New Member Introduction.

[copperjohn]

I grew up in St. Louis and fished the trout parks of Merrimac, Montauk and Bennett springs. Bennett Springs is a special place and it’s where my passion for fly fishing was born.

After graduation from M.U. Columbia I headed to Dallas Texas for the next 38 years. My trips to Bennet were once a year if lucky. My fly fishing didn’t progress as my trips were short. I used what I knew would catch fish in the same old places I had fished before.

I was totally unaware of the trout fishing opportunities available in Texas and Oklahoma. I decided to move to saltwater with trips to Rockport for Red Fish. While in some of the local fly shops I started hearing about the Lower Mountain Fork and Beavers Bend. How could it be better than Bennett Springs was my thinking and I ignored the advice for twenty years? (Pretty stupid on my part.)

On a trip home for family business, I decided to hit Bennett for fall catch and release. When I got there the place was a ghost town. I was unaware the park closed for two weeks prior to the open of catch and release. I was pissed. I was going trout fishing somewhere. I considered the river, but I didn’t have any idea how to fish it. That’s when I remembered the Lower Mountain Fork. I mapped out a new route and headed to Broken Bow.

This was pre-flood in 2013. I had a short time to fish and hit the evening hole and had immediate success. The river was nothing like Bennett. It was a challenge, deep holes in places and fast moving skinny water in others. I knew I had to improve my game to be successful on the Lower Mountain Fork. I started doing research on how to fish fast skinny water and fly selection. The vise came out of storage as my fly box needed an overhaul. I fell in love with the place. The river made me a better angler. As a part of that research I found this forum and used it as a source of information. For everyone that has posted here I say thank you.

I’m retired now and have more time to fish. I hope to be a contributor and meet some of you on the stream. Thanks again.

[jonbo]

Great first post, copperjohn! Where have you been? I started fishing the LMF somewhere around 2013, as well. I can't know, as I haven't been around enough, but I imagine that it's as good a fishery as any more-or-less artificial trout fishery can possibly be. I mean, anything that isn't a free-stone or natural spring-fed creek or river. A purist of some sort might argue that there's something better about fishing for trout where they exist naturally, but, aside from that, I think it's kind of hard to beat Beaver's Bend. I do want to fish Crane Creek where a strain of trout has existed for a century and a half. I'm going to the Smokies in about a month. I'd love to catch a brookie or two in the environment that once supported them naturally, even though the ones there have had to be re-introduced (I think). I've actually caught them there before, but that's my target when I go. I want to one day, when I visit family in Durango, to hike up Hermosa Creek for cutties, which have also been re-introduced. Meanwhile, I feel really blessed to live fairly nearby to the LMF and be able to go fish it any time I can catch a break from my work. One of my problems with targeting any stream that's off a ways is that the nature of my work is such that I can only take a vacation in late fall/ early winter, when the free-stone streams that more naturally support trout are not at their best for fishing, or are somewhat inaccessible, as in snowed in. Meanwhile, it is my great good fortune that the time of year when it's easiest for me to take a day here or there, is when the LMF is at its best.