TheOkieAngler.com

Who needs a little extra distraction at work?? Not me… but thanks to the roughfisher, I have yet another one.

Who needs a "to-do" list anyway?

I picked up this book a few weeks ago after reading JP’s interview with Tom Dickson. It’s easy to feel a bit isolated from the fly fishing community out here in Oklahoma and the book sounded like a good enough substitute for getting in some on-the-water time with the rough fishing gurus.

I’ve always been a fan of a little fishing variety and it seems like this book is opening up a few more fly fishing options for me. I definitely haven’t been disappointed with the results thus far. After picking up my first Flathead a couple of weeks ago (admittedly, more luck than a result of reading the book…spend enough time on the water and something cool is bound to happen sooner or later), I pulled in my first bullhead. Check another one off the species life list!

A not-so-black black bullhead

With a little academic motivation from Fishing for Buffalo and having knocked off 2 new species from the life list in as many weeks I thought I should expand on my “Gar Goal” a bit more… I’m always trying to find ways to continually improve and I figure there’s no better way to ensure it happens than to come up with some specific challenges for myself.

SUMMER GOALS:

1. Catch a Gar – Still #1, but I think I am going to take after Trash on the Fly (one of the best posts I’ve read in a while) and just fish for them opportunistically. I’ve burned a lot of time fishing for them recently when I would have probably been better off chasing something else.
2. Develop some all around rough fishin’ skills. The vast majority of the time I’ve spent on the water this  year has been chasing carp in still water, I need to break out of the rut. This one has to be broken up into a few parts:
   1. Fish more moving water.
   2. Find and catch at least one species of Redhorse
   3. Find and catch at least one species of Buffalo
   4. Find and catch a Drum

Having more goals will give me better opportunity for success and I think will really help me to pick up some new skills over the summer. The water is low and the days are hot and long. Gotta take advantage of it while I can.

Tight Lines.

Had an “interesting” experience Tuesday on the river…

Found a real nice shallow pool stacked with nice carp. I tied on a red sjw, took my time and snuck into position… Hooked into one on the first cast and horsed it out of the pool in a hurry to avoid completely spooking every other fish in the pool.

Not a monster, but always rewarding.

I was thinking about the fish on the first cast curse while I was fighting/landing/releasing the fish and wasn’t too surprised to look up and see my stacked pool getting a little extra pressure…

At least this guy just scoped it out and kept on moving...

Thankfully, the fish started tailing again after a few minutes of waiting. I made probably 10 casts to a big one parked next to a tangle of rebar. No dice. Changed flies… a couple more casts. Nada, but hey… at least he was still there. I stopped for a moment to remove a bit of green/brown goo from the hook and thought about changing it up again when I heard a “ZZZZZPPPPHH“ and saw a splash… followed shortly by an enormous wake steaming off to the main part of the river. Grrreat.

Some jackass bowfisherman had set up shop a good 30 ft off the bank and 20ft up a concrete embankment. I guess he thought it would be a good idea to shoot at the fish I was obviously trying to catch for the past few minutes????

Waited until I figured they were just out of range... ha

Fly fishing the Oklahoma River is certainly never boring.