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If I wanted to see gin clear water ripple down
a rocky stream bed in western Oklahoma I had to
keep an eye out for the next Coors beer commercial.
To see some one cast a fly line I had to rent
"The River Runs Through It," but I became a fly
fisherman nevertheless. And I did it here at Fly
Anglers On Line.
My home is in southwest Oklahoma, land of sand
hills and mesquite trees; the rivers are warm
and just wide enough a man can jump them and not
get his feet wet. The only fish I have seen in
the Salt Fork of the Red River are a couple of
carp trapped in a hole in an ox bow. Oh don't be
fooled the little farm ponds have some of the best
Large Mouth Bass a soul can find, but the idea of
fly fishing and fly tying haunted me. Especially
when I was carrying sixty pounds of spinning tackle
in three ice chest sized boxes to catch them.
Finally, one hot August afternoon I threw down
my bait cast rod, went out and bought the only
fly rod for sale within 90 miles of my home, an
$18.00 8wt. Shakespeare from Wal-Mart. I also
purchased a book on fly casting just in case it
wasn't as easy as it looked. I brought it all
home strapped across the handle bars of my
motorcycle.
While the sun set that evening I stood in my
front yard with twenty feet of fly line laid
in front of me preparing for my first fly cast.
I brought the rod up, the line whizzed by, and
the tippet kissed me on the ear, and all twenty
feet of line pilled up in front of me. Brad Pit
I wasn't. Undeterred I carried on well past dark
with little more success.
In a search for answers to the mystery of the
effortless loops I saw in the movies I came
across FAOL. There I read about balanced rod
and reel weights, weight forward lines and
casting techniques. I searched other sites but
found them crammed with advertisements for
billion dollar tackle I now knew I didn't have
the capacity to use. FAOL had a beginners column
and advice for people like me who didn't know a
caddis from a cactus. With this new found wealth
of information I purchased an appropriate fly line.
I ordered a fly tying kit for Bass and Panfish flies,
and began again. I practiced stopping the rod at
ten and two in the front yard until I could feel
the rod "load." I followed the tying instructions
from beginner to expert. Then tied some poppers and
dragon flies I found in the archives. Within a few
weeks I pulled in my first blue gill and was
completely smitten.
July fourth found me clear across the state in
Broken Bow, Oklahoma and it was beautiful. To
my delight I found an ice cold gin clear stream
rippling over slippery rocks between pine covered
mountains. Broken Bow State Park has one of only
two year-round trout fisheries in Oklahoma and the
state record Rainbow. Having a spontaneous wife
made it easy to pick up and move. The first few
months were consumed with starting a new business
and it was November before I was able to break out
my fly rod. I just fished the lake with my bass
flies but caught a couple of the Small Mouth Bass
the lake is famous for. I was afraid my rod was too
heavy for the tiny flies needed to fish the trout
in the twelve miles below the dam. Then Mrs. Santa
Clause put a 4wt. Hobbs Creek Rod in my stocking at
Christmas. I tied a size 22 olive dun and on my
third cast ever for trout I pulled in a small Brown;
still having never received instruction from any one
but the fine people at FAOL. I have been trout fishing
nearly every day since New Year's Eve and I haven't come
home skunked yet.
Thank you FAOL, tight lines and God bless. ~ KC Meek
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