Anyway, I only managed 4 trout in the first three hours of the float. This Rainbow was the second fish caught. He may go 15 inches, but I would say 14 for sure. It's tough to take pics in a raft when you dont have a net...
After lunch, and another mile or two of frustration I came across a hole that was maybe 25 yards long, and maybe 5 to 10 yards wide. The fish were attacking some little Blue Duns on the water. They weren't sipping, they were attacking like they were chasing caddis. I hadnt seen any caddis, but I wasnt really sure. I put on the first Muskrat I could find. It was a big size 10 Muskrat. I dropped an October Caddis off that, and I dropped a size 22 RS2 Emerger from the Caddis.
I made a down and across cast to the risers closest to me. Nothing. I tried maybe ten more casts with the same result. I maneuvered directly across from the risers and threw some drag free drifts. Still nothing. Weird thing was, I didn’t put down any of the fish. They just kept on rising. They weren’t big fish, but they weren’t anchovies either. I would say most were in the 14 inch range. Yes, I know. Put a dry fly on! I hate fishing dry’s. Really I do. Call me weird, and most people do, but if I had to resort to throwing dry’s to catch fish on a regular basis I would give up fly fishing.
Well, the fish weren’t taking unweighted flymphs, so the next step was to add weight, and go subsurface. I added a split shot above my ginormous Muskrat. I made a small cast toward the run. The cast ended up about 3 feet short of the target in about 3 feet of fast broken water. I saw the flies start to descend and just as they were about a foot under the surface, I watched a very nice Brown slash at them. I set the hook and felt him tug. He went airborne, and spit the rig out. I cast right back to the same area and nailed his little brother. Took the Muskrat. I stopped right there, maneuvered to the bottom of the hole and started working my way back up. There were a lot of trout in the fast water, and some good sized ones. I landed maybe 4 in that run.
That was the ticket for the next few hours. Find some smaller fish rising and fish the faster water next to them with Softhackles and tiny emergers. I had a blast hooking fish. About an hour before we were done the action came to a halt. I think every fish in that river was rising taking those stupid little Blue Duns. Guess what I did? I actually put on a dry fly. A little size 18 heavily hackled, Wingless Adams. I tied a few, years ago when I thought I might want to be a dry fly purist snob. They were still in my box with some Griffith Gnats. I saw a big pod working the hatch near the bank. I was near the middle of the river. I got within casting distance. I noticed the feeding trout were suspended just inches beneath the surface. I made a pretty darn good cast to the edge of the pod. Nothing. I worked the edge of the pod with maybe a dozen casts with zero results. They were still feeding. I made a long cast in front of their hole in the faster water, and let the dry float into the hole. It wasn’t in there long before this Brown SMACKED it.
I had to take a pic….First fish on a dry in years!
My buddy and I worked that pod for an hour. I bet we each managed a half dozen. All were Browns except for an 18 inch Bow I got. After the action died in the pod, it seems it died in the entire river. The hatch was over.. I put one of Hanks Partridge and Mole on, and trailed a small Emerger off that. I nailed another 2 or 3 fish between the pod and the takeout point. They all took the Partridge and Mole.
I had a great day. It started off tough, but a couple puzzle pieces fell into place and the day was awesome!
rip...)
Yes, I went back.
