Fly Fishing the Lower Mountain Fork River: Celebrities, Poachers, and WILD Rainbows
Well it was definitely nice to be back on the river over the weekend… with over 250k miles (not even sure how many, the odometer went out around 245k, ha) on the ol’ Buick, I get a little more nervous for each road trip, but the LMFR is always worth every mile.
The trail of people pulling into the park around Midnight Friday
I made my way back to the z2 parking lot, crossing my fingers the whole time that they would cut back the flows for the weekend. No dice. My traditional z2 night fishing opener was a wash, so I decided to toss some flies under the lights…
Kind of like fly fishing with stadium lighting??
Didn’t bring anything to hand, but I wasn’t too bummed… had a lot of fishing yet to enjoy.
I left the spillway around 1:30am to look for a campsite. Area G looked booked, and not wanting to disturb the mess of tents searching for a spot, I opted to sleep in the car by the EH. Woke up to the sound of a car door shutting near by and saw the first anglers arriving. After snapping a couple quick pictures of the refreshing sunrise over the EH, I headed to the remains of the upper footbridge on Spillway Creek to begin the morning fishin’ session.
Sunrise on the EH -- Great way to start the day
Sunrise on the Lake
Had a really good time fishing the spillway. It was a blast checking out all the new holes. I heard Donny C got into some nice big holdovers earlier in the week, but I wasn’t fortunate enough to bring any to hand. The stockers were still around (or were they recently placed???) as well as quite a few little guys that DEFINITELY appeared to be naturally born and bred! NICE! Looks like we had another successful spawn and they survived the heavy flows!!!
There's just something special about a "wild" trout....
The spillway was packed by 10am and after bringing in quite a few stockers and half a dozen wild little guys, I thought I’d move over to the evening hole. I was met with crowds just as big over there too… but I did meet Mike Love (a LMFR celeb to me) while I was on my way upstream. I’ve been reading Mike’s posts on the Beaver’s Bend Fly Shop message board for years and it was great to have the chance to meet him.
Mike mid-release
He was showin’ off… carrying on a conversation, not even paying attention to his drift (that I could tell) and catchin fish when everyone else seemed to be struggling around him. I’m jealous he gets to fish the south eastern Oklahoma waters on the regular. I kept moving upstream, but had to stop and take a picture of the morning EH scene. Quite a sight… Be sure to check out the image full size, you’ll see people pop up all over the place.
Combat Fishing???
I headed up below the (now dry) confluence of lost creek and had a great time throwing roll casts underneath the overhanging trees. Saw some activity on the surface and caught a few on a EHC…
He liked the Caddis...
But quickly realized they were working on emergers… had much more consistent success throwing an caddis pupa emerger (olive body). The wild ‘bows seemed to really appreciate the caddis emerger too…caught quite a few healty and beautiful ones!! I love these fish!! Each one is so distinct.
Apologies for the blur, hurried all fish pics. Great parr marks on this one!
Another great OKIE 'bow. Lovin' the white tipped fins.
Well, I’ve covered the celebs and the wild rainbows… now it’s time for the POACHERS. I spoke with these two about the regulations as they passed me… Wish I had my cell phone on me to notify the authorities. Seeing wild fish in the EH makes the poaching seem even more grotesque.
WALK OF SHAME
Sunday was an even better day than Saturday. More fish, less crowds. Didn’t catch any monsters the whole weekend, in fact… Not sure I even brought anything to hand larger than 14inches. Had a really nice one (looked like a football) break me off on a downed tree in the EH, but besides that I just ran into stockers and the wild ones.
Can’t wait to be back… next time hope they wont be pushing out so much water so I can play in Z2 and 3!
-Ward
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