My family is renting a cabin outside broken bow this week.
The plan was to introduce my youngest so. To fly fishing. That changes when I got home yesterday and found he had broken my fly rod.

since fly fishing is out what are the best chances of catching trout with spinning gear, and where is it allowed?


Secondly my nephew (4 years old) is very excited to try fishing. Is there any particular place on the lake that's good for taking little kids the first time? We need some serious panfish action to keep him interested

Boat docks for the 4 yr old ..

http://www.threeriversflyshop.com/troutstream.htm

There is no fly-fishing only zone (unfortunately ).

There are zones where it is artificial barbless lures only.

Spillway and Beaver Trail are the easier place for small children to actually catch fish IMO.



Also, Red zones are basically fly only, yeah you can fish road runners there but it will basically be only fly fisherman. Why catching a fish on a barbless dry fly is so much better for the fish than using a barbless hook and a trout worm is a mystery to me.

The regulations keep worm-fishing shirtless riff-raff from standing in the middle of the best holes in sections of the river.

Perfectly sums up fly fishing snobbery.

quote:

---

...nobody who did not know how to catch a fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him.

---

At the spillway how catchable are the fish? Enough to keep a 4 year old interested for an hour or am I better off finding sunfish under a dock on the lake ?

Very easy, my son in the picture is 4, we can kill an hour there no problem. Then another hour just playing on the rocks and in the shallow pools.

There wouldn't be a trout left in that river except for the week of stocking if it weren't for the regulations.

I agree, but again if I am using a barbless hooks and releasing any fish under 20" what does it matter whether fly or bait is used?

Btw, I have been fishing the river up there for 30 years, the last 16 of which with a fly rod. I don't have a problem with having catch limits and size limits. I have a problem with excluding a something that is a perfectly legal 100yds down the river.

too much stress on the fish from being caught too often. Plus people that fish with worms don't know what barbless means, I bet, for most of them. If they do know, they don't care.

It also helps with game wardens being able to quickly police the river. If they say a fly fisher, they have confidence that regulations are being followed. If they see a shirtless teenager with a zebco standing in the best hole, casting to a non-hole, they know that maybe they should check things out and look in that cooler.

I had heard the no bait was because baits have a much greater chance of being swallowed, and killing the fish if it's released. I have no idea of that's true.

I'm fine with no baits. I'm not fine with true "fly only" places.

What determines what a fly is? If I have a casting bubble and a spinning rod with a woolly bugger, is that ok? If I tie a panther martin on the end of my leader is that ok?

I'm okay with no "fly only" places on that river as well.

But in effect, it is a "fly only" outcome. Because I don't recall ever seeing a non-fly fisher on the restricted parts of the river.

Then shut down Lost Creek and Evening Hole to all fishing and make the rest of the river better.

Maybe 87 sees this and can provide some more insight since Lost Creek was his project.

The second part is a cop out, plenty of fly fisherman break the rules too.

Tony, i have never heard the ingesting theory, maybe so but why then is it okay to increase the likelihood of killing fish everywhere but that part of the river, and stay away from anything that is scented/impregnated or rubber and you will be okay.

Wait you only have one fly rod. That is a problem....

I moved from fishing to race cars as a hobby. Guns and fishing stuff helped fund the racing addiction which was fine till the racecar was totaled by the shop I took it to

just be careful what you complain about. Because I've been to places in the NW where it is artificial barbless ONLY. The current policies strike a balance between the fly fishing folks and the casual fishermen. And I fly fish in those unrestricted areas as well. So it's not like I'm going to avoid good water just because someone is fishing with a worm.

A problem with the river is that there are too many fishermen on the river. Too much pressure. I wish they could extend the river by increasing the baseline flow.

is your fly rod guaranteed for life? Depending on the brand, it may be.

I'm going to check into the guarantee

http://beaversbendflyshop.proboards.com

http://lmfrfoundation.org/latest-news-and-updates/

Might be a better source of info.

And anyone been up there since the floods wiped out things in Dec?

I have been up 3 weekends this year. All the fishing places are open except Lost Creek and they are all much different now apperence wise. I have had my boys with me so haven't really fish the river hard since Dec.

Also, for those of you going up there is a new restaurant open called Moon Tower Bar & Grill. It was opened in Nov by a guy that won an episode of Chopped and another show. Food is better than anywhere else I have eaten up there, beer is cold, and they have music on the weekends.

Good topic. What's the best area to stay up there? Looks like several pockets of cabins around the park. Can't get a good sense of the most ideal area to rent for a long weekend with young kids.

I may know a nice cabin for rent, it is on 259 West of the spillway. PM me if interested.

The website says they are stocking rainbows today. Anyone know where they put them in? This would be perfect for my nephew!

I believe they put them in multiple spots. Not just one spot.

a long time ago I think they were put in at the Spillway, Cold Hole and Evening Hole, no clue anymore.