ttas67
05-18-2007, 12:37 AM
Started out on the little river about 6:30, caught 2 nice browns. Plateau angler met up with me around 7pm and we started working a nice stretch of water.
sometime around 7:30 the insect activity just went off the chart. David was about 100 yards downstream, so I don't know what was going on where he was, but where I was, it was like a fly party. a blizzard of lt cahills in all sizes from 18-12. yellow stoneflies from 16-12. MASSIVE GREEN DRAKES! and a myriad of other mayflies unidentifiable in the dimming light. David said he got into a bunch of Hendrickson spinners. I didn't see them upstream, but he didn't see any green drakes downstream. The trout were turning flips out of the water. It's times like these that you realize just how many fish are in the stream. hundreds of them, jumping, rising, sipping in every riffle, run, and pocket within a 50 foot radius of you.
You'd think you'd be catching trout every cast. well, not really. I caught my fair share, but I spent alot of time tying on different flies in a mad rush (hands shaking, daylight quickly running out) to find out what they were keying in on. maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed they were always concentrating on one fly. as soon as I matched it well enough, I'd immediately get strikes (mostly missed) almost anywhere the fly landed. within five minutes, they wouldn't touch it. change flies ... nothing. change again ... nothing. and the whole time they're feeding like mad. change again, finally ... strike on almost every cast for 5 minutes. then, fly is ineffective again, go through same routine. it's maddening, but exciting.
sometime around 7:30 the insect activity just went off the chart. David was about 100 yards downstream, so I don't know what was going on where he was, but where I was, it was like a fly party. a blizzard of lt cahills in all sizes from 18-12. yellow stoneflies from 16-12. MASSIVE GREEN DRAKES! and a myriad of other mayflies unidentifiable in the dimming light. David said he got into a bunch of Hendrickson spinners. I didn't see them upstream, but he didn't see any green drakes downstream. The trout were turning flips out of the water. It's times like these that you realize just how many fish are in the stream. hundreds of them, jumping, rising, sipping in every riffle, run, and pocket within a 50 foot radius of you.
You'd think you'd be catching trout every cast. well, not really. I caught my fair share, but I spent alot of time tying on different flies in a mad rush (hands shaking, daylight quickly running out) to find out what they were keying in on. maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed they were always concentrating on one fly. as soon as I matched it well enough, I'd immediately get strikes (mostly missed) almost anywhere the fly landed. within five minutes, they wouldn't touch it. change flies ... nothing. change again ... nothing. and the whole time they're feeding like mad. change again, finally ... strike on almost every cast for 5 minutes. then, fly is ineffective again, go through same routine. it's maddening, but exciting.