A Tale of Two Streams

The day started off at a fairly urban section of stream. We soon found a classic deep hole and started dredging the bottom with our nymph rigs. There was a large overhanging tree we had to cast up under and despite a few tangles we managed to save our rigs for the most part. We had no hits and we decided we could better hit the hole from the far bank. We waded across above the hole and started pounding it hard. We changed weight, leader length, and flies until we finally figured out what they wanted to eat...a wine colored san juan worm and a black zebra midge dropper. We started to get hits but we missed several potential hookups. Finally I stuck a football shaped brown that ran close to 16 inches. It felt very good to get this one since we were determined to figure the fish out in this hole.



Then David had at it and soon he stuck a piggy brown that must be sneaking caddis from the feeding lane at night...

It was incredible how well fed these two fish were. They had massive bodies in comparison to their heads which is a good sign that the stream's kitchen cabinet has been full as of late. We missed several hits and soon things started to slow down so we took off to a different smaller stream in the high country. It was a winter wonderland up higher with a good dose of snow covering the landscape. At the first decent run we came across I managed to hook into a small feisty brown on a rainbow warrior.


We came across a great looking hole and David waxed artistic with his camera and got some awesome landscape shots.



At the head of the hole I tied into something large but it pulled off. I don't know if it was a big whitefish or a large brown but it got my blood rushing for a few seconds. After this encounter we tried a few more holes then decided to call it. This second stream would have been good to fish if we had a little more time since we had to search out the good holes which were spaced apart quite a bit. The ambiance between the two streams was completely opposite however the fishing proved to be somewhat slow on both. It was a great trip with some good memories made.

Good News

HB 187 is defeated! Although I have not been involved as much as I would have liked I was able to head up to the State Capitol for a rally and I have emailed elected officials voicing my opinion on the matter. It was a poorly written bill that the author (Rep. Ferry) was trying to rush through the system. Thanks to all who worked so hard and to those legislators who voted it down.

Foreshadowing

I headed out solo to a favorite hole and although I could not dial things in I noticed a sipper along the bank. I had my new little fiberglass fly rod loaded and ready to go with an Orange Asher and after getting a decent drift in the breezy conditions I fooled the fish. He was only about 10 inches but put a nice little bend in the rod which was a lot of fun. The rod is going to be great for small streams. While stopping through the snow on the way to the hole I saw a bug crawling on the snow. A closer look revealed what I believe is a winter stonefly.

As indicated there were some rises on occasion and I suspected midges and possibly the occasional stonefly but something caught my eye on the water. There was no mistaking the sailboat-like silhouette on the water. I nabbed him (or her?) off the water and although I smashed the wings I got a good macro shot of a blue wing olive! Entomology can be tricky but all indications point to BWO which is the first major mayfly hatch of the year on most western streams. I was just surprised because it was only the second week in February which is pretty darn early for these bugs. It was a great foreshadow of what will occur come springtime!