Monday Morning Sidewalk Oklahoma Style
CROSS THE RED RIVER WITHOUT THE RIVALRY WHY DON’T WE
Good Monday, and welcome to the Monday Morning Sidewalk. It’s been this way for years, and there’s no sense in killing the goose now. But we are going to lay another egg of the golden variety, and that is for the Fall and Winter, Monday becomes the Oklahoma Fly Fishing Report.
Sound familiar? It probably is and that is because Thursday and Fridays have been the home of the “Texas Fly Fishing Report” for years now (yes, time does fly loop-less). So, what we’re going to do is make the OKLAHOMA REPORT part of the Monday Morning Sidewalk, and that is because my weekdays are currently FREE, and they are the most likely times (Monday – Friday) you can find, or join me in Oklahoma at this time of year – this year (and next with your support).
As we roll out this new report, I am going to base it on the successful format of the Texas Fly Fishing Report. Why the hell reinvent the wheel?
Virtually everyone I trust tells me that the conquering of BendBow is going to be quite an undertaking. The floods, the aftermath … none of which I have ever seen … make BendBow a clean slate. I hear there are Texans hitting the fishery every week since the floods, and they still haven’t figured it out.
Me? I am what I am. Imagine having weekdays to camp, and experience the change of seasons, and document that as well as the “New” Beaver’s Bend … I can think of a lot worse things, and a lot longer drives.
THE BLUE CARD
I still have this soft spot on my crown – for the Blue River – soft like one of the plowed fields surrounding that aquifer fed river cutting through the middle of nowhere. The Blue River defines a seasonal stocker stopover, a place where the trout are there and then they’re gone. If these synthetic fish are as unlucky as to be dumped in the catch-and-kill area? Sayonara. If they are dumped in the catch-and-release area, and don’t get poached? Congratulations! March first, it is open season, and then you get killed. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t in a manner of speaking.
THE REAL DEAL
The real deal looks to me to actually be the Lower Illinois River, but then we get into a heck of a haul to get there. Of course, this is the season for that little outing, and being true to the Texas Fly Caster origins, it will be a DIY that you can plug into (now literally), and replicate for your own fix. It’s colder up there, the variables are brand new, and that is another fishery in Oklahoma that runs all year (except for now of course!).
TURN OUT THE LIGHTS
The party’s over for what they called, “Clean Coal” here in Texas! The exclamation point is there not for we fly fishers, but for we who believe the environment is more important than the fisheries created by the cooling lakes for these power plants. There will be a longer story this week on the death of “Clean Coal” in Texas. Wind is now the king and coal is dead, long live the king. Funny that the one weather variable we fly fishers complain the most about – wind – is now the variable that promises a cleaner future for all God’s creatures crawling, walking, swimming and flying. This IS a big story. NOW, I need to come up with the list of closings (some were already shut down)
REEL RECOVERY EVENT
Thanks to all of you who I know and don’t know – who GAVE YOUR TIME to the Glen Rose event Saturday October 14 in Glen Rose, Texas. I attended the spring 2016 event as a participant, and did a story and photography then – and it was well received. Since then, I have tried to contribute to their needs in the best, most valuable ways I know how to, and look forward to running some photographs for you to see this week. There were slightly fewer participants this event, and there was a larger number of volunteers which is a always a great problem to have. Fish were caught, and friendships rekindled. Stay tuned for that post as well!
Category: Complimentary Reading
