FLYMPH FORUM

Well just as the weather looked like it was going to turn warm, Mother Nature decided to dump 8 inches of snow on us last night. Kinda bummed. Guess the best thing to do is load up my raft and see if the trout are still hitting Flymphs in the morning.
I know they are , just gotta figure out which pattern.

Yeah we're warm/cold warm cold rain snow rain. I have cabin fever so bad ! I'm dying to go fishing! Water is too high & off color still.

I'm trying my best to prove the old saying "It's tough to catch fish from your couch".
I am going to try a couple new patterns out. One is an olive serindepity type fly with a "brahma" type hen hackle collar.
The other fly is a size 20 Soft Hackle. Body is light dun super fine dubbing, thread is a light dun, hackle is a light hen in dun, and the head of the fly is Uni 8/0 in red. Rumor has it the BWO's are making an appearance and I have a feeling that little fly will work.

We, too, have been enjoying a "preview" of spring the past two days. Sunny and pleasant outdoors, enough to take Nellie out for a walk. Today! Winter returns. High of only 39, with expected low near 19. We are suppose to warm a little, again, but back into the low 30s for highs later this week. While spring will officially be here tomorrow, it will take a bit for the spring weather to settle in. My local river has been blown out for well over a week, now. Lots of rain and snow melt, although my son-in-law, Bill, told me he saw some people fishing. They actually stocked Thursday and Friday, even with the river raging as it is.

For the life of me, I can not see the fun in catching fish that were just placed in the water. If stocking is a necessity, as it seems to be, here, for God sake, give them a chance to survive the change in their environment and get accustomed to living on their own. Stockies are not good on the table either. I am thinking it's greed or bragging rights.

Mark

Here is some salt for you wounds. Went fishin yesterday, took the cane a silk out for the first time this year. I have been using the Tenkara. Any way the water is still high from the rain we had last week and the fish were not real active. my partner caught about a dozen on nymphs while I stuck with drys. I didn't catch any but missed about three. Anyway when we got back to the truck temp was 82*, today it is suppose to be the same. To warm to quickly but the fishin is great.

Once the water comes down Katie bar the door it will be on...

Soft-hackle wrote: For the life of me, I can not see the fun in catching fish that were just placed in the water. If stocking is a necessity, as it seems to be, here, for God sake, give them a chance to survive the change in their environment and get accustomed to living on their own. Stockies are not good on the table either. I am thinking it's greed or bragging rights.

I totally agree with you on that. I just got back from teaching a wet fly clinic on a stream that had just been stocked. I gave my demo, and we spread out on the stream. It was a combat fishing situation; mixed bag of spin/fly fishers. There was a major hatch of little brown stones underway, but I saw a number of them skitter downstream as far as I could see without being molested by a fish. Power bait did well, though, as did any fly that looked a hatchery pellet. The worst part was being offered fish that had been killed by bait fishers, saying that "I don't eat trout, but it seemed a shame to put them back and go to waste." (I don't mean that the catching of the fish killed them, they could have been easily released, but not after they're gutted.)

If I'd wanted hatchery trout, I'd have gone to Safeway.

Wish I could report that I really set the river on fire, but no. I caught about a dozen in the 10-12 inch range. I had to use a size 16 Soft hackle this morning. I caught 3 on it, I put the little red head size 20 SH on, and sank it to the bottom. It produced for the next couple of hours. Just after lunch we floated to a little feeder creek that is usually a favorite place. The creek was pouring RED mud into the river. Managed one more fish after that. Wind blew, the river was ruined, I never saw the sun.... I had an AWESOME day! Even a sub par day on that river brings a smile to my face.

Yesterday was the largest midge hatch I have ever seen on the Roaring Fork River. Cats out of the bag, thats the river I float the most. Anyhow, my buddy and a friend he brought along caught some very large Rainbows using a Red colored WD-50 Emerger (size 20). I stuck with the Soft Hackles, and caught more than they did, but they kicked my butt in the size category. The midge hatch reminded me of the Big Horn in Montana, and the San Juan in New Mexico. I literally washed thousands of the Midges and their shucks off my raft today. I would guess the emerger to be a size 20 or 22, and Brown to Lt Brown in color.
I can understand Red working. In the color spectrum Red is one of the first colors to fade at depth in the water column, and it fades to a brown color. By the way, Blue and Purple are the last to fade at depth. You can find these charts in the bass section of a Bass Pro Shop or Cabelas.

I was a bit perplexed as to what to fish and when on my next outing. Do I go back to nymphing strategys like this past Winter, or do I try to find a solution? I borrowed the Red theme from my buddys and tyed some size 22, Red bodied (8/0 Uni) SH's. I tyed them on a Mustad 94840 dry fly hook as it is the smallest hook I have on hand. I also ribbed it with a very thin Pearl Flashabou. The Hackle I decided on was a badger Brown hen, as the Midges are Brown . This will be the smallest Soft hackle/Flymph I have ever used. I am very excited to see the results. If the hatch is as big and wide spread next week as it was yesterday, I should be able to report.

I can't wait to read your next report. Sounds like you had a great day.