FlyfishinOK

Fished for an hour at Welling Bridge yesterday. Caught 6 smallies & 8 sandies. water was up but still clear. I'm coming back for a kayak trip from 51 bridge to Welling Bridge. Does anyone know if there is a place to leave a vehicle at the 51 bridge? I have a map of the upper Illinois river area and it shows a "public access" icon at the bridge. I didn't have time to check it out. I guess another option would be to drop in at the Echota public acess on the UIR and float down to the confluence and then go back up to the Welling bridge area? Anyone have any experience doing this?

It may not be a Taneycomo but there is a trout stream coming out of the bottom of Pumpback...or at least from the water seaping throuth the rock layers and springs. It's called the Chimney Rock Hollow Trout Fishery. It's about a mile long stream with 27 pools of nice rainbow & smallmouth. The bad part is you have to pay to play. We are members and fish there quite a bit along with Pumpback, Spavinaw & Eucha.

I hit a few holes Saturday after noon as the water was coming up. Didn't get a bite one. I was fishing some new spinning gear using large saltwater poppers & 6" sassy shad. (looking for big ones!) Should have brought some smaller stuff to search with. Didn't see anyone land a fish in about 3 hrs that I was there. I guess I'm counting on the LIR this year. There was lots of gar and carp trollin around. Watched two guys for a while throwing small grubs for sandies. Nota. With no river action I've resorted back to ditch fishing for chubs...

Congrats! Sounds like a great trip. I like to see those browns. I've yet to catch a brown on the LIR. I have caught a few on the LMF though. Did you see any Striper? I'm rigged and ready for them this year!

how do you get that fly out of their mouth when you land them?

Great report. I've been waiting for things to fire up. I've only been once this year and it was gar city. I was going to go down and try things out Sunday but it looked like to much water for wading and my daughter wanted to go trout fishing.

Went down to the soccer fields area yesterday evening for a few hours and got skunked. Only action was a few gar & sponnies. Water was super low. They hadn't generated anything since Thursday night.

I've always fished the Arkansas up around Tulsa for striper & the LIR for trout. Last year I went to LIR about 5 times targeting striper. I only managed about 6 fish with the biggest being about 7 lbs. It was pretty frustrating to say the least. We tried fly & spin, plugs/poppers/live trout, flow & no flow, morning & evening......I don't know if I'm looking forward to going back down there this year or not? I tied up some big deceivers & clousers over the weekend and put some new Rio Outbound Short on my TFO TiCr-X getting ready for the season to start heating up!

Saturday evening I took one of my dogs for a walk on the center sandbar from 41st to the dam & back. I only saw one guy fishing. He was fishing the West side of the dam around 3:30. Didn't see him hook up on anything. Great day to be out. Saw a red fox & a bald eagle. Found a few fossils and a nice piece of petrified wood but no wooly mammoth teeth. I've got the fever to do some fishing!

We go down several times a year to fish and float. I agree with Hopper on where to fish. I never fish it this time of year because I get infected with buck fever. Did you know there is an Oklahoma section further on down the form page and it has Broken Bow info. Here are some links to a few of my trips down there. http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24400 http://fishing-notebook.com/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9285

Leapin Lizzard Lodge. Sleeps 15. They have other cabins of different size. Some are close together if you have a big group. http://www.beaversbendlodging.com/cabin_leapinlizard.html

at 120 lbs empty it takes some muscles to get it to remote water. I'm building a set of wheels to help out. I've recently purchased a kayak. It's around 52 lbs A few more pix from the last couple of years

Casio Exilim EX-G1

thanks for the kudos guys. We go down several times a year and it's always a great time. I picked up the Gheenoe from a kid in Broken Arrow. He was from Florida close to where they are made. We use it ALOT! It's perfect for places like this. I've had it up to 18 mph with a gas motor and it cuts just like a bass boat. Feels like your going 35 or more...lol.

Launched yak at around 61st street off of Riverside Dr. and paddled up to Zink Dam. Caught 3 stripers from 6 to 8 lbs. All on top water. Tough day of paddling. Wind blowing north, current going South!

We went down Sat. Put in at Marvals at around 8:30 am. Went upstream to first hole. Caught six 18" & 19" bows on big red fins & cordel 6" pencil poppers while striper fishing. I've never had that happen before! I would've been proud of those fish on a fly rod. Broke out a 3 wt fly rod to catch some bait. caught some 10" trout and a few sun fish for bait. Also caught some nice spots & kentucky in the process. The water started coming up later in the day so we went up river a few holes then floated/fished our way back down. Didn't catch a striper one! Talked to two guys who said they had caught a couple of small ones. Standing in the cold water was a good way to spend a hot day.

We made our yearly float trip down to the Broken Bow area. It was a really fun trip. Great cabin, Great weather as long as you were inside or close to cool water. We put my small boat in at Holly Creek Camp area to explore the upper part of the lake/river. We did some trolling over points heading out to deep water and fished some deep rocky structures. Caught one submerged tree... 2nd day we floated the lower below re-reg dam. Caught some nice spots, smallies & bluegill. Enjoyed the scenery & drank a few beers. 3rd day I got up early and hit the trout stream by myself. Hiked back up the river away from the crowds and found a few really nice rainbows. I left my net in the truck so I couldn't manage any pix without hurting the fish. Later in the day my wife went back down to the trout area for a few hours with me. She caught her first trout on the LMF when she held the net up for a picture it flopped out and into the creek...she was mad! We saw some really big trout that had something wrong with their jaw. Ended up catching about a dozen rainbows and one brown. In the evening we put the boat in the river between the trout area and the fly shop. We caught bass and bluegill like crazy until about an hour before dark. Then the fish were done so we cruised around looking at the beautiful trees, turtles, fish, bugs etc..... Upper end of Broken Bow Lake Beaver Bend State Park Evening Hole Lost Creek Area Brown Gheenoe at the entrance to Bee Branch Trees & Rocks! They were full of spots & gills Bass Cabin

http://blog.newsok.com/outdoors/2010/07/30/big-striper-from-lower-illinois/ Anyone else still going after the Striper on the LIR this weekend? I'm going to put in Sat morning at Marval's. I'll be in the Camo Gheenoe.

I've only had the kayak out once. It was really stable and tracked very well. I'm going to move the adjustable rod holder back & add a few features but for the price it seems like a great deal. The only think I don't like about it is the bottom seems to deform easily. I transported it upright in the back of my truck sitting on two foam pool noodles for 5 hrs in 98 deg full sun. When I removed the ratchet straps I noticed two depressions where the noodles where at. Within 30 minutes they had popped back out. On the trip home I flipped it over and didn't have any issues. Hopefully this won't be an ongoing issue.

We floated the Buffalo River Saturday From Maumee to Dillards Ferry. There was alot of runoff from up river and it was super muddy. Level was 5.5 ft according to the outfitter. Above 6 it's experienced paddlers only. Fishing was terible on the main river. I slid up spring creek to the clear line and it was fish on first cast! Caught 14 before I was forced to move on down with the rest of the group. We stayed on the spring creek about 4 miles up stream. Caught lots of spots, smallies, longear and Ozarks My new kayak on the big muddy Buffalo Spring Creek Entrance Pix with new Casio G-shock camera Spring Creek next to camp Not sure but I think this is an Ozark Bass???

I have looked at Butch's TFO and debated about getting one. Are you using outbound 12wt line?

Nice.....What kind of rod is the switch? I'm getting the conversion for my TFO TiCh-X to extend it out past 11' so I can extend my range & tie some bigger patterns.

I was traveling to Michigan several times a year on business up until last fall. I'd started taking my rods with me and fishing streams in the evingings. I had a trip that was timed with the steelhead run in the Rouge River coming up when the company put a travel freeze on. I was a little disapointed to say the least. I've caught them in the big lake & hooked into holdover steelies for a split second on light lines while fishing for small bows but never targeted them during the run. I've only had my TiCr-X out to the casting pond in Jenks. So far I really like it. The tempo is alot different that the CV2 I was using. I need some time on the Arkansas with it. Thanks for all of the info you shared with me.

It seemed like the smaller the drys the better. (18-20) I had two soft hackles in my box that I tied a while back. I have never tried them out. Next trip I will. I was fishing a 2/3wt so I didn't try for the stripers. I did get a new 8wt TFO TiCr-X so I'm geared up for the Stripes now. Thinking about getting the switch rod conversion kit for the Arkansas??? Maybe I'll just practice my dbl haul casting a little more!

I think they call them crackle backs???