Lower Mountain Fork River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Oklahoma

About the Lower Mountain Fork River

The Lower Mountain Fork below Broken Bow Lake is the best trout water in Oklahoma and one of the few genuine year-round trout fisheries in the southern plains. Cold water pulled from deep in the reservoir keeps the twelve miles below the dam in the fifties through an Oklahoma summer, running through the pine and hardwood hills of Beavers Bend State Park in a series of pools, riffles and constructed habitat structures. It looks and fishes far more like an Ozark or Appalachian tailwater than anything else in the state.

Rainbow trout are stocked heavily and there is a real brown trout population, including some large fish that have been in the river for years, in the catch-and-release areas below the dam and around the spillway creek. Below the trout water the river warms and turns into good smallmouth, spotted bass and catfish habitat. The area draws fly anglers from Dallas, Oklahoma City and Little Rock, all of which are within a half day drive, and guided walk-and-wade trips are the norm.

Everything here depends on generation. The Eagletown gauge sits downstream of the tailwater and reflects releases from Broken Bow. When the dam is not generating, the river is low, clear and wadeable and the fishing is technical. When generation starts the river comes up quickly and hard, wading becomes unsafe and anglers need to be off the water and moving to higher ground. Check the generation schedule before you go, and treat a rising river as the warning it is; this is the single most important thing to know about fishing this river.

Broken Bow and Hochatown are the base towns, with cabins, fly shops and guides. Beavers Bend State Park provides most of the public access.

Access

Re-regulation dam and the spillway creek: the top of the trout water.
Beavers Bend State Park: the main public access, several miles of river and campgrounds.
Zone 1 and Zone 2 special-regulation areas: the best-known trout reaches; check current rules.
Presbyterian Falls and the Evening Hole: classic walk-in pools.
Highway 70 bridge at Eagletown: lower river access near the gauge.
Broken Bow Lake and the dam: the source of the cold water.
Lower reaches toward the Little River: smallmouth and catfish water.

Seasons

Year-round trout fishing; the river never freezes and rarely gets too warm below the dam.
March through May: heavy stocking, spring hatches and the best all-around conditions.
June through August: cold releases keep the trout water fishing while everything else in the region bakes.
October through February: brown trout activity, low generation, clear water and few anglers.