Headed up Friday evening with my nephew and Fishwagen. Hopes were to have a long float starting early and fishing until dark. The flows were higher than normal for this time of year but were near perfect in my opinion. Clarity was excellent and water temps were 57-62.
We woke to a light drizzle, air temps in the mid 40's and expected a high of 67-68. Looked like it would be perfect but the sun popped out by the time we reached the first pool. Once the sun came out, winds picked up and we're quite gusty 15-35 mph.
We got hooked up pretty quickly on a PT but the fish tore the hook loose. The little guy seemed to have the hot hand as his indicator went under several times but he's not used to the fish up there and most tore the hook free or snapped his tippet.
We then hooked up with stimey and his dad part way into the float. They were anchored on fish and had a break off or two. Conditions were still relatively benign and the nephews line went tight again with his biggest wild bow. Just after that, winds picked up and the streamside vegetation was rocking. Golden rain fell to the water with every gust. 2" golden stones by the thousands fell to the water with every gust. The fish took notice and you'd see an explosion every 5-10 seconds. I had an excellent pattern but the wind made casting for my nephew and Tony difficult at best. The blow ups continued for 2 hours or so. Several fish smashed the offering but the guys were only able to manage a chub or two.
When we finally had the wind lay down enough so that a cast over 20' was possible, we located a pod of 6-7 fish in an area with a thousand different currents. I'm not sure a drag free drift was even possible based on our angle. The fish fed just under the surface violently. Black egglaying caddis in a 14 were everywhere in the air. Looking up revealed a huge cloud of MB spinners that would only tease us. A close look at the water revealed #24-26 olives, #20 tan caddis, #20 charcoal caddis, Grey Fox duns, #14 sulphurs, #18 sulphurs, #18 light steno of some variety, midges and huge rusty colored craneflies. Never figured out what they were eating but was told the pool blew up just as we exited toward the riff. The other boat observed the fish mowing down only the #18 sulphurs which intensified as we went around the corner. They caught several until their patterns were broken off. High winds and bug soup made it quite frustrating. Many guides blew out miles ahead of us. It was a tough day.
Everyone hooked up but the smallmouth specialist came out on top once again. We did get to meet TimmyT from the forum and I gave him a few access point where I thought he might be able to get himself and his dad into fish. They succeeded and we'll probably get together some point this summer and try to get his dad run into the backing.
We woke to a light drizzle, air temps in the mid 40's and expected a high of 67-68. Looked like it would be perfect but the sun popped out by the time we reached the first pool. Once the sun came out, winds picked up and we're quite gusty 15-35 mph.
We got hooked up pretty quickly on a PT but the fish tore the hook loose. The little guy seemed to have the hot hand as his indicator went under several times but he's not used to the fish up there and most tore the hook free or snapped his tippet.
We then hooked up with stimey and his dad part way into the float. They were anchored on fish and had a break off or two. Conditions were still relatively benign and the nephews line went tight again with his biggest wild bow. Just after that, winds picked up and the streamside vegetation was rocking. Golden rain fell to the water with every gust. 2" golden stones by the thousands fell to the water with every gust. The fish took notice and you'd see an explosion every 5-10 seconds. I had an excellent pattern but the wind made casting for my nephew and Tony difficult at best. The blow ups continued for 2 hours or so. Several fish smashed the offering but the guys were only able to manage a chub or two.
When we finally had the wind lay down enough so that a cast over 20' was possible, we located a pod of 6-7 fish in an area with a thousand different currents. I'm not sure a drag free drift was even possible based on our angle. The fish fed just under the surface violently. Black egglaying caddis in a 14 were everywhere in the air. Looking up revealed a huge cloud of MB spinners that would only tease us. A close look at the water revealed #24-26 olives, #20 tan caddis, #20 charcoal caddis, Grey Fox duns, #14 sulphurs, #18 sulphurs, #18 light steno of some variety, midges and huge rusty colored craneflies. Never figured out what they were eating but was told the pool blew up just as we exited toward the riff. The other boat observed the fish mowing down only the #18 sulphurs which intensified as we went around the corner. They caught several until their patterns were broken off. High winds and bug soup made it quite frustrating. Many guides blew out miles ahead of us. It was a tough day.
Everyone hooked up but the smallmouth specialist came out on top once again. We did get to meet TimmyT from the forum and I gave him a few access point where I thought he might be able to get himself and his dad into fish. They succeeded and we'll probably get together some point this summer and try to get his dad run into the backing.
