It's a work of art (and a fine piece of machined fly tying goodness)

…but I was almost starting to feel bad for myself — sitting around with a pile of newly tied flies, but not so much as a fish to show for it in 2010. Who am I kidding, I could sit in front of that vise for hours upon hours and never get bored, but I really was itchin’ to get the new year’s skunk off my back.

I worked hard last week convincing my buddy Josh that he needed a trip to the river about as badly as I did, and after some successful sweet talking with his wife and my fiance, we both got the green light. Game time… things finally falling into place for a prime winter weekend on the Lower Mountain Fork river.

We got down to Broken Bow a little later than expected (I was a slacker and didn’t gather my gear the night before and we had to battle fog for the majority of the drive).  By the time we got there it was raining pretty steadily, but we weren’t ready to set up camp just yet… It’s never too late to hit the water.

So we pulled into the parking area just after midnight and geared up…

Had a few four legged friends watching us as we made our way to the spot, their glowing eyes were everywhere.

Thinking about bolting...

curious why we were out in the rain...

We didn’t have much (read: any) luck swinging any of the black or olive wooly buggers I had tied up. I was pretty hesitant to fish something I hadn’t tied up myself (I really wanted to catch my first fish on a fly I tied), but I finally gave in and tied on a store bought zonker. Good choice.

Scored a small bow pretty quick and then hooked into something heavy a little while later. Ended up with a frustrating LDR, but the blood was pumping again. A few casts later I hooked into another heavy one, and thankfully this time it was hooked well. I thought it was a nice one, but then again… when a fish hammers a swinging streamer they all feel nice. Then the acrobatics started, the doubt was gone…just hoped I could get it in.

what a chunk

Had a lull in the action for a while and the numb toes/soaking rain combo sent us back in the direction of the car and camp.

We got up and started fishing after 8 on Sat… put Josh on some water he hadn’t fished yet and he got into ‘em quick. Think he had one to hand before I had a fly tied on.

Nice start to the day

It was a great area with a lot of fun water to work… I decided to get in on the action and pulled in my first fish on a fly I tied myself.

victory

There was a lot of fun water and I just enjoy fishing with the bluffs as a backdrop… nice place.

Josh workin' a run

Josh on another nice run

We caught a nice mix, a few small ones and a few nice ones… but one really stood out from the rest. Hard to be sure, but I’d bet he was born in the river. Rather catch one of the ‘wild’ ones than an above average stocker any day.

okie'bow

Got pretty hungry and decided to head back to town for some food and fish z3 while were were down there. Spent our time at the Rereg dam. Took us a little bit to find ‘em, but the action was pretty quick for a while.

Josh puttin it on a nice one

well done (click to see larger image, shows up pretty small)

I even managed to fool a few nice ones on the unproductive buggers from the night before.

rewarding

After catching enough to satisfy we headed back to the park to fish the spillway Creek from about 430 to dark. Didn’t have great success and only brough a few to hand. They were small and pretty unnoteworthy, but fun nonethless. The rain finally stopped and seemed to slow the fish down too. Or maybe we were just getting tired?? Who knows.

After fishing hard all day we didn’t really have it in us to get back out that night. The rain picked up again and the whiskey made it hard to get out of the ol’ sleeping bag.

We fished a little more on Sunday morning… but a few responsibilites at home made us call the trip a little short. Missed out on a perfect partly cloudy day with mild winter temps (mid 50s!?!), but at least the ladies were happy, ha. Gone are the days of fishing without responsibilties hanging over our heads…

getting into the groove

Sure wish we had more time out there… kinda felt like we had to rush to get all the fishing in. Had to make up for all the missed weekends the past few weeks. Need a long weekend or a midweek vacation to slow things down!

Had a hard time coming up with a title for this one… but definitely (and thankfully) a change of pace from the last post

barbel-less carp = carpsucker, grass carp, or something else?

Let me know what you think, cause whatever it is… it’s going on the species lifelist.

torpedo

Had a big guy straighten out the hook on my sjw. Too bad I didn’t realize it until I botched the hookset on 3 fish in a row after LDR’ing the big’un.

And… Reese would get mad if I didn’t include the costume she made me.

Don't joke about being a fish for halloween when you have a fiance determined to make a costume, haaa

Feeders

One botched cast later… no feeders to be found. Hate spooking ‘em straight off the bat. Damn.

Found bait moving elsewhere… only found these underneath the surface action though.

Doing his part to fatten up

Was hoping for a monster bass of some sort. Gotta fatten up sometime, eh?

Thought the fish might continue to cooperate and help me finish out the Fall strong… but that was not the case yesterday. Had to settle for a nice Okie sunset instead. Not so bad afterall…

Think the fish were too busy enjoying the glassy water and nice sunset to eat

Not a bad way to end a day

Maybe they’ll be back on the fall feed today…

After a few setbacks (my fault, bad at getting places on time) we met at spot #1 to try and tangle up with some longnose gar. Patrick’s had a ton of experience with gar and I was hoping I could finally bring one to hand with him around to give me a pointer or two. Sure enough, we found plenty of surfacing gar and spent a couple of hours giving them a good effort. I managed to checked off my #1 goal for summer, but couldn’t snap a pic in time for proof.

You’re just gonna have to trust me. He came in on what looked like a single thread of the rope fly and slipped out of my hand while I was pulling out the camera. Didn’t miss much with the picture, it couldn’t have been much more than 12″ long, but it still would have been nice to have a shot of the product of quite a few hours of pursuit.

We all had a few strikes, but didn’t have the greatest luck with the tangles. Hope to go back out this afternoon after work to give ‘em another shot now that I have a bit of confidence.

We had two main goals for the day… put me on a gar and put Patrick on a catfish. On to spot #2…

Didn’t take too long and we had accomplished both goals, not sure how many cats he ended up bringing to hand, but it was more than a few.

Bendo

Checkin' one off the list

We caught plenty of bass and cats for a while and when I tried to take a picture of a slab of a crappie…. my great day on the water suddenly became a frustrating one… My Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 WASN’T working.

The lens cover was open, but the camera was off… not a good sign. I could hear the motor trying to work when I pressed the power button, but I wasn’t getting anything but the power on screen. Sure, it’s endured a couple of waist high falls. Yeah, I’ve taken some underwater shots with it. But this issue seemed to come up out of NOWHERE. No junk in the lens to jam the cover, no recent drops, no nothing. Confusing. I bought the camera on April 30 and it’s already broken?? Ouch. Such a big investment. Majorly disappointing. Especially considering I had just bragged on the performance and durability on a few different fishing forums. Should have knocked on wood I guess.

I’m a bit of a pessimist, but I really hope Olympus decides to honor the warranty and take care of the problem quickly. We will see.

I’ll keep you posted on that one… And, let me apologize in advance for the poor quality (1.3mp camera phone) images to come in the meantime.

To make the Monday situation even better this week, we had a nice steady soaking rain throughout the day. I didn’t think I would get to fish yesterday, but I got the phone call from my fiance (still getting used to saying that, had to throw it in) that we all dream of during the commute home… “Ward, I’m going to go see a movie with my girlfriends and then out to dinner.” Booooooooom. Game time.

By the time I got out to the pond, things were starting to clear up. I had been worried I’d be handicapped with poor visibility, but it was no longer an issue… It was one of those days when you rush through rigging up and practically light jog it down to the water.

Didn’t see any sign of the local carp in the first couple spots. I’m convinced they’ve figured out where I can get to ‘em and have moved on to new haunts. But hey, no worries, it’s Monday and I can track ‘em down without fear of a Titleist knocking me out (or the security guards throwing a fit).

First one to hand was a small bass, not a bad way to start things off.

Haven't seen the big'uns since Spring

As I was releasing that guy, I heard a familiar sound to my right… Sounded an awful lot like a carp feeding on the grass on the bank. Sure enough, there were two of ‘em, side by side, sucking away at the bank. Snuck above them and hooked up with the larger of the two…

Awkward lighting...

I kept moving around the pond and ran into one cruising around. Made a few casts, but couldn’t distract/interest it in anything I had to offer. Kept moving and came up to a little feeder creek draining out some water from the pond above… looked very promising.

Endless Fish Hole

There were a handful of large dark fish piling up right below the “waterfall”… couldn’t quite make out what they were, but they definitely looked too dark to be carp. My first cast raced off for the middle of the pond before I knew it even hit the water. The consistent rolls were a give away… catfish, and a nice one.

Wasn't a fan of the photo op

The time it took me to land each fish would give the spot enough time to rest that the cats would come right back. An occasional juvenile would get into the mix, but for the most part it was nice fish after nice fish for probably an hour.

Pretty smile?

It was enough to wear out a forearm… and build up an appetite. But it’s hard, make that impossible,  to be too tired/hungry to pass up a shallow tailer on the walk back to the car.

Wavin' bye

Moral of the story:

1. Do some networking (friends/family/coworkers/groundscrew/etc)  and get access to private golf course ponds. You’ll have at least one day a week of unlimited access to some sick water.

2. Fish post summer rains hard. Yet to have a post rain day where inlets weren’t stacked with nice cats.

Tight Lines,

Ward

Haven’t had a ton of time lately to pursue my summer goals, but I had a nice chunk of time on Sunday to try and learn a thing or two.

Got down to the water and found a different gate than normal open. The run was a lot trickier to fish than I anticipated. Tried high sticking for a while… no luck. Threw giant mends (exhausting)… no success. Let it swing… Nada.

Definitely should have picked up one or two here...

Decided to explore downstream since the water was so low. If I wasn’t going to be catching fish… I might as well be finding new water. I walked down all the way to the 10th street bridge without spotting any fish. Noticed a nice little creek on my way downstream and had to give it a shot on the way back up.

Shallow... but fishy

Spotted a few small feeding carp right off the bat.  Didn’t take long to get hooked up… the little guys are so explosive. He darted upstream and spooked every other fish in the vicenity before running back downstream towards the main part of the river. Wish he would have headed that direction first, but that’s the way it goes.

MONSTER

Kept moving upstream in the little creek and found a fun spot…

Notice the nervous water just off the point

The carp were small, but it was a fun spot for a challenge. Ended up hooking up with one of them but it broke me off by running into the construction “barrier” (don’t know what to call it.)

No big ones, and no new species… but still a good day on the river.

I’ll work on putting together a post about today’s post-rain fishin’ (great day!) and will also give up an update with the final vacation plans… Can’t wait, SERIOUSLY pumped about the vacation.

I had given up hope of accomplishing my goal that evening, and then the next thing I know I hear something splashing around over in Brent’s direction. I got over there just in time to miss an impressive tailwalking and realized Brent had hooked into a gar… couldn’t believe it.

Botched a nice photo op...

Not only did I miss the tailwalking in the sunset… but my camera died after the first pic. Way to go Ward. Good thing Brent had one tucked away to document the surprising catch!

For you gar pro's... What species is this??

New adventure in fish handling !

Was pysched to see Brent drag this guy in… Gar are never really even on my mind when I’m on there (though I’ve seen one other gar ~12in), I’ll have to see if I can find more!

I’m feeling it, I’m going to knock another species off the (modest) lifetime fish list soon…. and it’s going to be a toothy one.

I think the carp in my “go-to” golf course pond (a frequent pit stop on the way home from work) are wising up to me. I’ve been seeing them in far smaller #’s and they’ve been extra spooky. I decided to make a point to chase after bass out there for a while to give the carp a break and loosen ‘em up a bit. I haven’t caught any bass out there worth bragging about since early spring, but I had an interesting one this week:

How does something like this even happen?

Really, how does this happen? Seems like an awefully strange way to foul hook a bass. I did a little surgery and pressed down the barb as best I could.  Wonder what his chances are…

The wind has made a fly fisherman’s life difficult lately and the poor bass witht he hook through the belly was definitely the most noteable fish to come out of the golf course pond the past few days, but I thought this one was a cool shot. Reese has been having fun trying to figure out her new camera…

Nice shot, pretty fish

I met up with my old roommate to check out the new house he just bought on friday… after scoping the place out we decided to run out to Bridge Creek to check out a farm/neighborhood pond. Rumors of active 6lb+ bass were enough to convince us to take the drive.

No 6lber’s, but definitely some fun fishing and a great chance to catch up.

Josh bringing in the first fish of the day...

He was hooked up before I had even set the paddle down to make a cast, nice way to start things off for sure.

Nice timing...

They were all extra dark, very pretty and healthy fish in this pond.

So dark...

Judging by my case of “bass thumb,” I’d definitely call it a good few days. Not sure what’s in store for me fishing-wise  this week. Hopefully a trip or two to the OK river to bring my first gar to hand!

The measure of a good week....

I’ve been wanting to scout out a few new areas I’ve been hearing about (stay tuned!), but I decided to stop off at my favorite local golf course pond to get in a big fish fix. It had been over a week since I had seen the backing on my reel; obviously chasing down some big carp and/or catfish was in order. The LMFR wild rainbows were a treat, don’t get me wrong… but there’s something addictive about hearing your reel scream and finding bruises on your stomach from fighting fish.

The water was a couple feet lower than the last time I had seen the pond and the fish weren’t feeding in any of the areas where I had seen them before. I only had a couple of hours to fish and was worried I was going to strike out. I kept walking along the bank and found some promising activity in the form of a tail flicking around above the surface. I figured it was a carp, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be one of these:

Cat tailing along the bank

He had his head buried under the edge of the bank most of the time, giving me a great chance to get above him and highstick/dap a crawfish imitation (headstand) right next to his face. He didn’t look twice, grabbed it almost immediately and was off to the races.  He wasn’t a monster but still managed to put a solid bend in the rod.

Meow

I didn’t have too much success following the catfish so I took off to a different area of the pond… Spotted a shadow moving around a few feet off the bank. I tossed one about a foot in front of his nose and hoped it was a big carp. Gave it a few strips and saw the shadow turn… set the hook and the water exploded. He went on a decent initial run, but began running 30-40ft back and forth along the bank with an occasional run into deeper water. I wasn’t sure what I was hooked into until I was able to finally drag him in close.

Throwing off a nice vortex... headed on another run

He wasn’t a monster, but the fight lasted long enough to put a few bruises on my stomach and for a few different groups of golfers to finish the hole I was fishing near. I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of catching these fish.

Sayin' hi

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

Panorama wasn't cooperating... bummer

I don’t know if the boaters enjoyed getting a close up look at a fly fisherman or what, but it seemed like every boat on the lake would make pass after pass right in front of me. I wouldn’t have even needed a double haul to cast into many of their boats as they would pass.   The wakes were rolling in high (and OFTEN), but the carp were still plenty willing to play around.

Refreshing... but oh so frustrating.

The wakes were a throwback to my Santa Barbara surf fishin’ days. Line control was definitely a pain, and detecting a strike in wavy water was no easy task, but there were enough fish running around that I could just move on to the next spot after I’d spook a group. Weighted red SJW’s and the trusty rusty Egan’s Headstand were both good producers, bringing to hand half a dozen in a few hours. None of them were the monsters that I had hoped to find, but the quantity made up for the lack of size!!

Small, but still knows how to run...

It seemed like the larger fish were all off the bank clooping, but I was had a terrible time enticing them with anything I was throwing. I spent over an hour working a few different groups of cloopers, no dice. I think I feel a new personal challenge coming along…

cloop cloop cloop

The constant waves made it hard for me to keep track of my drys, but I’m sure they helped me keep from spooking them so easily too… give and take I guess…

cloopin away

If you have any advice for foolin’ cloopers, please share… I clearly need the help!!

All in all, definitely a good weekend at Arcadia. Saw a few bait fisherman wrestling some nice cats and even a few nice looking hybrids (though I saw them from a distance so might have misidentified??).  I’ll close with a parting shot of some wildlife… time to go nurse my sunburn.

He was fast and I was far away

Enough of the introduction… It’s business time.

This work week may have been short thanks to Memorial Day, but it sure felt L O N G. After sacrificing my lunch hour three days in a row, I finally had a chance to break free of my windowless, fluorescent light filled prison cell office to grab some lunch. I drove out to my fav lunch spot below the Lake Overholser Dam to enjoy some sun and fresh air while scouting the tailwaters. I didn’t see anyone catch anything (although I must admit I didn’t have too long to observe), but they were releasing a good amount of water from the canal and it was virtually WIND FREE. Not a bad combination. I headed back to the office determined to finish things up in a hurry so that I could get in a serious session on the water before it got dark. I mean come on, wind <10mph… that’s an Oklahoma rarity that demands to be taken advantage of.

Although the water release was tempting me to chase some hybrids below Overholser, I couldn’t resist the urge to track down tailing carp in one of the local golf course ponds. I figured with the light breeze I’d have an easy time locating the goods. Definitely made the right decision.

I got out to the pond around 5:30 and after making sure my girlfriend was comfortably situated with a book/chair/water/etc so she could “sun,” it was game time. I tied on the go-to rusty orange egan’s headstand and got to work. I crept around the bank for a while until I spotted a tail flicking around in the murky water. After putting my first cast about a foot out of range, the second cast was right on target… Saw the tail drop, set the hook, and BOOM… early success. Or so I thought.  He didn’t hesitate for a second, running straight to a metal stake sticking out of the water 10ft away near the bank, quickly wrapping my leader around it, and leaving me saying a few words that my girlfriend wasn’t too happy to hear. She was practically across the pond from me, but I could still see the glare and evidently, she could still hear me pretty well… whoops.

Tied on another headstand and kept on movin’. I crept along west side of the pond, keeping my shadow in the shadows of the bank to avoid spooking the fish that I thought would be feeding on the bank. Didn’t run into a single carp along the whole bank (surprising, normally see at least a fish or two, even on days when the conditions aren’t as pristine). It wasn’t until I got down to the creek/waterfall on the far side where water was draining in from the pond above that I saw any activity, but WOW… was there ever some activity!!!

I don’t know if there was a dead fish (or multiple dead fish) in the upper pond or what, but there were quite a few pieces of “flesh” draining into the pond and they were causing a feeding FRENZY.

Little chunks of fleshy/fishy/goo

Here’s a video of the action:

You’d think the fishing would be pretty simple with some much action going on, but between avoiding the ridiculous number of catfish going to town on whatever had died and trying to entice the carp to eat something artifical instead of the bountiful easy “real” meal being funneled right to their mouths — it wasn’t quite as easy as I anticipated.

It seemed like every time I’d put the fly on the nose of a carp I’d end up setting the hook on one of the catfish instead. The competition was  fierce and this one had the battle wounds to prove it…

Bet it was from the same turtle that got a hold of my sage rod tip... Still mad.

I had to start being very selective concerning which carp I’d cast to since each time I’d drag out a cat I’d spook the carp and have to wait for them to return. The selective casting paid off and I ended up bringing a couple nice carp to hand. I’d run them (literally… the golfers probably thought I was crazy)  along the bank to get out of the action zone to keep the commotion/spooking to a minimum.

Don't know what's more special... a nice carp, or a shot of the nice calm water. What I would do for a few more days like that each year...

The fly that changed my life...

By the time I pulled in the 2nd one I had thoroughly spooked the carp from the area. My stomach was growling and Reese had finished her book so it was a good time to pack it up and go pick up some dinner. What a nice way to cap off a long week…

-Ward