My apologies for the absence… lost a bit of blogging motivation, but thought I’d make a comeback with a piece on a weekend trip to Broken Bow, Oklahoma to fish the Lower Mountain Fork River in Beavers Bend State Park.

Well, it was another great weekend on the LMF to say the least! Temps were perfect, the trees were starting to turn, the rain stopped (minus some drizzle), and it was generally overcast… Could have done without the crowds, but with zone 2 and zone 3 out of the equation due to generation, that’s to be expected (tough when everyone’s packed into the one remaining zone). To make it even better, Reese wanted to get away and do some camping/relaxing (didn’t feel like doing any fishing) so it was a great chance for us to get away from the grind.

We got in after midnight Friday and after setting up camp and organizing my gear (putting flies in boxes, cleaning lines, etc) I was too tired to get out and do any night fishing like I had planned on. Woke up in the morning, got the signal from Reese that she wanted to sleep in,  and decided to start the day on the Evening Hole (meaningless to some of you, but more on it here).

Fished the Evening Hole for a little bit (unsuccessfully), but I’m a fan of hopping around and the EH was PACKED (sort of like it was this day) so I took off to cook some breakfast for Reese and make the move to the Spillway Creek.

Lots of people were around, but I love the Spillway because there’s always unfished productive pocketwater. There’s ALWAYS a way to escape out there. I didn’t catch a ton of fish that morning, but the ones I did catch were all quality size. Most were just about the length of the opening of my net.

Fiesty Little Pellet-head

Nice colors on them though..

A bit shy

But a couple fish that were truly big worked their way into the mix, and MAN were those fun. Managed to keep one from coming unbuttoned (a fun challenge on a 2wt in strong, quick water!). Definitely a PB on the 2wt.

Tough glare, beautiful fish

Big fish on small flies (#20 red zebra midge) and a small rod, sort of thing that makes it hard to leave! Who says Oklahoma doesn’t have nice fish anyway?

We spent a little time relaxing after lunch out at the Old Park Dam (start of zone 2).

Lots of water. Lots and lots of water

Ended up fishing a different area of the Spillway Creek that afternoon… Not much success. Couldn’t make it work… fished a lot of FISHY spots, but couldn’t get ‘em figured out. Had one chomp on my strike indicator, so I tied on a stimulator and he smashed it pretty good. Wasn’t big, but it’s always nice to mix it up and bring one in on a dry. Happened to be the only fish I caught the entire afternoon too. Almost walked face first into this monster when I was trying to scramble off the trail down to the river… Obviously he parked himself head high right in the middle of the opening to the most convenient way down.

Marbled Orb Weaver?

Closed out the day by picking up a couple of ribeyes from the frontier general store. We got the last two, and they were tasty, but really fatty. Might have been more fat than meat… but I chalk that up to only having the last two to choose from! We brought some wine back with us from Napa (that was the tail end of the Yosemite trip I posted about a while ago) and paired with the steak it was solid.

Don’t know if it was the wine (or the post-wine bourbon), but I set my alarm for 12:30am to see if I could track down some browns below the spillway dam and somehow didn’t manage to wake up… whoops. Was disappointed when I woke up Sun morning that I hadn’t done any night fishing, but got over it pretty quickly when I realized the spillway wasn’t too crowded that morning…

Wont be long and the trees will be in full swing

Didn’t catch a ton of fish again, but that made it more enjoyable and each fish more rewarding. I really was hoping to get into some of the browns… but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.

Reese was not feeling too good on Sunday… Not sure if it was allergies or if she’s getting sick, but she had a really sore throat and a lot of sinus drainage that wasn’t making her very comfortable (being sick to your stomach in a place that’s out of your comfort zone is the pits…). We packed up camp pretty early and we made one more stop at the Evening Hole (crowds had thinned out some by Sunday) on our way out. Fished under the bluffs for about and hour and had a blast.

Great water

The fishies thought so too. Tied on an EHC/Emerger combo and started to had some success. The little guys were just destroying the EHC.

I vote this one’s an okie’ native (”native” term obviously used loosely)… (and apologies for the foul hook, got tangled with the dropper)

Can't wait for the day that the stream/river is full of these

It was definitely a great time. Good to be back knee deep in cold water and nice to be back on theokieangler.com

NO idea what this post message the page up, but for some reason it does…

If you want to continue to older posts, click here

I woke up on day 4 wondering how I was going to top day 3… I knew full well that I had my work cut out for me, but why not try?? Reese decided to sleep in and explore town while I went in search of more wild trout. I started off the day on a certain little creek in the park:

so many fishy hideouts and so little time...

Bounce a caddis off a boulder.. fun and productive game

 Caught some great fish that morning, lots of rainbows and a few small brookies… gave me a good chance to do some more experimentation with the underwater capabilities of my camera.

Staring me down...

Tried this one with the flash...

Enjoyed the reflection on this one

 I was having a lot of fun exploring the creek, but I was starting to itch for something a little different. I remembered noticing a creek running through a nice meadow during our hunt for Goldens. Decided to give it a shot…

Surrounded by mountains... clear cold water, undercut banks, overhanging vegetation... a dream

I explored this thing up and down… had to fight a strong headwind all morning and early afternoon. Caught lots of small brookies and browns, but not many rainbows. In a lower section of this creek I started catching some larger silvery rainbows… obviously stockers. Packed it up after dragging in a couple  of them… travel over a thousand miles for stockers!

After taking a break for a couple hours to eat with Reese back in Mammoth I closed out the day back in the park. I had a few friends land on me when I got out of the car after arriving and new it was going to be  a nice late afternoon/evening.

yum

Bugs were everywhere and the fish were definitely happy. They were so happy in fact, I didn’t even notice the mosquitos on my shins until the next day… I don’t know if it was just because I knew we were headed for San Fran the next day or what, but it seemed like every fish I caught that evening was extra colorful and special. 

Rainbow in the sun

Rainbow in the Shade

It was hard to make myself leave. The fishing was crazy good, the fish were crazy pretty, and I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to do something like this for a long time… but I really didn’t want to take the Tioga Pass down at night. It was intense enough in the day with the rental’s shakey/squeeky brakes. I ended up being glad I left a little before dark… The sunset on the drive home was a great way way to close out a day fishing.

A few of the shots out the window turned out surprisingly well

Thought the moon was a nice touch

 What a great time in the Sierra’s. Nearly everyone I spoke with about the trip before we left kept telling me how the Sierra’s were the most impressive, beautiful, enjoyable mountains anywhere… I was afraid that I was going to think they were overrated. Not at all…. Not one bit.

The flight from OKC to Vegas was pretty uneventful… but once we got to Vegas things got a little bit more interesting (standard for Vegas). While we were waiting to board our flight to Reno we heard some commotion… Looked over and saw a woman choking and turning a eerie blue. A man next to her started doing the heimlich maneuver, but was unsuccessful after about a dozen tries. The woman definitely looked like she was in bad shape and things were getting pretty intense. A few military personel ran over and went to work… it took them a few tries, but they ended up dislodging whatever was keeping her from breathing. Taking care of business at home and abroad… very nice. I wish I would have pulled out my camera for a quick video…would have made for a great youtube vid, but things were a little too intense to think of it at the time.

We were delayed a few minutes while doctors checked out the lady, but she checked out and we boarded pretty quickly. Soutwest is weird, they don’t give you seat #’s and it’s a bit of free-for-all to get a seat. Reese and I grabbed a couple of seats by the window and waited to see who would be joining us… a fun waiting game. We lucked out hard core and sat next to a guy named Steve Keegan. He was a really nice guy, offered us a couple of congratulatory cocktails after noticing Reese’s ring and struck up a convo that lasted the whole (short) flight. Turns out he’s a pretty big name photojournalist who’s now doing some wedding photography to pay the bills. He was able to give us a ton of information about the Sierra’s and Napa and we definitely landed in Reno more prepared for our adventures than when we boarded.

We picked up our fly ride (impala baaabaay) and after a quick pit stop at an In and Out Burger we were on our way. Most of the drive was in the dark, which was disappointing to miss the view along the way, but the drive to Mammoth Lakes went pretty quickly regardless.

We had a terrible time trying to find a place to stay near Yosemite, but managed to find the Cinnamon Bear Inn a few days before we left. Turned out to be another lucky find… it was a great place. Comfy bed, living room, full kitchen… we were definitely a lot more comfortable than we would have been camping.

No AC, but the open window cooled things down

Not a bad spot to chill out after a long day

All kinds of Convenient

*you can click any of the pics (including ones below) to see them enlarged

Didn’t take long to crash… driving wears me out and had a long day of fishing/sight seeing ahead of us…Woke up and hit up the complimentary breakfast. They do it right..

It was nice to get outside and finally see the beautiful country that we were in. Ran into an interesting specimen while gassing up…

Never seen anything like it...

The short drive to the Tioga Pass leading into the park was pretty, but the view once we were on the pass was crazy pretty.

Once we finished the steep trek into the park I was greeted with more open water than I knew what to do with. I started fishing one particular creek that had been (VERY) kindly recommended to me…

Cold, clear, and FISHY

Didn’t take long after tying on a EHC and caddis puppa dropper to see some success. The first of many out of this creek was a pretty rainbow (turned out to be one of the larger ones I caught out of the creek).

Stealth was harder in the trees/boulders than I imagined

Can't even express how much fun it is to catch wild fish, nice way to start things off

Nice to have clear water for the underwater shots... Definitely not used to that

The first few to hand were all bows and they seemed to get progressively smaller, but I stumbled on to my first Brookie in no time.

Check another one off the list!

Pretty soon after the Brookie, I noticed Reese walking downstream (had been working my way downstream and left her set up with a camp chair and book on a boulder) looking for me. She had missed me crouched on a boulder and had passed… had to hop across stream and chase her down, but she had already become a little worried (ok, very worried) that we had been separated. Strike one… Note to self, be more careful to stay in sight!

I put up the fly rod for a few hours to make amends and we did some sight seeing… Took a while to get down to the Valley and we were met with huge crowds, but it was still nice to see the sights.

Lucky charm?

Another of the many impressive views

Don't know the name of this one... but I was exhausted just watching these guys/girls climb

After making the rounds, we headed back over to the east side for some more fishing before calling it a day. Found a nice little meadow and decided to give it a shot.

I love this place

I closed things out with another handful of rainbows and brookies before hooking into my first brown of the trip.

3/4 of the way to a slam

A pretty great way to start off the trip… Lots of fun, feisty, wild trout… and some great scenery that I’m sure I’ll never forget. On top of it all I got to share it with the girl I love more than anything… pretty much a dream scenario. It’s official, I need vacation more often.

Hope to throw up a post of day 3 (alpine lake/golden trout day) tomorrow, but we’re headed to Napa to have our fill tomorrow, so I’m not sure what kind of “posting condition I’ll be in.

-Ward