The Brown Trout and the Mayfly

There is some very neat footage here.


Fly Fishing Media from ErdemAs on Vimeo.

Fly of My Dreams

Yes, it's true. I admit that I have woken up in the middle of the night suddenly struck by a great idea for a fly, which will certainly fool that big trout that I threw everything in the fly box at the day before. Now it wasn't quite as an elaborate concoction of materials as the fly in this fun song but I can relate to the humor in this little ditty.

Rivers are high or closed...

Expect more short video posts over the next few weeks of stuff I find while surfing the net. 

Here's one of some Sea Run Brown fishing off the coast of Denmark:


Stevns with Allan from Inwaders Media on Vimeo.

Rowing Practice

As you know if you have been reading here, the river is blown out.  That much I think has been made abundantly clear.  But when life hands you lemons, go make lemonade I guess.  So having not touched a fly rod in a couple weeks we decided it was time to check the river out from the inside, and dusted off the Alumaweld and launched her into the great wide current.  We floated a little over 8 miles of the river and threw streamers at the banks, and half exposed willows the entire way.  We received nothing to show for our efforts other than a little exercise.  Not a single follow.  Here are just a few observations and tidbits from the day.

• First, it took about three hours to float the approximate 8 miles.  We swung around a couple eddies but really we didn't dilly dally at all.  
• There are no riffles on the river.  the river is deep, deep, deep.  Part of the reason I don't think we caught anything.  These fish have a lot of water and with the curve ball they have been thrown I wouldn't be surprised if they have found a rock deep in the river and tied themselves to it for the time being. 
• It was a nice day for a float.  A bit windy for throwing streamers, but it was a nice little outing none the less.  
• Didn't spot any bugs in any significant numbers. 
• Saw two fish rise in the three hours on the river.  One soon after we put in in a big eddy, and one towards the end of the float, again, in a big eddy.  Both were single rises with no follow up.  We watched the area for quite a while after each one.  They never reappeared.  
• I had anticipated a tougher float, but it was fairly simple to navigate the river.  Most of the rapids have been smoothed out, and the river is high enough most rocks are safely under water.  Only a couple spots required a little thought about how to attack them and there was plenty of room to maneuver around any potential hazards.  

Here are a couple photos of the day:

After the float we checked out the glory hole and the dam so here are a few of those shots as well:

 

 

(Click for larger image)

Thar She Blows!

The selfish side of me is a bit bummed.  The river I fished 100+ days last year, is blown out.  And I mean real blown out.  Flows in the winter here are around 30 cfs, and in the summer they bump them up to around 200cfs.  Well last week due to a high level of late winter, and early spring precipitation in the watershed that feeds the reservoir behind the dam they started the big dump.  It was stepped up somewhat gradually, but on this last Saturday the reservoir spilled over the glory hole and flows bumped to over 10,000 cfs.  It appears that flows will be high for a while as the bulk of the snow melt still has yet to occur.  So it looks like I will be tying a lot of flies over the next couple months.  There is that side of me that is not happy about the situation, but although I have no knowledge about how this is actually going to affect this fishery, I do tend to have an optimistic approach to the situation.

So what is the good news?

• These fish will finally have a bit of a break from angler pressure.  This is a short river that is open to fishing and normally is at wadeable flows 365 days a year.  Smaller rivers with a lot of 20+ inch Brown Trout don't stay secret for very long in todays environment.  These poor fish are hammered by fishermen day after day, and now for the first time in a while they will be spared this constant barrage.    If they can find good holding water, and there is still plenty of it, the fish will be fine and may actually end up being healthier in the long run.

• The river will be different.  Yes that can be a good thing.  Especially for a guy that fishes it as often as I do.  Not saying at all that I had the river figured out, but when you fish it as often as I have the last couple years, there can't help but develop a sense of familiarity.  I tend to look at it from the angle that now I will have the opportunity to relearn a river and go through the process all over again, like reacquainting yourself with an old, long lost friend.     

In the mean time, I will be behind the vise stocking up the fly box.


Here are a couple pictures of the river.  These will mean a lot more to those that have been there and are familiar with it at lower flows.

Just above the hot springs looking back down the river

 OK now let's take an eye test.  The first picture was taken yesterday.  The second picture was taken last year at about this time. 

This year

Same spot last year

 If you can't spot the difference, it's official...you need glasses, or maybe a new prescription.

More miscellaneous pictures:

At normal flows the tip of the rock you can see a little down and right of the center of the picture is the largest and one of several large boulders that stick out of the water a good distance, making a nice little rock garden.  Not right now.

What is normally a narrow channel is now a wide flat river.