Rolling, Rolling, Rolling on the river...

Friday, June 17, 2011

RED HOT Frying Pan - 6/14/11


Flows - ~550 cfs

I left Eagle early knowing that with the crazy amount of runoff the state is experiencing, The Pan would be busy.  Even upon arriving around 8am, I was definitely not the first and was greeted by about 10-12 cars and about double the amount of people.  I still rigged up quickly, fighting the “shakes” as I was tying on my flies.  I didn’t know if I was shaking from the above average intake of coffee, the possibility for some large, mysis fed trout, or the combo of it all. 

Once I made it down on the water, the weather was perfect, hovering around 60 degrees with no wind.  I made my way out to the middle of the riffle section just below what is known as the “toilet bowl,” or the giant frothy plunge pool spilling from the bottom of Ruedi Reservoir.  I was fishing about a 14 foot leader tapered down to 6X with the smallest white thing-a-ma-bobber strike indicator.  I set my depth to about 6 feet to my lead fly, a small mysis shrimp pattern, followed by a small red-thread midge larva.  Within five minutes I had a nice rainbow take the mysis and I knew the day was going to be amazing. 

I continued to work the riffles, sight fishing where I could, and landed about 5 more while missing a few strikes in the process.  In the process, I also had something that has never happened to me before.  I experienced my own personal double up!  While I had a nice 15” rainbow in the net, I released the flies back into the current below me.  As they drifted down, I was looking at the nice colors of the fish in the net.  In the corner of my eye, I notice my fly line moving out into the current instead of straight down and I quickly lifted the tip to find another eager fish on the end of it.  I stood there for a quick moment laughing to myself before I let the first fish out of the net and brought in the next.  I wish I had a friend there with me to document the event as it was a first for me. 

After working the riffles for about an hour and a half, I moved up to the right side of the toilet bowl.  I adjusted my tactics and lengthened my depth to about 10-12 feet and added some weight to try and get those flies down in the swift current.  Once again, almost immediately, I was into fish, and big fish at that.  I was told by my manager that many times with the higher than normal flows coming out of the dam, the fish go crazy and will eat more than normal with reckless abandon.  In the next five hours, I managed to hook into and land many very nice powerful fish and land a good number of 20”+ fish.  I did indeed hook into and play a wise old timer who tore downstream, through the rapids and into the riffles before the pool.  I tried my best to keep up with him, thinking of the 6X tippet in the process.  He simply teased me by jumping three times while gaining line on me before shaking the #24 midge larva free.  They are always bigger when they get away, but he had to have been 26”. 

I will be back when I manage a day off here in the near future to try and fool some large trout once again.  The flows have since gone up over the last few days to about 850 cfs.  I am not sure if this means more mysis action or simply more water. 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Cali Roadtrip!


Kassie and I finally made a plan for a nice getaway that fit right into our schedules.  She was wrapping up her graduate school program with University of Colorado, Denver to become a teacher, and I was entering the interim period between my time guiding in PA and the season here in CO.  We planned to roadtrip out to California with the intent on visiting the Redwood forests, Big Sur, Sequoia and Yosemite.  We also sprinkled in a few days to wet the line in famous Cali rivers such as the McCloud and Truckee Rivers. 

Hat Creek 5/17/11

After visiting The Fly Shop in Redding, not only we were informed that runoff had made its appearance on these waters as well, but were given information to where we could still catch some fish.  We left the great fly shop with some local flies, maps and directions to the hotspots along Hat Creek.  The first hole we tried was the Upper Power Station Hole, if I remember right.  The river cascaded down through a very nice riffle and pocket water section into a VERY long meadow section.  Rumor has it that the resident giants live down in the meadow section and that sight fishing is the rule.  As seems to be part of my fishing routine this spring, we were blessed with plenty of rain throughout the day, not allowing any sight fishing to the giants downstream. Instead we focused out attention on the lower riffle section, directly before the water entered the long, meadow pools. 

Others had the same idea as two guided trips soon set up shop on the other side of the riffle from Kassie and I.  Almost immediately after our arrival on the water, the swallows were buzzing, and the fish were popping on the surface to some blue winged olives.  I tied on a dry/dropper combination of a #16 parachute adams and a #18 BWO soft hackle and started getting some interest.  The majority of the fish came to the dropper just under the surface, but I still managed to find a few looking at the dry.  The fish averaged 12-14”, but were some of the most beautiful rainbows I had ever hooked.  Nice black spots covered their bright red stripes and sides and tails.  





Kass lost interest as the rain was coming down hard, and I stayed in this section until lunchtime, when I headed to the truck to dry out.  We ate some lunch and decided to try one of the other spots a bit further downstream.  The water was beautiful downstream, but moving just a bit too fast to entice any takes.  Nevertheless, it was fun to explore a new river and area. 

Merced River 5/23 and 5/24/11

Flowing from Yosemite, the Merced River was PUMPING with runoff!  After around a week with no fishing, there was no stopping me from trying my luck wading into this powerful river.  I was shocked to find just how deep this river was, but was going to try to find some hungry fish.

The first evening I got on the river just outside of the park along highway 140, below the Foresta Rd. Bridge right before dark.  I found one section that looked very fishy, but was still moving very fast!  I managed to get out about 20 feet into the river after maneuvering on rocks to get away from the overhanging trees and get in position to make some nice drifts.  I had tied on a large dark brown Pat’s Rubberleg, with a Formerly Known As, below a couple of BB split shots.  After a few minutes, I finally saw my indicator hesitate and I set the hook.  There was a brief second of no movement, followed directly after by a nice 14” rainbow leaping into the air.  Somehow he cooperated with me and stayed upstream until he made it into my net. 



The following morning I was able to get one more small brown into the net on a rainbow warrior.  He was sitting in some calmer water as a small creek dumped into the Merced. 



Truckee River 5/29/11

Ahh, the famous Truckee River.  We arrived in Truckee CA and the river looked like the flows were not outrageous.  I went into the Mountain Hardware store in town, which is the towns only “fly shop.”  I was hesitant but quickly changed my mind as I entered.  There was a great selection of equipment and flies, as well as a very nice gentleman who helped me learn a thing or two about the area.  He told me of his two best fishing options for the current flows, pointed me in the right direction for flies, and also gave me some advice as a first time Truckee River fisherman.

The first location was up the Little Truckee, between the Stampede and Boca Reservoirs.  There the flow should be good, and being a tailwater, the fish should be large and healthy.  Also being a tailwater, the fish would be very well educated to the common flies and techniques, so I would have to rely on my practice from Cheesman Canyon. 

I arrived up there to find the water ripping, and only minimal holding water that was accessible by wading.  I still tried all of the tricks in the book, with only three hookups and no landed fish.  I decided to head downstream to the main branch of the Truckee to the other ‘secret spot’ my new friend from the fly shop directed me toward.  All I can say is that it is within 20 minutes drive downstream from I-80.  I arrived to a very large and deep section of the river, but with a very nice long pool, two large eddies, and a swift pocket water section. 

I arrived again as the weather was changing and beginning to snow a bit.  I tried a few different depths with my blue winged emerger setup, as well as tried a few various attractor nymphs.  I was able to get one nice 14” rainbow at the head of the eddy with one of my favorites, the drowned Parachute Adams. 

With nothing else tugging, I headed downstream to the long, deep and relatively slow moving pool and switched flies to the largest coffee colored Pat’s Rubber Leg I could find, and a smaller stonefly pattern.  In order to get it deep, I had about 9’ from my indicator to the pats, as well as a couple of split shots.  After a few attempts at double hauling the heavy rig, I changed my approach to a massive tension cast.  This actually worked very well, and I was getting a very nice long drift.  I managed to put it right on the edge of a seam, and after about 10 seconds of the drift, the indicator stopped in its tracks.  I set the hook, anticipating a snag, when it tore downstream.  Unsure of the size of the fish, I moved downstream with him and adjusted my drag.  Once he was out of the current, I realized this was a BIG fish.  After a brief resting period, he once again gained some energy and burst to the surface.  I was caught off guard to see the very large rainbow on the other end of my line.  I made sure to play him just hard enough to keep him out of the main current, while keeping in mind the 5X tippet I was using.  Within a few minutes, I had him to my side and into the net!  The opening of my net is 20” and his tail went about 4” down toward the end of the handle when I held him flat!  



After I was able to get a few pictures for proof, the snow began to fall.  I tried more drifts in all of the likely locations with only two more tugs.  I switched the bottom fly to a small pheasant tail and decided to work the heads of the eddies before I would pack up.  The snow was coming down hard, and the hands were beginning to numb.  I landed one more fish to cap off my Truckee River adventure… a 15” whitey.  Pretty comical way to end one of the most satisfying days in my fishing career!


Thursday, June 2, 2011

Spring Run Steelhead - Erie, PA

April 27, 2011

(More pictures once I receive them from Joe McMullen)


After shifting some of my guiding schedule around, I was able to accept Joe McMullen’s (a well known PA fishing expert) offer to head up to Northwestern Pennsylvania to try my luck for some spring run steelhead.  I was informed not to expect much, as the primary run takes place during the fall, but I was still excited.  With the massive rainfall we had experienced, the water may be high and off color, but might just allow more fish to enter the river.  I rushed home after my trip on the Tuesday afternoon to get my stuff ready and headed back down to the clubhouse, battling torrential rain and wind in the process.  Once I was back at the clubhouse, I was told that a very large pine tree had fallen right at the front and was crossing some power lines.  I was able to reach Joe at home and let him know to call me once he was on his way, so I would know he would be ~20 minutes away.  Meanwhile I chatted with other staff about how they intended on getting home that night, but all the while I was really thinking about all of the stories about the monster steelhead, snatching flies with incredible force.  The phone finally rang and before I knew it I was running the brief minute down the driveway with all of my gear wrapped in trash bags to keep dry. 

Joe and I chatted through the intense rain bouncing off the windshield for the three and a half hour drive before we arrived to his favorite lodging, a truck stop-esque dive hotel in Erie.  He had been going there for years and the staff all knew and greeted him, even though we arrived shortly after midnight.  We both crashed out and I woke up a little after 6:00am to see Joe tying away at his vise.  Once I was up and he cranked out nearly two dozen flies, we were off for a quick breakfast before heading out to meet up with another guide and get on the water.  



Upon arrival at Twenty Mile Creek, we tried our best to spot some fish in the slightly murky water, and tried drifting some nymphs by them.  After about an hour, we switched to a small olive streamer with nice green and white barbell eyes.  After a few swings right in front of a couple of fish, one finally turned and I was telling myself, “WAIT, WAIT, WAIT,” as I saw the fish charge the fly.  WHAM!!!  The fish smashed the fly and I finally hooked into my first steelhead.  The line was whizzing off of the reel, and I was just trying to keep up with him as he heading downstream a bit.  Once he got into some calmer water, I played him for a few minutes until I finally had him on shore.  We snapped some photos and I was instantly back in the water, swinging more flies to the fish I could spot.  I did this for some time, moving back upstream, then downstream, chasing the few fish we could locate in the deep pool and run.  I managed to hook into about five more, but only land 4 total for the day.  They varied from being very fresh from Lake Erie, to being very dark and “old” by Joe McMullen’s standards.



I am now hooked on steelheading, and will try my hardest to find more opportunities to catch these powerful fish.  If you have never fished for steelhead, I highly recommend it.  Change your schedule around, make that extra trip, and show some patience.  Once the first fish crushes your fly, you, too, will be hooked for life!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Runoff is here!

Just got back in the swing of things here in Colorado.  High temps are bringing HIGH flows.  I will update with some information in the coming days.  Stay tuned.