Hey, we can two step across the border from North Texas to Oklahoma anytime! I have been mulling over the idea of kayak fishing the Blue River in recent months, and the only thing I am wondering about is exactly where the report refers to when they talk of smallmouth bass. There are plenty of submerged boulders in the southern stretch, but the actual kayak-able water is minimal. It seems a kayak would be much more deadly on the northern stretch because it would reach a huge area of water that doesn’t get any pressure.

You also have to watch the Oklahoma version of Texoma reports as well. Texoma has, bu all reports, been on for a long time. Wave the smallmouth flag in my face, and you’ve got my full undivided attention. Stripers are pretty hard to chase in a kayak – been there done that, and got the muscle cramps to prove it.

From Oklahoma Wildlife Department -

Texoma: May 5. Elevation 1 ft. above normal, water 69 and murky far north and clear south. Largemouth and smallmouth bass good on crankbaits, spinner baits and plastic worms at 5-15 ft. from Catfish Bay to Little Glasses Creek. Striped and white bass good on live bait, sassy shad and deep diving lures at 15-25 ft. from Alberta Creek to the north. Channel and blue catfish good on worms, live bait and stinkbait at 10-20 ft. from Johnson Creek to the south. Crappie good on minnows and jigs at 5-15 ft. around the fish attractors and underwater brush. Paddlefish fair to good below the dam while generating. Report submitted by Danny Clubb, game warden stationed in Bryan County.

Murray: May 7. Water 71. Largemouth and smallmouth bass good to excellent on various baits. White bass fair on minnows, jigs and trolling in the north end of the lake. Channel catfish good on stinkbait, worms and chicken liver. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 4-10 ft. around structure. Report submitted by Jeremy Brothers, game warden stationed in Carter County.

Lower Mt. Fork: May 6. Water mid-60s. Rainbows being caught on march browns in the red zone. Walleye, white bass and rainbows good on rooster tails and grubs near the power house. Report submitted by Mark Hannah, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.

Lower Illinois: May 7. Elevation normal, water 43 and clear. Largemouth bass fair on stinkbait and crankbaits at 1-2 ft. in coves, around docks and creek channels. White bass good on spinnerbaits and jigs at 1-3 ft. all along the river. Striped bass fair on jigs at 1-3 ft. at the mouth of the river. Striped bass hybrids slow on jigs at 1-3 ft. at the mouth of the river. Channel catfish excellent on cut bait on bottom all along the river. Crappie fair on spinnerbaits and jigs at 1-3 ft. all along the river. Trout excellent fly-fishing the surface, on rooster tails at 1-2 ft. and on Power Bait on bottom from Gore Landing to the dam. Report submitted by D. Tracy, Town of Gore.

Arbuckle: May 5. Elevation 1/2 ft. above normal, water clear to stained up creeks. On calm days expect to see algae on surface. Crappie being caught off docks early morning and good on chartreuse 1/16 ounce jigs off brush piles. White bass being caught on small crankbaits and roadrunners in a lot of the bigger coves and along the dam. Bass being caught on topwater early and on crankbaits, drop-shot rigs and shaky heads throughout the rest of the day. Report submitted by Jack Melton.

Blue River: May 7. Elevation normal, water 70 and clear. Channel catfish excellent on stinkbait, minnows and chicken liver in deeper holes around current and structure. Flathead catfish fair on live bait in deeper holes. Smallmouth, spotted and largemouth bass good on soft plastics and spinnerbaits around structure and rocks. Report submitted by Matt Gamble, biologist at the Blue River Public Fishing and Hunting Area.

Broken Bow: May 6. Elevation slightly above normal and dropping. Bass good on pink flukes around structure and shallows. White bass excellent on white and yellow rooster tails and on yellow and white smoke grubs with 1/4-ounce lead heads; they are running in the upper end of the lake, in Panther Creek and up streams. Channel catfish good on juglines and trotlines baited with cut bait and sunfish. Crappie fair to good on pumpkin seed and chartreuse tail grubs at 5-8 ft. in shallows. Report submitted by Dru Polk, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.

Eufaula: May 6. Elevation 1/2 ft. above normal, water clear in the east and murky in the west. Largemouth bass fair on crankbaits and spinnerbaits along rocky areas. White bass good on jigs below the dam when water running. Blue catfish good on shad and shrimp along rocky areas and shallow flats. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 4-10 ft. along riprap, bridges and standing timber. Report submitted by Ed Rodebush, game warden stationed in McIntosh County.

Hugo: May 6. Elevation normal. Crappie fair to good on minnows along the river channel and along drop-offs. Largemouth bass good on spinnerbaits and lizards around brush along creek channels. Blue catfish good on cut shad below the dam. Report submitted by Jay Harvey, game warden stationed in Choctaw and Bryan counties.

- From Rob Woodruff -

Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation
2011 One Fly Contest
Saturday, February 26th
7:00 a.m. until Noon
Beavers Bend State Park, Broken Bow, OK

Only one month until the 8th Annual Lower Mountain Fork One Fly.

Registration

Entry fee is $50. Entry is open only to LMFRF members. If you are not currently a LMFRF member in good standing, you must submit your 2011 membership dues ($25) along with your $50 registration fee.

You can pre-register, pay your 2011 dues, or join the LMFRF at www.lmfrfoundation.org

Day of contest registration begins at the Lower Spillway Creek Bridge Parking Lot in Beavers Bend State Park at 6:00 AM.

The first 36 entrants will receive an embroidered 2011 LMFRF One Fly cap.

All proceeds go to benefit the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation’s efforts to improve the trout fishery on the Mountain Fork River.

Rules
- Starting Point – Lower wooden foot bridge parking lot – Spillway Creek.
- Pairings will be drawn just prior to the start, no exceptions.

The rules are simple:
1) As the name implies – one fly only. No bait, lures, scents or droppers.

2) Each contestant will be provided the exact same fly pattern. This fly will be the only fly eligible for use in the contest. The fly pattern will be kept secret until the start of the contest.

3) Each contestant will fish that fly ONLY. Lose the fly, you are out.

4) The fly may be cut off the leader and retied as needed. Your partner must be notified that you are doing this.

5) A fly that is broken off on an obstruction may be retrieved and retied to the leader. Your partner must be notified that you are doing this.

6) A scored fish is one that is brought to hand and released; no “LDR’s”. Your partner must be notified that a fish has been landed and scored.

7) Each contestant is responsible for keeping his or her own score.

Scoring
Each fish will be scored as ONE POINT
Any Trout over 12″ and less than 14″ will receive an additional point (total of 2 points)
Any Trout of 14″ and less than 16″ will receive an additional 2 points (total of 3 points)
Any Trout of 16″ and less than 18″ will receive an additional 3 points (total of 4 points)
Any Trout of 18″ and less than 20″ will receive an additional 5 points (total of 6 points)
Any Trout 20″ or over will receive an additional 9 points (total of 10 points)
Any Brown Trout receives a 4 point bonus.
He or she with the MOST POINTS wins.

The current LMFRF President is the Judge for the contest and all decisions by the Judge are final.

PRIZES WILL INCLUDE FREE LODGING AT VARIOUS CABINS IN THE AREA, MEALS AT SEVERAL OF OUR AREA RESTAURANTS, FLY FISHING EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES!!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Hope to see you there,
Rob Woodruff
LMFRF Advisory Board Member

Dusty Montgomery captured this image in Oklahoma last year.

If happiness for fly fishers is information, then the amount of information available via the internet could kill us all with an overdose of bliss.

Trout, even stockers, are a bit more complex than your average largemouth bass. Stockers aren’t everywhere all the time, and if they actually have a chance to “go native” and eat from the local menu, you want to know what’s on the menu. Enter hatch charts.

In an attempt to get all this information “under one roof” so to speak, I spent some time compiling the information into this single post. I hope you don’t ask, and read this first. If you don’t read this then don’t be surprised when you are unceremoniously sent HERE.

Geographically speaking, we may as well start from the southern most trout fishing in Texas (and the US for that matter?).

Books full of bliss have been written on the Guadalupe River and Texas Hill Country fly fishing scene.

Guadalupe River Trout Fishing
I recently ran a post on the Guadalupe River Trout Fishing, provided by and I just came across this site – Castell Guide Services, which has hatch charts for the Guadalupe River and plenty of other valuable information. Take the information from locals with a grain of chamber of commerce thinking. Central Texas and the Hill Country are the object of drought and epic flooding on what seems to be a regular basis, so know before you go. Volumes of information exist on the Guadalupe, and it continues to pile up. The “Guad” as it’s called, also benefits from the concentrated attention of Trout Unlimited and the Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (GRTU). They do have a lease system, additional private stocking of trout and more recently they have become involved with river flow and temperature monitors. Since the Guad is a river, the TPWD does release a map showing where trout are stocked on the Guadalupe.

General Trout Stocking in Texas
Texas, like other states, spends substantial money to stock city ponds for events meant to get people outside and fishing during the colder months. Typically, they respond to fish kibble in a variety of power bait colors. Translation; sure you saw them being poured into your neighborhood pond, but they are going to sit in a tight school, never going native, and get yanked by the Home Depot bucketload with Power Bait. Good luck with a fly rod. They post the Texas trout stocking information in November, but here is last year’s locations for Texas trout stocking. I think it would be safe to guess there will be significant cutbacks in Texas trout stockings. Virtually all trout found in Texas are found in these stocking situations, with the glowing exception being the Guadalupe River.

State of Oklahoma
In North Texas, home base for TFC, it’s just about 35 miles to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma knows that. There’s an entire industry aimed at fly fishers, and two southernmost destinations for North Texas are the Blue River and Broken Bow / Beaver’s Bend. The Blue River is seasonally stocked while Broken Bow benefits from a much longer, more intense, stocking schedule. I don’t know what kind of “tourist” dollar value has been put on these fish, but Broken Bow’s economic impact is measured in the millions. Whether by design, or budget cuts, it looks like Oklahoma will be cutting back on stocking trout at certain locations. You can find the Oklahoma trout stocking schedule here. If you are headed to Broken Bow – The Lower Mountain Fork – have a look at the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation web site. Scroll down a little on this link to see a short Broken Bow hatch chart. There’s a better one … somewhere.

Going Native
If you want to zero in your skills for catching trout in the nearby Lower Mountain Fork, or at the Guadalupe River, you will be well served to attend one of Rob Woodruff’s entomology classes at either, or both locations. I have done the class on the Guadalupe, and some of the basics are the same, but you will find a very different selection of trout food sources on the Lower Mountain Fork. Do yourself a favor, and DO both classes. Don’t hesitate, as Mr. Woodruff’s classes always fill up quickly.

References
If you are looking for a shortcut to stories on both of these locations, be sure to go to the right hand column, scroll down to the search box and key in words for whatever bliss you seek.