What's Out There to Fly Fish For? - by Dave Whitlock

What's Out There to Fly Fish For?
By Dave Whitlock

As I was growing up in Oklahoma's warm waters, all I had to fly fish for was bass and sunfish. Nothing had spots except an occasional accidental channel catfish! There were no trout, no grayling, no salmon... poor Okie from Muskogee, I used to think. My young brain had been tattooed from reading magazines, books, and catalogs that fly fishing wasn't fly fishing unless I was wading a cold, clear stream where colorful, spotted torpedoes broke the surface for graceful, sail-winged, blue dun colored, floating mayflies. Oh, to be among the privileged trout and salmon fly-fishing elite!

Well, I got an education, a job, vacation time and joined the 'real' world of fly fishing back east, up north and out west! It was fantastic! Then when I was about 30, I started to change my thinking. Why? Well, for several reasons. First, two or three weeks of 'real' fly fishing a year was just not enough. It was also becoming harder to find and more expensive, plus my wife and kids were learning to fly fish and needed more of my time. At that point, I had also begun considering an occupation change from petroleum research to ...fly fishing!

The more I thought, remembered and looked around, the clearer it became to me that almost at my doorstep there was an abundance of cool and warm water creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes loaded with wild game fish that we could access after work and school and on weekends or holidays. So we began to revisit some eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas past favorite spots and explore new ones. Every place was a new adventure, and with just a few tackle and fly modifications, we caught an amazing variety of fish on flies. There were largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, white bass, blue gill, green sunfish and at least eight or 10 other species of sunfish! But that was just the beginning. I also caught drum, sauger, channel catfish, carp, chubs, gar, bowfin, fresh water herring, shad and bullfrogs! What fun! All these species have their own special qualities.

So, do yourself a favor this season. If you haven't already discovered the other, more abundant fun part of fly fishing, those warm and cool water, fresh and salt water fish that'll gobble your fly, try them out in your 'home' waters. Chances are, you'll find more elbow room, have more success and perhaps even more fun fly fishing...and definitely more often.

Article courtesy of Dave Whitlock at Fly Fishing with Dave and Emily Whitlock in the Oklahoma Ozarks

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