Or bison, as many people keep correcting me. Whatever you call them, they are big.
I spent the weekend with Angler John in the The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. This is a really neat place in southwest Oklahoma near John’s hometown. The area is packed with lakes big and small, and it’s a really neat place to go for a few days if you just want to fish and not worry about catching anything you want to brag about.
I wish I would have gotten an up close and personal shot, but when John told me about a few overturned cars, I decided to take it easy and try and not startle one of the bulls, who seem just as big as my WRX.
This is a trip that will have lots of memories specifically one that included watching out for these beasts:
The refuge is apparently the only place in the country where longhorns run wild. I would be pretty scared of one of these things behind a fence, let alone allowed ones that roam and scare the shit out of you by being all sneaky.
We ended up getting up close and personal with one of these bovine when hiking back from hitting the shallows of the most trophy of bluegill fisheries I had ever been on. We were a few feet from this particular cow when it decided to get up and I decided to bolt, leaving John behind to decide to run or play dead (he chose the former.) I am glad he was behind since he saw me drop my only C&F box. I didn’t give a shit about the flies inside, but I risked a goring to get back this box I got on sale and love so much. It was great fun throwing poppers to frisky males full of color on a 4wt. Lake Elmer Thomas is amazingly clear and perhaps the clearest Lake I have seen in Oklahoma in years.
Today we hit 3 lakes Jed Johnson, Quanah Parker, and ended the day going dual in the Native on Elmer Thomas for some late afternoon bluegill. I lucked out since it was John’s first time in the yak and he decided to paddle more than fish and I was able to close out the day on a high note with a small largemouth.
John spent most of the day in his recently gifted tube. I was around a bend when it happened, but John, who is just starting out, laid into what he described as “one of those TV fish.” I was padding fast far away when it happened, but I did hear him scream. It didn’t sound much like drowning and was around the bend when it happened, so I didn’t stop to see what all the fuss was about. John has his first real fish story with no visual confirmation in picture or fishing buddy form. I think this should happen to everyone. It sucks, but at the end it’s what makes fishing such a personally gratifying endeavor.
It was a long day and half, and despite the baked skin and brush with death by longhorn, a really memorable one for the stories and the scenery. My arm’s sore from constantly trying to speed John up by pushing him around with my kayak, but that’s what friends are for. With this kind of scenery, taking it slow its what it’s all about.
Pennington Creek and The Blue were both a little high, but fish were caught though all were small. Catching is better than not, and given the rough work week a lot of hiking and a decent amount of fish caught and lost, it was a nice outing.
I started my excursion south of the hatchery seeing some nice rises from the local inhabitants and almost stepping a huge Koi that I wish I had seen in the high water. Unfortunately the wading south was getting tough and high so I had to turn back to north where I had been before.
While getting above these falls I took a nice flip and crashed down on my new Sage Smallmouth Rod. I almost cried as this rod is becoming my favorite rod, and while not all the casts are pretty, you can do some crazy things with the rod, and for up close and personal settings it is deadly accurate. The rod was fine but the cheap Sage reel I bought to go on it is not and has a nice tick sound as the spool catches on the frame. Since the spools are cheap I will try to throw one on it and see what happens, but if not I will chalk this up to why I like my more pricey not-cast reels as they have taken lots of similar spills and only came out with battle scars.
There are a few nice holes that were made nicer by the higher water and I there was lots of water to fish. In the whole where I caught my first smallmouth I also caught my first catfish on the fly.
Little did I know that I would follow up this one with a few more in this hole and a ton more on my way hiking out. The Near Nuff Crayfish I was throwing them must have been like candy. A few small largemouth and gorgeous bluegill that I really should have snapped a pic of were released as well. I went home defeated as I wanted to reacquaint with the smallmouth from last fall from the same pool as the catfish, but it was not to be.
After a nice lunch and some rest at the family get together I set in for a long hike into the southern wilderness area of the Blue. Perhaps it was the heat and higher water, but I only caught one small smallmouth and the Blue’s nasty rocks claimed several of the flies I had tied less than 24 hours before. Hopefully when the Blue is down and I hit it in the morning instead of heat of the day I will get my first Blue smallmouth. I love all this warmwater fishing and the crazy amount of miles I am covering finding good water, but I long for the cool water of a trout stream with my 4wt in hand.
June 8th, 2008 0 comments »
A good friend of mine, of the geek variety, recently took up fly fishing. He has taken to the sport pretty quickly and has been on more fishing trips in the past week then I have been on in the last month. Needless to say all this time in water has allowed his cast to develop and he is quickly up to speed and will be able to hold his own in the very near future I am sure. I picked up some waders for John (great last minute decision on his part) and in the process bought a Sage Smallmouth rod. I was going to use my usual 6wt setup for the trip but we were in need of another heavier rod for summer fishing and once picking it up both my wife and I really started to like how the rod felt. I really wanted a shorter rod and the extra oomph this rod brings to the table with its custom line (to turn over bass flies) make the package a compelling buy. I really like the look of the rod and ended up buying a Sage 1680 since the store was out of Konics. I don’t really love the reel, especially the look, but for the money the reel will do well for how we plan to use it.
We left Oklahoma City at 5AM headed towards Rock Creek in the Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge for some smallmouth fishing. Within the first few minutes of wading in I hooked up with a small largemouth on my new toy and asked John to come over and take a nice gear shot only to find that I forgot to put the battery in the camera in my 5AM haze. Usually this is a good sign and means I will catch some good fish, but unfortunately this wasn’t to be the case and while fish were caught nothing of any size ended up going after our flies. Rock Creek, which isn’t talked about much, has a lot of potential and I know I will be hitting it again in the next month to hopefully find some of the smallmouth I have heard about living there. I was hoping to catch one of the carp my friend Barry has tangled with, but I stumbled upon one and spooked another by dropping the fly a little to close for its comfort.
After spending the morning on Rock Creek we headed to the Blue to hopefully find the elusive smallmouth. The fishing was even slower for us. I haven’t spent nearly enough time fishing the Blue for bass to know all the hot spots, but I have a feeling the fishing was pretty slow in general. Not battling the crowds during trout season was a nice change, but the summer crowd seems to like getting in tubes and floating through areas you are about to cast to. I guess they weren’t flycasters. I hooked up with some bass and missed a few more, but I did get to toss the whole line with the new bass rod while standing on crossing by area one. Wow does that rod just want to go. I think this rod is going to be a great tool for windy days and will become one of my favorite rods this summer.
Overall it was a pretty feeble attempt at getting into more southeastern Oklahoma warmwater fishing, but I think after a few more trips I will get more into the vibe and get a better feeling for the holes that hold fish. Fishing is better than not fishing, whether you’re catching or not.
May 18th, 2008
It was a long day and there was a bit of a crisis with the mounting of the yaks but it all worked out great in the end. After putting the first yak on the Hull Raiser Aeros all of us sat around shaking our heads knowing this wasn’t going to be a good solution for these yaks and my car. Luckily the great team at Lewis & Clark Outfitters scrambled and worked out a great solution with the Yakima parts they had in stock. I can’t thank the 3 great guys there enough for going out of their way and making us happy customers. We didn’t get a chance to paddle since it was cold and the kids were getting antsy, but they will get their first taste of water tomorrow on Draper.
April 13th, 2008
Soon. Very soon.
I am going to give a plug for the great people at Rack Attack too. One of my pieces was missing a rubber pad and they overnighted it at no cost with no questions.
April 11th, 2008
So a month ago I called the great people at Lewis and Clark Outfitters and ordered 2 Native Ultimate 14.5 Angler models. The boats have been in for almost a week and the whole family will be road tripping it to Springdale Arkansas to pick up our new boats this weekend. I can’t wait to get my hands on them and look forward to all the water that it will open, but the anticipation is killing me. Unfortunately I didn’t think ahead far enough and have had to scramble to get cross bars,Yakima HullRaiser Aeros, as well as some Scotty rod holders. Luckily I ordered the rod holders from Austin Canoe & Kayak and can’t say enough about the service I got from them. I ordered them yesterday, didn’t pay shipping, and I got them today. Having almost all the pieces to the puzzle is wetting my appetite so much that the passing of time seems much slower than normal.
April 8th, 2008