We had a break in the very cold weather we've been having lately. In fact, the high today was in the mid 40's F and it was delightful. I had a few minutes available, so I went fishing.
Due to the snow levels on the side of the road, I was only able to access the river at one spot. I parked where some other vehicles had smashed most of the snow down and fished upstream. Ice hugged the banks, but it was not too bad negotiating the narrow areas with faster water.
The stream was flowing at 66 cfs with a water temperature of 42.8° F. We were between storms with rain (turning to snow) threatening in the forecast.
I was able to take a few nice cutthroats, along with some browns. They ranged from 12-14 inches. They took beadheads as well as a size 8 UKB. I fished with the Nissin Air Stage Honryu 380, a rod that I love to use as it has such a smooth action and yet has surprising power to control trout in faster currents.
I fished for just a little over an hour. It was a great time out.
Hopefully I can get some more hours on the water soon, but this winter has been sort of brutal. I guess I'll take what I can and hope for the best!
Due to the snow levels on the side of the road, I was only able to access the river at one spot. I parked where some other vehicles had smashed most of the snow down and fished upstream. Ice hugged the banks, but it was not too bad negotiating the narrow areas with faster water.
The stream was flowing at 66 cfs with a water temperature of 42.8° F. We were between storms with rain (turning to snow) threatening in the forecast.
I was able to take a few nice cutthroats, along with some browns. They ranged from 12-14 inches. They took beadheads as well as a size 8 UKB. I fished with the Nissin Air Stage Honryu 380, a rod that I love to use as it has such a smooth action and yet has surprising power to control trout in faster currents.
I fished for just a little over an hour. It was a great time out.
Hopefully I can get some more hours on the water soon, but this winter has been sort of brutal. I guess I'll take what I can and hope for the best!
Hi Tom. I have a question to ask about the bead head fly pattern pictured, is that a red wire rib?
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is counter intuitive to think it would work, limited amounts of red flash materials included in combination with predominately black fly tying materials seem to make for very effective fish catching flies under the right conditions. I say counter intuitive because red is the first color to shift to black, often in a distance of only a foot or two in discolored water or dark lighting conditions. And as I understand it, this is not a good place to use FL-Red materials because they are too bright, which turns the fish off as the extra bright color shift happens as the fish is approaching the fly to take it. Their are a number of commercial dubbing blends available which have the right mix of red flash to black materials to insure success and are called things like: Bloody Leach, Bloody Stone and such dubbing materials. Any insights you may have on this would be much appreciated by me and others I would think....Thank you....Karl.
Karl,
DeleteI'm not sure I have any insights as to why red seems to work in this situation. I use a lot of competition tungsten beadhead nymphs. Most have a bright red or orange hot spot. They all seem to work really well. Again, I'm not sure why, as they should seem to scare the fish away. I would think red extinction would come into play with these deep diving flies, but hot spots seems to work despite what I think. -Tom
Tom, here is a video tutorial on tying the Tenkara Bloody Stone fly pattern:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/how-to/tenkara_bloody_stone Enjoy....Karl.
My goodness Tom. Those browns are beasts. Such great colors in such cold waters.
ReplyDeleteThey are all nice fish. This time of year they hold tight to he bottom.
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