Snuck up to Coburn for some early fishin'. On the stream back off of Tunnel Rd at 5am, pretty calm on the water. Half heartedly swing a big wet fly to start, then there's enough light to see some bugs flitting over the water. Slow action for a while then a couple consistent risers. Notice an occasional big sulphur popping once every few minutes, so tie on a #14 and directly miss the one surface feeder who makes an aggressive rise. Change flies over to a small buggy emerger, and miss the same fish again, ugh. Raise and miss another fish, then the early morning rise tapers off.
Try a bunch of other flies, begin seeing some caddis over the water, the sulphurs, and also inconsistent blue quills and olives. But not enough of anything to constitute a 'hatch.' Risers are sporadic and not interested in any of my surface flies so change rigs to a beadhead sulphur nymph w/ a caddis pupae tied off the eye and immediately pick up a fish on the sulphur nymph, then while working up thru the channeled riffle hook into another before a near distance release. And had one rise to the little blob of orange strike putty, missed him on the next drift...they were smaller fish, 8" or so. Noticed some risers were working below me again, so backtrack downstream.
Other than two spin fisherman that gave me a wide berth at 5:30 or so, still haven't seen anybody else. Wade back out, now 8:30 or so and observe for a bit, let the water rest after clunking a bunch of rocks. Soon enough the fish start working and I finally see the key, craneflies. In certain light I can see them flying just above water's surface and am also now seeing a few fresh ones flying up, up and away.
Rig up a fresh 5x tippet, tie on one of those fancy knotted leg craneflies from Jonas at The Feathered Hook and proceed to fool some rising trouts. The bite shut down around 10:00 or so as expected for this time of year, came off the water around 10:30. Had a nice rally at the end of the session w/ the craneflies, finished with a half dozen to hand, fooled and missed a few others. The creek went down about as quick as it came up with Friday's rain, had that nice green tint to it and was easily wadable. Temps were good, took a rinsing dip after my bike ride at 5pm and the water was still refreshingly chilly.
Try a bunch of other flies, begin seeing some caddis over the water, the sulphurs, and also inconsistent blue quills and olives. But not enough of anything to constitute a 'hatch.' Risers are sporadic and not interested in any of my surface flies so change rigs to a beadhead sulphur nymph w/ a caddis pupae tied off the eye and immediately pick up a fish on the sulphur nymph, then while working up thru the channeled riffle hook into another before a near distance release. And had one rise to the little blob of orange strike putty, missed him on the next drift...they were smaller fish, 8" or so. Noticed some risers were working below me again, so backtrack downstream.
Other than two spin fisherman that gave me a wide berth at 5:30 or so, still haven't seen anybody else. Wade back out, now 8:30 or so and observe for a bit, let the water rest after clunking a bunch of rocks. Soon enough the fish start working and I finally see the key, craneflies. In certain light I can see them flying just above water's surface and am also now seeing a few fresh ones flying up, up and away.
Rig up a fresh 5x tippet, tie on one of those fancy knotted leg craneflies from Jonas at The Feathered Hook and proceed to fool some rising trouts. The bite shut down around 10:00 or so as expected for this time of year, came off the water around 10:30. Had a nice rally at the end of the session w/ the craneflies, finished with a half dozen to hand, fooled and missed a few others. The creek went down about as quick as it came up with Friday's rain, had that nice green tint to it and was easily wadable. Temps were good, took a rinsing dip after my bike ride at 5pm and the water was still refreshingly chilly.
