I didn’t end up fishing the Blue very much last year due to various reasons. It was nice to get some quality time on the water, but alas my faithful Canon Digital Elph is finally deciding to quit on me. After several mild wet incidents on the river while riding in my pack, the battery doesn’t seem to hold a good charge. Thursday night I got in a little night fishing as I was late getting to the river after eating a bit too much and taking an unintended snooze. I took out the Canon to get some pictures of some river otters following me down river, but alas the camera wouldn’t turn on.
The river otters seem to be new to the Blue and are quite cute, but I tried to keep my distance. They made a huge splash reminiscent of a beaver that scared the hell out of me on my carp flat, and ever since then I try to avoid large rodents. They seemed quite interested in my fly fishing; every time I would turn around I would see a pair of red eyes bobbing up and down in the light of my head lamp. Friday morning I saw a nice sized catfish dead on a sand bar with a huge gash on its back. I suppose the otters are picky and are taking advantage of the huge amounts of trout in the water. I mentioned this on the Blue River group and heard the ODWC is working to expand the river otters back into their range.
While Thursday night was a bust, Friday and Saturday ended up being pretty good fishing. I really try to avoid fishing within 30ft or 40ft of people I don’t know. I like to give people their space, while I don’t really adhere to the low holing principle on the Blue and will go only 100ft or so downstream of another fly angler. There are a ton of spin/bait fisherman there to catch their stringer and they need their room too. Especially cause I hate arguing with them. I know a lot of folks seem to not like the Blue due to the traffic, but if you’re willing to hit up Area 2 and hike you can always find some water to yourself. After catching a few fish in the high traffic area I moved to Area 2 and had terrible luck. I try not to fish buggers on the Blue because I never have problems catching fish, but as I worked my way back to the trail I couldn’t catch a single fish on an olive bugger. I know some spin anglers upstream did well so maybe the trout just haven’t spread out as much as I am used to.
While Friday was slow, it seemed no one wanted to fish Saturday and Area 1 was pretty clear of anglers fly fishing, so I had a nice area I had never really fished hard all to myself. After fishing some nice riffles and picking up lots of stockers I found some nice areas for sight fishing. The Blue has a very interesting topology of very deep pools encased in jagged rock. I have never seen the Blue quite as low as it was this weekend and this allowed for some great sight fishing opportunities. I played with my indicator depth a lot and worked on controlling my depth with some high stick nymphing. It was nice to get to do this at relatively close range and watch for the strikes instead of focusing on my indicator. I caught a ton of fish and while it wasn’t a huge challenge I got in some good practice for more difficult conditions. I feel a little bad about the time I spent in the area above the Islands, but I know no spin fisherman were going to fish the area, and most of the other fly fisherman I saw and talked to upstream were catching big numbers as well. I waved for gentleman to come down, but he either didn’t see me or thought I was an ass. My arm ended up getting a little sore due to the cold, so I stopped fishing when I saw a nice 18”+ rainbow.
This is the first time I have had the chance to sight fish on the Blue and it was a blast only getting 10 drifts at the same fish for a 2 hour period. After losing the fish for a while I decided it was time to go, but I peered in one of the pools she had favored earlier in our encounters and see her bullying around the tiny stockers. I end up doing a quick back track and make a wide 50ft loop around her back side to get in a good position 20ft or so away. I make good cast upstream, but this pool has a really toothy rock in it that I had gotten snagged on 3 or 4 times earlier and so when my indicator dips and I set the hook it feels like another hang up. I strip in about 3 ft of line while taking a step towards the fish to get a better view and I see her take off. I really wasn’t ready for it and didn’t have good pressure on the fish, so I was loosing from the start. This area of water has some nice pools, but all are surrounded by very shallow water. As quickly as I had realized I had actually caught the big fish I had lost it. I am use to fighting big carp and know what I did wrong, but I think I will switch to 5x the next time I decide to chase one of these stocker pigs in these circumstances. It started to sleet as my expletive rang through Area 1 and I knew it was time to pick up the family and head back home.
Due to the area I live in, every time I get to trout fish I can’t bemoan the fact I am catching stockers and need to try and make the most of my opportunity. Fishing the Blue is always fun and I hope the new catch and release area due to open this January provides some interesting opportunities. As my wife always likes to say, “It’s the water, stupid.” No matter what kind of fishing you’re doing, relishing the opportunity is far more important than what or how you are catching them. I wasn’t a good fly tyer this trip, but the Bird’s Nest is quickly becoming the fly I tie on before I put on my waders. I am not sure how true to form I tying it, but it works well and it has been coming through in a big way. 18” rainbows agree that it’s a killer pattern. I will get to return to the Blue around Christmas, and my wife will for sure come through for Christmas and a shiny new Pentax Optio W30 will be under the tree. When I am wading alone I hate carrying the DSLR with me. I really admire some of the work my friends do, but the amount of staging needed as well as the bulk of carrying a tripod is just too much since I fish by myself and am not looking to be published. I really want to capture some and great images and wish my wife was up to fishing this weekend, but I am sad to say her neck was giving her some grief. I hope to get a friend new to the sport out for the first time fly fishing on the next stop on the Oklahoma Trout Extravaganza, Quartz Mountain. Quartz Mountain is described as not the prettiest Trout Stream, but it’s the water, stupid. We will see if that holds true.
November 26th, 2007
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