Bland Report

Tom Butler

Tom Butler

Grandpa, Small Stream Fanatic
Forum Supporter
Usless report? Oh well, Greg P was over this way and we spent the evening fishing a local stream. Water was low but still cool enough. Problem is, the floods last winter. Where there used to be pools, there are now long stretches of uniform cobble. Turning over rocks reveals only a portion of the normal bug life. I can clearly seem some places where the incision is getting worse. Seems to be a whole year class of better fish missing.
That said, it was nice to meet up. I almost always fish early so it was interesting watch a familiar zone at a different time of day. Such a pleasant visit. We did find some fish too, mostly smolts and a few natives. It works out well when we fish together because he likes to fish dries on a 2wt, and I, well, since it was getting near dark threw a jiggy craw.
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Tom Butler said:
Usless report? Oh well, Greg P was over this way and we spent the evening fishing a local stream. Water was low but still cool enough. Problem is, the floods last winter. Where there used to be pools, there are now long stretches of uniform cobble. Turning over rocks reveals only a portion of the normal bug life. I can clearly seem some places where the incision is getting worse. Seems to be a whole year class of better fish missing.
That said, it was nice to meet up. I almost always fish early so it was interesting watch a familiar zone at a different time of day. Such a pleasant visit. We did find some fish too, mostly smolts and a few natives. It works out well when we fish together because he likes to fish dries on a 2wt, and I, well, since it was getting near dark threw a jiggy craw.
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Is that the same stretch you brought me to? I remember fishing a wall like that with you. I have very nice memories of that day on your waters!
 
Zak said:
Is that the same stretch you brought me to? I remember fishing a wall like that with you. I have very nice memories of that day on your waters!
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Yes, it is. Everything below is gone.
 
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Tom Butler said:
Yes, it is. Everything below is gone.
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Tom,

Have you had the opportunity yet to explore in reaches youve previously found unproductive? Your pools and overhangs and buckets exist somewhere, im sure. It's always tough when they up and move on you!

They opened the NF nooksack for a cup of coffee this spring, and my first 5 accesses were no longer productive waters. We had a major flood event as well, but this river moves significantly even without large events. And on my 6th access, where I've never found fishable water, led to the best swings I've seen on that river this season.

Of course they shut it down right after I found it, but when your river shuffles the deck on you, its time to find where she hid the aces.
 
Pink Nighty said:
Tom,

Have you had the opportunity yet to explore in reaches youve previously found unproductive? Your pools and overhangs and buckets exist somewhere, im sure. It's always tough when they up and move on you!

They opened the NF nooksack for a cup of coffee this spring, and my first 5 accesses were no longer productive waters. We had a major flood event as well, but this river moves significantly even without large events. And on my 6th access, where I've never found fishable water, led to the best swings I've seen on that river this season.

Of course they shut it down right after I found it, but when your river shuffles the deck on you, its time to find where she hid the aces.
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I have a lot of water yet to explore this season. I also think if they drifted down they may come back up with the temperatures. But this reach is 3000' without a bend. Lower flows set up well within the limited flood plain but the higher flows, two shots and one major flood, really blew this section out.
 
Every year I return to RC it is an adventure, to say the least. I have fished special holes for years. One hole always had a nice side channel, deep and long pool with a great tailwater. My daughters had yellow rubber ducky races in the side channel. One year a big sweeper diverted the water and it was dry. Another year my favorite was a deep hole on a different side channel. It was also dry.

Bummer! But I got an education. I could see the former holding areas. What one thinks is the underwater structure is not what I thought. A great learning experience!
 
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Tom Butler said:
I have a lot of water yet to explore this season. I also think if they drifted down they may come back up with the temperatures. But this reach is 3000' without a bend. Lower flows set up well within the limited flood plain but the higher flows, two shots and one major flood, really blew this section out.
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Looks like it could use some big wood jams to add cover and complexity.
 
Matt B said:
Looks like it could use some big wood jams to add cover and complexity.
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That's what Greg and were talking about. No wood. There are several new sweepers, it will take some time.
 
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Tom Butler said:
Usless report? Oh well, Greg P was over this way and we spent the evening fishing a local stream. Water was low but still cool enough. Problem is, the floods last winter. Where there used to be pools, there are now long stretches of uniform cobble. Turning over rocks reveals only a portion of the normal bug life. I can clearly seem some places where the incision is getting worse. Seems to be a whole year class of better fish missing.
That said, it was nice to meet up. I almost always fish early so it was interesting watch a familiar zone at a different time of day. Such a pleasant visit. We did find some fish too, mostly smolts and a few natives. It works out well when we fish together because he likes to fish dries on a 2wt, and I, well, since it was getting near dark threw a jiggy craw.
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Not the volume of fish, but i found a few dumb ones willing to strike a random dry fly, and fishing wth Tom is always something i look forward to. His euro nymphing has out fished me about 3 to 1 over the years and i love to see his number of fish and generally bigger fish, but i still love the take on the surface
 
That river had a huge flood more than a few years ago and it took a long time to reestablish pools and riffles. The recent high water probably had an easier time of scouring everything out again.
 
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