Chapter 58 Day 94 - Trout Season

Fly Fishing Falls Creek

I had the pleasure of making a new friend today.  Phil Hocker came by the mercantile store today telling me he had been by four different times trying to catch me. 

It turns out Phil is an avid fly fisher and he also follows this blog quite regularly.  So, we got to talking about fly fishing in general.

We talked about Blue River, the Lower Mountain Fork, Pennington Creek, Rock Creek and then the subject of Falls Creek came up.  Phil was under the impression that the trout were not at Falls Creek this year. 

However, I quickly informed him they were since the butcher in the meat market was there just this past Saturday.  As to how many were still there I didn't have a clue.  Our conversation continued for another ten minutes or so and Phil had to bid goodbye... he was on his way to the knife building supply place in Davis, Oklahoma.

After Phil left I kept thinking about our meeting and particularly Falls Creek.  Falls Creek has been the subject between me and another friend of mine - Van Stacey. 

Van is the man in my youngest daughters life and he's darn good to her so naturally I like him.  I like him for another reason too - like me, he's an avid outdoorsman.  For some time now we've been trying to plan a fishing outing, but something like the weather always seems to come up. 

This weekend we had talked about hitting Blue River, but if we get the rain they say we are... then Blue is going to be blown.  To counter that possibility, I told Van, just the other day, we should consider Falls Creek.

When I left the mercantile store today I thought it best to run over to Falls Creek just to make sure there were still trout and the butcher wasn't blowing smoke up my arse - which he is inclined to do at times. 

When I got to Falls Creek guess who else was there?  Phil!  He had his rod packed in his car and so there we were. 

Falls Creek is an intimate little creek hidden high in the Arbuckle Mountains near Davis, Oklahoma.  The trout water flows through property owned by the Southern Baptist Convention and this place becomes a vacation spot and place of worship for thousands and thousands of young people each summer.

One thing Phil and I learned about the Falls Creek trout is they have a unique ability, it seems, to spit a fly out faster than you can blink an eye.  Phil had several takes and sudden releases and the same was true for me - two on a bugger and one on the Delektable Lil Red Spanker. 

Phil finally got a hook to stay in one bow using a Pistol Pete pattern.  We both had been seeing a good number of rise forms, but at best they were sporadic.  I could see the mayflies floating around my face and it was easy to tell that a size 18 Adams would match.  The closest thing I had on me was a size 20 Ol' Gray, which is a poor man's version of an Adams.  Ralph James come up with this pattern.

Tying the Ol' Gray on I targeted the head of a falls and as soon as the Ol' Gray lit down upon the film a sixteen inch bow sky-rocketed out of the water completely jumping over the fly.  How cruel a thing for me to watch. 

The caretaker came by to collect my $5.00.  Yes, they charge $5.00 and I think it is primarily to keep everybody and their dog from coming up the mountain.  In conversation with the caretaker he shared with me there was nowhere near the number of trout there were earlier in the season - a lot had been taken out.  If you take them they cost $1.50 each. 

I was well past my allotted time at Falls Creek and drove over to bid Phil so-long.  Phil had a different idea though.  We had been fishing the lower pool at Falls Creek and he was going to the upper pool.  He asked me to go, but again, I was well past Miss Carol's curfew. 

It was a good day today - I made a new friend, fished with that new friend and spent some quality time in a peaceful and relaxing place high in the Arbuckle Mountains.