April 6, 2020
Flows: 167 cfs
Water Temp: 36 @ 9a – 42 @ 12N
Water clarity: Crystal clear
Air Temp: Low-30s @ 8:30a – mid-60s @ 4p.
Hatches: Midges 9a-11a. Blue Wing Olives – 11:30a-3:30p.
Yep – it was one of those days when I was lucky enough to net enough fish that I actually lost count. This has happened a few times – and I generally lose track when I get above 10. Not sure if that’s a good thing!
A 15" male brownie. The last one of the day.
I wasn’t planning on going fishing this week at all – as I was not sure it conformed to the shelter-in-place orders. Then Brian sent me an article from a fly shop that said it was OK. Well I’m still not sure that it is – but it was good enough for me to start thinking about it.
So after some thought I suggested that we go out on Wednesday, the 8th – close enough to the April 11th date that the shelter in place order was to be lifted. Brian agreed and said he was going out on Monday too. Well since I didn’t have anything planned for Monday – I thought, why not – and met him in Deckers yesterday morning.
To our surprise, the place was deserted. When I arrived at 8:30a there was only 1 other car besides Brian’s in the entire Cable Hole area. Perfect!
Brian was already in the middle of the Between the Islands Run when I pulled up. Coincidently, on the drive down, I was thinking would be a good place to start. When I met up with him he was in the tail end of the run and said he already landed a 17” Rainbow in Mark’s Run. He enticed it to take a #22 Black Top Secret. I moved to the top end of the run, and after covering it with no action - I decided to move upstream into the Cable Hole.
Man what an opportunity - the whole place to ourselves. I could have hit a number of different riffles, runs, and pools on the way there – but with the Cable Hole open, that was my choice. When I got there – I set up on the north side of the river. There was a very hardy midge hatch in progress but I couldn’t spot any fish, which is unusual. So I covered the hole from the top end of the run to the tail-out below. I was rigged with nymphs – a #18 Disco Midge leading, followed by a #22 Mercury Black Beauty and a #24 Top Secret Midge.
At the tail-out of the hole, there are a series of large submerged boulders that form a channel in the middle of the river. From past experience, I know fish hang out in that channel and feed. And that’s where I hooked up and landed my 1st fish of the day – a nice 15” female Rainbow. She hit the Disco Midge – which has been a killer fly for me lately.
My 1st one of the day.
As I was fishing the Cable Hole – a couple with a little girl set up on the opposite bank just downstream from me. This area has a lot of pockets and seems that are created from a bunch of submerged boulders and large rocks. It varies in depth from about mid-calf to mid-thigh and there are usually several fish feeding here.
Having covered the Cable Hole and not having any more action, I moved downstream to see if I could spot any fish feeding in the pockets and seems. I was pretty much directly across the river from the family when I spotted a nice rainbow feeding about ¼ of the way off my bank. With the number of rocks and with a lot of moss on them in this run, it is best fished with little or no weight – or with a Hopper/Dropper setup. So I began to rig up a Hopper/Dropper - with a Chubby Chernobyl as my Hopper, a #16 Eurostyle Beadhead Pheasant Tail as the Dropper, with a #22 Stalcup Baetis and a #20 Chocolate Thunder following.
I was having a hell of a time tying on the Eurostyle and just then Brian showed up. He was going to upstream to give the Cable Hole a try. After what seemed like an eternity – I finally had my rig set up. Then as I looked into the river to get my bearings on where the fish was – I notice the lady across the river from me was throwing her spinner all the way across to my side of the river. Needless to say, she effectively scared away any and all fish!! Grumbling to myself, I grabbed my stuff and went up to tell Brian I was heading downstream – and to let off some steam too!!
As I was walking across the river toward the side the family was on – but a considerable distance downstream from them – I spotted another fish feeding in the middle of the river. So I went after him with my Hopper/Dropper setup. I had a #6 split shot (which is just a BB size) midway between the Chocolate Thunder and Stalcup Baetis. After several casts on point without a hit I added a little mud (pliable weight) above the Eurostyle nymph. On my 1st cast with the added weight – the fish hit. It was bigger than I thought – in the 18” to 20” range – and slabby. He was in terrific shape too – taking out line and making spectacular jumps out of the water. After the 3rd jump – he broke off. Damn it! I worked hard for that guy – but that’s the way it goes some time.
So that was my morning – 1 fish in the net, and 1 broken off. It was now lunchtime and I told Brian I’d meet him in the Between the Islands Run after I was done.
Once I finished eating – I decided to fish Mark’s Run before heading downstream to meet Brian. So much open water and so many choices!! Having not spotted any fish and having no hits, I moved downstream to meet up with Brian. When I got to the run there were 2 other fishermen in it and no sign of Brian. (He later told me he was on the opposite side of the river when I passed!) Anyway, I continued on down to a narrow pool called the Diver Pool.
Middle of the Diver Pool.
The Diver Pool (which is sometimes referred to as The Aquarium) is in a mini canyon and is pretty deep, but you can usually sight fish – and there are some big ones that hang out here. And I did spot some nice size fish feeding a few feet below the surface near the end of the pool. They were aggressively feeding and sometimes moving several feet doing so. My though was they must be feeding on baetis pupae which are fast swimmers. And since they were feeding below the surface – I fished the Hopper/Dropper setup.
Tail end of the Diver Pool.
After several casts on point with no hits, I changed the Chocolate Thunder (my trailing nymph) to a #22 Flashback Barr Emerger BWO. I immediately got 3 hits on 3 casts. I was distracted on the first two (don’t ask!) – but got the 3rd one - a nice 15” Brownie. Then I moved upstream about 30 feet to where there were a few fish rising. As I got there I noticed that there were more than a few rising – there were several – and a pretty thick BWO hatch was in progress. They wouldn’t take anything on my Hopper/Dropper setup, so I changed to straight dry flies with a dropper, tying on a #22 Parachute Adams followed by a #24 Sparkle Dun BWO with the #22 Flashback Barr Emerger as the dropper.
16" male brownie. Taken on a #22 Flashback Barr Emerger fished as a dropper.
The star of the day - #22 Flashback Barr Emerger.
That’s when the fun started. For a brief period, I was landing fish on every 3rd cast – I had some on consecutive casts. Most were rainbows and brownies in the 13” to 15” range, with a few smaller. Amazingly, almost all of them hit the Barr Emerger! What fun! It almost became embarrassing, as there was a guy upstream maybe 60 yards, not catching anything. I stayed there until about 4p at which time the action started to die down. And I thought it was a good time to find Brian and have a beer.
15" male taken on what else - the Barr Emerger!
On my way out, I ran into him at the back end of the Between the Islands Run where there were fish rising. He had just landed a 14" brownie on a Griffiths Gnat before I arrived. I watched for a bit – and decided I may as well fish – moving to the midpoint of the run. For some reason that I can’t remember – I changed my Sparkle Wing BWO out for a #22 Cripple. Fishing the pockets behind the large boulders and the seem just before the fast water, I landed 3 Brownies – two 14” and one 15”. Two of them hit the Cripple and the other one hit the Parachute Adams. Brian and I actually had a double hook up – he landed a 16” Brownie at the same time I landed my 15"er.
This 15" male hit the #22 Parachute Adams in the shallow pocket water in the middle of the Between the Islands Run.
We decided to end the day on that positive note!
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