I've been trying hard to get out to the canyon the past couple weekends but didn't want the already long drive to turn into longer due to snow and ice. So I took the day off on friday hoping the snow from last weekends storm melted off while also getting in before this weekends storm. My plan worked for the most part. There was a good amount of ice still on the ridge so that was slow going, but I kept my speed down and made it to the river safely. Once on the dirt road, there was a enough rocks sticking through the ice that there it actually had really great traction. The further down river I meant, the less tracks I saw and the majority of pull off had no tracks, meaning the fish really haven't been pressured in over a week.
When I got out of my car at 9am it was 26 degrees and by the time I packed it in at 4 it rose to a balmy 34, but there was zero wind so all things considered I was pretty comfortable all day.
I love fishing with fresh tracks on the trail because you get to see all the critters tracks.
I started the day fishing a double egg rig on the bottom and it was a LOT slower than the last time I was out. I landed about doze whiteys. I only took one fish picture mostly because we all know what fish look like, but more importantly, I didn't want to get my hands wet so I kept my hemos at my side and released them as fast as I could without getting wet.
The other reason I wanted to get out on Friday was the forecast: overcast, with zero wind. And I've been really dialing in the BWO hatch on this river (well, maybe just one long run). And that forecast gives you a really good chance of a really good BWO hatch that can last from 15 minutes to an hour and a half around lunch. So I headed further down river to a spot I know produces and proceeded to wait. I rigged up my spring creek rod (a soft 8' 4wt) with a BWO and got to it as soon as I saw my first sip.
It's a really neat run. It's a couple hundred yards long on river right. You start at the bottom and pick of fish after fish while muscling them back down stream as to not spook the fish above. You can work your whole way upstream and just slay em.
I started off with a size 18 Film Critic in BWO colors and that produced, then went on to a size 18 deer hair Comparadun which also produced. I would switch between patterns as I pushed up because the next rung of fish hadn't seen the previous fly. Both of those flies worked but they weren't lights out--then I switched to a size 20 quill bodied parachute fly and it was game on. That fly was just absolutely on fire and I didn't have to change it for the rest of the hatch. Overall it lasted about an hour and a half and I landed 15-18 fish and lost a handful. Average fish was around 12-14 inches, and hard fighting. The last time I fished this hatch on this run it was just a carpet hatch--bugs EVERYWHERE. Which I think made the fishing harder since the fish had so much to eat. Whereas this time, there was a lot less bug activity (but the fish were still rising just as aggressively) and because of that, it was much less technical of catching.
After it died down, I went back to eat my sandwich. I proceeded to half heartedly nymph up a couple more fish and packed it in for the day.
Looks like I need to restock my size 20's, I know, this has some ya’ll throwing up a bit in your mouths
When I got out of my car at 9am it was 26 degrees and by the time I packed it in at 4 it rose to a balmy 34, but there was zero wind so all things considered I was pretty comfortable all day.
I love fishing with fresh tracks on the trail because you get to see all the critters tracks.
I started the day fishing a double egg rig on the bottom and it was a LOT slower than the last time I was out. I landed about doze whiteys. I only took one fish picture mostly because we all know what fish look like, but more importantly, I didn't want to get my hands wet so I kept my hemos at my side and released them as fast as I could without getting wet.
The other reason I wanted to get out on Friday was the forecast: overcast, with zero wind. And I've been really dialing in the BWO hatch on this river (well, maybe just one long run). And that forecast gives you a really good chance of a really good BWO hatch that can last from 15 minutes to an hour and a half around lunch. So I headed further down river to a spot I know produces and proceeded to wait. I rigged up my spring creek rod (a soft 8' 4wt) with a BWO and got to it as soon as I saw my first sip.
It's a really neat run. It's a couple hundred yards long on river right. You start at the bottom and pick of fish after fish while muscling them back down stream as to not spook the fish above. You can work your whole way upstream and just slay em.
I started off with a size 18 Film Critic in BWO colors and that produced, then went on to a size 18 deer hair Comparadun which also produced. I would switch between patterns as I pushed up because the next rung of fish hadn't seen the previous fly. Both of those flies worked but they weren't lights out--then I switched to a size 20 quill bodied parachute fly and it was game on. That fly was just absolutely on fire and I didn't have to change it for the rest of the hatch. Overall it lasted about an hour and a half and I landed 15-18 fish and lost a handful. Average fish was around 12-14 inches, and hard fighting. The last time I fished this hatch on this run it was just a carpet hatch--bugs EVERYWHERE. Which I think made the fishing harder since the fish had so much to eat. Whereas this time, there was a lot less bug activity (but the fish were still rising just as aggressively) and because of that, it was much less technical of catching.
After it died down, I went back to eat my sandwich. I proceeded to half heartedly nymph up a couple more fish and packed it in for the day.
Looks like I need to restock my size 20's, I know, this has some ya’ll throwing up a bit in your mouths
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. I’m excited to get back at it soon. Getting to the river’s edge will be difficult with the snow stacked up already.
