January 25... wade below the dam

Did something I haven't done in a long time. Living this close to this water and not fishing it, wading it, would be considered a sin in most fly fishermen's book but fortunately I live by another book. It was, though, nice to see and fish again.

Ryan Walker, a long time friend, called and asked by if I wanted to go wade fishing below the dam. No, first he asked me what I was doing. He caught me between projects... I said nothing. So when he asked me to meet him at the Rebar Hole, I didn't have a good out. Me? An out for fishing? In my old age, I think I'm become more of a work-a-holic than a fisherman.

Ryan was already catching when I arrived. We parked at the lot to the south and above Rebar. He had one on when I dropped over the edge down to the water. We walked on up to the area across from hatchery outlet #2. He had on a P&P Zebra with a gray scud dropper under a float and caught 3 more rainbows before I got rigged.

I tied on a #16 green butt soft hackle. It's a fly tied by legend fishing guide John Berry. He lives and guides on the White River.

There is a pretty good current in that area now. I was pleasantly surprised. The last time I had fished this spot (pre 2017 flood) there was very little movement. It has deepened too, and you reall have to watch the area around the boulders placed there by MDC to create fish habitat -- the wash around them is big and deep.

Anyhow, rainbows like the soft hackle. It stripped it short and fast and they hit it. I stripped it long and slow and they hit it. I let it just drift in the current and they hit it. And they hit it hard!

Ryan was hooking up on rainbows too.

This was a male that had been working the gravel. You can see outlet #2 in the background.

I also tried a zebra/scud combo. I had a #16 red Zebra tied over a #20 dark brown camel scud (Leonard Keeney ties them). They really like the scud.

We worked down to the top of Rebar. Ryan wanted to try down at Rocking Chair, and we had time before the sun dropped behind the bluff so we walked out and drove to the parking lot further down the access road.

We opted to start at the end of the path. I tied on a scud duo -- a #14 tan Trout Crack over a #18 gray scud and set the float deeper than I had it uplake. The water seemed to be much deeper there and I wanted the scuds close if not on the bottom. I caught 5 rainbows before moving down to the gravel bar.

We ended our evening throwing soft hackles, although they would cooperate for me as much as they did Ryan.

I don't know how many fish we caught and it doesn't matter. We caught up on family and fishing... and talked about his work and fishing excusions. And it was good to fish the tailwater again. Hope I won't be the stranger any longer.

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