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)

Focal Fish

Here is a new favorite blog to keep an eye on.  It combines two of my favorite things.  Great photography, and fly fishing.  Just one post everyday, with no words.  Simply a picture which as they say, is worth a thousand words.  Good stuff from some talented photographers.  Take a look.

http://focalfish.com/

Winter rises

Have you ever taken a trip to your favorite river, left your fly rod at home on purpose, and just spent some time observing what goes on there?  It is a good exercise and one I do a couple times a year at least.  When I am on the river fishing there are definite lessons to be learned but still much can be missed when the focus is turned to the desired result of catching fish rather than on the process that brought that fish to the surface to begin with.  Taking time to truly focus on simply watching what goes on during a hatch is a learning experience that can pay dividends on future trips.

Today I felt the itch to get out and do a little poking around up the canyon.  It has been a couple months since I have taken a real fishing trip out here to the river I hit 2-3 times a week during the summer months.  The river that I last fished with the summer sun beating down on it, and with grasshoppers overtaking the surrounding willows has changed quite a bit.  A stretch of cold weather and a real good snow storm meant the slow stretches were covered in ice and the surrounding landscape was covered in a fresh white cloak.  The river is beautiful, but it no longer is teaming with insect life and visible signs of fish in the river are far less abundant.  The hoppers have long ago been killed off but there is a bug that hatches this time of year that will still bring these fish to the top.  The midge.

As I drove the long winding road along the icy river today though I saw no tell tale rings on the glassy waters surface that would indicate fish were taking advantage of this winter time snack.  Finally at one of my favorite holes to fish in the early mornings up here in the summer I spotted the first rise ring of the day.  I hopped out of the truck with my camera and went about doing a little recon.

There are at least 6 rise forms visible in this picture (Click the picture to Enlarge) as soon after I arrive at this hole the water started rolling with rising fish

Then I spotted this nice fish feeding in the foam that was pushed up into the near bank.

 This fish was fun to watch and I spent most of my time on him.  It was a very nice trout, probably one of the rivers many 20 inchers.  He was feeding in a 10 foot circle that stretched from the near rock you can see out to the submerged rock you can see just beyond him in the above picture.  Several times the big fish had to chase out other trout that happened to wander into his little area.  You could tell that this fish owned this spot and had the bulk and seniority to hold it. 

The big trout rose to pluck bugs from the surface quite a bit, but spent most of it's time darting back and forth feeding subsurface on the drifting midge pupa attempting to reach the surface.

This and the next picture were in sequence.  He is rising here...

...after a subtle rise he slips back beneath the surface.

This picture shows the big fish feeding on the far right while you can see the rise ring in the upper left hand corner of another fish.  The bigger fish would protect the area stretching from the submerged rock right in front of the snow capped rock on the shore out to the submerged rock you can see just to the right of the rise ring of the smaller fish.  If that fish ever got any closer than the rise in this picture the big daddy was over there to chase it out.

Another angle of the bigger fish rising with the rise ring of the smaller fish about as close to it as the king would let it get to his area.  The rises of the big fish always were much more subtle and disturbed the water far less than his smaller competitor who seemed to always leave a very large ring on the waters surface.

So it was fun to just sit and observe today.  Now I look forward to returning with the tools to put some steel in the corner of that big fish's jaw.

Down by the Lake

 

A Duck Takes Flight

The kids throwing some leaves around

 

A Walk in the Canyon

A Morning Hike in the Desert

I have not been fishing in a while due to the local river's browns being in the midst of their spawn.  So in lieu of disturbing the Browns, busy creating the next generation, I decided this morning to take a hike in the desert near my office.  I took the camera and snapped a few hasty shots.  Lighting wasn't perfect this morning but it was nice to just get out and burn some calories and try and get back into the photography mode.

First off I ran into this guy on the trail up.  Kind of a freaky looking and very large insect that I found out later appears to be a Jerusalem Cricket.

The big Orb making it's appearance, and in the upper left corner an early morning flight probably filled with business travelers heads east.

Looking out over the valley from the top of the trail.  Out there somewhere is my office.

Another look at the Valley.

 

More 4th of July, On the Lake

Waiting for the fireworks on the lake to start I had some time to kill.

Slowly I am Gaining a Wardrobe

A couple months ago this picture won me a cool hat in a photo contest from the guys at www.flyfishingfrenzy.com.  Now I am moving on to shirts.  I just found out another picture I took won a T-shirt over at www.sightfisher.com.  Go over and have a look at this new fishing website.  If anyone knows of any contests where I can win some pants now let me know. 

Here is the picture:

From Getting Out

Fourth of July on the 45th Parallel

Let the photos trickle in.

Fishing Journal-Week 15

 

May 24

A good day on the water.  I found a nice piece of river where a good riffle flattened out into a longer deeper stretch that pushed up into some pockets created by rocks sticking out into the river and a slight bend in the bank.  This led to insects hatching that came from that riffle that were having any trouble getting off the water at all where pushed into these pockets where they would drift slowly and were easy targets.  In almost every break along the shore there was a nice Brown slurping casually as the helpless bugs drifted over them.  It was a buffet for the fish, and the fisherman as well.  I simply started with the first fish downstream and waded in below it, then one by one worked my way upstream picking off the next available fish.  

The first fish was sitting mere inches off the rocky bank.  By the size of the nose that poked up in regular intervals slurping mayflies I knew this was a nice fish.  There were so many naturals on the water it was a waiting game as I tried to get the fish to eat my fly.  It took several casts but eventually the BWO Sparkle Dun pattern was slurped by the big fish.  I set the hook and set in for a good fight on my little three weight (my best rod for casting tiny dries, but not the best rod for fighting 20 inch fish).  I fought him for a couple minutes and thought I had thing under control when he took one more big run and the hook pulled free.  

No time to feel sorry for myself and on to the next fish.  Ten feet up river another big nose was poking up in regular intervals.  This fish was the only one that did not take my fly.  Because one of my first casts to it, with the adrenaline from the last fish still subsiding, I closed the loop too fast on my back cast and hooked my fly line causing a pile up of line, and leader over the fishes lie.  If it hadn't been for the three fish I could see feeding along the bank every 20 feet or so up above me I may have been real disappointed in myself, but it was time to move on.  

I decided the next fish would be the last I would work on this lunch hour trip.  I worked up just below it's position and found the fish here was in a tough lie.  Under some brush tight to the bank making casting to it difficult.  My first few casts were tentative and too far out from the bank to get into it's feeding lane.  Finally I felt comfortable enough with those casts to try to punch it in close to the bank.  My first good cast was drifting right over the fish.  I could see it's dark form rising so slowly as it eyeballed my fly.  The nose broke the surface in slow motion, but my tense rod arm was already in fast forward.  I jerked the fly right out of it's mouth.  I was sure this fish was a lost cause now as well but I stood and watched the spot he had been feeding.  It didn't take long and it was back to work.  I took a deep breath and prepared to give it another go.  Several casts went by with out getting a look.  Then finally I saw the fish again rise to the pattern, but this time it turned away at the last moment.  Getting a bit discouraged that maybe this fish was educated on my fly now, and thinking I may have time to switch one time before I leave, I decided to make one more cast with this fly.  As it drifted over the fish without seeming to get any attention I was about to pull the cast back when I saw the fish turn.  It swam back downstream towards me and straight at the fly.  This time I held my composure as the fish slowly rose up and gulped the artificial bug.  I waited a count in my head and brought the rod tip up.  I was connected.  

It put up a good fight and eventually ended up in my net, but as I released the big brown, I knew that fly fishing is about so much more than the final score.  It is the game itself that keeps us coming back.  

May 25

I fished in the same spot I did yesterday.  There were fewer fish in this nice little pocket than there was on Monday but there were a couple noses up.  Where the bugs on the water yesterday had been BWO's and Callibaetis, today it was a PMD show.  Less in number but very visible as their pale bodies contrasted with the dark water.  

My first cast to a rising fish was sucked down by the big fish.  However the hook never found pay dirt and the fly pulled free on the hook set.  This fish did not stick around to find out what had just happened.  The rises in his lie stopped and even after giving it a few minutes, it never showed itself again. 

I moved up to almost the same spot I caught the fish yesterday where another fish was working in the tough lie.  I hadn't seen anything rise there for a few minutes so I wondered if the fish was done as I began casting to the water I had last seen it.   It didn't take long and the fish absolutely attacked my PMD Sparkle Dun pattern.  I had too much slack out and had to madly scramble to take it up.  I gave many opportunity there for the fish to pull free but finally gained control and was somehow still connected.  A few mintutes later I pulled in a healthy 20" fish.  

I cut this day short after releasing the nice brown and made my way back to the office.  Twenty minutes, two fish targeted, one fish caught.  It was worth it.  

May 28 

Today was windy! Gusts were blasting through at 25-30 mph. It was a little less than that when I started but by the time I was done fishing it was blowing hard. I still had a little success. With the wind I pulled a cripple pattern out and had some immediate results.



Here is where he came from in one of the calmer moments the river had today:



Finally after fighting with the wind for another hour my main problem became picking my fly out on the surface when their were white caps rolling over it. Usually I can watch the area pretty close and set on any activity but picking out a fish's rise is also tough when the surface is so disturbed. I missed a couple fish with my favorite PMD pattern that I just didn't see until it was to late. Who knows how many takes I had that I just couldn't see. The bugs where still hatching and the fish were still rising despite the big waves rolling on the surface of the river. Finally I found a protected little pocked and a fish rising that I could actually get my fly to when I waited for just the right moment, like when the wind died down to 15 mph instead of 30. I punched it in above the dark shape but as soon as my fly hit the water up above the fish another fish nabbed it. Turns out it was a MONSTER rainbow. My first rainbow on this river in a long time. Did I mention it was a MONSTER. It leaped from the water landing right in the middle of where the fish I was really casting too had been lying and soon came to the net. Without further ado I present to you my MONSTER rainbow!



Really I have HUGE hands. Well that little bow had totally messed up my chance at the big guy. He was long gone. I decided it was time to pack up and get back to the office but as I waded out of the water I came across this guy that I think is a Slate Brown Dun.



Very big Mayfly after seeing #18-20 PMD's all day. About a #12 hook is what it would take to duplicate it's size. I don't know if these come off here as a strong enough hatch to really get the fish's attention but after straining to see a Tiny PMD in the waves all day it's sounding pretty good to try a bug that size on next time.