OKFlyFisher44

This past sunday I finally got to take my drift boat out on the Elk River for its maiden float trip. After speaking with Jean Ann (sp?) at Hog Heaven, I decided to do the Pineville to Mt. Shira float in hopes of finding some smallies on the fly. My good fishing buddies, Donny and Corey, decided to join me for the float and we hashed out a plan. We launched the boat at 8:00 at Pineville and began to float our way to Mt. Shira. We stopped a few times to wade fish some areas, but mostly just fished from the boat. The river was in great shape and the level was perfect for floating. We only found 2 places that we drug bottom and only 1 place that we decided to get out and walk the boat through the area due to tricky currents and lots of trees in the water. Fishing was pretty good, especially the 1st half of the day when the sun was out but after the clouds moved in for the 2nd half of the day, the bite slowed down quite a bit. We still managed to catch a bunch of smallies, nothing big, with fish being in the 1/2lb to 2lb range. Lots of fun on the fly rod. Hot flies were big wooly buggers, various articulated streamers, and crawdad patterns fished on a sink tip line. All the dinks were right up against the bank while the bigger fish were found in deeper water, especially along the edges of gravel bars that dropped off to deeper water. Not sure what stage the smallmouth are in. Pre-spawn, spawning, or post-spawn? Any of you local guys have a better idea? Didnt see any beds that we could identify. Still learning the patterns for these river bass. We reached our take out around 5:00 to end the day. Just a side note, the bank area around Mt. Shira is washed away so we were unable to take out because the bank was too steep. We drove over to Shady Beach and used their beach to take the boat out. Thank you to the elderly lady at Shady Beach for allowing us to take out there, made our lives much easier! Also...a big THANK YOU to Russ and Jean Ann @ Hog Heaven for shuttling my truck/trailer from Pineville to Mt. Shira. That was a huge help to make our float trip happen. I will definitely be using you guys again, you were very helpful and accomodating!

I have a 6'6" Scott 3 wt paired with a Ross Vexsis that I use down there. Very fun rod. Has enough back bone to turn over the big flies and split shot but also makes the smaller trout very fun to catch. U will love that shorter rod down there. So much easier to fish with and carry through that jungle. A 7'6" rod is about max I would say for that creek, I fished it once with my 8' 4wt and it was kind of a pain in the rear.

Decided to hit Crane Creek on saturday with a buddy of mine who was seeking redemption from his 1st trip to the creek last year. Weather was cool and a touch windy for the middle of May when we arrived at the access. Made the usual hike downstream and then fished our way back to the truck. Fishing started off a little slow but as the morning warmed up, so did the fishing. The creek was a touch lower than it was on monday when I fished it, which resulted in the fish moving around and being much spookier. We spooked several fish before we could get close enough to make a cast. Even with the conditions, we were able to pull quite a few McClouds out. After lunch, we went down to the Lower Wire RD access and spent a little time there before packing it in and heading home. We caught a few fish with my buddy losing a TOAD of a McCloud to end the day. He had his redemption on Crane and I had a great time, once again, on one of my favorite trout creeks. Hot flies of the day were egg patterns, flashback PTs, and buggers. Another awesome day on the creek...

I don't know if it's too late but it's just under 160cfs which is primo flow for fishing around Tan Vat. It's safe to wade up to 200cfs and is very fishable. I would say u r good to go.

Phil...you NEED to go fish the Current and Crane. You would LOVE it. So much awesome water to fish. I'm headed to Crane tomorrow morning and then going to take the drift boat out on the Elk River on sunday to chase smallmouth. Like Phil said...there are tons of places to fly fish in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. Trout, smallmouth, largemouth, white bass, hybrids, stripers, carp, etc....can all be easily found. Sometimes it takes some driving it to get to these places but most are worth it.

Hey Jesse... Welcome to the forum! You will find that there are tons of fly fishing addicts in your area. Myself along with a handful of my friends all fish on what I like to call a "addictive level". Check out the link to my blog in my sig for some local/regional fishing reports and stories. As far as your questions go.... -Yes, the 6wt will be too light for stripers, especially if you tie into a fish over 10lbs. I caught a 20lb striper last spring on a 7wt and it was too much for that rod. I went out and bought an 8wt the following week. The 6wt would be alright down there for catching white bass, hybrids, etc....but if you hook a big striper, you are in for the fight of your life. -As far as leaders go, I normally use a 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 foot leader with 0X-2X tippet. Floating line is just fine but we sometimes will throw a sink tip line depending on the water level. -On fly selection, your normal baitfish patterns are best. Clousers, EP minnows, deceivers, white zonkers, etc.... In all honesty, its going to be a crappy year for stripers I think below Zink Dam. The broken gates have everything all messed up. The fish need some heavy generation to make them want to swim upstream to the dam. Its been relatively low water all season down there except when they generate from Keystone Dam upstream. We have fished Zink several times this year and havent had any luck. We had a decent run of white bass before the gates broke and thats really it. I'm hoping the fishing on the Lower Illinois river works out for a good year of striper fishing. Its under heavy generation right now which will draw the stripers out of the Arkansas River to spawn but if they dont stop generating anytime soon, we might miss out. Hopefully it will work out for us and we will be able to slay some "Oklahoma Chrome"! We are planning to do a night time float in my drift boat on the Lower Illinois if they stop generating, those fish have to be feeding like crazy at night! Shoot me a PM if you want any more info...

Does anyone know of an outfitter who services Indian Creek? I would to have them shuttle my truck from Lanagan to Mt. Shira if that was possible. I can't find one searching the Internet. The creek is at 380cfs or so, sitting at just over 2.6 ft on the gauge. Is this kinda high, normal, or slightly low? I fished the creek several times last summer but only floated it once but my buddies dad shuttled us. Any help would be appreciated...

Took the day off work on Monday for my birthday to spend the day on Crane Creek. My buddy and I fished the city park access in the morning till after lunch while hitting the Upper Wire RD access in the afternoon. The creek is in AWESOME shape and looked amazing. Log jams were all cleared out but were all jammed up right at the RR trestle. Creek bottom was super clean with no disgusting rotted leave piles on the bank. The rock work that was done along the stream bank by the baseball fields looks great as well, awesome section through there. We had a great day, caught a bunch of McClouds at both access points. The fish were definitely feeding like crazy after this flood. Every fish I caught had a big fat belly. This was the best trip I have had on Crane minus the 1st trip I made to Crane a few years ago, which was also right after a flood. Hot flies for my buddy were san juan worms while I stuck most my fish on a #10 pyscho prince and circus caddis. Caught my biggest McCloud to date on this trip as well, a solid 18" beauty. Crazy fight that wrapped me up on a root but luckily the 4X held and I was able to get to the fish to get it unwrapped. The creek is beautiful this time of the year....

Andrew...unless the creek is REALLY low, I always use split shot even though I tie all my nymphs with tungsten beads. Gotta get those bugs down quick enough to get past the lil' guys to where the bruisers are holding, which doesnt work half the time. Glad to hear the creek looks good, hitting it tomorrow...cant wait!

Check out the TFO Clouser rod. I just picked one up in a 6wt to use for a smallmouth rod. Absolutely love it. It will cast heavy streamers or poppers with ease. Its a lil' more $$$ than what you have budgeted but it is an amazing rod for chucking streamers, its crazy. I also have a TFO TiCR series rod in a 8wt that I use for a striper rod in the spring/early summer that casts streamers excellent as well.

I doubt the high water will have much of an effect on the trout in the LIR. They will still be there. The floods will change up the river some though, clean out some holes and fill in others. Clear out some of the downed trees. Hopefully it will clear out some of that nasty moss that is thick in the upper sections of the river. One thing that I hope happens is with all this high water that it will draw in more stripers from the Arkansas and draw them closer towards the dam instead of hanging out in the lower sections of the river. If that happens and they finally turn the water off, we could have a great year for striper fishing on the fly. Already planning a night-time float trip on the LIR if they turn the water off to see if we can find some big boys feeding at night... I think the high water will make things for the better once they finally shut the water down...it usually does...

Its still off color and muddy? A buddy of mine fished it last sunday and the river looked AWESOME in his pictures. Planning on coming down there on monday for my birthday to fish the creek, cant wait to see how the creek has changed. My buddy said it looks to have changed for the better. Lots of new holes and most of the big log jams were washed out. What size flies are u using? I see that you put #16-#18 on your scuds. I dont fish anything smaller than a #12 when I go to Crane, usually #8s and #10s on all my flies and always have really good success. The larger bugs will cut down on the small fish too and help get your flies down to where the big fish are hiding in the deep holes.

Possibly. Won't hurt my feelings any if they all stack up in the Lower Illinois as long as they stop generating sometime soon. We r planning some night time floats for stripers in the drift boat if they ever cut the water off. I think they r feeding heavily at night down there during low water. We will find out...

Hit the river below Zink on Sunday to see if we could find some stripers even though conditions weren't the greatest. We hit all the usual spots with no luck minus a few drum and foul hooked gar. No hybrids or sand bass either. The lack of heavy generation between periods of low water is probably to blame as the heavy generation seems to bring the fish upriver. Not sure how this year is gonna play out with the gates being broke on Zink Dam. Only time will tell... What is everyones opinion? Some of u guys have been fishing down there longer than I have (last 3 years). Any thoughts? On a side note, I bet we will have a good year on the Lower Illinois if they ever stop generating long enough for us to hit the river. Ready for striper season to get started! The tug is the drug...

Once all this high water goes down, I think it will be a perfect time to make the maiden voyage in the drift boat on the NFOW. I love chuckin' big nasties in emerald green water...

Any bugs come off before the rain hit you guys? Thats awesome that ur girls caught some trout, I cant wait to get my 2 y/o on her 1st fish. She is all about it...

I know what I would be doing...chuckin' and duckin' some big nasty streamers. I have become a firm believer in how effective streamer fishing can really be in the last year, especially for catching larger fish. It sure beats staring at an indicator all day when there isn't any bugs coming off... It's just like they say. "The tug is the drug..."

Gavin, I believe so. On Saturday evening there was some creme colored mayflies mixed in with the caddis so I'm assuming those were ur bugs.

Here are a few pictures of the browns from the trip. More pictures to come along with a blog posting...

Sweet fish! I just uploaded pictures from our trip to my thread...

Let's see this brown! Don't be holding out on us!

Just returned last night from our annual April trip to the Current to chase the caddis hatch. Arrived at Eagles Park campground late Friday night to cloudy, rainy, and cold weather. At some point through the night it started raining and was raining when we woke up. The weather on Saturday showed us the best of both worlds with it being cold, windy, and rainy up until about 1:00 pm and then the sun came out to bring about warmer temps and the wind finally died down. The weather gave us the chance to use several tactics to catch fish so it made the day interesting for us in the blue ribbon section. Fishing on Saturday was good considering the weather with the streamer bite coming through for us producing lots of fish along with 1 big brown. We tried throwing some caddis pupae and emergers under an indicator with "spotty" success where u would go 10-15 minutes without a strike and then catch 3 on 5 casts out of a hole, inconsistent to say the least. After lunch, we headed out in hopes the bugs would be comin off since the sun was out and the temps had warmed up for us. I kept chucking streamers through the afternoon with only a few tugs and no fish. The other guys had decent success with nymphs till the caddis started to really come off and they switched to dries. I headed for camp to put away the streamer rod but part of my crew stayed to do some head hunting for some rising fish. The fish were feeding pretty heavily just before dark and they brought several fish to hand along with missing many others. On Sunday, we woke up to temps in the 30s with frost on our tents, waders, and it covered most of the ground. After a warm up from camp coffee and breakfast, we headed to the river. Started the day off with success on caddis emergers and zebra midges till the sun got up and the caddis started coming off so we all switched to dry/dropper rigs with elk hair caddis followed by a caddis emerger pattern. We had great success with lots of fish to hand. The bite was on the emerger initially till the bugs started coming off in full force and we started the normal course of head hunting rising fish. Had a ton of fun for the remainder of the day till we called it quits to pack up and go home. Lots of fish rising up and down the river, just had to pick them out and cast to them. Not much "blind casting" going on. I lost a massive brown who turned completely upside down to sip my CDC caddis, made me sick to my stomach but I ended the day with a good brown that ate the emerger. Sunday woulda been epic fishing if we coulda stayed all day, I wasn't ready to leave. Of course, I am never ready to leave this awesome river... Overall, we had a great trip as always. The fishing wasn't as "good" as it has been in the past but it was still solid fishing. I will post a few pics later along with a full detailed report coming with pictures to be post on my blog. I will post links later... Man...I love this river...

Right on buddy. I'm praying this line of storms doesnt blow the river out. We got a good amount of rain in a very short time when it came through. The river has plenty of room to come up as far as the CFS goes, I have fished it at 190cfs before and it was awesome. Just hope it doesn't completely swamp that valley which it probably will. Definitely will be watching the USGS stream gauge all day tomorrow....

It's not sat night that we have to worry about, Its fri night after we get there. I personally don't take part in the adult beverages but my fishing buddies have been known to put a few back. This coupled with getting up early sat morning and spending all day on the river, usually ends with an early sat night. My buddies r troopers though, they get up early and r ready to fish...after some good BLACK camp coffee. Hopefully we see ya down there, I'm gonna try some tactics this weekend and see what I come up with. Gonna spend sat evening with a box of streamers and my 7 wt, try to bring a toad to the net.

Awesome report. We r heading down to the Current this weekend for our annual spring trip to try and hit the caddis hatch. Did u see any caddis coming off anywhere?I can't wait to get down there! I miss that river terribly...