Prospector
Well-known member
Ok. I'll break the ice on kettle creek posts since Swattie's pre-season post. Nobody must be fishing up there.
Our crew went up for our annual long weekend. On May 18 & 19 air temps climbed to 85 degrees with clear sunny skies. Brutally hot at mid day. On the 18th some distant thunder at dusk was heard but the storm stayed in a neighboring valley keeping to stream clear but allowing water levels to decline further.. Water temps on Thu and Fri were mid 60s but insect activity was very light. I did see the first green drakes on May 18. The creek was lower than normal and running clear as usual. Fishing was tough with few insects and bright sky. The temperature began to drop in the evening on the 19th and the water temps dropped to mid 50's on May 20. A wide variety of insects showed up on Saturday but nothing in big numbers. Large and small golden stones, green drakes, March brown, caddis, large BWO, cahills, sulphers, lime sallies,..etc. This was only the second time I've seen green drakes this early. Overall not enough of a constant flow of insect for fish to key on them.
With only 3 of us in camp we got 109 trout in 3 days. A third of them on top. There were fisherman in huge numbers. Every hole was jam packed. Hard to find a place to fish either in open water or the project. Not much dry fly opportunity but the fish that did rise were not selective yet. Many anglers complained about short striking fish. Some anglers I talked to resorted to cutting tails off their subsurface offerings but to no avail.
Our crew went up for our annual long weekend. On May 18 & 19 air temps climbed to 85 degrees with clear sunny skies. Brutally hot at mid day. On the 18th some distant thunder at dusk was heard but the storm stayed in a neighboring valley keeping to stream clear but allowing water levels to decline further.. Water temps on Thu and Fri were mid 60s but insect activity was very light. I did see the first green drakes on May 18. The creek was lower than normal and running clear as usual. Fishing was tough with few insects and bright sky. The temperature began to drop in the evening on the 19th and the water temps dropped to mid 50's on May 20. A wide variety of insects showed up on Saturday but nothing in big numbers. Large and small golden stones, green drakes, March brown, caddis, large BWO, cahills, sulphers, lime sallies,..etc. This was only the second time I've seen green drakes this early. Overall not enough of a constant flow of insect for fish to key on them.
With only 3 of us in camp we got 109 trout in 3 days. A third of them on top. There were fisherman in huge numbers. Every hole was jam packed. Hard to find a place to fish either in open water or the project. Not much dry fly opportunity but the fish that did rise were not selective yet. Many anglers complained about short striking fish. Some anglers I talked to resorted to cutting tails off their subsurface offerings but to no avail.
