Product is not the only success, process is often as fulfilling

I am an outdoorsman, I love the outdoors, I love being out in  a nice fluffy snow waiting on a Whitetail to cross in front of my stand, I love standing in the stream on a cool spring morning teasing the stocker rainbows at my local stream.  I dream of chasing cutthroats in Wyoming and pursuing a 6x6 Bull Elk in the Colorado high country and the dreams are I believe part of what makes my being an outdoorsman so fulfilling.  I generally do not have any success on stream unless i prepare my flies beforehand, unless I stretch my fly line and tie my leaders just right.  I sit at home and practice tying knots while watching people I do not know pursue game on the TV and dutifully polish and clean my black powder gun more than I shoot it.  I cannot have a successful deer season without preparation, scouting and preparation of stand locations, obtaining the right clothing and making sure it is rid of scent and folded neatly and packed in sealed bags waiting to be unveiled when i get into stand.  Practicing a 300 yard shot with my 30-06 and a 60 yard shot with my bow I strive to be prepared for all and any eventuality.  When at last I connect on the nice wide 8-pointer with bullet or arrow and when I at last bring that trout to hand, the satisfaction I feel is not only in that moment but bundled in all the moments spent preparing for that particular day.  I am an outdoorsman, process outshines product many times over.

Upcoming Lower Illinois River Fly Fishing Related Activities

Passing on some useful information

Meet TV host Don Wallace, Oklahoman Outdoors Editor Ed Godfrey at H&H Shooting Sports Complex

Learn to fly fish

The annual Illinois River Fly Fishing School will be Feb. 24-25 at Tenkiller State Park.

Instructors Mark Patton and Tom Adams will be teaching about equipment and flies in a classroom setting and then giving casting instruction on the banks of the Illinois River.

Cost of the course is $150. Call 340-1992 for more information.

Clean up the Lower Illinois

The 89er Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Tulsa are combining forces to clean up the Lower Illinois River.

On Dec. 10, members of the state's two Trout Unlimited chapters will walk the banks of the Lower Illinois to pick up trash and debris. The cleanup is scheduled from 9 a.m. until noon.

Volunteers interested in helping should meet at the dam access parking lot at 9 a.m. The 89er Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be providing lunch to volunteers.

Anyone planning to participate is asked to email troutbum@89er.org. For more information, call Greg Mann at 401-3784 or Chuck Kaminski at 973-4571.

Another Great Article, Save Our Stream

Cannot agree more with the authors call to action...

Outdoors: Death of a trout stream
Amarillo.com

"Hood likened the generation periods to “flushing the toilet” every few days. Southwest Power Adminstration said it will try to run two turbines at half-power to help the fishery, but to Hood’s knowledge it hasn’t happened.

“It’s a problem that can be solved by putting pressure on the government,” Hood said.

“The only way we can fix this problem is by writing to our congressmen. Dan Boren’s email box should be full right now.”

A federal issue, concerned sportsmen and women can contact Boren at (202) 255-2701. Boren’s website is http://boren.house.gov.

Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking member on the Environmental Committee, can be reached at (202) 224-4721. His website is http://inhofe.senate.gov.

Without constant flows, Oklahoma’s first year-round trout fishery will soon be history."

Another First on the Blue

Blue River, Oklahoma...beautiful and peaceful and full o trout.

A wonderful day on the Blue today with my friend Dave who is a first time fly fisher.  Although we couldn't catch a rise the fish were feeding deep, early.  Began with the tried and true standby's 12-16 BH Hares Ear, BH Prince, BH Lightning Bug and Black Wooly Bugger.

All of the takes were very subtle with the exception of Dave's First trout who was showing some attitude and was a very nice jumper.  The action died around 10 and unfortunately we had to roll out just after noon, think they were going to turn on again after lunch but most of em will wait for another day.

Congrats Dave, very nice first trout and as always kicking around with you for the day was excellent.

and our catch for the day

Every Day is a Good Day Fishing

I do believe this to be true, however it is desirable, when driving 2 hours one-way, to stack the odds in successes favor as much as possible in trip planning.

Planned on fishing the Lower Illinois this morning as I had a day off work, it was recently "re-opened" as conditions have been stabilized somewhat, and they had just stocked trout last friday.  However, as I rounded the corner into the parking area this morning I realized I had made a rookie mistake.  I should have checked the streamflows before making the two-hour drive.

had I done that I would have seen a graph similar to this....

and would have known that the river was running at about 11.5 feet and at about 4000 ft3/second.  Needless to say, difficult fishing.

However, since I do believe that every day fishing, is a good day and I am stubborn enough to believe that all conditions can be conquered, I made up my mind to find somewhere to land a stocker.  Went up by the dam and there is a small side pool that today looked like a large side eddy.  After about 15 casts, using a black b/h wooly bugger, i had a strike but no hookup.  An hour and a half later after throwing about everything else in my fly box, I put on a size 12 prince with some red thread wrapped around the back end.  Two tosses and bam, hooked and played a beautiful little stocker rainbow.

After playing him in and releasing him I decided to hang em up for today, satisfied that even given my rookie blunder of the morning, I managed to catch a trout.

Like they say, Every Day fishing is a Good Day Fishing.

Sequoyah County Times - Trout stocking resumes no permanent fix for fishery

Although fish have again been stocked, and we again have sufficient water, it is likely that it may not last and like the like the article says, we need something permanent.

Every concerned Lower Illinois Fly Fisherman should take a moment to contact our representatives in Washington and communicate your concerns.

U.S. Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.), U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Tulsa) and U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Muskogee)

Read more:

Sequoyah County Times - Trout stocking resumes no permanent fix for fishery

Ready to Rock

Organizing a fly box feels good and gets me fired up...now just to get to some water....somewhere...anywhere..