Prospector
Well-known member
May 16 Kettle Creek FFO
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Time Fished: 315pm - 700pm
Weather Conditions: 80 degrees, mix of sun and clouds but turned to all clouds
Water Conditions: 49 degrees ticking up to 50 degrees; Around 700 cfs (200 is normal); off color; very swift
Insects: boatloads of midges; a nice variety of other flies but only a few of each, including: Gray Fox, Tan Caddis, brown stonefly, yellow sally, lime sally, sulphur, Blue Wing Olive, Light Cahill, at night some spinners and Caddis
At 3pm many anglers seemed to be in route to the stream. There were vehicles at nearly every pulloff between Cross Fork and the northern boundary of the FFO. The main parking lot at the FFO had about 8 vehicles.
Due to the high water, I started off with a streamer and cycled through 6 streamers and caught 2 rainbow and brown. I then nymphed in the areas holding the most fish and never had a strike. I saw no rises.
In talking to other anglers up and down stream, no one caught more that 5.
As I drove back to camp, spinners were splattering on my windshield. So I checked in on 2 guys from our group who were still fishing and they and the people around them were catching fish on Caddis dries. The rises were a result of caddis laying eggs and some small BWO hatching. One guy from our camp caught 6 on dries.
May 17 Kettle Creek Open Water
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Time Fished: 915am - 130pm
Weather Conditions: 50 degrees; overcast and occasional rain. By 130pm it was 65 and sunny
Water Conditions: 45 degrees; 580 cfs (200 is normal)
Insects: lots of midges; early, a few small BWO; around 130pm yellow sallies, lime sallies, small BWOs, a few other mayflies
The water was very cold and running fast to start the morning so I started with a streamer. I caught a brook, brown and a rainbow on my first pass. As I got to the end of this pass, the trout began to rise. I saw a few small BWO coming down the current. Tried a few other streamers then switched to a 3 fly rig with a pheasant tail (top), Royal Coachman (mid), Olive Wooly Bugger (bottom) and caught a few more rainbows on the bottom fly. I switched out the 3 wets for a dry fly (a BWO) but had no takers. Finally tied on a dry. Tried a Caddis since the folks that fished this hole the previous night had used a Caddis with success. But they didn’t want mine.
I ended up fishing a little longer in this stretch than I normally would since I wanted to compare the performance of 3 rods in terms of roll casting distance and efficiency. So although I technically fished until 130pm I really stopped fishing about noon.
May 17 Kettle Creek FFO Section
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Time Fished: 500pm - 815pm
Weather Conditions: 71 degrees, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 50 degrees, 520 cfs (200 is normal)
Insects: Yellow Sally, sulphurs, Caddis, BWO, March Brown. None in any quantity. Very spotty.
On my drive to the FFO, I saw 7 vehicles parked between Cross Fork and the FFO. The FFO section had 11 vehicles and there were 3 vehicles parked in the pull off just north of the FFO northern boundary.
I fished 3 holes and found the fishing to be pretty tough. I had very few strikes but managed to land a brown and 2 rainbows. I saw only 2 rises. Everyone was fishing deep.
For the last few days the people I talked to said they caught 5 or less. Today a couple guys in our group caught 19 and 10 respectively. So thus far they had the best day of anyone I spoke with, although I’m sure some people held their success close to the vest.
May 18. Kettle Creek Open Water
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Time Fished: 1130am - 3pm
Weather Conditions: 60 degrees mostly cloudy
Water Conditions: 50 degrees, 425 cfs, it was a little high and slightly off color
Insects: nothing in volume. March Browns were most plentiful followed by Caddis and yellow sally
Looking for a place to start the day, I drove around a little bit and saw 27 cars from Cross Fork to the FFO bridge (that counts the 10 cars as part of a big camp out just north of the U’s). Saw another 17 cars along the FFO and another 3 cars parked outside the upper limit of the FFO. So I got away from from that area.
I decided to start with 2 wets and I picked up a couple fish on the first pass. Missed others. Before starting the next pass I decided to put on 3 wets. I caught most of the fish on my middle fly. I changed out my bottom fly several times, since it usually catches the most fish, but I never found the right combo to make it a producer. I ended up with 4 Browns and 4 rainbow. Most of the fish were on the small side.
There were only a handful of rises but not enough to taper down.
May 18 Cross Fork Creek CRALO
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Time Fished: 4pm - 6pm
Weather Conditions: 70 degrees, mostly cloudy
Water Conditions: 42 degrees, clear fast flow
Insects: Lots of Pale Evening Duns (they were hatching when I got there at 4pm and were still hatching when I left at 6pm...lots of them. Some small BWO were also coming off. In addition saw a few March Browns, yellow sally, Caddis, and probably a few more that I can't remember
I stopped at the snowmobile bridge and saw a few fish rise so I went upstream a few miles hoping for dry fly fishing. I tied on a small yellow Caddis dry at the truck and hoped for the best.
When I got to the stream around 4pm the insects (Pale Evening Duns) were already hatching. Despite some nice insect activity, no fish were rising. So I decided to start with a bead head pheasant tail to take advantage of the presence of active nymphs.
The highlight of the trip was a wild brown in the 10” range. It made 3 spectacular jumps and was the most memorable fish I’ve ever caught on this stream. Later I also caught a wild brook trout, which isn’t hard to do.
May 18 Kettle Creek Open Water
=========================
Time Fished: 815pm - 855pm
Weather Conditions: 65 degrees, Clear
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, flow getting closer to 400
Insects: some spinners
I was just trying to hop into a location to cast to some rising fish. I tied on a spinner imitation and finished the night with one fly. There were a decent amount of rises and just about every fish I could cast to drag free took my sz 14 spinner. I finished with 4 browns and a brook.
Overall our crew caught 65 trout in the high water conditions. Last year we also had high water for this 3 day weekend (Thu, Fri, Sat) and in 2018 we only caught 40. Interestingly this year there were some rising trout but only in pools that normally would be dead calm and would have been the slowest moving water around. This year it had a little flow to it.
=========================
Time Fished: 315pm - 700pm
Weather Conditions: 80 degrees, mix of sun and clouds but turned to all clouds
Water Conditions: 49 degrees ticking up to 50 degrees; Around 700 cfs (200 is normal); off color; very swift
Insects: boatloads of midges; a nice variety of other flies but only a few of each, including: Gray Fox, Tan Caddis, brown stonefly, yellow sally, lime sally, sulphur, Blue Wing Olive, Light Cahill, at night some spinners and Caddis
At 3pm many anglers seemed to be in route to the stream. There were vehicles at nearly every pulloff between Cross Fork and the northern boundary of the FFO. The main parking lot at the FFO had about 8 vehicles.
Due to the high water, I started off with a streamer and cycled through 6 streamers and caught 2 rainbow and brown. I then nymphed in the areas holding the most fish and never had a strike. I saw no rises.
In talking to other anglers up and down stream, no one caught more that 5.
As I drove back to camp, spinners were splattering on my windshield. So I checked in on 2 guys from our group who were still fishing and they and the people around them were catching fish on Caddis dries. The rises were a result of caddis laying eggs and some small BWO hatching. One guy from our camp caught 6 on dries.
May 17 Kettle Creek Open Water
=========================
Time Fished: 915am - 130pm
Weather Conditions: 50 degrees; overcast and occasional rain. By 130pm it was 65 and sunny
Water Conditions: 45 degrees; 580 cfs (200 is normal)
Insects: lots of midges; early, a few small BWO; around 130pm yellow sallies, lime sallies, small BWOs, a few other mayflies
The water was very cold and running fast to start the morning so I started with a streamer. I caught a brook, brown and a rainbow on my first pass. As I got to the end of this pass, the trout began to rise. I saw a few small BWO coming down the current. Tried a few other streamers then switched to a 3 fly rig with a pheasant tail (top), Royal Coachman (mid), Olive Wooly Bugger (bottom) and caught a few more rainbows on the bottom fly. I switched out the 3 wets for a dry fly (a BWO) but had no takers. Finally tied on a dry. Tried a Caddis since the folks that fished this hole the previous night had used a Caddis with success. But they didn’t want mine.
I ended up fishing a little longer in this stretch than I normally would since I wanted to compare the performance of 3 rods in terms of roll casting distance and efficiency. So although I technically fished until 130pm I really stopped fishing about noon.
May 17 Kettle Creek FFO Section
=========================
Time Fished: 500pm - 815pm
Weather Conditions: 71 degrees, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 50 degrees, 520 cfs (200 is normal)
Insects: Yellow Sally, sulphurs, Caddis, BWO, March Brown. None in any quantity. Very spotty.
On my drive to the FFO, I saw 7 vehicles parked between Cross Fork and the FFO. The FFO section had 11 vehicles and there were 3 vehicles parked in the pull off just north of the FFO northern boundary.
I fished 3 holes and found the fishing to be pretty tough. I had very few strikes but managed to land a brown and 2 rainbows. I saw only 2 rises. Everyone was fishing deep.
For the last few days the people I talked to said they caught 5 or less. Today a couple guys in our group caught 19 and 10 respectively. So thus far they had the best day of anyone I spoke with, although I’m sure some people held their success close to the vest.
May 18. Kettle Creek Open Water
=========================
Time Fished: 1130am - 3pm
Weather Conditions: 60 degrees mostly cloudy
Water Conditions: 50 degrees, 425 cfs, it was a little high and slightly off color
Insects: nothing in volume. March Browns were most plentiful followed by Caddis and yellow sally
Looking for a place to start the day, I drove around a little bit and saw 27 cars from Cross Fork to the FFO bridge (that counts the 10 cars as part of a big camp out just north of the U’s). Saw another 17 cars along the FFO and another 3 cars parked outside the upper limit of the FFO. So I got away from from that area.
I decided to start with 2 wets and I picked up a couple fish on the first pass. Missed others. Before starting the next pass I decided to put on 3 wets. I caught most of the fish on my middle fly. I changed out my bottom fly several times, since it usually catches the most fish, but I never found the right combo to make it a producer. I ended up with 4 Browns and 4 rainbow. Most of the fish were on the small side.
There were only a handful of rises but not enough to taper down.
May 18 Cross Fork Creek CRALO
=========================
Time Fished: 4pm - 6pm
Weather Conditions: 70 degrees, mostly cloudy
Water Conditions: 42 degrees, clear fast flow
Insects: Lots of Pale Evening Duns (they were hatching when I got there at 4pm and were still hatching when I left at 6pm...lots of them. Some small BWO were also coming off. In addition saw a few March Browns, yellow sally, Caddis, and probably a few more that I can't remember
I stopped at the snowmobile bridge and saw a few fish rise so I went upstream a few miles hoping for dry fly fishing. I tied on a small yellow Caddis dry at the truck and hoped for the best.
When I got to the stream around 4pm the insects (Pale Evening Duns) were already hatching. Despite some nice insect activity, no fish were rising. So I decided to start with a bead head pheasant tail to take advantage of the presence of active nymphs.
The highlight of the trip was a wild brown in the 10” range. It made 3 spectacular jumps and was the most memorable fish I’ve ever caught on this stream. Later I also caught a wild brook trout, which isn’t hard to do.
May 18 Kettle Creek Open Water
=========================
Time Fished: 815pm - 855pm
Weather Conditions: 65 degrees, Clear
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, flow getting closer to 400
Insects: some spinners
I was just trying to hop into a location to cast to some rising fish. I tied on a spinner imitation and finished the night with one fly. There were a decent amount of rises and just about every fish I could cast to drag free took my sz 14 spinner. I finished with 4 browns and a brook.
Overall our crew caught 65 trout in the high water conditions. Last year we also had high water for this 3 day weekend (Thu, Fri, Sat) and in 2018 we only caught 40. Interestingly this year there were some rising trout but only in pools that normally would be dead calm and would have been the slowest moving water around. This year it had a little flow to it.
