Doug (OneMoreDeer) was kind enough to invite me up to Oklahoma to fish for trout on the Blue River. It's actually a little shorter drive for me, coming up
from DFW, than it is for Doug, who lives further west in Oklahoma. We met up at the river.
Doug is a heck of a nice guy and the perfect host--letting me break his flies off in the rocks and submerged roots, and allowing me to fish the good spots first. Of course after I fished those spots he very quietly came along behind and proceeded to catch fish where I could not.
This is the fist time I've fished this river and was amazed at how pretty
it was. Doug tells me it's spring-fed and has a limestone bottom that keeps it nice and clear. Doug was fishing a glass rod that he had just finished and
it is a great looking rod--he does good work. Hopefully he'll be posting pics of it. It's a nice and slow 3 wt and he let me try it out. It casts
beautifully! I fished my new bamboo and had a lot of fun with it.
Doug pretty much fished circles around me all day, but was kind enough not to mention it--I think he was 10+ for the day, and as you can see he caught some nice ones. I wasn't around with the camera when he caught his biggest of the day. I lost one, landed a nice 14-16" guy, and then, a little later, hooked and played the largest trout I have caught on a fly (I don't fish for trout very often). I was fishing from the bank in a spot that Doug had warned me about. It's very deep and there is a short muddy drop of about 3' from the bank to the water. I hooked the fish and played him for 4 or 5 minutes--giving and taking a lot of line the whole time--and finally got him to roll to the surface and pulled him over to the edge of the river just below the bank, where he sat happily finning at the surface and mocking me--he was easily 22" and maybe a bit larger. I knew I was pretty much screwed at this point. I grabbed the leader, laid my rod down on the bank and laid on my stomach to try to reach him (I didn't have a net but I would have needed a long handled one anyway). There was no way to get to him and I was fishing 4x. All I could do was gently lift him by the leader, and as soon as he left the water he flipped once, broke the tippet, and was gone. Beautiful fish though, and a blast on the 3wt bamboo!
It was a great day of fishing, the weather was perfect, and I look forward to going back. Hopefully Doug will tell you about his biggest fish of the day.
A few pics I snapped of Doug while he was busy slamming fish:
Nice bend in that glass rod
Not quite ready to come to papa yet...
A shot of the river
Doug is a heck of a nice guy and the perfect host--letting me break his flies off in the rocks and submerged roots, and allowing me to fish the good spots first. Of course after I fished those spots he very quietly came along behind and proceeded to catch fish where I could not.
This is the fist time I've fished this river and was amazed at how pretty
it was. Doug tells me it's spring-fed and has a limestone bottom that keeps it nice and clear. Doug was fishing a glass rod that he had just finished and
it is a great looking rod--he does good work. Hopefully he'll be posting pics of it. It's a nice and slow 3 wt and he let me try it out. It casts
beautifully! I fished my new bamboo and had a lot of fun with it.
Doug pretty much fished circles around me all day, but was kind enough not to mention it--I think he was 10+ for the day, and as you can see he caught some nice ones. I wasn't around with the camera when he caught his biggest of the day. I lost one, landed a nice 14-16" guy, and then, a little later, hooked and played the largest trout I have caught on a fly (I don't fish for trout very often). I was fishing from the bank in a spot that Doug had warned me about. It's very deep and there is a short muddy drop of about 3' from the bank to the water. I hooked the fish and played him for 4 or 5 minutes--giving and taking a lot of line the whole time--and finally got him to roll to the surface and pulled him over to the edge of the river just below the bank, where he sat happily finning at the surface and mocking me--he was easily 22" and maybe a bit larger. I knew I was pretty much screwed at this point. I grabbed the leader, laid my rod down on the bank and laid on my stomach to try to reach him (I didn't have a net but I would have needed a long handled one anyway). There was no way to get to him and I was fishing 4x. All I could do was gently lift him by the leader, and as soon as he left the water he flipped once, broke the tippet, and was gone. Beautiful fish though, and a blast on the 3wt bamboo!
It was a great day of fishing, the weather was perfect, and I look forward to going back. Hopefully Doug will tell you about his biggest fish of the day.
A few pics I snapped of Doug while he was busy slamming fish:
Nice bend in that glass rod
Not quite ready to come to papa yet...
A shot of the river
