Prospector
Well-known member
Time Fished:
1115am - 100pm &
400pm - 815pm
Weather Conditions: Early it was Sunny and Warm 80 degrees
Evening had cloud cover, Air Temp 82 falling to 72 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, water temp 64 degrees
Insects: Nothing noticeable in the air or on water but the trout were rising so something was present
1115am to 100pm
The water has receded a lot since I was here a few weeks ago (just after the terrible storms we had). The sandbar is now visible rather that being under 18” of water.
I started swinging a sz10 olive woolly bugger. The trout would chase it but they weren’t hitting it. I switched to a new feather streamer I’ve been using this year and the trout chased a little better. Unfortunately that streamer had a flaw so I replaced it with a white Maribou. On it, I caught the first trout of the day but this offering wasn’t working very well either.
In the deeper hole, my streamers brought a lot of trout in investigate but they just weren’t hitting it. It was clear there were enough fish to have a good day. Most of the streamer chasing trout appeared to be rainbows, so I decided to try sucker spawn. I never use sucker spawn for trout but I use it all of the time to catch Great Lakes Browns and Steelhead. I guess I’ve always been a purist and have only used minnow and insects when fly fishing. But that changed today. As I chucked the spawn with a 3/0 sinker to get it to the bottom of this deep hole, the trout were really interested. I caught 5 rainbows and 1 brown. I had a lot of strikes. When they wised up, tried a prince nymph and the browns were eager to take it. Got another 3 browns.
While I was fishing the large hole, I had noticed more trout were rising (maybe a dozen but spread apart and only occasionally coming up). I assumed the trout had been seeing good numbers of Caddis so I tied one on and had several strikes. Unfortunately I only had time to land 1 brown before I had to leave. Total strikes were in 32 range.
400pm - 815pm
When I returned to the hole, there were more trout rising in the cloudy afternoon than there were earlier. I still had my tapered down tippet on so I put the same grannom pattern I used in the morning. This was the ticket. All told there must have been 30 risers at one time or another. There was not an obvious insect coming off so I stayed with the grannom for 95% of the night. As long as I could get a good drag free drift I was getting strikes. It was that way for 3 hours. No one else was there so that allowed me the freedom to move between clusters of trout and work at getting a drag free drift.
By the time it got dark I caught another 19 browns and 5 rainbows.
Interestingly I had set an alarm on my phone to quit at 7pm. But I turned off the alarm and kept fishing until dark. The only other fly I used was a speckled midge and it wasn’t particularly effective. The trout were all over the sz 18 Grannom.
I should note the browns in South Branch are very short (7”- 9” but are heavy). Based on size I thought they may have been stocked by a Co-op nursery.
For the day. I caught 25 browns and 10 rainbows.
1115am - 100pm &
400pm - 815pm
Weather Conditions: Early it was Sunny and Warm 80 degrees
Evening had cloud cover, Air Temp 82 falling to 72 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, water temp 64 degrees
Insects: Nothing noticeable in the air or on water but the trout were rising so something was present
1115am to 100pm
The water has receded a lot since I was here a few weeks ago (just after the terrible storms we had). The sandbar is now visible rather that being under 18” of water.
I started swinging a sz10 olive woolly bugger. The trout would chase it but they weren’t hitting it. I switched to a new feather streamer I’ve been using this year and the trout chased a little better. Unfortunately that streamer had a flaw so I replaced it with a white Maribou. On it, I caught the first trout of the day but this offering wasn’t working very well either.
In the deeper hole, my streamers brought a lot of trout in investigate but they just weren’t hitting it. It was clear there were enough fish to have a good day. Most of the streamer chasing trout appeared to be rainbows, so I decided to try sucker spawn. I never use sucker spawn for trout but I use it all of the time to catch Great Lakes Browns and Steelhead. I guess I’ve always been a purist and have only used minnow and insects when fly fishing. But that changed today. As I chucked the spawn with a 3/0 sinker to get it to the bottom of this deep hole, the trout were really interested. I caught 5 rainbows and 1 brown. I had a lot of strikes. When they wised up, tried a prince nymph and the browns were eager to take it. Got another 3 browns.
While I was fishing the large hole, I had noticed more trout were rising (maybe a dozen but spread apart and only occasionally coming up). I assumed the trout had been seeing good numbers of Caddis so I tied one on and had several strikes. Unfortunately I only had time to land 1 brown before I had to leave. Total strikes were in 32 range.
400pm - 815pm
When I returned to the hole, there were more trout rising in the cloudy afternoon than there were earlier. I still had my tapered down tippet on so I put the same grannom pattern I used in the morning. This was the ticket. All told there must have been 30 risers at one time or another. There was not an obvious insect coming off so I stayed with the grannom for 95% of the night. As long as I could get a good drag free drift I was getting strikes. It was that way for 3 hours. No one else was there so that allowed me the freedom to move between clusters of trout and work at getting a drag free drift.
By the time it got dark I caught another 19 browns and 5 rainbows.
Interestingly I had set an alarm on my phone to quit at 7pm. But I turned off the alarm and kept fishing until dark. The only other fly I used was a speckled midge and it wasn’t particularly effective. The trout were all over the sz 18 Grannom.
I should note the browns in South Branch are very short (7”- 9” but are heavy). Based on size I thought they may have been stocked by a Co-op nursery.
For the day. I caught 25 browns and 10 rainbows.
