Made the trip 200 miles south to explore some new trout Tailwaters near Broken Bow, OK. My buddy Alex and I stopped in and fished the Lower Mountain Fork River in the Beaver Bend State Park. All I can say is Wow!. It is such a beautiful area and the trees don’t even have leaves and the grass isn’t green. There is a pretty strong stand of pine trees throughout the area so there is always some green color. It is definitely a place I want to visit in the summer and take the family along.
Beaver Bend is such a unique tailwater in that the dam has 2 release points. The main spillway releases a constant flow of water that runs down a canyon creating Spillway Creek. This stretch of water is probably near 2 miles long and really looks and feels like a run-off creek high in the mountains. The water is swift and narrow with very few areas where the water slows, widens or flattens out. This creek works its way down the canyon until it finally feeds back into the main channel of Lower Mountain Fork River right above the area they call the Evening Hole. This is at the top of the bend. What makes it so unique is this Spillway Creek and the big natural Beaver Bend. Around this bend the water flows fairly consistent year around through this approximately 6 miles of water. The generation part of the dam has a separate release point where the water comes in at the bottom of the bend where is doesn’t disrupt any of the upstream flow around that big bend. They really did a great job planning that out and using the natural features so that you can maximize the recreation, provide flood control, and generate electricity.
We started Saturday by fishing the first half of Spillway Creek starting at the bottom. I’m really a rookie at that type of water and didn’t get a single bite. We fished the upper section Sunday with no luck as well. It is such a great section of water that looks just amazing. Just takes some time to figure out how to fish that kind of water.
We finished Saturday fishing the top portion of the Evening Hole. Most fishers were having a tough go only managing a few fish. We finally started to catch using an Olive Wholly Bugger in the drift. I later switched to a purple midge and caught a few more right at dusk to finish the day off. We started Sunday morning back at the Evening Hole starting at the bottom and working up to where we finished the evening before. It started a little slow, but came on pretty strong with blue dun or white midges. I was able to get one on a BWO dry fly. There was a pretty constant drizzle throughout the morning.
I would highly recommend exploring this area. It is so beautiful and really a unique layout. There are several other sections in this 12 mile stretch that we just didn’t have to check out in a weekend outing.
Happy Fishing and Stay Trout Tough!
Erik-
