Last week and it sucks to be back.

Flows are up this time of year so it was all nymphing and streamers. They are starting to step down the flows and the topwater action should really start to heat up soon, if it didn't already. In the eddys and slower water downriver there were a number of fish on the PMDs and black caddis.

I've caught bows on small buggers and bucktail streamers before, but I was amazed at the number of bows willing to chase down meat on that river.

Yeah, I floated it for a few days about almost exactly a year ago with flybop/don, and it was much of the same. I was lucky to hit the very beginning of the hoppers late in the trip, but otherwise it was the same.

I caught more bows on streamers than browns the one day, even in the lower river. Surprised me too.

That black caddis hatch can be intense.

I'd love to go back for the hoppers in a couple weeks, but I really need to manage my leave and funds better. Definately wasn't the most ideal conditions to fish the Horn, but the best time to fish is anytime you can fish with friends.

When you say lower river, do you mean down to the Mallards takeout? The one cool overcast day we had, a couple of us floated to Mallards and did the upper 13 again in the evening.

Funny thing about that river. Don't know if it's the norm, but on average the smaller fish were caught on streamers... skinnier too. Why chase a streamer when you can gorge yourself on worms and scuds?

Yeah, I believe that's the takeout we used. I know that if we went any further, we'd have to get out and move the boat around a small dam.

We caught our biggest fish nymphing, but I'd say the average streamer fish was larger than the average nymph fish. We were using some big flies though... nothing smaller than size 2.