Fishing Journal - Week 5

March 10

Tough day. They raised the water levels on Monday and they have been slowly dropping but were still about three times the normal flows. The river was dead with hardly any fish rising. I tried everything, from big dries to tiny nymphs to a big streamer. Finally I connected with a Tan Zonker right before we left. I had forgotten just how fun it is having a fish smash a big streamer. As I pulled the Zonker through a deep tailout and it crossed into the slack water on the inside of a big bend I was just about to take up the fly and recast it when a nice brown came up off the bottom and killed the fly. The take was so violent I nearly had the rod ripped from my grip. Upon being hooked the fish did a little of everything from pulling hard and deep to taking to the air for some nice leaps. Finally I netted my first streamer caught fish of 2010. A very healthy 17 inch female.

March 11

Arrived on the river to see the flows had subsided and the water had cleared quite a bit from yesterday. I observed a productive looking run from high above the stream from an elevated bank for about 5 minutes without seeing any action when suddenly I noticed a fish feed straight below me. As I picked my way down to the water I noticed more noses up and by the time I stepped into the slow moving current there were at least two fish feeding just below me. I unfurled a cast that landed just up from where they were feeding and sure enough the fly had no more drifted into their area and I was hooked up.

I worked this area for a while and it was a challenge as the fish would cruise around a bit in the slow stretch of river so you had to anticipate which direction they were headed when you noticed a rise. I was frustrated by several fish over the next 15 minutes.. Finally I was able to intercept a fish rising across the river. It doesn't get much better than watching your tiny fly moving slowly along in the current when slowly a big nose pokes up and gulps down the offering. This fish was the biggest of the day stretching 20 inches. After he was released the fish just quit feeding on this stretch so we moved up stream about a quarter mile.

Fish were rising all over in a pretty long stretch of river here. I took the lower slow water and Kelly fished below a riffle where the fish were going ballistic. On one of my first casts I landed a little 8 inch brown. The smallest fish I have seen up here in a while. I moved up above and in the riffle above a large rock garden and fooled a couple more fish. The first was about a 15 incher but was very fat. The final fish came right out of the middle of the riffle. A very nice 18 inch fish that was very bright and colorful. Very good day on the river.