We all arrived on Friday night to the Centennial Cabin. This has to be the nicest cabin that I have ever stayed in. It had leather couches, a plasma TV, hot tub on the porch, stainless steel grill, loft, full kitchen with dishes, utensils, and everything else you could ever want. Needless to say, we weren't exactly roughing it this weekend.
On Saturday morning we packed up all our gear and headed for the river. Four members of the group had hired a guide. They got instruction throughout the day on where to fish, and what flies to use. Harold and myself had fished at Beaver's Bend before, so we (read: he) knew what we were doing.
Fishing was slow most of the day on Saturday. I caught one small rainbow trout in the Lost Creek section of the park, and Harold caught a couple in the middle section of the river. Everyone we talked to said it had been tough fishing lately. The owner of Three Rivers flyshop said that he took out four experienced flyfishers for a class Saturday morning and ended up without a single fish.
After debating flies - nymphs vs streamers vs soft hackles, dead drifts, stocking schedules, drift depths, water temperatures, etc, we decided that the coldwater trout simply didn't really like the 98-degree days we have been having. I can't say that I blame them too much.We had planned on cooking "hobo stew" (pot luck veggie stew) for dinner that night at the cabin. I want to know what genius came up with the idea of having hot stew for dinner when we had been fishing all day in the sun and heat? We all decided to head into town to find a better alternative for dinner. We saw an ad in the yellow pages for The Oaks Steakhouse that was "Famous for our Steaks". Imagine that, a steakhouse that is famous for steaks. I have seen it all now.... Citysearch gives it 3 1/2 stars - I think they are being generous. But I can highly recommend the coconut cream pie.
I got up early on Sunday morning to do some fishing before heading back to DFW. Fishing was a bit better today. After moving to an upper stretch of river (where the water was cooler), I caught four nice sized rainbows in about 2 1/2 hours. The last fish of the day was a fat 16" rainbow taken on a #16 Copper John fly (which I then promptly lost in a tree).
There were other things caught this weekend. Unfortunately, crawdads don't put up too much of a fight - at least not until you try to unhook them. Then they become extremely ticked off.
I have come to realize that no trip to Broken Bow would be complete without someone losing something. After landing the 16" trout, I put my net down to take a picture of the fish. What I didn't realize was that the net very quietly floated away while I wasn't paying attention. After wading about 1/4 mile of river, I finally found it stuck on a rock in the river. It's never a dull moment around here... I retreated from the heat around 1:00, and made the long drive back to DFW.These were the most productive flies this weekend. It still seems a bit crazy to me that a trout will eat a fly that imitates a bug that is 1/8" long.
The Broken Bow area has become a favorite retreat of mine. The rolling mountains and hills combined with the huge pine trees and quiet setting make it an ideal place to get away from it all. These outings have always been tons of fun. It seems like at every outing, I make new friends and learn tons of things about whatever species we are fishing for. Hopefully there will be many more in the future.
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