Fly Fishing.
- Thread starter mad4osu
- Start date
I’m having a ball, but making so many rookie mistakes. It’s a pretty steep learning curve
Yeah I ended up going back to just light rods and reels . Couldn’t get the hang of the fly rod. I would recommend paying to fish dogwood canyon on the Arkansas Missouri border. Awesome place owned by Johnny Morris that owns bass pro shops
You should. It’s an amazing place and you are almost assured to catch a large rainbow. That’s very difficult in these unnatural stocked areas, like the lower Illinois river.
I got big into it about 13 years ago when my wife got her dad an I a guided trip to Taneycomo. I started hitting NM and Co pretty hard and I got ate up with it. My favorite places are Pecos NM and the Conejos in Colorado. I prefer small stream fishing over large rivers. I rarely do anything on ponds or lakes unless I’m stuck in my backyard in Stillwater. Dry dropper fishing is what I do a majority of the time but I will adjust based on what’s hitting. I’m not on the non sports page much but let me know if you have any questions.
Do you live in OK? I've been fly fishing for probably 15 years now. White River is great and is hard to beat, especially floating in the summer throwing drys to browns. Fish the Blue River a lot, down by Tishimingo, because it's easy to get to from OKC. Some of it requires some pretty technical casting due to the trees. Lower Illinois is more wide open, bigger water and easier to cast on if you're a beginner. Don't spend big money on reels, they're only their to hold line if you're just fishing for rainbows. Save that money and get a couple of rods in different actions so you can get the feel of fast vs. medium/slow. Don't get enamored by the big prices on the Orvis/Sage/Winston/etc rods in the beginning. My favorite rod to fish with is a $200 Cabelas branded 3wt with a Redington zero drag click reel.
Best way to practice is going to ponds catching perch one after another.
Best way to practice is going to ponds catching perch one after another.
Late to the party, but if you ever find your way to Norcal (Redding, not SF), let me know. Lots of great water on foot and in the drift boat.
Just got back from fishing the Pecos in nm for a few days. The water was as low as I’ve ever fished it(around 40cfs) we typically like 70-120. Fish were stacked in the deep holes but were biting if presented well. I had a good first day 22 fish mix of stocker bows and stream born browns. Day 2 we went to fish the Rio at county line and it was ultra windy. I had my 11 year old nephew with me and the day was full of keeping him upright, dry, and tangle free. I caught a few decent size browns and bows. It was a lot of fun to fight fish on the bigger water of the Rio Grande. The next day was spent trying to get my nephew on some fish. The first run he couldn’t get his cast back to a fish that was tucked in a tricky hole. I showed him how to make the cast upstream and then roll out to get some extra distance. I landed a nice brown around 15” one of my largest on the Pecos. The next run had a longer pool 8-12ft long and he was able to put a nice cast out to the top of it. His drift was good and the indicator was pulled under by a nice little brown. I showed him how to play the fish fighting with the butt of the rod using the current to his advantage. Seconds later I got to see a great smile coming from a boy that landed his first fish in the fly. I thought I had done something special but then…the next cast was pulled under in the same manner. The rod lift set the hook and the fight was on! Our big eyes met after a large brown rose to the surface and thrashed to escape. I didn’t know how to help him as he had too much line out and was trying to get to the reel. My left hand went to my net and the right pinned his fly line against the rod. The thrashing continued as the brown tried to make his way back to the safety of his undercut bank. The line snapped and at that moment I knew that in 2 casts he had just experienced the life of a fishermen.