ezpickins
Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2007
- Messages
- 211
Water Conditions: High and off-color (visibilty about 1-ft or so) Weather: Cool and Partly sunny in the afternoon, while we fished. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful afternoon - the forecasted thunderstorms didn't show up. The water was fairly high and discolored - but that didn't stop the rising fish. I was initially worried about the water conditions - but the first hole we got to was full of rising fish so my worries soon abated. Bug Activity consisted primarily of caddis. There were at least two caddis coming off: One was about a size 14 to 16 with a gereally tan appearance. The other was a more like a 16 or 18 dark looking caddis. I can't give more detail about the bugs because I was never able to catch one for a close-up look. The three of us caught rising fish all afternoon on a variety of caddis imitations - I had the most luck with elk-hair caddis in size 14. I caught fish on tan, gray and yellow body flies. Tan seemed to be the best choice - but I quickly lost the few tan bodied caddis that I had and I had to improvise. I wish I could nail down the best pattern for you all - but I used a bunch of different caddis dries - with hits on just about anything that was generally light colored. Tan being the best. I also caught fish on a small black caddis dry, and a peacock and partridge wet fly. One of the fellows with me had a bunch of takes on what I think was originally a size 12 Gray Wulff dry. He trimmed off the tail, most of the hackle and most of the elk hair wings. What he had left was a gray-bodied emerger type fly (the body was suspended beneath the surface). This fly was actually very effective on the rising trout and it also was effective as a prospecting fly, bringing trout to the surface in spite of the muddy high water. Here's a pic of a typical fish that we were catching - this one had a nice blue color on the gill plates.
