Persistence was the key to victory — or trout — over the weekend in southeast Oklahoma.
My brother, friend and I made an excursion across the border to fish the Lower Mountain Fork River just south of Broken Bow Lake. While the fishing was slow at times, hitting the water with dry flies consistently produced fish.
From the other fly-fisherman we spoke to over the weekend, their luck seemed to be slim. When we arrived on Friday evening, one rainbow trout over a two-hour span had us worried. However, Saturday would prove to be much more productive.
We decided to stick with dry flies when we noticed that mayflies and caddis flies were hatching throughout the day. Large march browns, elk hair caddis and blue wing olive flies enticed fish from morning until evening. We pulled in just under 20 fish by the time our day was done at 8:30 p.m.
The weather held steady for all of Saturday, and some light storms rolled in Sunday morning after a dry night of camping near the river. The rain didn’t scare the trout, however, as we pulled in four more over the course of an hour. Our third fishing partner, Ryan Coffield, pulled in a 22-inch rainbow just before we packed up to leave — lightning was striking in the distance.
The largest trout of the weekend hit on a large wooly worm, and required my brother’s assistance in the netting process.
All in all, the sticking with a strategy throughout the day was the key to pulling in some fish. The perfect weather and steady hatches were enough to bring in the wiliest of rainbows.
