Post by mirvc17 on Sept 5, 2016 20:47:39 GMT -6
This trip was another family camping trip with some of our friends and their kids.
Once again, we camped at spot 22 at the BlackJack campground. It was a good thing we arrived mid afternoon on Friday because in the evening, the people kept rolling in and the parking lot was full. After camp was set up I managed to catch a couple of fish in the same holes right by the camp site.
The stream fished pretty much like it did earlier in August when I went up there solo but the flow is up a little bit--25 cfs. The clarity was good reported at 12 inches. Hatches currently are baetis, caddis, and tricos. I saw some sporadic baetis and caddis, but no tricos. I started out with a dry/dropper rig with a caddis dry with a black RS2 trailing. Got some fish on both. I also experimented with a parachute hopper with an epoxy ant dropper. The hopper went totally ignored but I caught a couple on the ant pattern. I tried a drowned trico pattern but didn't get anything with it.
The water depth was on average 8 to 12 inches in most of the stretches we fished. Some of the better pools were near knee deep. I actually had better success nymphing, even in very low water. The best rig was a size 18 "Top Secret SOS" pattern with a size 18 floating baetis (more on this later). Another good dropper was the jujubee midge. I wound up pulling fish out of spots with 5-6" of water. All you had to do was scan the water for little gray sharks, approach them with caution and cast to them...nymphs worked best.
On Saturday, I ventured a little bit upstream of the campsite to a nice run. This particular stretch has a large log going across the river above the end of the pool (deepest part) before it drops off and speeds up again. I assumed there'd be a fish there so I let out a bunch of slack, made a pile cast and then fed out the slack during the drift. From where you can enter the river to the end of the run was probably 50 feet. I had to duck to see the bobber as it went under the log. The bobber twitched and dropped and I set. A beautiful brown came to hand.
On Sunday, I went back to the same spot and did the same tactic. This time, a decent sized stocker rainbow came to hand (took a mercury cased caddis). Later in the day, me and my two buddies went down the road to a couple of spots. Chris had fly fished a couple of times before but Jack was new. At the first spot, Jack hooked into one, but lost him. I hooked up with a fish in the same pool with a dual nymph rig--Mercer Micro Golden Stone size 20 w/ Mercury Cased Caddis size 20. The fish took the cased caddis.
We went down stream to a better spot and there were at least half a dozen stocker rainbows in one pool. We gave Chris first crack at it. A couple of fish gave his dry/dropper rig a look, but it was clear this wasn't going to work. I re-rigged him with a Brown Euro jig nymph with a jujubee midge dropper with split shot and a bobber. The pool was 2-3 feet deep in parts and we needed to get this rig down. A couple of casts and a couple of looks. I had him reel in and we added one more split shot. A couple of casts and he was into a fish.
Jack had joined us and I re-rigged him as well. Another fish to the net.
The wind was horrible all during this time and the guys wound up mangling their rigs. I mangled mine too and cut it off. After tying on some tippet, I went with a single size 12 tungsten jigged caddis w/ partridge. I hooked up with a fish and we were all happy. It was time to get back to the camp site.
As dinner was being prepped, I wanted to hit the pools by the campsite again. The size 12 would be way too heavy so I cut that off and put on the TS SOS w/ baetis dropper with a yarn indicator. The fish must have just turned on or something, but I caught 3 fish in 3 casts in about 2 minutes. All on the floating baetis. It was incredible...I was able to watch each fish turn, chase my flies and then the yarn indicate a strike. The last fish was the largest I've caught on this river and put up an epic little battle. Turns out it was large enough to eat and we had decided earlier that if we caught a decent size one we'd eat it (it was a stocker). The kids got a huge kick out of me cleaning the fish and it provided a nice supplement to our dinner.
I didn't get many photos, but my wife took a few good ones. Will post soon.
Once again, we camped at spot 22 at the BlackJack campground. It was a good thing we arrived mid afternoon on Friday because in the evening, the people kept rolling in and the parking lot was full. After camp was set up I managed to catch a couple of fish in the same holes right by the camp site.
The stream fished pretty much like it did earlier in August when I went up there solo but the flow is up a little bit--25 cfs. The clarity was good reported at 12 inches. Hatches currently are baetis, caddis, and tricos. I saw some sporadic baetis and caddis, but no tricos. I started out with a dry/dropper rig with a caddis dry with a black RS2 trailing. Got some fish on both. I also experimented with a parachute hopper with an epoxy ant dropper. The hopper went totally ignored but I caught a couple on the ant pattern. I tried a drowned trico pattern but didn't get anything with it.
The water depth was on average 8 to 12 inches in most of the stretches we fished. Some of the better pools were near knee deep. I actually had better success nymphing, even in very low water. The best rig was a size 18 "Top Secret SOS" pattern with a size 18 floating baetis (more on this later). Another good dropper was the jujubee midge. I wound up pulling fish out of spots with 5-6" of water. All you had to do was scan the water for little gray sharks, approach them with caution and cast to them...nymphs worked best.
On Saturday, I ventured a little bit upstream of the campsite to a nice run. This particular stretch has a large log going across the river above the end of the pool (deepest part) before it drops off and speeds up again. I assumed there'd be a fish there so I let out a bunch of slack, made a pile cast and then fed out the slack during the drift. From where you can enter the river to the end of the run was probably 50 feet. I had to duck to see the bobber as it went under the log. The bobber twitched and dropped and I set. A beautiful brown came to hand.
On Sunday, I went back to the same spot and did the same tactic. This time, a decent sized stocker rainbow came to hand (took a mercury cased caddis). Later in the day, me and my two buddies went down the road to a couple of spots. Chris had fly fished a couple of times before but Jack was new. At the first spot, Jack hooked into one, but lost him. I hooked up with a fish in the same pool with a dual nymph rig--Mercer Micro Golden Stone size 20 w/ Mercury Cased Caddis size 20. The fish took the cased caddis.
We went down stream to a better spot and there were at least half a dozen stocker rainbows in one pool. We gave Chris first crack at it. A couple of fish gave his dry/dropper rig a look, but it was clear this wasn't going to work. I re-rigged him with a Brown Euro jig nymph with a jujubee midge dropper with split shot and a bobber. The pool was 2-3 feet deep in parts and we needed to get this rig down. A couple of casts and a couple of looks. I had him reel in and we added one more split shot. A couple of casts and he was into a fish.
Jack had joined us and I re-rigged him as well. Another fish to the net.
The wind was horrible all during this time and the guys wound up mangling their rigs. I mangled mine too and cut it off. After tying on some tippet, I went with a single size 12 tungsten jigged caddis w/ partridge. I hooked up with a fish and we were all happy. It was time to get back to the camp site.
As dinner was being prepped, I wanted to hit the pools by the campsite again. The size 12 would be way too heavy so I cut that off and put on the TS SOS w/ baetis dropper with a yarn indicator. The fish must have just turned on or something, but I caught 3 fish in 3 casts in about 2 minutes. All on the floating baetis. It was incredible...I was able to watch each fish turn, chase my flies and then the yarn indicate a strike. The last fish was the largest I've caught on this river and put up an epic little battle. Turns out it was large enough to eat and we had decided earlier that if we caught a decent size one we'd eat it (it was a stocker). The kids got a huge kick out of me cleaning the fish and it provided a nice supplement to our dinner.
I didn't get many photos, but my wife took a few good ones. Will post soon.
