Silent Ocelot
Well-known member
Day 1;
I took to Elk along with my friend's dad who went up with me, another person in the group joined in shortly thereafter. I was able to muscle in one lonely sucker. My friend's dad took his first and only steelhead of the trip on an old fiberglass rod that seemed to be dated back to the 1960s. I quickly came up to the point that he was fishing and began hammering away with my heavy 4.5mm egg patterns and size 10 copper Johns with 3.0mm beads. I was unable to pull a fish out for the remainder of the day. We fished in the afternoon because we had driven up that day, so maybe 2.5 hours of fishing total. I was using my Orvis H3F 9ft. 6wt, which was certainly NOT the tool for the job as it really struggled to move those heavy nymphs. I found that swapping over to the denser indicator, ad Oros half inch, helped to gain a marginal gain in distance. I would put that rod away for the trip and never take it out again. The skies were sunny and the water had good color.
Day 2;
The skies were overcast and the flows at Elk were a perfect green color. I went to explore some new runs with some other people who were lodging with us. With my preferred 9ft 8wt (SAGE X) in hand I was confident and ready. Broke out my micro eggs and they seemed to be the ticket. I fished them in conjunction with a variety of nymphs to include a size 12 black copper John, a red size 14 copper John, a size 18 red zebra midge (for picky fish in slow pools), and a chartreuse size 14 copper John. The fish preferred the eggs. I took an 18 inch steelhead out of a hole one of the other lodgers had worked over along with 2 smolt (fingerling sleelhead). One of the smolts hit the red copper John. The other smolt and the steelhead took and orange egg. I worked my way downstream, working over a few quick and deep runs. I took my indicator off to fish them. I reached a slow hole with steelhead stacking up towards the end of the hole. I targeted them and witnessed them rise up in the water column to avoid my nymph rigs entirely. I made an adjustment to raise the nymphs and the fish lowered themselves back down the water column. I had a take on one of my flies after I had swapped out a fly for a red zebra midge. At one point the activity did pick up as I suspected that fresh fish were entering the hole. I landed another fish in the 22-24 inch range and foul hooked two others. One fish, probably a 12 pounder, really shot off when foul-hooked and broke me off immediately. A fishermen below me entered the hole I was working and I sarcastically told him I wasn't fishing the hole. I left shortly after.
Later that day around 4:00 PM I fished an area closer to the lake. It was still overcast and rain was coming down. I arrived to the creek to see another angler who joined up to fish with us already into a 10 pound fish. I offered to help net but this cool chick had it totally under control. I tossed my nymph rig that consisted of a heavy beaded orange egg in a run above where the girl was fishing. She was going to leave shortly and was in a huddle with the other members of our lodge. They were on their way out. The girl told me what flies the fish were hitting and offered to give me some of the "hot pattern", which was a black bugger. I replied by saying and grabbing my fly box out of my sling pack "mother****** please, I'm custom" (Resident Evil movie reference, I don't think anyone will get this). She had no response to this and walked back to the cars with the rest of the crew. I glanced up at the overcast sky that was now raining and the tinged water and decided to stay. I opted to use a white zonker with a lone split shot placed about 10 inches above it. I attacked some runs further upstream that had produced well in the previous year. I was able to get an explosive take while fanning some casts downstream. I pinned the fish and brought it into shallow water for release (didn't beach it). The hook actually went through the top of the fish's head when it took so it missed. After the fish was released I fished for a little while longer but didn't get so much as a take. The flows were on the rise, not entirely unfishable, but on the rise.
I took to Elk along with my friend's dad who went up with me, another person in the group joined in shortly thereafter. I was able to muscle in one lonely sucker. My friend's dad took his first and only steelhead of the trip on an old fiberglass rod that seemed to be dated back to the 1960s. I quickly came up to the point that he was fishing and began hammering away with my heavy 4.5mm egg patterns and size 10 copper Johns with 3.0mm beads. I was unable to pull a fish out for the remainder of the day. We fished in the afternoon because we had driven up that day, so maybe 2.5 hours of fishing total. I was using my Orvis H3F 9ft. 6wt, which was certainly NOT the tool for the job as it really struggled to move those heavy nymphs. I found that swapping over to the denser indicator, ad Oros half inch, helped to gain a marginal gain in distance. I would put that rod away for the trip and never take it out again. The skies were sunny and the water had good color.
Day 2;
The skies were overcast and the flows at Elk were a perfect green color. I went to explore some new runs with some other people who were lodging with us. With my preferred 9ft 8wt (SAGE X) in hand I was confident and ready. Broke out my micro eggs and they seemed to be the ticket. I fished them in conjunction with a variety of nymphs to include a size 12 black copper John, a red size 14 copper John, a size 18 red zebra midge (for picky fish in slow pools), and a chartreuse size 14 copper John. The fish preferred the eggs. I took an 18 inch steelhead out of a hole one of the other lodgers had worked over along with 2 smolt (fingerling sleelhead). One of the smolts hit the red copper John. The other smolt and the steelhead took and orange egg. I worked my way downstream, working over a few quick and deep runs. I took my indicator off to fish them. I reached a slow hole with steelhead stacking up towards the end of the hole. I targeted them and witnessed them rise up in the water column to avoid my nymph rigs entirely. I made an adjustment to raise the nymphs and the fish lowered themselves back down the water column. I had a take on one of my flies after I had swapped out a fly for a red zebra midge. At one point the activity did pick up as I suspected that fresh fish were entering the hole. I landed another fish in the 22-24 inch range and foul hooked two others. One fish, probably a 12 pounder, really shot off when foul-hooked and broke me off immediately. A fishermen below me entered the hole I was working and I sarcastically told him I wasn't fishing the hole. I left shortly after.
Later that day around 4:00 PM I fished an area closer to the lake. It was still overcast and rain was coming down. I arrived to the creek to see another angler who joined up to fish with us already into a 10 pound fish. I offered to help net but this cool chick had it totally under control. I tossed my nymph rig that consisted of a heavy beaded orange egg in a run above where the girl was fishing. She was going to leave shortly and was in a huddle with the other members of our lodge. They were on their way out. The girl told me what flies the fish were hitting and offered to give me some of the "hot pattern", which was a black bugger. I replied by saying and grabbing my fly box out of my sling pack "mother****** please, I'm custom" (Resident Evil movie reference, I don't think anyone will get this). She had no response to this and walked back to the cars with the rest of the crew. I glanced up at the overcast sky that was now raining and the tinged water and decided to stay. I opted to use a white zonker with a lone split shot placed about 10 inches above it. I attacked some runs further upstream that had produced well in the previous year. I was able to get an explosive take while fanning some casts downstream. I pinned the fish and brought it into shallow water for release (didn't beach it). The hook actually went through the top of the fish's head when it took so it missed. After the fish was released I fished for a little while longer but didn't get so much as a take. The flows were on the rise, not entirely unfishable, but on the rise.
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