I'm coming....

[schrederman]

Looks like I'll be coming up for a few days next week or the week after. So... other than "the end of your line"... 8^) ... What are they hitting... what's hot? Is it too late for hoppers? Streamers doing anything? Most importantly... are the crowds gone through the week?

Thanks... Jack

[darrelln09]

Sept 27, 2017 19:19:30 GMT -6 schrederman said:

Looks like I'll be coming up for a few days next week or the week after. So... other than "the end of your line"... 8^) ... What are they hitting... what's hot? Is it too late for hoppers? Streamers doing anything? Most importantly... are the crowds gone through the week?

Thanks... Jack

This is from the weekly ODWC Fishing Report:

Lower Mountain Fork: September 24. Elevation normal, water clear. Trout good on caddis flies, plastic baits, PowerBait, tube jigs and worms along channels, river channel and rocks. Report submitted by Mark Hannah, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.

Lower Mountain Fork: September 20. Stocked approximately 3,000 rainbow trout on September 19. Report submitted by April Drake, secretary at the southeast region office.

I'm trying to link you to the Orvis Fishing Report but the page won't load on my iPad at the moment. 

[darrelln09]

I got the Orvis Fishing Report to load on my iPhone.

m.orvis.com/fishing_report.aspx?locationid=7378

[captwoody]

Regarding the crowds, it is almost deserted during the week. Lightest on Monday, building toward the weekend.

[golferjeff]

Oct 12-15th will be extremely busy due to fall break for Texan high schools. Woodruff says caddis, BWO, black woollies, and Sulphur Mayflies. Dries in the riffles, nymphs in the holes.

Let us know how you do and how the water looks.....

[captwoody]

I was at the Evening Hole this morning. Heavy equipment working in the water at the washed out bridge. Water was dingy through Hickory. Moved on down to swimming bridge. Water still clear there, but fishing was slow.

[turfdawg]

Sept 28, 2017 9:45:56 GMT -6 captwoody said:

I was at the Evening Hole this morning. Heavy equipment working in the water at the washed out bridge. Water was dingy through Hickory. Moved on down to swimming bridge. Water still clear there, but fishing was slow.

Glad to hear they are still working some. Wishing they would hurry cooler weather is right around the corner (I hope)

[schrederman]

Thanks, gents! I'll let you know when I'm heading out, and how I did when I get back...

Jack

[cigarsnjeeps]

Sept 28, 2017 8:16:43 GMT -6 golferjeff said:

Oct 12-15th will be extremely busy due to fall break for Texan high schools. Woodruff says caddis, BWO, black woollies, and Sulphur Mayflies. Dries in the riffles, nymphs in the holes.

Let us know how you do and how the water looks.....

Well that sucks. Planning on driving up the 13th for a couple days. Guess ill deal. Cant be much worse than when I was there in August.

[schrederman]

If you were there in August... you're really a glutton for punishment. Looks like we may come up on the 8th and leave the 12th. I thought they might close the park on the 12th since it's kind of a special day... I mean... being my birthday and all... what are the odds?

[schrederman]

We've postponed but only for a day, due to the Columbus Day holiday on the 9th. We'll be driving up on the 9th hoping the campgrounds will be emptying out that afternoon... We'll be leaving the following Saturday morning. If Evening hole is muddied up I'll be fishing Spillway and Zone 2. I'm old... I've been painting pipe fence... I'm sore all over from playing golf for the first time in 10 years... I'll just have to fish through the pain and take one for the team... 8^)

Jack

[jonbo]

You're a hero, Jack!

[cigarsnjeeps]

We're heading down Thur nite so we can start fishing Fri AM and leaving Sun AM. Looking fwd to getting out of work for a while.

[schrederman]

So, after fishing everything in my box from Tuesday morning to yesterday... I caught 3. All came up to dry flies. I only saw 1 other fish caught all week by another angler. I did see a few, but very few rises to natural bugs on the river. I threw everything imaginable at them. I heard a couple of other folks talking about the lack of a good stocking recently... I fished Spillway some for the first time since flooding. I fished Evening Hole early between first light and when construction turned the water to milk. Yesterday, however, Evening Hole seemed clear most of the day. I guess most disappointing is the lack of fish. I've seen and caught a lot of fish at times... there have been several times lately like this trip, when I didn't see any and caught very few. It makes me wonder as to the fate of the LMF, especially with all the commercialization I see happening and the new casino coming... I'm beginning to doubt that the pre-flood glory of this place will ever return... sad.

Sorry for the rant... but this has been going for a couple of years now... and I don't see any improvement happening.

[turfdawg]

Oct 14, 2017 17:04:01 GMT -6 schrederman said:

So, after fishing everything in my box from Tuesday morning to yesterday... I caught 3. All came up to dry flies. I only saw 1 other fish caught all week by another angler. I did see a few, but very few rises to natural bugs on the river. I threw everything imaginable at them. I heard a couple of other folks talking about the lack of a good stocking recently... I fished Spillway some for the first time since flooding. I fished Evening Hole early between first light and when construction turned the water to milk. Yesterday, however, Evening Hole seemed clear most of the day. I guess most disappointing is the lack of fish. I've seen and caught a lot of fish at times... there have been several times lately like this trip, when I didn't see any and caught very few. It makes me wonder as to the fate of the LMF, especially with all the commercialization I see happening and the new casino coming... I'm beginning to doubt that the pre-flood glory of this place will ever return... sad.

Sorry for the rant... but this has been going for a couple of years now... and I don't see any improvement happening.

I truly think there are still plenty of fish there, just like last fall, but with the warm water temps they are hiding out in deeper areas. The only time I have never brought one to net, AKA "skunked", was last Nov when my son and I were wet wading because it was in the low 80's and the water was still above 70. As soon as the water temps cooled down it was game on again. A guy I know went a couple of weeks ago and said the water around the spillway was 74 so he didn't fish much because he didn't want to stress the fish if he did catch some nice ones [which he does quite often]. 

As far as the population goes I'm trying to think positive. I'm not sure about Oklahoma but since I work for the City of Gainesville I know all the hotel/motel taxes can only be spent on things to invite more tourist so that could be for something like new bathrooms and shower houses. I'm also pretty sure that most people that will be visiting that area for the casino will not be fishing and might actually keep some of the people away from the park.

[cigarsnjeeps]

I got skunked. I had a couple of small ones on that didn't stay on (user error) and my buddy that had never been trout fishing caught a nugget and a ~10", so I felt good that he was able to catch something. We fished tandem nymphs the whole time. We talked to a couple of the guides that were out and they were saying it was really tough with the warm water...and I could def tell the difference in temp from last time I was there in August. Also had something on at the river behind the cabin, but he threw the hook on the wooly bugger before I could get him in....not sure what it was, but he jumped about a foot out of the water after throwing the hook to flip me off....still nice weather and a good time. Loud music last night from some group though. Man this place has lots of midges, lol

[schrederman]

Hopefully our trip in December will be better... I can't give up on it quite yet.

[danimal]

This is why I don't put away my smallmouth rod until sometime in November. It'll be good again once the water cools down (and the stop-logs come out)..

[golferjeff]

Just give it some time, the water temps will decrease. Stocking has been altered by the mortality rates I'm sure. EH hasn't been fully stocked for a few months now from what I've heard. If Spillway is spewing at 70 degrees, then EH is likely 74-76 and worse downstream.

I may make a day run later this month just to check it out. Hopefully summer is over.

[jonbo]

I have a couple of questions regarding the excessively high temps on the LMF. I don't know if anyone around here can answere them, or not.

1. What causes them? I know "Warm air, silly," but is the water warmed mostly by the air after it emerges from the Spillway, or is it coming out of the Spillway already at 70 - 74 degrees?

2. If it is coming out of the Spillway already so badly warmed, why is that? I had thought that the water temps in a tailrace such as the LMF were low enough to support a healthy trout population because the water was drawn from deep in the lake and the water stayed pretty chilly down there.

-Somewhere else a commenter was fretting that there was a danger of "mixing" this summer/fall, because of hot air temps combined with low lake levels, or something or other like that. Has something like that indeed happened? If that is what has happened is this a one-time event or something that occurs every fall before the late-fall early-winter rains. Is there a danger of it being catastrophic?

-Are the Spillway intake pipes just not deep enough? That is, is there cooler water deeper that could be reached? If that's the case, then does the discussion about extending the pipes merit being reopened? Or is that not the answer?

If anyone can comment on any of the questions I've posed, or otherwise shed light on this topic, I'd appreciate it!

[coldwaterfly]

The fishing has been slow, but still good over the last few weeks.  Tandem nymphing/high sticking and getting deep in the pools has been the way to go. It was extremely crowded this week and weekend. Probably the last hoorah for a lot of the tourist.

The river has a long way to go. The amount of concrete still in the river and the lack of habitat makes me angry/sad every time I set out to wade. Hopefully after the bridge is complete the powers that be can get something organized as far as habitat improvements and river restoration. The LMF can still be a great fishery. Just need to do things the right way. Really impressed with the Blue River in Silverthorne, Colorado. It's a tailwater that fishes more like a freestone stream. Would love to see the LMF fish as good as the Blue.

[fwood]

Oct 16, 2017 11:54:11 GMT -6 jonbo said:

I have a couple of questions regarding the excessively high temps on the LMF. I don't know if anyone around here can answere them, or not.

1. What causes them? I know "Warm air, silly," but is the water warmed mostly by the air after it emerges from the Spillway, or is it coming out of the Spillway already at 70 - 74 degrees?

2. If it is coming out of the Spillway already so badly warmed, why is that? I had thought that the water temps in a tailrace such as the LMF were low enough to support a healthy trout population because the water was drawn from deep in the lake and the water stayed pretty chilly down there.

-Somewhere else a commenter was fretting that there was a danger of "mixing" this summer/fall, because of hot air temps combined with low lake levels, or something or other like that. Has something like that indeed happened? If that is what has happened is this a one-time event or something that occurs every fall before the late-fall early-winter rains. Is there a danger of it being catastrophic?

-Are the Spillway intake pipes just not deep enough? That is, is there cooler water deeper that could be reached? If that's the case, then does the discussion about extending the pipes merit being reopened? Or is that not the answer?

If anyone can comment on any of the questions I've posed, or otherwise shed light on this topic, I'd appreciate it!

I agree that it's concerning.  I thought that I had read some time back (recently after the last big flood) that there was concern that the really cold water in the lake had been lost in the flooding and would have to be renewed so to speak.  What kind of timeframe that could take, I have no idea but I suspect that's exactly what has happened.  I'm certainly not an expert or have any special knowledge of the lake; just concerned as you are.