Chapter 58 Day 54 - Trout Season

The Duke On Christmas Eve

I really had my doubts about using that brown bugger tagged as the Duke of Marabou Brown after looking at the river today.  The river, in the campground area, has made a dramatic return to clarity. 

However, the ol' chap deserved a chance to see if could stage a repeat performance of last week... and he did. 

My time on the river today was short, but, while there the fishing was absolutely insane.  The trout were evidently in hari kari mode today, because it was nothing short of an onslaught the Duke was delivering. 

It was easy to be impressed today by the quality of these trout.  With the exception of one fish, none of the fish to hand today measured less than twelve inches, owning remarkable colors, and fat! 

Getting to the stretch I wished to fish there was no one else around except a bait fisher on the east bank upstream.  Soon though, a young bait angler and another fly angler would join me.  The young bait angler was having all kinds of problems and not catching anything so I would end up giving him my water. 

The fly angler hollered at me and asked if I'd mind sharing information as to what fly I was using and of course the answer no... wouldn't mind at all.  Wading over to the fly angler to show him the Duke, we struck a conversation about the clarity of the river in the campground area.  The gentleman told me he had fished the northern wilderness yesterday and the river was still stained up there.  I don't understand what's going on in the northern part of this river - it doesn't make any sense.

After leaving this prime stretch of river, a downstream position was taken and the Duke went to work again, but, nowhere to the degree as the first place. 

It was still quite cold when I was on the river today, but, little wind, which made it tolerable.

River Report

Instead of me trying to give a narrative description of what the river looks like in the campground area, I decided to share a video.  Remember, this is a report for only the campground area, not the northern areas. 

Chapter 58 Day 45 - Trout Season

Update On Blue Brown River

Matt, area manager of Blue River pretty much hit the nail on the head with his river report of 8:30 this morning. 

The river is not chocolate milk, but, it is a watered down version of beef broth.  Having to go to Tishomingo today I decided to swing my Blue and have a look-see for myself.  The question for many of you wanting to come is the simple asking, "Is the river fly fish-able?"  It wasn't today, well.. I mean to say it could have been fly fished, but, capturing fish would have been a huge challenge. 

The bad news is it's probably not going to be fish-able any this weekend with more rain predicted for tonight. 

I've seen the river much worse, and today you could still see rock structure in the middle of some wide stretches.  The fringes are somewhat clear and shallow areas could be fished.  By simply listening to the river today it was easy to sense the river's flow was up significantly. 

On the trip down to the river, it became quite evident that the river area received a much harder rain than we did here near my prairie home.  Checking Rock Creek before I left, I found that this little creek is still fairly clear.  Not the case for Blue River however. 

Sorry to be the messenger of such disappointing news for those of you that live a good distance from the river.  But, I rather see you not make a trip than make it to find a stew, soup, cocktail of nature's doing. 

Here's the pictures from today.