November 17, 2023 - Fishing with Brent Auger

November 17th, I invited Brent Auger of DRAGONtail Tenkara to fish a local tailwater river with me. It is one of the few rivers in Southeast Idaho that stays ice free all winter long, although this autumn hasn't been cold enough to freeze any water anywhere. It has rainbows and browns, and they tend to respond well to tightline nymphing techniques. 

Brent has fished this river before, but he hasn't been to many of the sections that I have fished. So, I invited him to come along and fish some new water. 

I usually find that a sow bug pattern works really well on this river, and one of my favorite patterns is the Bead Head Ray Charles. This fly was developed on the Big Horn River in Montana, and it is said it got its name by guides who said that "even a blind man can catch fish with this fly". It's a favorite sow bug pattern, and is a "must have" pattern for the Big Horn or any river where sow bugs predominate. 

I put Brent on some reaches where I have had luck catching a lot of fish. He used the DRAGONtail Ragnarok 400, and the BH Ray Charles worked its magic. He caught quite a few nice fish.

I used the Gamakatsu Suimu 4.5 EX, one of my favorite contact nymphing rods. With Brent fishing the reaches I usually fish, I moved downstream to new water and found cooperative fish there too. 

The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful afternoon on the river. 

Here's the vlog: