**On these short evening trips to the river I have been focused on fishing since I am limited on time so I have not gotten the camera out at all. My apologies for the long pictureless post.
The fishing options around here have been quite limited lately with the rivers running high and muddy, the reservoirs in a volatile state of flux, rising so rapidly the shoreline changes everyday, and most of the lakes high enough in elevation that getting to them is pretty much impossible. In this area we are lucky to have a couple great tail water fisheries in the South Fork of the Boise River and the Owyhee River that are usually fishable even when everything else gets blown out. The South Fork has been closed, however, since April 1st for the spawn helping establish the next generation of fat wild rainbows on that river. Once you catch one of the brilliantly colored hogs that live there you never want to catch a hatchery pellet head again. They are one of the hardest fighting fish I have seen. This has left the Owyhee River as the main option around here for rivers and so I have taken the opportunity to get to know that river.
Last night I made my third trip up there in the last two weeks and although my first trip was the most successful the last couple have been exciting as well. Lucky for me I happen to work 25 minutes from my favorite run on the river so an after work jaunt is not out of the question and I have taken advantage of that fact on my last two trips. I can leave work at five, and be on the river fishing by 5:30. This gives me about three hours of fishing before it is time to head on home.
My first evening jaunt last week was not overly successful. In fact with three people fishing we caught exactly zero fish. I had a couple strikes on a Caddis emerger pattern and my father in law left a mark on a couple lips with a Zonker streamer but it was one of those nights I got caught up in the moment and was simply off my game. I can tell by the number of times I have changed my fly how well or in this case not so well I was fishing. Sometimes the hatches going on are almost too good and they get me out thinking myself. This was the case here. About 6:30 a fairly decent caddis hatch began and by then I had already tried my nymph set up that did so well the Saturday before and a couple different streamers trying to find the secret pattern. Well once the caddis hatch started coming off I began my quest to capture a bug to match the pattern as far as size and color. The caddis looked smaller than anything I had and being color blind it was easy for me to doubt myself on the color of the patterns I picked out. I think I tried three different caddis patterns over the next half hour with only one small bite on an emerger pattern I tied on as a dropper off my dry fly. The fish were quite aggressive in their pursuit of the natural bugs though and it was quite a thing to witness. I observed one young caddis attempting to stretch his wings but not able to get more than a couple inches off the water at a time. He kept frantically flapping, flying low for a foot or too then touching lightly on the surface of the river headed downstream. Suddenly from under the brush hanging over the bank I saw a dark form lurch out and grab the little fly as he skittered across the water. It was as aggressive as I have seen a fish for a while. In spite of this I was striking out in my attempts to imitate the skittering caddis. At about 7:30 the caddis' disappeared and a thick hatch of midges got underway. Again the fish didn't want what I had to offer and I continued switching it up every 10 minutes. I can't help but think that if I had stuck with one pattern during each hatch I could have had some success.
Last night I had slightly better success and again witnessed more interesting fish behavior in the process. The wind was howling down the canyon last night and there was no sign of fish feeding on top so again I started out with my nymph rig and vowed to not get caught up in the fly switch mode. I had no luck for the first half hour with the nymphs so switched to a streamer pattern. I had a couple follows but nothing seemed interested. Finally wading a narrow channel I actually had no intention of really fishing since it didn't look too promising to me I threw my streamer out and immediately had a big fish follow it. Then in subsequent casts I did not see him again. I figured the streamer was something that intrigued them but was obviously not what they wanted to eat. I switched back to my nymphs and immediately it was FISH ON! The first was a smaller 15 inch fish definitely not the one I had seen follow my streamer so I gave it another cast. Second cast, FISH ON! The channel I was fishing was so narrow I had practically been standing on these fish where they ate my fly. This one did not feel big to me when I first lifted my rod and felt it tug. But as I put some pressure on it I knew this was a nice fish. After he took a couple short runs I was able to grab him standing chest deep in the skinny run. As I went to take the hook out it simply fell out of the Browns mouth. With a flip of the tail he squirted out of my hands and back to his hole. I would guess he was a 20 inch fish but didn't have him in hand long enough to really be sure. He was alot fatter than the other fish I had been catching on the river as well, a real hefty fish. When I looked at my fly I saw exactly why it had fallen out of the big fishes mouth. It was as straight as a pin.
Those two fish on consecutive casts where the end of my success this evening. However later in the evening I witnessed something that made me question all my attempt to match the hatch so precisely in my last visit to the river. I still had my nymph rig on with a bright yellow and orange oval shaped foam indicator. I was drifting it through a run that had been good for me a week and a half ago. There had been no hatches going on and no fish rising all evening. Suddenly a fish attacked my indicator of all things. If I had a hook on that thing I would have caught a fish on an orange and yellow oval that looked like no bug you will ever see, on the surface. I don't know what that fish's problem was with orange and yellow ovals but it definitely had issues. Like I say it made me question how much thought I had been putting into getting the exact size and color of those caddis' that had hatched on my last trip to the river. I could have tied on something orange and yellow and caught more fish.
The fishing options around here have been quite limited lately with the rivers running high and muddy, the reservoirs in a volatile state of flux, rising so rapidly the shoreline changes everyday, and most of the lakes high enough in elevation that getting to them is pretty much impossible. In this area we are lucky to have a couple great tail water fisheries in the South Fork of the Boise River and the Owyhee River that are usually fishable even when everything else gets blown out. The South Fork has been closed, however, since April 1st for the spawn helping establish the next generation of fat wild rainbows on that river. Once you catch one of the brilliantly colored hogs that live there you never want to catch a hatchery pellet head again. They are one of the hardest fighting fish I have seen. This has left the Owyhee River as the main option around here for rivers and so I have taken the opportunity to get to know that river.
Last night I made my third trip up there in the last two weeks and although my first trip was the most successful the last couple have been exciting as well. Lucky for me I happen to work 25 minutes from my favorite run on the river so an after work jaunt is not out of the question and I have taken advantage of that fact on my last two trips. I can leave work at five, and be on the river fishing by 5:30. This gives me about three hours of fishing before it is time to head on home.
My first evening jaunt last week was not overly successful. In fact with three people fishing we caught exactly zero fish. I had a couple strikes on a Caddis emerger pattern and my father in law left a mark on a couple lips with a Zonker streamer but it was one of those nights I got caught up in the moment and was simply off my game. I can tell by the number of times I have changed my fly how well or in this case not so well I was fishing. Sometimes the hatches going on are almost too good and they get me out thinking myself. This was the case here. About 6:30 a fairly decent caddis hatch began and by then I had already tried my nymph set up that did so well the Saturday before and a couple different streamers trying to find the secret pattern. Well once the caddis hatch started coming off I began my quest to capture a bug to match the pattern as far as size and color. The caddis looked smaller than anything I had and being color blind it was easy for me to doubt myself on the color of the patterns I picked out. I think I tried three different caddis patterns over the next half hour with only one small bite on an emerger pattern I tied on as a dropper off my dry fly. The fish were quite aggressive in their pursuit of the natural bugs though and it was quite a thing to witness. I observed one young caddis attempting to stretch his wings but not able to get more than a couple inches off the water at a time. He kept frantically flapping, flying low for a foot or too then touching lightly on the surface of the river headed downstream. Suddenly from under the brush hanging over the bank I saw a dark form lurch out and grab the little fly as he skittered across the water. It was as aggressive as I have seen a fish for a while. In spite of this I was striking out in my attempts to imitate the skittering caddis. At about 7:30 the caddis' disappeared and a thick hatch of midges got underway. Again the fish didn't want what I had to offer and I continued switching it up every 10 minutes. I can't help but think that if I had stuck with one pattern during each hatch I could have had some success.
Last night I had slightly better success and again witnessed more interesting fish behavior in the process. The wind was howling down the canyon last night and there was no sign of fish feeding on top so again I started out with my nymph rig and vowed to not get caught up in the fly switch mode. I had no luck for the first half hour with the nymphs so switched to a streamer pattern. I had a couple follows but nothing seemed interested. Finally wading a narrow channel I actually had no intention of really fishing since it didn't look too promising to me I threw my streamer out and immediately had a big fish follow it. Then in subsequent casts I did not see him again. I figured the streamer was something that intrigued them but was obviously not what they wanted to eat. I switched back to my nymphs and immediately it was FISH ON! The first was a smaller 15 inch fish definitely not the one I had seen follow my streamer so I gave it another cast. Second cast, FISH ON! The channel I was fishing was so narrow I had practically been standing on these fish where they ate my fly. This one did not feel big to me when I first lifted my rod and felt it tug. But as I put some pressure on it I knew this was a nice fish. After he took a couple short runs I was able to grab him standing chest deep in the skinny run. As I went to take the hook out it simply fell out of the Browns mouth. With a flip of the tail he squirted out of my hands and back to his hole. I would guess he was a 20 inch fish but didn't have him in hand long enough to really be sure. He was alot fatter than the other fish I had been catching on the river as well, a real hefty fish. When I looked at my fly I saw exactly why it had fallen out of the big fishes mouth. It was as straight as a pin.
Those two fish on consecutive casts where the end of my success this evening. However later in the evening I witnessed something that made me question all my attempt to match the hatch so precisely in my last visit to the river. I still had my nymph rig on with a bright yellow and orange oval shaped foam indicator. I was drifting it through a run that had been good for me a week and a half ago. There had been no hatches going on and no fish rising all evening. Suddenly a fish attacked my indicator of all things. If I had a hook on that thing I would have caught a fish on an orange and yellow oval that looked like no bug you will ever see, on the surface. I don't know what that fish's problem was with orange and yellow ovals but it definitely had issues. Like I say it made me question how much thought I had been putting into getting the exact size and color of those caddis' that had hatched on my last trip to the river. I could have tied on something orange and yellow and caught more fish.
1 comment:
HA that's great! Precisely why lure fishing works - they don't look like anything, either! This is also funny since I just linked to your blog for great outdoor photography, and whadda ya start posting, but text! :) Sounds like fun - I need to try and join you sometime. I found that old fly rod that mom and dad have - and thought I might try to rig it up to use. Might need a new reel, but maybe not even that.
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