2015 was the last time I fished the Yak, so I decided I was due. Since my cousin @Justin Whitlock is guiding there, it seemed like a good idea to exploit his knowledge and take a trip along with a good friend.
We kicked off mid morning before most everyone else - the main event swkalas don't really kick off until 1pm or so, doing the morning is definitely starting "too early," but we decided to just do a longer float and nymph for a bit or try to get lucky.
Picked up a couple of decent ones on the ol' Pats Stone through the morning:
Had a few takes that I missed on the nymph rig as well. My friend running a dry on the front of the boat didn't get any action through the morning shift, but he kept at it.
Around noon-ish we switched to dries despite the hatch not really going off yet. Probably my favorite part of the day was a lunch stop. Saw a fish feeding on the opposite bank, so I made a cast that was at the edge of my range, and way farther than any effective dry fly drift can happen... but somehow landed right in front of the fish and he ate. I got a bit too excited on the hook set and snapped him off in the heavy current next to where he was feeding. Still an awesome eat I won't forget.
Shortly after that, my friend hooked in to the nicest fish of the day that Justin had to jump out to get to the net.
Then these tasty boys came out in force:
Once the skwalas came out, we were having constant eats, but most were "distance released" which was way ok with us. The prime time definitely seemed to be that 1pm-4pm slot. Fish were eating all over and if you could get the timing right, you could get those feeders you spotted to eat.
Was great to get some sun, and that warm weather I'm not yet used to.
We kicked off mid morning before most everyone else - the main event swkalas don't really kick off until 1pm or so, doing the morning is definitely starting "too early," but we decided to just do a longer float and nymph for a bit or try to get lucky.
Picked up a couple of decent ones on the ol' Pats Stone through the morning:
Had a few takes that I missed on the nymph rig as well. My friend running a dry on the front of the boat didn't get any action through the morning shift, but he kept at it.
Around noon-ish we switched to dries despite the hatch not really going off yet. Probably my favorite part of the day was a lunch stop. Saw a fish feeding on the opposite bank, so I made a cast that was at the edge of my range, and way farther than any effective dry fly drift can happen... but somehow landed right in front of the fish and he ate. I got a bit too excited on the hook set and snapped him off in the heavy current next to where he was feeding. Still an awesome eat I won't forget.
Shortly after that, my friend hooked in to the nicest fish of the day that Justin had to jump out to get to the net.
Then these tasty boys came out in force:
Once the skwalas came out, we were having constant eats, but most were "distance released" which was way ok with us. The prime time definitely seemed to be that 1pm-4pm slot. Fish were eating all over and if you could get the timing right, you could get those feeders you spotted to eat.
Was great to get some sun, and that warm weather I'm not yet used to.
