quote=TarponFly]The 24th and the 25th of this month are open. Problem with those dates is, you're on the third week after a stocking. Won't be a lot of fish in there, but will still catch a few.

So would we do better the first of october or whenever next stocking is? I havent made hard reservations yet as maybe secluded acres would let me bump the cabin to then, if not I guess im stuck with those dates and being beginner flyfishers we probably would struggle to catch any? What would you advise

They're supposed to stock on October 2. The only date I have left open is 11 October.

The first and second week are okay. The third week after stocking is not usually as fun.

Going to start a new thread for summer trips pictures - for all of you that like fish porn - go visit. It will be titled 'GolferJeffs Summer vacations'

Hoping to get back to LMF next weekend. When was the most recent stock date?

They should have been stocked Thursday if all went well.

Had a 9 yr old client Saturday so I actually snapped a few pics. His dad took more pics. So maybe we will see them soon.

He picked up the fly rod fast and had a blast jumping 15-19 inch trout.

Olive Near Deers wacked them as usual.

Not including dinks, I still had a 20 plus fish day. Quality fish that would have been great, oven baked or grilled. But, all were released for another day.

Caught fish in spillway creek, lost creek, and Evening Hole area.

very cool, great pictures

Great pics. Makes me feel good to see children having fun fishing. He will build up a lot of memories with his dad.

I gotta get up there soon. I got the fly rod fever --LOL-- Nice trip Carey and clients

super cool.

I fished SC on Sat Am behind Carey and Woodruff... Carey's client must've fired them up because they would come 3' to hit a Neer Deer and the fun had just begun.

Clouds came and went and fishing tighten up. I saw a lot of 16" fish on stringers leaving the creek.

Saturday Pm it was pretty tough to get a bite.

Sun. SC was hurting, fish were afraid to move out of the depths and what did eat wound up getting ate.

By Sunday Pm. from cold hole to cardiac hill had folks in it and very few fish left.

In my opinion, OK has to either stock more often, or stock more fish IN MORE LOCATIONS in all 3 zones.

Dropping 100's in the pools wont last 1 week. It's amazing how many people have learned to catch every fish in the creek or the poor guys are just starving by the 4 day not knowing how to eat small browns or crawdads for food.

If you're headed up there on a 3rd week you have to fish slow and low and have patience, or use worms n minners.

d

I fished SC on Sat Am behind Carey and Woodruff... Carey's client must've fired them up because they would come 3' to hit a Neer Deer and the fun had just begun.

Clouds came and went and fishing tighten up. I saw a lot of 16" fish on stringers leaving the creek.

Saturday Pm it was pretty tough to get a bite.

Sun. SC was hurting, fish were afraid to move out of the depths and what did eat wound up getting ate.

By Sunday Pm. from cold hole to cardiac hill had folks in it and very few fish left.

In my opinion, OK has to either stock more often, or stock more fish IN MORE LOCATIONS in all 3 zones.

Dropping 100's in the pools wont last 1 week. It's amazing how many people have learned to catch every fish in the creek or the poor guys are just starving by the 4 day not knowing how to eat small browns or crawdads for food.

If you're headed up there on a 3rd week you have to fish slow and low and have patience, or use worms n minners.

d

Fished friday the 19th and alittle on the 20th. Friday fishing was fantastic. Not sure if the river got some new fish or what, but Spillway Creek was full of aggressive, silver-colored fish. These looked awfully like the mitigation fish in the past - they had sores and their gills were clipped. Most were 13-18", but a few were bigger. Neer Deeres with various zebra midges dropped off the back ruled the day. I also caught a few on mini-eggs and caddis droppers. The wild baby rainbows are growing nicely. Most are 5-7" and pretty fat. Several times I would hook one of them and the larger fish would try and eat them. I landed one baby with two sets of teeth marks from a 20+ brown that was chasing it. Pretty fun stuff.

In about 15 hours on the river I landed about 40-50 fish. Nothing huge - 1 fish pushed 22". My buddy Dan did a ballet dance landing a nice rainbow in Spillway. Wish I had video of that one! Eggs on the bottom, midges in the mid water column, and caddis on the swing caught fish. The EH seemed void of good fish - not sure why. Methinks we need a good cold weather snap to get the fish back into prime lies.

Spillway Creek is smelling awful these days. The lake may be turning over. after 2 days my waders smelled like bad eggs. It is worse the closer to the dam you are.

A good 1.5 day trip. I had a great time showing a newbie couple a little about LMF fly fishing. They both caught their first fly rod trout in about 10 minutes. They petted on Magick a lot too. Magick had fun as always and he got himself into a few deer and a turkey.

I will be going back after golf tournament season wraps up. Probably be there in mid october after Texas OU weekend.

Some of the fish I caught last week had their little gill flippers missing too, odd didn't know why.

Denny

Near Deere season is now closed.

Opens back up November 15 th.

I have no time to tie them for awhile.

Daddy duties?

He is guiding on big lake now.

There is some kind of invasive otter (I think it is) that has wreaked havoc on the Blue River. Perhaps this same creature is torturing gullible trout at Bend-Bow. Technically, I don't think it is possible that the lake has turned over. Could it be algae, a bloom?

Hit the water last Saturday and had a 12/14 yr old learning to fly fish. They wouldn't touch an egg. Threw that throughout the day and only picked up a couple. Saw a 25 plus incher in the Evening Hole. It wouldn't lay up and kept swimming all over the place. The kids jumped a few in the am and caught a few. At 9'am I decided to break the trip up instead of doing a whole day straight due to the fishing was slow. Water was stained from massive rainfall through the night. So we picked back up at 430 pm. It was night and day. Kids graduated to the spillway creek, faster water. They both had the roll cast and mend down like pros. First hole jumped a 18 ish inch fish. Ten mins later the other kiddo landed a nice 17 inch bow. Moved our way up SC hitting small pockets and landed another 10-15. Nothing huge this trip. Saw 100 people, Texas/ OU weekend.

Near Deer's rules the day. Olive.

Dad has all the pics. I think he's a lurker though. Lol.

Halloween weekend they do a festival of some sort. That's the last busy weekend till spring break. Fly fish clubs will invade the river every now and then with 30-50 people crowding the Evening Hole. Just go up Spillway. Plenty of fish up there year round, after they stock.

Fish are going to start spawning soon. You will see a spawning redd/ bed, where the bottom is brownish gray, then a white patch. That is usually a Spawning redd/bed. Don't walk through them. Usually, when you cross the upper evening hole to fish the interchange, you'll be walking through Redds.

We fished it last week and spillway creek was the hotspot for us and your near deers caught more than anything else we pitched. Between the four of us we caught over a hundred in two days. I also saw some good size ones holding behind a rock by the bluffs but couldn't get them to take. Fun stuff

Reports are favorable that spawning has begun. Like Carey said - please stay away/off the light patches of rocks and gravel. Try to walk around rather than through the confluence area. Upper EH and in spillway at the lower washed out bridge are prime redd areas. Browns should be doing the deed over the next month or so. Can't wait to see how they are doing.....

Carey, Some friends of mine went to Beaver's Bend this past weekend. I was a little worried they'd have a bad experience. They're fairly new to fly-fishing and had never fished the LMF, at all. What with all the recent reports of tough fishing on LMF, I was afraid they'd come back with long faces. Well, they didn't. They had loaded up with Near Deeres that they got from you, and they did very well. I can't say if they mostly fished Spillway Creek or the Red Zone. I think he told me but I forgot. But it was olive ND's beneath an indicator, also pink, and with a midge dropper. I don't know if most of the strikes were on the ND or the midge. I think both were working. I had told them to fish deep. You may have too. So, folks, they're there. You have to find them, and present the right bait in a way they'll accept it. As someone else said, when the fishing gets tough on the LMF it's more that the fish have become more wild and wary than fresh-out-of-the-hatchery-domesticated-trout than that there are no fish there.

One trip I made this summer I fished the Confluence for over an hour without a bite. But it wasn't that there were no fish. There were plenty. I could see them laying deep. Couldn't get 'em to bite. Donno why. I guess they just weren't in the feeding mode and I couldn't figure out how to get a reaction strike. I don't know if flies really lend themselves to reaction strikes or not. Then I went up to the bluffs. Fish started rising. I tied on an emerger and caught three.

Fished the weekend of Nov 15-16. Saturday was crowded and nice weather, Sunday was wide open and crappy weather. Caught my share on flashtail mini eggs along the bottom, rs2's on dead drift, and black zebra midges. Lots of Browns actively spawning near the bluffs and the lost creek confluence area. Some bigger Browns have moved in as well - they are getting after it! I saw a few 20+" being landed.

PLease stay off the redds and avoid the cobble bottom areas if you possibly can. Give them all a fighting chance to make some baby brownies. Still a lot of nice rainbows holding over as well. Go deep and set the hook on any movement. Takes were very delicate most of the time.

BWO's hatching mid-day had a few fish rising. Most activity was still sub-surface though. Fish seemed to respond the lighter the pressure. Weekday fishing should be great this week.

Enjoy!

What an incredible weekend! With the forecasts for heavy rain, lightning, wind, and thunder, I was skeptical of heading up this past weekend. Boy am I glad we did! We ended up with about 1 hour of steady rain both Friday and Saturday mornings, but the rest of the daytime hours were perfect fishing weather. Temps in the 50's and 60's, full cloudcover, and rarely any wind. Perfect.

An absolutely fantastic weekend on the water. Andy, Dan and I met at EH bridge at 8am Friday. It was raining as we prepared, but it stopped shortly thereafter. We started below the bridge and blanked mostly, then worked our way up evening hole. We picked a few off here and there - mostly on midges. The river was definitely full of fish - both fresh stockers and holdovers. A few Browns were in the mix too. The downed tree in mid-evening hole was loaded with fish. I nabbed a couple and then BradBessett came along and got a few more. Andy landed a few in a pocket just above us. Brad was nice enough to allow me to catch his one-eyed-queen just below the island. She was a little over 20" and shaped like an NFL football. Probably the fattest fish I have ever caught in the river - maybe 4-5 lbs? I have a pic to post later. She only has a right eye - a fungus has taken her left eye. It seems she has been caught a few times and she is back in the river for the next guy. We broke for lunch after that. Dan grabbed a few nice fish on small streamers in the afternoon - a nice gentleman offered a few flies for him to use. I believe Andy continued his midge affair and caught a few nice ones at the confluence with Lost Creek. We hit a nice BWO hatch followed by more midges. I finally found the right fly combo and landed about 20 fish in an hour in that stretch. Red was the magic color - if it was red, fish killed it. We fished till almost dark and then hit Papa Pablanos for dinner. Yum.

Spawn update - Redds are everywhere. Bluffs area especially. The Island in upper EH too. Even the fall rainbows are getting busy. PLease, please try to avoid the scrubbed rock and gravel areas. There are a few fish available just above and below the spawners. The smaller Browns were really active at the Island. I saw a few good Browns in the 16-18" range, but nothing like the past weekend. Brad may have a report if he ran into some better fish.

Saturday was epic - at least in quantity. It was a great day for me because I got to help a few anglers catch some fish. We all started up Spillway creek at daybreak. White pipe run produced several smaller stockers and a few wild rainbows. Dan left to go toss streamers - I believe he got into a few below EH bridge. Andy ventured farther up spillway creek to fish the faster water. I hit the run below the trail - kind of the audience hole. Again, once I found the right flies, I was in business. Today it was pink neer deeres (no laughing) and caddis. Several 10-13" stockers, a few small browns, a wild rainbow or two, and a nice surprise. The first time I hooked into him I suffered the ignominy of a dunk in the water trying to get downstream. Jenny Woodruff witnessed my grace and gave me a thumbs up. The second time I hooked him was more successful. After a few tense moments of almost losing him downstream, I landed him. A nice male Brown. He took a beadhead soft hackle caddis. He was skinny, but measured just over 20". The only bad part of the day was when I realized I had not packed my camera in my sling pack. Oh well, still the best Brown I had ever caught from Spillway creek.

After lunch I moved up a hole to the area above the trail. A guide and clients had caught quite a few fish earlier in the day, so I gave it a shot. Holy cow.... the numbers were off the charts. It got so good that I was able to put three guys on fish. I am kind of a talkative guy when fishing, so I would strike up conversations with anglers that passed behind me when crossing. Often it was while I was 'fighting' a fish. I was hoping my buddies would show up at some point, but they had made their way back towards dallas. So.... if I found someone that was having a rough day, I had them step in an try their luck. Paul from Richardson caught about 15-20 in 45 minutes. These were all 10-14" stockers with an occasional larger fish. He finally broke off the caddis/caddis nymphing rig and headed downstream. Next up was Jonathan and his buddy. Once they got the drift down, it was fish after fish after fish. I left them on their own and packed it up. In about 4 hours, no kidding, we caught about 100-120 fish. The stockers were stacked up on top of one another and inhaling caddis. Hares ears, beadhead caddis, and wire caddis all caught fish. I caught a few on stimmy's and adams dries as well.

For the first time in my life, I kept some fish to eat. My friend Andy and his wife are cooking them up for us tomorrow night. Can't wait to try some trout!

I was going to stay for Sunday, but I figured it couldn't get any better. I came back to Euless and did my honey-do list Sunday (played golf too ). Wife is going with me Friday. I will try some trophy hunting for Browns or big 'bows - maybe even venture to Zone II if water is right.

Flies for the weekend - Zebra midges (small and colorful), pink mini-eggs, SJ worms, caddis of all shapes, sizes, and varieties, RED copper johns, RED ice cream cones, and soft hackles swung downstream. The stockers were in mid-water column. Wooly Buggers worked too. Winter fishing has arrived!

River is loaded with fish. Stockers, holdovers, small browns, some big browns..... you name it. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Football.

Nice one Jeff!!

I am now accepting trips to the Lower Mt. Fork River for December and January.

Special:

$300/3 anglers 8 hour day.

Not a huge report this time - I was there only Friday. Aaron and I went up Lost Creek and got a shock - some big spawners/brooders were hanging out in the deep holes. Evening Hole and Bluffs were quite crowded, so we moved up Spillway Creek. We did well on the little wild rainbows and Browns. The wild bows are getting to 6-9" or so. They will eat dries all day in the faster water. Aaron had some family obligations, so I stayed behind and worked my way down to the LC confluence. I saw a few big Browns moving upstream - they were resting a little in confluence hole. There were some large Rainbows buzzing around too. Some were paired up, but one in particular was not. He would swim down to the deeper pool, then chase smaller fish thru the riffle. I caught a few stockers trying to get the bigger one to take. I lost track of the big fish when landing one of the stockers. I targeted a nice rainbow feeding in the outside lane, but out of nowhere, the big fish came up and slammed my trailing copper john. He took me upstream to the island, into the brush, across to the cypress, then headed downstream at a good clip. 3 anglers were kind enough to allow me through while fighting him. Guide Kevin ? saw the battle and offered to help net this massive fish. I finally tired him out a little and Kevin scooped him up about 100 yards downstream from where we started. Several photos later, he was released to be sought after by others. I caught a few more after that, but my day was complete.

Red seemed to be the color again. The wild fish were loving Adams Irresistables in 16-20. BWO dries did well too. It was a great day on the water, but I had to get home for the weekend.

Here are the pics - 23"+ and about 7 lbs. Gorgeous Buck Rainbow.

Awesome story and report! You are on the big trout train!!

Good job Jeff.
I know this sounds crazy but I would love to hit some of those wild bows on my ultra light glass on some dries.

Go as far up spillway as possible. Mid-day is best. Go to cardiac and hike downstream or just start at trail hole and go a mile upstream. It was fun catching and admiring these little wild guys. Every now and then I would hook one and a larger fish would follow it.

Fished Sunday the 14th. Great weather, decent bug activity, small crowds, and a boatload of fish in the river.

Bessett's big brown was the talk of the river Sunday. It had grown 3" overnight and was now 28" according to word of mouth. What an amazing fish. There is one only marginally smaller that is hiding out in Lost Creek. I saw him Saturday night while I was walking my dog.

Flies - midges (cream worked best), bwo emergers, and hares ears worked for me. Egg activity was slower than recent trips. Tan San Juans nabbed quite a few stockers in Spillway Creek. Spillway is still loaded with fish - all 10-14" it seems. Bigger ones are there, but are a little harder to catch. Lots of big fish feeding in the faster water between the elbow and Bluffs. I was tossing a heavy stonefly trailed by various beadheads to get them down to the fish. Red flash seemed to work well. Copper Johns, tung midges, and soft hackles worked too.

Hooray for the masses. the revised stocking schedule coupled with an influx of spawning fish has really made this fishery fantastic. You can't walk 10 feet without spooking a few fish.

The little male deer that lives in EH area is apparently quite fond of dogs, too. Magick had a great time playing with him. They shared a bowl of dog food and parted agreeing to Facebook each other. Fun end to the trip - pic attached.

While not nearly as impressive as Brad's pig, the big rainbows were on the move and catchable. I landed a 19, 20, 21, and 22 incher from a small run above the bluffs. The rainbows were really colorful - the best colors I have ever seen in the LMF. There were a few browns there as well, but they are so much harder to fool. TA and Kevin from a local fly shop were hanging around looking for monsters as well. Had a nice chat with them while netting a few 20"+ fish. The river was full of big fish and sight fishing was fantastic.

Several holes and runs in Spillway had over 100 fish holding in the light riffles. I caught 15 or so in an hour and just decided to move on.

All in all, a fun one day trip. I met Finny, Turf Dawg, and few others from the blog world. Nice to see y'all.

more pics. Check out the colors on these rainbows! Also snagged a large midge. The red striped 20" hen looked even cooler under water.

You mean grew 2" over night. He was about 26" after checking the mark on my net when I got home, but then again, who's counting

Great pics, we are seeing better now colors because the Crystal Lake fish are way prettier than those silver ones from Nebraska.

Are they stocking every two weeks now? Do we have a reference date to keep track off of?

Great pics Jeff and thanks for all the updates.

TW

There are thousands of fish available in the heavily fished 2.2 mile stretch. No need to worry about stocking at this point. There is no set schedule anymore for stocking - two different hatcheries are supplying fish.

Good report thanks! We will be going back soon hopefully next week

very nice!

Events have transpired over the last few days on the Lower Mountain Fork. There is a very long story behind this, but suffice to say that the river has not, and will not be stocked in the near future. The creator of this thread reports that there are still holdover fish in the river, but no new fish are scheduled for the foreseeable future.

The EH to bluffs areas are still holding some big rainbows and smaller browns. A good day can still be had, but you may have to work harder.

We will post here if there are significant changes to the matter. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Well, now you have our attention. What's up with the fish?

I have no first hand knowledge..... but it sounds like an issue between the NE and MO hatcheries with the State of OK in the middle. $$$$ issues and contractual issues.

That is not good. Hopefully, it will be resolved quickly.

I hope so also. I do not get to go as much as I like and this last trip was a blast because of the number of fish and the way they are biting.

Would not surprise me one bit. I bet OK didn't pay their bar tab!

Great pics!

Jonesing to get out there this weekend...

GoldSpoonr

What the heck are you talking about, Jeff?!? Do you have real info? How long has this been going on for? Dang! I knew all the reports were too good!

It's no secret that Nebraska is getting out of their contract and Crystal Lake is set to take back over. A few weeks back, the Nebraska hatchery reached out to the State and Crystal Lake because they said they could not make a scheduled stocking (but had already been paid for it). In good faith, Crystal Lake delivered fish from their own hatchery so the stocking date wasn't missed. Crystal Lake wants their money and from what I understand is holding out any future deliveries until they get paid for it.

So far there has only been one scheduled stocking missed (last week).

My guess is that the State won't allow this "holdout" to last very long. But you never know.

Thanks, Brad. That's not that bad, then, at least not yet.

What Brad said....

Crystal Lake Fisheries had the contract to stock The Lower Mountain Fork River (Beavers Bend OK)for years. It was RARE they had a problem delivering fish on time. My buddy Dan and I made 90+ trip to Beavers Bend over almost 10 years. Only twice was there difficulty getting the trout there on a stocking Thursday. They did an excellent job in many anglers opinions. The Nebraska Hatchery is small and over 900 miles away. It takes them 2 days to deliver trout. They have some other contracts and appeared over booked. Their fish (that arrived alive) were good. The Kamloops strain of rainbows. However, you never knew when they'd stock and the 3 week deal just is not practical for a 365 day fishery that is now very popular. I'm glad for Crystal Lake. A Crystal Lake 20" trout from the Trinity River in Ft. Worth TX.

WOW! FINALLY this nonsense with that worthless hatchery in Nebraska is OVER! Whom ever allowed that contract to be signed in the first place should have been fired! NOW can we all get together and put some serious pressure on the Oklahoma parks director to PLEASE clean & upgrade the shower house in the fern loop! They have t power washed the showers, fixed the damn shower heads or replaced the shower curtains in over 7 years!!!! It is truly disgusting!!!!!

My biggest gripe about the park. No bathrooms (besides the holes that are like a 3rd world country). And they one they do have is too nasty and is over crowded for the number of people. Saturday mornings there is a line around the building. Hope your bathroom needs are not an emergency.

Taking the wife up there turns into an issue when it's time for a bathroom break. Leave fishing hole, hike out a mile, drive another mile or 2 to get to a nasty bathroom. She will not even venture into the ones with the hole in the ground. The look on her face coming out of there the first time was PRICELESS!!

I camp 90% of the time I go to the park. I'm not a cabin balla. OK has the worst bathrooms of any state run park. I have been all over camping many different states. Beavers Bend and Texoma State Park in Oklahoma is the worst ever!!

And for them to charge $12 per tent is highway robbery.

Welp, These are all state budget issues, I'm sure. Nothin' to be done. Luckily, whenever I'm day-fishin' I'm willing to use the "hole in the ground" outhouses. And I am a cabin-balla'. My wife and I stayed last summer in one. I thought it was fine. She thought it was too primitive. I don't know why.

Say, anyone seen Carey?

Budget issues to clean a restroom, now I've heard it all.

(I can go buy them a new shower curtain, bottle of bleach and a new shower head for under $10. No big expense needed.)

I call it laziness....or lack of diligence for the Park Manager and his cleaning crew.

It is the only park I have ever been too that gets the guys in jail to do the clean up work and repairs.

Not sure I understand. Looking at the rates for Texas parks, campsites are $15 + $3 per day entrance fee. Even the undeveloped sites are $12 + $3 per day per person entrance fee. The rates don't seem that different between the two states.

I'm amazed that OK doesn't charge an entrance fee. For a day trip the use of the park and facilities is free. The license fee is required to fish whether you use a state park or not, so it doesn't have much to with financing the park.

Although, I'd be willing to pay an entrance fee in exchange for better park facilities.

Texas does some of that too. Especially, using people that receive community service sentences.

Most states charge per campsite. Beavers Bend charges per tent.

As a grown man, I don't like to share a tent. Seems a little weird for me.

So if you go with a group and everyone brings a tent, your cost is all of a sudden near the price of a nice cabin.

I was even charged one night to sleep in my truck. Hammocks are $12 extra.

Community Service is one thing, guys in orange county jumpsuits coming into your campsite is another thing. Sketchy, IMO.

Well, the jailbirds do a lot of clean-up and mowing in my small town, especially at the Fair Barn. I was going to write a movie script, a small southern town mystery, but I only had one scene for it. That was of my bosses mother, this very stern (but not unkind) old woman. She used to drive around town with a pickup bed full of jailbirds. She'd take them around and do clean-up here and there. One of her stops would be the tobacco store so they could buy their cigarettes. I don't know if she paid for them or they had to buy their own.

Quick question. Thinking about heading up this morning but not sure it is worth it. Barometric pressure is extremely high. Did anyone fish yesterday and do ok. No holes or patterns wanted. Just trying to determine if I need to save my gas. Drive is about an hour and a half

It's been a dink fest the past 3 days. I have not seen a single fish caught over 14" You can catch fish in the normal holes but they have been raped bad.

I'm up here all week and will post if the Meat Truck shows up.

If you want me to text you Pm me your Cell #'s

Denny

Did I miss something or is this thread still about the Lower Mountain Fork fishing? Agreed that the facilities are terrible, but does that affect the fishing? BBT - only if you have the wife along, right

Once they get the stocking contract worked out, it will return to great. We have 2.5 months till spring break and the return of the masses. I can't wait to get back up there - Magick has drug my rod into the house 3 times recently - I guess he wants to go too.

Carey - he did a boo-boo. He'll be back after winter Striper season.

Have fun!

Denny

I decided to pass and hang out with my parents today. I thank you for the offer. Hope y'all do well today.

I'm 5 minutes from the river and I haven't been today. It looks great out the window, but the waders are still frozen to the deck.

DC

Ok Guys I know this is the Fly Fishing Section but I am trying to find any info about Non-Fly fishing for the river. I checked the regs but was wondering if it is worth driving up there for 3 hours if I do not Fly Fish or don't have waders? Sorry if I have offended any of the Fly Fishing Purests.

Plenty of bank fishing, spin fishing opportunities. It's about 50/50 fly-fishers/spin-fishers. It's really nice to have SOME kind of waders, but not essential. If I were fishing little cranks or spinners I think I'd try fishing down below the Evening Hole in some of the deeper pools. I imagine there might be a nice brown or so lurking around there. Last season I was fishing "The Bluffs" in the middle of the Red Zone. The guy next to me was using an ultra light spinning rod and pulled out about a 24" rainbow. He gently rescusitated and released it. That was last winter. The big ones are much scarcer now. Probably mostly been caught and kept or otherwise killed. Still reports of a big one caught here and there.

I used spinning gear for many years Trout fishing and my son stills prefers it. What we do is take a spinning rod with 6lb mono on it. Then we put on a indicator, 1/32 bullet weight, swivel and the you can tie a couple of feet of regular fly fishing tippet or 4 lb fluoro to the swivel and then you can use a regular nymph fly or whatever you want. My son was killing them in spillway creek with a 1/150 jig hook with red trout power worm on it[just use half the worm on those small jig heads]. He also caught several on a olive neer deer with a flashback hares ear [same setup as I was using on my fly rod]

I traveled for years by myself fishing tournaments all over. I'm a family man now, I always enjoy taking the family there and friends for fun trips to the mountains for many years now. Someone mentioned the stocking contract blunders and said now it's fixed maybe they can fix up the park. I mentioned it needed to be fixed to American standards and not 3rd world country standards. LOL! IMO.

People who take their families need to be aware the restrooms are few and far between and most likely covered in filth.

Maybe someone who patrols these forums of the higher up will see and go look at the restroom themselves and get the changes done.....

I'm sorry but that's a load of [censored]! Go over to the motor coach campsites in the other end of the park! The state spent over $250 thousand dollars building new shower house and restroom because the rich people were complaining too much! That was 7 years ago! The state spent another 100k on new signage in the park and then another 150k on the handicap walkways and fishing platforms because someone filed a lawsuit! They budgeted for new asphalt pads, cable TV hookups and a new shower house in the fern loop 6 years ago and then re-allocated the money!

Well, that's bad! I was just guessing and giving the state the benefit. Sounds like some better prioritizing is in order, for sure.

Going fishing Saturday - have a new reel to try out. We will be there 8am till 4pm.

Well,how was the fishing and new toy?

We caught a few, I caught pneumonia. Actually, just a bad chest/sinus cold. Spillway is barren. Still some decent fish in red zones. You have to work for them.

New toy - didn't get to try it much. Lots of ice on the guides and did not want to mess it up. Barely broke freezing all day.

Not going back until the stocking issues are worked out. AND it gets above 40 degrees

This is probably a dumb thing for me to tell everyone, because I'm kind of giving away my own (so to speak)little private trout fishing area, but there are plenty of trout in the Little Missouri River in Pike County, AR, and not excessive pressure on them. It might be a little far for some of you Dallas area fishermen, as it's about as far North as the LMF, but about 40 miles to the East.

There's 2 separate areas that have trout. There's the tail-race of the Lake Greeson dam. To get there, you go up to Murfreesboro, AR, and hang a left. There's about 5 good zones to fish there. Then there's the Albert Pike campground area. It's above Lake Greeson into the Oachita Mountains a little ways. I've only fished the main area by the campground, but I understand there's good fishing both upstream and down some.

The trout in both these areas are basically recent stockers. There's some hold-overs, but no native spawn as far as I know. It seems there's too little flow in the Lil' Mo' to support a year round trout population except right by the dam. The current stockers are pretty small, similar to the recent ones at LMF, but they're plenty of them, and willing if you present your bait in a way that's acceptable.

If you want more relevant info, I'll tell you all I can, but go to this web-site:
http://www.littlemissouriflyfishing.com/
It has links to generation and stuff like that. You DO have to pay attention to generation at the "Narrows", that is, the Lake Greeson tail-race.
If you need a guide, PM me and I'll tell you what I know.

Cheers,
Jon Strait
(jonbo)

Jon, that is a great idea. It's only 30 mins more for me. Our club went last month and had a blast.

How are the campgrounds?

Albert Pike has good camping, I guess, right next to the fishing. I can't attest to the quality of the sites as I've never camped there. Donno if the bathrooms are cleaner than LMF's or not.

WARNING: If there's bad weather in the area get the heck out of Albert Pike. The Lil' Mo' is flowing through a canyon right there and can become the raging Mo' in a hurry. Several people were drowned there a few years ago in a flash flood when the entire campground was wiped out.

At the Narrows (below the dam) you have to camp off a little ways. If you cross below the dam and ascend to the Parker Creek camping area on the lake, that's a really great camping area, just beautiful. BUT it's about 3 miles from the Narrows fishing area. You'll have to drive to fish. Swaha, the other way on the lake, I think it's mostly cabins. I think there's some tent camping there, but not nearly as nice as Parker. Parker's what you want if you're camping. Swaha's where you need to go if you need something at the store. They do sell flies there, locally tied by Jeff G, and they're good ones. Not much else there fly-fishing wise AFAIK.

PM me if anyone needs guide info. I'm afraid I'd be violating the rules if I put it in my post.

"Introducing the "New Lower Mountain Fork River Rainbow Trout Local River Record" 7.10 pounds @ 25 1/4 inches




We started the day out fishing the 40 foot hole just downstream of the Evening Hole Bridge. I located the monster Rainbow Trout under a tree limb 38 feet down just off the bottom next to a huge boulder waiting in ambush. We used a 40 foot leader and had the indicator sitting at 38 foot just off the bottom. We were using a Near Deer with a lot of flash and a extra long marabou tail. 38 foot of leader line seems a little bit out in left field, but we had to do what we had to do to get that down to that fish. We thought about sending down a streamer, but I wanted a challenge. My client side casted underneath the tree hanging 2 feet over the water. as the fly drifted past the boulder, the trout moved on us. But the fish came back from six-foot away and smashed the Near Deer like no other strike I have ever seen. Absolutely hammered it! The fish took us up stream and under the Evening Hole Bridge with my client in tow. As we got close to the top of the Evening Hole, a Great Blue Heron was sitting there below the rapid stabbing fish to eat. The monster trout saw it and instantly turned away and shot back down the Evening Hole half way down. The huge fish then jumped 4 times like a tarpon shaking it's head vigorously trying to get the hook out. I always fish barbless so even though we were in a Blue Zone, and it swim to the Red Zone we were safe. Otherwise we would have had to break the fish off as it entered the Red Zone. Then, out of nowhere a Bald Eagle swooped down, and grabs our fish and takes off straight up in the air. In amazement, I told my client give it line give it line. The Eagle ended up actually following the river staying clear of all the trees as it took its prize to its eating table. It was like flying a kite. It flew all the way just passed white pipe above the Cold Hole with my client trailing behind looking straight up in the air fighting the Eagle for his prize back. The Eagle saw all the power lines above the White Pipe ( actually it green) and released the fish, and it actually fell back into the river thank goodness. The fish revived very quickly due to all the turbulent water area with a high oxygen level reviving the fish almost immediately. Then after 20 seconds, the fish went down the waterfall and actually went underneath the bridge above Cold Hole. My client jumped in the water, swam underneath the bridge with his fly rod while the fish actually helped him go under the bridge by pulling him out of the hole. The fish got wrapped around a bunch of bait chunkers throwing umbrella rigged salmon eggs, on Alabama Rigs. We had to cut a couple lines and get untangled while the fish was jumping furiously. After we got the fish untangled the fish swim all the way down to the Elbow and made another majestic jump. It jumped straight up in the air about 5 foot and over a branch and got us tangled. After about five minutes of untangling not mess we got it off. Thankfully, the tree was covered with moss and no abrasions happened. The line was not frayed one bit. The fish got another burst of energy and started to haul rear end towards the Evening Hole from the Elbow, passing the Bluffs. We actually had to take off our boots to sprint down the river with it. Thank goodness there is not a lot of glass or I would have cut my waders up bad! It got about halfway down the Evening Hole and at the corner of my eye, I see a River Otter shoot out from under a boulder and started chasing the fish wildly all around the pool in the upper Evening Hole. This went on for about five minutes, then out of nowhere I see a blur come from above and smash the water surface. Two seconds later I see the Bald Eagle that was trying to get our fish, take off with the River Otter and up and over the mountain, it took the otter. My client made a sound of relief when he saw the otter get taken out as we thought the fish was dead on that chase. He played with the fish for another five or 10 minutes and then out of the woods comes Mr. Near Deer, the infamous button buck. I had my client wedge his fly rod in a tree so the fish would not pull his rod in the water and we walked up to Mr. Near Deere to say hi, and took a couple pictures, and then went back and resumed the fight of a lifetime.



After a couple more majestic jumps the fish finally came to the net. We immediately put the fish on the Bogo Grips and certified it at 7.10 pounds. We took a couple pictures and released the magnificent "New Local River Rainbow Trout Record" back in the drink for someone else to experience. As we were walking down the trail, we looked back and saw a bear jump in the water and came out with our record fish. I had time and snapped a pic zoomed in, then it walked into the woods to enjoy this meal, sadly.






All the stories you guys are hearing at the Lower Mt. Fork River is void of fish is not true. Well, its kinda true. There are still fish left in the river. You just have to know where to look. Yes, however, most of the park has been fished out with mainly 10 inch and smaller trout lurking around, with a few Wild Stocker Sea Run Hold Overs left here and there spread out -immensely.


The Real Report: Its been Epic

I have a spot now that I've been fishing for the last two months. It apparently was stocked with quite a few fish, obviously. These are all Crystal River's fish as they are all colorful not silver. And, there are 100's of them in this spot. If you're new to fishing and don't know how to fly fish I would expect you to catch at least 20 trout. If you're mediocre and just want to learn the river I'd expect you to catch around 30 to 50. If you consider yourself an expert and you can set the hook on almost every bite, then you will expect to catch at least 100 or more. Just a few days ago, one of my clients landed 83 rainbow trout. Nothing, was smaller than 14 inches and nothing bigger than 23 inches. We are catching 2-4 Brown Trout on average per trip as well. The browns are 13-18 inches. We see a monster 25+ inch Brown swim by on occasion, but it never lays up, He just chases the other fish all over the place. For the last two months and throughout the spawn, on my end eggs were not working very well. Near Deer's, and RS2's in Olive and Grey size #22 to use in all of the gray size 22, we have been Wacking them Dead. In the park I suggest, till the next stocking, fish with BWO's and RS2's, which are a emerging Blue Wingged Olive. Most of the fish left are to small to attack a Near Deer, but there are a few big fish left, id say under 50 in the upper spillway to EH. I am not going to post pics of the fish we are catching at Secret Spot P-32, due to it will give away my location, and I don't want the spot to be over run with peeps. I will post the pics at the end of February, when I stop taking trips, due to the hoards of peeps during Spring Break. Plus Ill be full time Striper Guiding Texoma again.

On that note: I put my Jr Angler on the New Jr. Lake Texoma Record Flat Head Catfish:



The fish was in 26 ft of water hugging an old bridge column that was about 5 ft tall. I Side Scanned it with my Humminbird 899 si. as I scanned it, I saw it was loaded with striper hugging it. And, We could see a huge fish hugging the bottom of the column. I pointed it out to my group and stated, "look at that fish! its huge! its got to be a big catfish!" -We set up and I spot locked with the ipilot trolling motor and we landed 20 or so striper from 8-15 lbs. My Jr. Angler landed his personal best Striper and it was actually the biggest fish he has ever landed. Ten mins later, he yells, "Capt. Carey, I got something big!" The fish was hugging the bottom the whole time and actually at one point, the catfish sat on the bottom, We could pull it up off the bottom 2 ft, but it would immediately settle back to the bottom. After 35 mins of my Jr. Angler pulling on the beast, it finally came up. The huge fish ripped the net as we were lifting it in the boat, and I reached for it, and grabbed it by the mouth and pulled it in the boat! Awesome fish!

Jr Anglers Personal Best Striper:



Those are just a few fish from my many many adventures working with StriperExpress.com

Starting in May all the way till October, Fly Fishing for Striper is incredible. A bit before October came and went, we were having a blast catching 15-25 inch striper from 2 lbs to 15 lbs on the fly rod. Its a two person sport per boat trip. More than 2 people makes it a bit dangerous. Mainly for me!

To give you an example of what we are throwing for the top water striper while fly fishing, that's an H2O top water next to my popper I tie up for the stripers



Average brown we are landing right now on a daily basis below:




Beautiful Wild Sea Run Holdover Stocker below:




When I go up there I usually ignore the red zone altogether. but, I will mosey on through and power fish, by targeting only big fish visibly. Too many people fishing and the fish are getting hammered -and there's not that many left there to keep me interested. Yes, there are a few big fish left in the river but not many and not worth my time fighting the crowds. The hole I'm fishing, has tons of fish left & zero pressure. The only peeps you will find in this spot are previous clients of mine. Solitary at its best. I found this spot while chasing smallmouth in between trips. I have never seen this many trout in this spot before. I have never seen them stock this part of the river. Between 10 am and 12:30 pm, you can see almost every fish sitting in front of you as the sun passes. Truly amazing. After 3 hours of that, most clients are spent and give up after they have had enough action. Plus your standing in the cold water the whole time so your feet eventually go numb. You don't feel the coldness cause your adrenalin is so high catching fish, but on the walk back, your really feel how cold you got.

All my weekend's are booked solid till June with Striper Trips. I have a few spots open only during the week to hit the trout at the LMF. If you would like to go during the week to whack some fish, contact me for open dates. Texting me is the best way to get an answer fastest.
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As for all the lettering in blue. That has as much truth as the previous said "Local Rainbow Trout Record". NO WHERE, but the dudes website states there is a "Local River Record" for the LMF. Lots of us have caught 7-8 lb trout out of the LMF. Especially last year when they stocked 400 Breeder Trout. Thanks to the Lower Mt Fork Federation for that. It was a great surprise. The state of Oklahoma has a new program "Lake Records" and the rules are as follows:

1. Fish MUST be caught on rod and line and MUST be hooked and played by only one person. (Except for unrestricted division).

2. Fish MUST be caught in accordance with Oklahoma Fishing Regulations.

3. No fish caught from any hatchery or commercial put-and-take lake is eligible. ( That is in plain English and to the point )

4. Accredited or certified weight scales MUST be used to weigh the fish. Accredited steel measuring tapes MUST be used to measure the fish. The fish should be measured over the side from tip of nose to tip of tail (tail lobes pressed together) giving length of fish in inches. Measure the girth of the fish in inches around its widest point. Three witnesses, one of which must be an employee of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, must witness the weighing and measuring of the fish and sign the affidavit. (The state of Oklahoma, per the lady in charge of the record program, stated that there is not an Accredited Scale at the location the fish was weighed)

5. The fish MUST be preserved in a live-weight condition until approved by an Oklahoma Wildlife Fisheries biologist or technician, and an official letter of verification from the Director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has been received by the angler.

6. A clear photograph showing a close-up side view of the fish MUST accompany the completed fish affidavit form. All photographs become the property of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

7. The Department reserves the right to collect fish scale, tissue or spine samples to check fish identification and to refuse any questionable fish affidavit submitted. The affidavit must be submitted within 30 days of the date the fish is caught.

In addition to rod and line records, an Unrestricted Division includes the heaviest of those species taken by other legal means (bow and arrow, gig, spear, trotline, jugline, bank line, etc.) TYING or EXCEEDING the weight of existing rod and line records.


- There is no category for the Lower Mt Fork River. And, its not a lake. The program is for Lakes, not Rivers, not streams, not ponds, just lakes. As I stated above, I chatted with The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Lake Record Program Manager that is in charge of the whole thing. The lady I chatted with said, no records can be entered if they are from a river, and the fish are hatchery or commercial put-and-take fishery at the LMF. She was to the point and said absolutely not. I told her the story of the record fish and she checked out the webpage stating the record, while I was on the phone with her. Again, she said no way that's possible. So, please, if you catch a 7+ lb fish, don't take it up to the gas station to have it weighed thinking you have the new record. The lady said, after the fish was weighed at the gas station, the whole process stopped right there. It went no further than that. She said nice fish, yes, but not a record. She said, "Anyone can say anything they want on the internet". If you are still leery about this topic, call Main Office - Call (405) 521-3851 and ask for the Record Dept. for fishing records, and she will clear it up for you.

There is not a record for the Lower Mt Fork River, for the exception of the "State" Brown Trout Record.

I also read peeps complaining about the restrooms not being up to date and crumby. Your in the wilderness in the boondocks in Oklahoma! This is not Texas. No offence Okies. I will say this though, it is the only place in OK that I have used a park bathroom, so I don't know about other parks in OK. Just put toilet paper down on seat and you will be fine. There is a restaurant and a Information Center in the park that has nicer bathrooms. FYI

Soon, Crystal Rivers Hatcheries will resume stocking again. I hear next week possibly!


You can catch more of what I am doing as I hop species of fish on a monthly basis as the season change, on my Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/texasoklahomafishingguide

And again, I only have weekdays here and there available. Book a trip through my website or Call or Text for availability to set up a guide trip to the Lower Mt. Fork River in Beavers Bend State Park located in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. All contact info below in links.

So I'm guessing you were using 7x?

Wow, that was some strong line to hold that big of a fish, even while being parachuted from spot to spot. Wish I could have witnessed that battle. Those bald eagles are badass. I hope the bear practiced catch, digest, and release.

I do have one problem with that story though. You did all that running, photographing, untangling, and swimming...... and not once did you light a cigarette? C'mon man! Make the story believable.

I am taking my GoPro this weekend just in case I get locked into a battle like this one.

AWESOME and welcome back

Great story! Do you write novels or just short action/fish stories?

Alright! I'm trying to imagine where your "secret spot" might be. I have my ideas from the hints you've given. But I donno if I'll bother looking for it when I go next if it's true that the MO hatchery has started stocking again. I'll probably do well enough wherever I am. What's weird about me is I get a little bored when I sit right over a pod of fish I've found catching one after another. I found a pod the other day at Albert Pike in Arkansas. In about 1 hour I was done and went home. Somehow I find it more interesting when the fishing's slightly tougher. I want to "feel" like I'm fooling a wild, wiley trout (whether or not that's actually true).

Addendum to what I reported the other day about Little Missouri River trout fishing:

From what I can tell there is no camping at Albert Pike since the flash-flood tragedy several years ago. There are cabins there. I don't know if they rent them out on a nightly basis or not.

Post some reports from texoma

Weekend re-arranged, headed up to fish. Trying to drag someone along......

"Local Rainbow Trout Record". NO WHERE, but the dudes website states there is a "Local River Record" for the LMF.

I'm sure I'm overlooking something here so please take a look at this link and tell me what the title is and what it says against the Chain Pickerel and Brown Trout and clarify for me. Tks http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/restrictedfish.htm

State Records.

No local records for the LMF. Call the number instead if asking me. The lady will straighten it out for ya. Case is closed. There is no local record.

The bear ate the record.

Got this off the Oklahoma Wildlife page seconds ago. Guess I just can't read...sorry.

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/restrictedfish.htm


Official Oklahoma Rod & Line Record Fish
To view a picture of the record fish please click on the common name of the fish.

COMMON NAME LBS
OZS LENGTH GIRTH WHERE WHEN ANGLER

Pickerel, Chain 2-10 22 1/2 9 1/2 Mt. Fork River 4-22-82 Eric Lowe
Trout, Brown 17.4 32 3/4 20 Mountain Fork River 4-10-05 Jason Archie

the amazing catch from that page is an 8 lb 2 oz spotted bass, thats really really huge

That is huge. I have not caught one over 2 lbs or so.

Local records are made up to begin discussions like these. NO official records, but it sure is fun to debate.

I am sure there are dozens of anglers that have caught 24-26" rainbows in the LMF. Several are on this forum. Bessett, Casey, Carey, et al. Just keep catching them, photographing them, and putting them back. Pictures are always fun to look at and discuss.

I think Bessett's 25-26" Brown from last month is a non-hydroelectric stimulated water river record......

Just posted: http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/10566747/1

Very good report, enjoy reading it. thanks Carey.

Well he just smashed it yesterday, did he show you the pic?

Denny

Who smashed what?