jackdizo

Awesome Vid!

@Gavin @stlfisher Could not agree more, at the end of the day, no matter if there are GPS coordinates on the internet, nothing but time on the water can put fish on the end of the line. Presentation, presentation, presentation is key on the current. Any Jamoke can read all the info they can ingest on the internet, but at the end of the day, time on the water is the only way your really learning and putting hooks in them, the internet does not teach you presentation, fly choice, and depth when your stream side. Of course knowing where to go is always great, but the river changes constantly, and fish move, its never the same. Learning to evaluate the situation and adapt cannot be obtained from a few Facebook posts. Just my opinion.

All good info here. Hard to say what the floods did to the fish? We can say for sure it changed the river beds immensely, thus habitat change for the fish... I did notice this weekend that on the river I ended up fishing, I decided to walk back upstream on the higher bank of the river to look at the water I had previously fished an hour earlier, that I thought looked great, but resulted in zero fish and left me scratching my head. On further inspection there were TONS of fish, however they were holding so tight to the bank and cover such as long jams etc, that I realized getting at them with my fly-rod would have been very difficult. I was convinced after fishing through much of that 50yd section of water that there were not many fish, however I was completely wrong, was simply not getting my flies in front of them...

@netboy Did you guys float Greer to Riverton? Just curious. I have not been on the 11pt since September. But I was blown away by the amount of fish that were stacked up in that stretch. Hard to believe you didn't see any?

@Fishingmill I have been skunked on that exact section of the river before as well. I think certain times of the year and when the water gets up as it has recently in the past, alot of fish move upstream closer to the park. Also, at times the fish hold really tight to cover in that section of the river... It can be frustrating. I highly doubt the floods affected the numbers of fish. Trout are very resilient and can handle floods to the extreme. The only thing the floods would have damaged in my opinion is if there were redds with eggs on them in the stream bed. There is always next time! Keeps you hungry for more!

I agree with Lancer. Keep the rod tip low and set to the opposite side of the bank from your swing, while also strip setting in many cases. This will help get the hook to stick the fish in the side / upper portion of the jaw / mouth and ensure a better hook set. Many times the fish is already hooked just from the aggressive take. Also having the big half moon or L shaped mend on the swing helps out alot. Love fishing soft hackles on the swing, especially when the fish seem to be taking them real aggressive. Can be alot of fun. Here is a little article I found helpful when reading about swinging soft hackles.. http://www.chrisdore.com/apps/blog/show/43376460-better-hook-sets-on-the-swing Cheers!

WOW! great fish. Wonder if he would have taken a larger streamer? Either way great catch and beautiful fish. Thanks for the report! Cheers.

@Eric82 I would imagine and hope it could be a stream bred fish. I caught one similar and in that general area around a month ago down there. Either way, beautiful fish... I love those smaller, more wild looking fish when I catch them... thanks for the photos!

Made it out on Sunday. Fished below the park as usual. The fishing was on fire from early morning until around noon, then the bites were slow and harder to come by. Netted more than 20 and lost count after that. Spotted one fish that was looking to go around 4-5lbs and was holding in a general area of shallow water, however fished it on and off throughout the day without it wanting to feed.. Or I just suck, and never figured out what it wanted, one of the two... Either way, weather was great, fishing was better than good, and it was a enjoyable sunday to say the least. Snapped a few pics of the more colorful ones. Cheers! Tight-Lines!

Not to churn up an old thread, however, I beg to differ about the trout. They are down there, just not as many as upstream, however much more wild so to speak. This one was caught by a buddy of mine on a float we did below pulltite and was one of the best looking trout I have ever seen on the current river. My buddy is about 6-3 and has huge hands to give you a point of size reference to the fish. I dont think he cared if he caught another fish for the rest of the trip after that one... Cheers!

@Haris122 I hook into a smallmouth that went about 15-16 inches and was nice and fat around a 100 yds downstream from the spring. He fought real good, but I do have to say that the 20 inch trout really had some spunk in him and gave me the best fight I had all day. Sometimes those bigger trout fight for a good second and give up, but this one fought me at the net until it was in it. I would take a good smallmouth fight any day of the week though, and yes, the smaller trout VS the smallmouth are no competition, those little bronzebacks like to got at it when you get them on the end of the line... Cheers!

Great Video! I own the exact same Yak as well! great boat! Love the spot your fishing too! Keep up the good work! Cheers!

@bkbying89 not sure what to tell you man. In the park itself the only thing I have been able to catch fish on is size 20 or smaller. mostly caddis patterns. and fished in the surface film on the swing with little twitches. have caught some stripping a mohair leech and a few on a size 18 brassie. But otherwise my fish have all come on size 20 -24 caddis emerger patterns tied pretty dark, almost black. I dont fish in the park alot when Im at the springs however, I like the solitary of going down below the park and fishing the river usually. I would assume that bug that landed on you was a caddis fly, Ive seen them coming off thick out there recently, but the fish dont seem to be responding to the bigger ones in the park, but the real tiny ones, again size 20-24... use really small tippet as well. 6x-7x when fishing those tiny caddis patterns and see how you do! hope this helps.

@marcus yeah, thats why I went yesterday. tried to avoid the crowds. Im sure it will be crazy out there this weekend. pretty much every trout park will be packed on saturday for sure...

Nice! I was out there yesterday as well. I fished below the park all day in the red ribbon section. Started out with Streamers. Caught a few nice smallmouth, then worked my way down river, picked up a few rainbows. Made my way back upstream closer to the spring and found them stacked. Probably caught 20 fish out of one 30 - 40 yd section of river. All rainbows. Day was beautiful! and the fish were biting good... no complaints.! Heres a little 18-20 incher (although kind of skinny) I snapped a quick photo of in the net. Tight lines! Cheers.

Great Pics, looks like it was worth braving the cold!

Thanks for the report and photos, that second pic is a beauty fish! nice work!

Great report! Wish I would have been there on saturday! looks like it was worth it!

Great report! Thanks for sharing. Hope to get down there next week!

@mic Love the pheasant tail Mic, might have to try my hand at one of those with the copper wire sub on thread... I have so much confidence in that fly on just about any body of water. Nice work, fly looks great, any idea what the sink rate is like with that fly with only using the copper wire and no lead or tungsten / brass bead? Thanks for sharing!

@Haris122 Ive fished Duck Creek for them before. They are in there for sure, but I never landed one, Spotted them in the shallows ( which the whole lake is around 3ft deep average), the other thing that is cool about duck creek is it has some really large bowfin as well. So, you never know what your going to hook... Ive been told that if you hit it right in the spring (water temps etc..) you can really get into them good, but I planned on that last year and think I missed the window by a few weeks when they are supposed to be most active, every fish I spotted was not very aggressive. Had alot of follows to the boat but very few takes... In all honesty the Eleven point is thick with them and if you really want to put some in the boat that is your best bet in my opinion. April is a good time to hit that river and if you get in above cane bluff they can be thick up that way in the spring when the water is still cool. Ive had days where you can land 6-8 of them that time of year averaging around 20 inches... Hope this helps!

@Haris122 They fight really good, and are easy to find. Target backwaters with lots of grass and wood or really slow moving water on the main river on steep banks, the eleven point river holds some really nice number of them with some bigger ones mixed in, and they are real active winter through the spring when the water is still cold... Make sure you up your line to a heavier test to avoid getting broke off. I usually fish 17lb fluorocarbon when fishing for them...

Heres a few of my better fish from the year. It was a fun year! looking forward to topping some of these for 2016! Tight Lines!

Anybody make it down to the spring or montauk this weekend? Curious how the parks held up to all the flooding and how the water looks? Thanks in advance for any reports!

Awesome report! Great fish! Looks like a great early Christmas! Thanks for sharing.