Blue River Catch and Release – On Again for 2011-2012 Season
Just Added – Image from today at the Blue River. Released this one, but it had better than average color for a synthetic.
This great fly fishing weather that has set in in North Texas finally has everyone thinking trout – rainbow trout in this case.
The review of “An Entirely Synthetic Fish,” withstanding, and still outstanding (yet to be written), it’s time to get to some slabby catch-and-release only stocker rainbow trout. And if you are in North Texas, and just have to go north, it’s a little less than 90-miles from my door to the Blue River catch-and-release (CNR) area outside Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
As opposed to the catch-and-kill area of the Blue River, the CNR area offers a unique experience. It has relatively few people fishing there – often no one during weekdays, and once you’ve reached the prime areas, it’s quite easy for young, old, athletic and non-athletic people to move around, get to spots with clear backcasts, and have a shot at catching rainbow trout that have had time to gain some weight, and regain some instincts. Sure, virtually all have tell-tale tales, and other characteristics of stockers, but anemic they aren’t.
I am a much bigger fan of the Guadalupe River in Central Texas, but the trip to and from the Blue River is all in a single day’s work. The next time I go, I will be sure to finally make some images of the landmark, Scotty’s, as well as the catch and kill park and CNR area. I am sure not a lot has changed since previous posts on the Blue River, but it often helps to see things are still where they were the last time we were there, right?
Tomorrow – A father-daughter story from their trip to the Blue River
Category: Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Oklahoma Report
This really is a beautiful place. Texasflycaster invited a few of us rookies out, brought us to a gorgeous spot with falls, riffles, tons of structure and put us on the fish. Black and later olive Whooly Buggers did most ofthe work. Bead Heads to get down and taunt the trout. TFC also recommended a 7 foot 4 wht that saved my backcasting and allowed me to really enjoy these trout. I have fished stockers near Austin and Ft. Worth before and took plenty of 10 inchers, but a lot of these fish had size and thickness to them. The few I pulled from the Catch n Keep area were pan dressed, stuffed with lemon and tomatoes, wrapped in bacon and were delicious. If you are in to that type of thing.
There is a bit more detail – Scotty said that the C-n-R area has only been stocked once, while the catch-and-kill area has been receiving extra stock (I guess diverted from the Lower Illinois?). Needless, the synthetics are in there thick, and don’t think you can find them all. I picked up a 14 incher in no man’s land.
Thanks for the information!