June 22, 2020
Flows: 289 cfs.
Water Temp: 56F @ 9a.
Water clarity: Gin clear.
Air Temp: 56 @ 9a – high 66 @ 4p.
Hatches: BWO at 9:30a to 12N, Caddis 1p-4p, PMD 2p-4p
We arrived at 11 Mile Canyon on Monday and were greeted to a beautiful – crisp – summer morning. The plan was to meet at the Dam Hole and then work our way down to the Upper Bridge Run. But when I got there at 8:30a, there were fishermen covering all of the Dam Hole – and none of them were Brian. So I walked down toward the #1 Bend Hole to see if I could find him.
Brian was nowhere in sight – but I spotted a fish feeding in the west side riffle that feeds into the #1 Bend Hole. So I decided to gear up and try to catch him. It was about 9a at the time – and there was a pretty decent BWO hatch happening. Or so it looked that way to me. I couldn’t really tell if they were BWOs or midges – but I was leaning toward BWOs. So I covered my bases as I tied on a #18 Beadhead Pheasant Tail followed by a #20 Blood Red Midge and a #20 Barr Emerger.
Looking from the Dam Hole toward the 1st Bend Hole. (From an earlier trip to 11 Mile).
To my surprise – the fish feeding in the riffles was not interested in my offering - and after some time he got spooked. But there were other fish in the hole – so I worked it and the tail out below. After a lot of work – I finally hooked up a brownie – but he was able to break off. A little later in the same hole, I had a fish on in the slack pocket water but didn’t realize it – and as I raised the rod to recast, he immediately spit the hook.
Then I noticed some fish rising in an eddy on the far side of the huge boulder in the hole. Since I really wasn’t sure what was hatching – I again covered my bases by I tying on a #22 Matt’s Midge followed by a #22 Sparkle Dun BWO. After several tries – I finally had a brownie take the Sparkle Dun. But I was behind him as he rose to take it and I set the hook to quickly (yes you can actually do that!). So I ended up foul hooking him in his belly and he broke free pretty quickly.
The fish abruptly stopped rising. So I went back to my nymph rig. And after working the entire hole from the riffles feeding into it, to the hole itself, and the tail out below – I hooked up a nice rainbow. But – he broke off! Jeez – all this took about an hour in a half to two hours.
While I was working this hole, I spotted Brian below me in the Road Hole. I noticed that he had a few fish hooked up – but I didn’t see him land any. So being fed up with my spot – I moved down stream towards Brian and worked the opposite side of the Road Hole. There were fish feeding in the slower water near the bank – but I was in the wrong position to get a good drift to them. In order to do so – I would have had to wade into the faster water mid-stream and cast back to the bank. But with the flows were they were – I didn’t feel real comfortable doing that. So I worked my way back up to the #1 Bend Hole.
Meanwhile, while I was down near Brian – he said he had hooked up about 15 fish. But didn’t land any of them! Jeez! We were both struggling to land fish.
After a brief retry of the #1 Bend Hole – I looked down and Brian was gone. At least it appeared that way. So I figured I’d go down and give it a try. When I got down there, I found out Brian didn’t leave – he was just on the bank retying his rig. But he was gracious enough to encourage me to give his spot a try. So I thought – I’ll give it a go, until he was done with his rig. But it ended up there was enough room for us both. So we worked the hole.
It was just up from where the river turns at the road and we were fishing on the west side. There was still a sporadic BWO hatch occurring and there were fish feeding in the various riffles and pockets. And a lot of nice ones! Something finally changed and we began to hook up – and net – fish! They all were in the 16” to 18” range and very strong swimmers. Brian was getting his on a #20 Flashback Pheasant Tail and I was having success with a #18 Hare’s Ear and a #20 Flashback Black RS-2.
The 1st one I hooked up. It was the largest of the day for me - 18".
Photo by Brian Kenney.
1st one of the day for Brian. A nice rainbow. (The 1st Bend Hole can be seen behind his right shoulder).
We stayed in the hole until about 1p – and by that time we were both getting hungry. So we decided to break for lunch.
After lunch we decided to give the Beaver Run a try. Brian got into the water a little before me – and he was just netting his 1st fish for the afternoon as I walked into the river! I was thinking – wow, game on!! I moved upstream towards The Tubes and spotted fish feeding in the slow shallow water and mid-stream. I went after them with my nymph rig, which was now set up with a Hare’s Ear leading followed by a #20 Stalcup BWO and a #20 Black Sparkle Wing RS-2.
What I found was the fish were indicator shy - both in the slow shallow water and the deeper mid-river channel. So I changed up to a Hopper/Dropper set up. I had an Amy’s Ant leading, followed by a #18 Red Copper John with a #18 Mercury Pheasant Tail PMD and a #22 Top Secret Midge. That was the trick – as I began to get regular hook-ups landing both rainbows and brownies. All but one hit the Top Secret, and the other one hit the PMD.
Meanwhile, Brian was having success downstream from me. He was using a standard nymph rig, and enticing his fish – rainbows, brownies, and cutbows - on a #20 Top Secret Midge.
At about 4p – we decided to call it a day even though there were still a bunch of fish visibly feeding in the shallow riffles. We both worked the river hard – but we were rewarded with some nice fish in the net.
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