JCWolfe

I fished last monday and had my best day ever. I found the fish in a barrel.

Thats on chartered waters page. Size 18 black soft shelled scud caught that. What a beast.

This brown will be number 11 when it dies

Saw 3 more today. One was dying.

Saw 8 dead brown trout today, any thoughts? Sad to see.

Aw crap, I hate hearing reports like this, headed that way for a couple days.

Havent heard of many stripers being caught upriver, mainly down river where LIR and Arkansas meet. Pm me or post up if your thinking about heading to fish again and hopefully I can update you.

Lake is turning over is why its dirty plus D.O. levels are low, doesnt help fishing everywhere. Some places are better than others

It will probably be a couple months is my guess based on prior years till it clears up. I fish there probably more than most so that is why I have success dirty water or no dirty water.

Water is dirty, was there monday and fished till generation around 1. I had a good day, my buddy, not a good day.

Veevus thread for the win, strong stuff.

The second picture looks like one I caught last friday. Son in law got one too. They were really yellow on the bottom.

I use something similar to that with good results. No rib and a copper bead. Coat the body with super glue to make it durable. Got a nice brown on a size 18 friday. Rusty zebra midge caught most of my fish friday.

I landed a nice looking 18 " brown on the 20th and lost a really good one that evening. Son in law caught one a little smaller than the one I got. It was a really good looking fish, great colors.

A fish is caught when its on the hook, netted or brought to hand is how I count fish.

They have no memory, no curls in them from being on the reel. Also you have to put floatant on them or they will sink. I think some are pre treated plus I got the one with the tippet ring on the end. I like them. To me they are more of a money saver because they should last a long time.

You wouldnt have got a brown that was big enought to keep anyhow. They did stock some bigger ones late last year. I got one that was 15 or 16", don't remember for sure without looking, but for the most part those little browns they stocked earlier in the year are getting bigger. I got 5 browns and lost 2 on monday. Brown has to be 20" or bigger. A guy showed me a pic from years ago of one he caught that was 4 pounds. That was before we started having fish kills and major flooding a few years back

Also the generation schedule is subject to change so you will get shafted sooner or later.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/ops_hydropower/TENKhydro.html This is the link you need to look at. Look where it says number of turbines online. 1 or 2, water flowing so dont go. 0 , you can wade fish but check the generation schedule here, http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/power/hydropower.html. At this link it will show you at thep bottom, most recent instatanious value, the cubic feet a second of water that is flowing. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ok/nwis/uv?site_no=07198000. For the most part the water flow during non generation has been in the 40's and is easily wadable. Even a few hundred isnt bad for wade fishing. You just need to go and look at the numbers when you go to get an idea for yourself.

Personally I think felt is better but bought rubber soled boots and added studs because of them being banned in other states. When you have fished in multiple states then you have no worries.

Try upriver, water is cooler. Watts is good and below the dam and gravel parking lot below dam is good.

68. Lot of poachers when I was there. No fish activity that I saw. Usually see a lot swimming around, maybe a handful.

I had a pretty crappy day on monday, only got 2 rainbows. I left after checking the water temperature.

Right now I would be leary of the generation schedule with the inflow going into Tenkiller. They may not follow the schedule. You're picking a tough time to fish for your first trip. Fishing has been slow to okay at times. Good luck.

I pretty much learned everything from either watching others, books, videos and the internet. I didnt have a mentor. I didn't even know anyone who even flyfished. If you can't get out on the water go practice casting in the yard. Don't worry about distance right now, get your technique correct. Youtube is your friend. You will get better if you really dedicate yourself. As for flies, you have midges, mayfly, caddis, stonefly, scuds, sowbugs streamers, worms, egg and attractors, that's what I have. You dont need a million flies. Once you fish a certain place for awhile you learn they're a certain few that will work. Fly shops, fishing reports and other friendly fisherman are always a big help on what flies to use. Im not a purist when it comes to fly selection, I use what they want. My home water would be the Lower Illinois. I've learned certain microjigs/ micro buggers work really well there. I use those first and usually don't have to use anything else. Midges are next, sometimes they are a trailer and sometimes they are by themselves. Situation dictates your methods. Bottom line is just go when you can and keep going to get better.