Remembering Pat Daly with a boost for fly fishing and conservation
Invitational tourney and awards ceremony July 15-17 raises awareness for fishing, money for conservation
It’s hard to believe a statewide bass fishing tournament in Oklahoma could be fighting to find people to enter, but it’s happening now.
How can that be?
Well, because it’s a fly-fishing tournament.
But that’s OK. It's a tournament to raise conservation dollars and it’s named for a guy who was used to waiting for great things to happen. And waiting.
The late Pat Daly, a dogged conservationist once named the Oklahoma Conservation Coalition’s Conservation Leader of the Year, was an equally dogged angler, especially when it came to the striped bass of the Arkansas River.
The July 15-17 bass tournament offers prizes for the largest string of three largemouth, smallmouth, white bass or striped bass, plus one overall winner. Daly would no doubt be competing in this one where he fished the most, along the Arkansas River—and likely right at his home lake and Keystone Dam.
“He’d probably be there right beside the gear chuckers,” tourney organizer Jake Miller said with a laugh.
The “gear chucker” vocabulary makes sense to any fly angler who has stood with a bit of fluff on a hook, a simple reel, 9 feet of slender flyrod, and slick fly line next to guys wielding 12-foot surf rods chucking heavy lead and live bait or giant plugs.
“I think I always had tremendous respect for him as an angler because if there is anything I hate it’s throwing from the side of that dam,” Miller said. “When it’s zero generation and nobody is there, sure, but Pat would be there lined up with 15 other dudes when it’s running 5,000 (CFS).”
The odds for a fly fisher to keep pace with the gear chuckers in such a scenario are just about zero.
“He would have to almost never catch anything and just be so excited by the catches that he had,” Miller said. “To know that was enough to keep him going back there really says something for the man’s patience.”
Patience now is Miller’s greatest tool as he organizes the Inaugural Pat Daly Invitational, which will give fly anglers a chance to hit warm water species from 5 p.m. Friday through 4 p.m. Sunday.
The challenge?
Fish early, fish late, fish all night, and show people what warm-water fly-fishing really can produce in Oklahoma.
It’s fly-fishing only for fish that are hooked in the mouth. All anglers have to register for $50 and pick up a packet at 5 p.m. Friday at The Gadget Company in Tulsa or the JD Adams and Co fly shop in Oklahoma City. All fish have to be photographed and measured on a bump board with a required “mystery item designed by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism” that comes in the packet, as well as a GPS location.
Each angler also can gain 3 bonus points for one hybrid striped bass and 3 for one Kentucky spotted bass.
Fishing is allowed on all public waters, by boat, by wading, or even with a guide and during the day or at night. The only things off-limits are private ponds or other private-access-only waters. Also, all fish entered must be over 13 inches in length.
Perhaps the best part of the tournament will be the award ceremony set for 5-9 p.m. Sunday at Heirloom Rustic Ales. It features a fundraiser raffle (with some awesome items) with food trucks, music from local bands, and special beer releases from Heirloom and Skydance Brewing Company.
One overall winner, plus first, second and third place in each category wins top gear from leading industry brands. All proceeds from the tourney will establish a conservation fund with the local Trout Unlimited Chapter 420 in Daly’s name
But, a week out from the event, it had just 25 entries.
It’s understandable there are few, but also not impossible to gain a lot more entries.
The Oklahoma fly-fisher who regularly targets bass species is a relatively rare beast. Even more rare is one that wades, walks, or boats with a set of scales or a measuring stick.
Miller wants to change all that, at least for one weekend a year.
“We’ve got guys who are striper guys and smallmouth specialist guys,” he said. “But you don’t really see too many who are out there trying to figure out how to consistently catch 4- to 6-pound largemouth bass consistently on a fly rod.”
For one weekend, the idea is to pick up that challenge and do something big for Oklahoma fishing and for conservation while you’re at it.
“This tournament is to motivate people to grind for a big fish,” he said.
It is with a purpose that the tournament involves local breweries, local businesses, state tourism, and recreation on public waters, all things Pat Daly supported and constantly reminded people are economic drivers that rely on a constant supply of clean flowing waters.
“I would love for this to grow and five years from now involve guides booked solid for the weekend (with fly fishers),” Miller said.
If Pat Daly could hang in there to catch stripers in the impossible spots and win water conservation battles against impossible odds, guides loaded up with fly fishers in Oklahoma could come to be as well.
If nothing else, the few ready to “grind” are in for a fun tournament next weekend and will only have to beat out 24 others (25 if you count my entry on Friday) for some great prizes.
Come to the party on Sunday, drop some raffle money for conservation, and see who comes out on top.