Prospector
Well-known member
Summary
==========
The forecast of hot sunny days sealed the fate of this long weekend for me even before I got behind the wheel early Thursday morning to head north. However a string of bad fishing days on Kettle is still more enjoyable than a lot of other streams on good days. Insect activity was at a minimum. No question about that but there were fish to be caught in modest numbers. If you came to fish dries only, you could bring fish up and get a decent experience. Adapting to a hybrid approach where you combine dry fly and wet fly fishing at the proper time of day would yield higher catch rates. Finding fish that weren’t harassed (or thoroughly educated) was fairly simple. The low flows hurt my streamer fishing, which I try to do for at least a short time every day.
The jury is still out on how damaging last years drought was to the insect base and the food chain in general. I saw very few insects but as stated previously I expected that based on the forecast. The locals are very concerned. The question will be answered by June 15 when the major hatches usually wrap up. I did see more large fallfish (15+ inches) caught this May than the last 10 years combined and I wondered if somehow that was a positive outcome of the low water. Saw at least 4 caught.
I heard reports from locals who watched trib mouths last Aug/Sep where they dumped into Kettle or Pine and they said lots of fish didn’t make it. Trout die first, then suckers and the SM Bass remain.
On the bright side Phil B gathered a handful of Baetis from the swarm around his shop window in the last week or so. That’s a great sign. We did see a lot of spinners in the mornings. The biggest concern for me was a clear lack of Caddis. Hopefully they are waiting for a cloudy day.
In terms of numbers, I looked back 6 years at our May trip (held same week each year). This year three of us caught 87 which makes it an average year. Best years were 105 & 103, next group was 87 & 81, and the low years were 63 & 54.
Detail by Day
===============
May 20 (Thur)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 230pm - 630pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 89 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 60 degrees, 150 cfs
Insects: a few March Browns and some midges
I went to a location that would take me away from the road. Fished 2 wets downstream and fished a dry fly back to the truck. Had a terrible time keeping fish hooked. Started out pretty well but during about a 2 hour stretch I lost 11 straight that I could not bring to hand (not counting ones I missed on the hookset). It still was a productive location. I ended up with 6 brook, 4 Rainbow and a brown.
Only saw a handful of rising fish but blind casting was somewhat effective and I brought several trout up for a dry. I felt the 2 wets were more effective with the fish being larger, but I just lost too many. Fish were very aggressive until about 530pm when activity basically shutdown. It really made no sense since water temp was in a good range. After 530pm I come upon one hole where 6-7 trout were rising and I caught 4 and lost 2. All were brook trout. Strange that only a hole full of brookies was active.
May 20 (Thur)
Kettle Creek FFO
Time Fished: 700pm - 830pm
Weather Conditions: 82 degrees, Sun behind mountain
Water Conditions: Clear, 64 degrees, 140 cfs
Insects: very few, only saw 3-4 rises
I stopped at the FFO stretch for more of a scouting mission but everyone left by the time I got to the creek. This allowed me to check multiple holes. In first hole I fished a dry with no takers. I switched to a Streamer with no takers. Switched back to a dry and caught 2 chubs and lost a trout.
Moved to a hole that held about 20 small brookies last year and had no takes on the dry so I suspect that was a one year aberration. Moved to next substantial hole, one that I have fished so many times I know where the fish setup. I worked every drift and I caught one and lost one.
Before sunset I made it to one more hole and did not have a strike there.
It was as bad a spinnerfall as you would ever experience at Kettle with no fish working. Caught 1 rainbow.
===============
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 730am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 50 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 55 degrees, 120 cfs
Insects: None visible but a fair amount of intermittent rises so I suspect it was spinner cleanup from last night. Spinners on my wet truck were size 20 dark rusty body
I made an early morning streamer pass before breakfast from top of riffle to the tail end of the hole. Had 11 strikes and caught one small brown. The majority of the browns I’ve been catching are very small. I think that partially explains why the hook up rate has been so low on this day.
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 915am - 120pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 65 degrees rising into the mid 80s, no wind to start but it picked up later
Water Conditions: Clear, 58 degrees, 115 cfs
Insects: Saw a few March Browns and nothing else visible, although trout rose periodically.
The section I chose gets morning shade until about 11am so I started out swinging 3 wets. Had several strikes in the hour it took me reach the end of the hole but I had only landed 1 brown. I switched the point fly to a March brown nymph and quickly went back and fished the best spots but never had a strike.
Eventually some rises started and I switched to a dry. Spent the next few hours blind casting with a occasional rise mixed in. I was able to bring up several fish, so they were clearly looking up. If insects were present, this would have been a very good morning. I got 7 on dries.
Ended up with 5 browns and 3 rainbows.
Around noon the bald eagle was circling the riffle above me. All morning the toad’s were singing their hearts out. All kinds of activity going on along the shoreline. I think toad egg laying is about 5-7 days earlier than normal.
May 21 (Fri)
Cross Fork Creek C&R
Time Fished: 600pm - 715pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 80 degrees
Water Conditions: Low water, Clear, 60 degrees in Cross Fork Creek and also checked a small trib and it was 54 degrees
Insects: some small stoneflies
Someone may have fished through this section of the creek earlier in the day because it did not fish well. I caught a stocked brown and 2 native brook trout. Did not catch any fish in the best holes.
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 745pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 65 degrees, 110 cfs
Insects: hatching in small numbers were March Brown, Green Drake, sulphurs and during Spinner fall there were mostly sz 14 spinners in the air. Not sure if they came down in daylight.
I went back over to Kettle to fish the spinnerfall with my father and another guy from our camp. There were sporadic rises but most of the fish I caught came during blind casting. I used a sparsely tied Caddis dry which had a more natural look in this very slow section of water. Most of my Caddis are dressed heavier to handle riffles but a bushy fly in this water wouldn’t have worked very well.
I caught 2 browns, a Brook and a Rainbow
===============
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 745am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 53 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 56 degrees, 105 cfs
Insects: Saw 4-5 large mayflies taking to the air across the creek but couldn’t identify. I’d say March Brown or Green Drake.
I made an early morning streamer pass before breakfast. Despite seeing some insect activity I saw no rises at all. A rarity for this hole. In the previous day I had a poor hookup rate 1:11, so this day I decided to downsize my Streamer from a size 6 to a size 10. The browns in this hole have been on the small side. I noticed a rarely used sz 10 weighted muddler in my Streamer wallet and decided to give it a try. Hookup rate was greatly improved catching 3 browns on 4 strikes. So I had 60% less strikes than yesterday but I caught 3 times the number of trout. Had zero strikes in the best section of creek. Weird outcome for sure.
I had fished thru very quickly and noticed 4 palominos on my way thru. Went back to a pair to experiment with the fly I’ve caught my last 2 big palominos on (both of those were incidental and I didn’t see either one before I hooked them). I got the smaller of the pair to move for my fly twice but they wouldn’t eat it.
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 945am - 1115am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 60 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 60 degrees, cfs was 202
Insects: most insects I’ve seen so far. Caddis, some mayflies and even some spinners dancing. This was the only location where the Caddis were noticeable.
This section was still shaded when I got there and insects were numerous. I didn’t see a rise. I swung 3 wets but the place I normally fish was too low. Which may explain the lack of rises since the trout weren’t there. I went upstream and found deeper water and caught 2 rainbows and broke one off. Overall very disappointing since this section produced the best average trout size last year. I was hoping to capitalize on that discovery again this year but now I’m just glad I fished it twice last year.
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 1205pm - 200pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 62 degrees, 103 cfs
Insects: none
This is a long section with scattered pocket water that each hold 2-8 trout. Lots of distance between pockets. Then at the end it’s kind of like gold at the end of the tunnel because you hit a nice little hole with potential to land several. However I got there at maybe the worst and hottest time of the day.
I picked up 4 in the pocket water and only 1 in the hole. I did get a lot of strikes in the hole (around 10) but I only landed one...4 were rainbows and the other a brook
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 84 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 63 degrees, cfs was 100
Insects: hatching (in small numbers): Green Drake, Yellow Cahill, sulphurs.
Spinners: coffin fly, Caddis, sz 14 rusty spinners
This section of stream tends to have meager hatches but top notch spinnerfalls. Obviously that outcome is a bit odd and defies logic. I’ve never understood why, but I sure like to be there for the spinnerfall. Maybe it does have awesome hatches and I’m just fishing somewhere else.
My experience on this night was typical. I arrive with no trout rising so I put on a wet fly that I can swing in the current until the spinners start. I choose a woolly bugger with a new color scheme that I tested in the afternoon that was working great until the hackle was torn loose. Repairs were made at camp and it was working great in the evening too. I used it until the amount of rises warranted switching to a dry fly. When the spinners arrived I had landed 4 Rainbows, a brook, an 11” smallmouth and two fallfish in the 15+ inch range. I had to wonder if that fly is awesome or if the fish are feeling the effects of very little insect activity and are just really hungry. Anyway that night could have ended there and I would have been more than satisfied. But it continued and my first fish on a Caddis dry was a small brown trout. So in the first hour I got the 5 main species that kettle creek is known for. I don’t think I’ve ever caught all 5 in the same day anywhere in the country. With the SM and the couple big fallfish coming to hand I imagine this was some very warm water for May.
After that first brown on a caddis it became an uphill battle. The trout would come to the fly but were turning away. Next fly choice wasn’t getting any looks at all. A different Caddis worked much better. I was getting consistent takes but not many fish were rising at that point. It was really unfortunate that the Spinner fall was delayed and took place in very low light when I could no longer see my Caddis when rising peaked. In the last glimmer of light I switched back to the woolly bugger so I could be in the game and I landed another rainbow. I ended up landing 9 rainbow, 1 brown, 1 brook, 1 SM Bass and 2 fallfish.
===============
May 23 (Sun)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 715am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 57 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 57 degrees, 92 cfs
Insects: Green Drake, a decent number of Rusty Spinners sz 14 about 10 feet over the water
The pre-breakfast Streamer pass resulted in no strikes but I skipped a lot of water with 3 other people fishing the stretch. After pass#1, I went back to head of riffle and switched my streamer but still had no strikes. Next I swung a woolly bugger and caught a rainbow and missed 3 others. That seemed like a good time to pack it in.
==========
The forecast of hot sunny days sealed the fate of this long weekend for me even before I got behind the wheel early Thursday morning to head north. However a string of bad fishing days on Kettle is still more enjoyable than a lot of other streams on good days. Insect activity was at a minimum. No question about that but there were fish to be caught in modest numbers. If you came to fish dries only, you could bring fish up and get a decent experience. Adapting to a hybrid approach where you combine dry fly and wet fly fishing at the proper time of day would yield higher catch rates. Finding fish that weren’t harassed (or thoroughly educated) was fairly simple. The low flows hurt my streamer fishing, which I try to do for at least a short time every day.
The jury is still out on how damaging last years drought was to the insect base and the food chain in general. I saw very few insects but as stated previously I expected that based on the forecast. The locals are very concerned. The question will be answered by June 15 when the major hatches usually wrap up. I did see more large fallfish (15+ inches) caught this May than the last 10 years combined and I wondered if somehow that was a positive outcome of the low water. Saw at least 4 caught.
I heard reports from locals who watched trib mouths last Aug/Sep where they dumped into Kettle or Pine and they said lots of fish didn’t make it. Trout die first, then suckers and the SM Bass remain.
On the bright side Phil B gathered a handful of Baetis from the swarm around his shop window in the last week or so. That’s a great sign. We did see a lot of spinners in the mornings. The biggest concern for me was a clear lack of Caddis. Hopefully they are waiting for a cloudy day.
In terms of numbers, I looked back 6 years at our May trip (held same week each year). This year three of us caught 87 which makes it an average year. Best years were 105 & 103, next group was 87 & 81, and the low years were 63 & 54.
Detail by Day
===============
May 20 (Thur)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 230pm - 630pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 89 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 60 degrees, 150 cfs
Insects: a few March Browns and some midges
I went to a location that would take me away from the road. Fished 2 wets downstream and fished a dry fly back to the truck. Had a terrible time keeping fish hooked. Started out pretty well but during about a 2 hour stretch I lost 11 straight that I could not bring to hand (not counting ones I missed on the hookset). It still was a productive location. I ended up with 6 brook, 4 Rainbow and a brown.
Only saw a handful of rising fish but blind casting was somewhat effective and I brought several trout up for a dry. I felt the 2 wets were more effective with the fish being larger, but I just lost too many. Fish were very aggressive until about 530pm when activity basically shutdown. It really made no sense since water temp was in a good range. After 530pm I come upon one hole where 6-7 trout were rising and I caught 4 and lost 2. All were brook trout. Strange that only a hole full of brookies was active.
May 20 (Thur)
Kettle Creek FFO
Time Fished: 700pm - 830pm
Weather Conditions: 82 degrees, Sun behind mountain
Water Conditions: Clear, 64 degrees, 140 cfs
Insects: very few, only saw 3-4 rises
I stopped at the FFO stretch for more of a scouting mission but everyone left by the time I got to the creek. This allowed me to check multiple holes. In first hole I fished a dry with no takers. I switched to a Streamer with no takers. Switched back to a dry and caught 2 chubs and lost a trout.
Moved to a hole that held about 20 small brookies last year and had no takes on the dry so I suspect that was a one year aberration. Moved to next substantial hole, one that I have fished so many times I know where the fish setup. I worked every drift and I caught one and lost one.
Before sunset I made it to one more hole and did not have a strike there.
It was as bad a spinnerfall as you would ever experience at Kettle with no fish working. Caught 1 rainbow.
===============
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 730am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 50 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 55 degrees, 120 cfs
Insects: None visible but a fair amount of intermittent rises so I suspect it was spinner cleanup from last night. Spinners on my wet truck were size 20 dark rusty body
I made an early morning streamer pass before breakfast from top of riffle to the tail end of the hole. Had 11 strikes and caught one small brown. The majority of the browns I’ve been catching are very small. I think that partially explains why the hook up rate has been so low on this day.
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 915am - 120pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 65 degrees rising into the mid 80s, no wind to start but it picked up later
Water Conditions: Clear, 58 degrees, 115 cfs
Insects: Saw a few March Browns and nothing else visible, although trout rose periodically.
The section I chose gets morning shade until about 11am so I started out swinging 3 wets. Had several strikes in the hour it took me reach the end of the hole but I had only landed 1 brown. I switched the point fly to a March brown nymph and quickly went back and fished the best spots but never had a strike.
Eventually some rises started and I switched to a dry. Spent the next few hours blind casting with a occasional rise mixed in. I was able to bring up several fish, so they were clearly looking up. If insects were present, this would have been a very good morning. I got 7 on dries.
Ended up with 5 browns and 3 rainbows.
Around noon the bald eagle was circling the riffle above me. All morning the toad’s were singing their hearts out. All kinds of activity going on along the shoreline. I think toad egg laying is about 5-7 days earlier than normal.
May 21 (Fri)
Cross Fork Creek C&R
Time Fished: 600pm - 715pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 80 degrees
Water Conditions: Low water, Clear, 60 degrees in Cross Fork Creek and also checked a small trib and it was 54 degrees
Insects: some small stoneflies
Someone may have fished through this section of the creek earlier in the day because it did not fish well. I caught a stocked brown and 2 native brook trout. Did not catch any fish in the best holes.
May 21 (Fri)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 745pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 65 degrees, 110 cfs
Insects: hatching in small numbers were March Brown, Green Drake, sulphurs and during Spinner fall there were mostly sz 14 spinners in the air. Not sure if they came down in daylight.
I went back over to Kettle to fish the spinnerfall with my father and another guy from our camp. There were sporadic rises but most of the fish I caught came during blind casting. I used a sparsely tied Caddis dry which had a more natural look in this very slow section of water. Most of my Caddis are dressed heavier to handle riffles but a bushy fly in this water wouldn’t have worked very well.
I caught 2 browns, a Brook and a Rainbow
===============
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 745am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 53 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 56 degrees, 105 cfs
Insects: Saw 4-5 large mayflies taking to the air across the creek but couldn’t identify. I’d say March Brown or Green Drake.
I made an early morning streamer pass before breakfast. Despite seeing some insect activity I saw no rises at all. A rarity for this hole. In the previous day I had a poor hookup rate 1:11, so this day I decided to downsize my Streamer from a size 6 to a size 10. The browns in this hole have been on the small side. I noticed a rarely used sz 10 weighted muddler in my Streamer wallet and decided to give it a try. Hookup rate was greatly improved catching 3 browns on 4 strikes. So I had 60% less strikes than yesterday but I caught 3 times the number of trout. Had zero strikes in the best section of creek. Weird outcome for sure.
I had fished thru very quickly and noticed 4 palominos on my way thru. Went back to a pair to experiment with the fly I’ve caught my last 2 big palominos on (both of those were incidental and I didn’t see either one before I hooked them). I got the smaller of the pair to move for my fly twice but they wouldn’t eat it.
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 945am - 1115am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 60 degrees, no wind
Water Conditions: Clear, 60 degrees, cfs was 202
Insects: most insects I’ve seen so far. Caddis, some mayflies and even some spinners dancing. This was the only location where the Caddis were noticeable.
This section was still shaded when I got there and insects were numerous. I didn’t see a rise. I swung 3 wets but the place I normally fish was too low. Which may explain the lack of rises since the trout weren’t there. I went upstream and found deeper water and caught 2 rainbows and broke one off. Overall very disappointing since this section produced the best average trout size last year. I was hoping to capitalize on that discovery again this year but now I’m just glad I fished it twice last year.
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 1205pm - 200pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 62 degrees, 103 cfs
Insects: none
This is a long section with scattered pocket water that each hold 2-8 trout. Lots of distance between pockets. Then at the end it’s kind of like gold at the end of the tunnel because you hit a nice little hole with potential to land several. However I got there at maybe the worst and hottest time of the day.
I picked up 4 in the pocket water and only 1 in the hole. I did get a lot of strikes in the hole (around 10) but I only landed one...4 were rainbows and the other a brook
May 22 (Sat)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 84 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 63 degrees, cfs was 100
Insects: hatching (in small numbers): Green Drake, Yellow Cahill, sulphurs.
Spinners: coffin fly, Caddis, sz 14 rusty spinners
This section of stream tends to have meager hatches but top notch spinnerfalls. Obviously that outcome is a bit odd and defies logic. I’ve never understood why, but I sure like to be there for the spinnerfall. Maybe it does have awesome hatches and I’m just fishing somewhere else.
My experience on this night was typical. I arrive with no trout rising so I put on a wet fly that I can swing in the current until the spinners start. I choose a woolly bugger with a new color scheme that I tested in the afternoon that was working great until the hackle was torn loose. Repairs were made at camp and it was working great in the evening too. I used it until the amount of rises warranted switching to a dry fly. When the spinners arrived I had landed 4 Rainbows, a brook, an 11” smallmouth and two fallfish in the 15+ inch range. I had to wonder if that fly is awesome or if the fish are feeling the effects of very little insect activity and are just really hungry. Anyway that night could have ended there and I would have been more than satisfied. But it continued and my first fish on a Caddis dry was a small brown trout. So in the first hour I got the 5 main species that kettle creek is known for. I don’t think I’ve ever caught all 5 in the same day anywhere in the country. With the SM and the couple big fallfish coming to hand I imagine this was some very warm water for May.
After that first brown on a caddis it became an uphill battle. The trout would come to the fly but were turning away. Next fly choice wasn’t getting any looks at all. A different Caddis worked much better. I was getting consistent takes but not many fish were rising at that point. It was really unfortunate that the Spinner fall was delayed and took place in very low light when I could no longer see my Caddis when rising peaked. In the last glimmer of light I switched back to the woolly bugger so I could be in the game and I landed another rainbow. I ended up landing 9 rainbow, 1 brown, 1 brook, 1 SM Bass and 2 fallfish.
===============
May 23 (Sun)
Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 630am - 715am
Weather Conditions: Sunny 57 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 57 degrees, 92 cfs
Insects: Green Drake, a decent number of Rusty Spinners sz 14 about 10 feet over the water
The pre-breakfast Streamer pass resulted in no strikes but I skipped a lot of water with 3 other people fishing the stretch. After pass#1, I went back to head of riffle and switched my streamer but still had no strikes. Next I swung a woolly bugger and caught a rainbow and missed 3 others. That seemed like a good time to pack it in.
