DoveTail

Incredible pics and report, thanks for sharing. Hard to be a mountain stream with no one around.

What are drag chains? Like a drift sock on a boat, instead dragging a chain?

Some think of that egg smell coming from sulfur, could be from fertilizers washing down. I'm sure plenty of corn and soybean fields washed a lot into the river systems.

What a shame the fish are dead on the bottom. What a waste.

Excellent! In my cell phone now.

Bluegill can do great in stale ponds and warm temps. The trout looks pretty bad, and the links of the Gas Bubble Trauma do not look promising. What a shame.

Thanks for the report, I'll have to head down that way. There are some big fish there. That's nice when you don't have to change flies continually to get some hits. Too bad about the slow trip. Some great views in that area.

I have caught a brown in another river system that had a broken off large hook in it's mouth. It looked like it was not eating very well. A large head and small body. The mouth was bloody where the remaining hook was still in it. I pulled it out so hopefully the fish made a good recovery? Maybe someone will get this one to bite again.

The #6 split shot is when the flood gates are not open!

For scuds if they are tiny, it is almost impossible to get any weight on the hooks without filling the gap. With the tiny scuds in the #24s use some #6 split shot about 12" up the tippet from your scud. I weight my bigger scuds in #16 and #10s. I think the key is to keep them on the bottom. An indicator can be a big dry fly, you never know when a trout may decide on the surface for a meal. Anything for an indicator will work. If you can watch the tip of your fly line and see it, you can get by without an indicator. When you have a slight pause, that's when you probably have a strike. With the ripples and the small size of your fly line, a pause may be hard to see. There are indicators that just have a toothpick to wedge the tippet in place, bright colored foam adhesive that pinches on, tons of options. To rig it, just have enough tippet out to keep your fly on the bottom. You need to put the food source where the trout are looking and expect to find it. You can catch trout on about anything and I have thrown it all at them. The previously mentioned patterns always produce. If those are working try something that starts getting some hits. I would just try to find what color and size they are looking for in the eggs, worms, scuds, sow bugs, midge and sculpin patterns. For scuds I have tan, brown, olive, black, white and yellow. Probably any color would work with the right presentation.

Check out Sam's or Costco and see if they have any on clearance. I picked up a 2 pack (one big bag and another smaller one - both hold a LOT of stuff) for I think $19? That was last year, haven't looked for any lately. I'm not sure what size you are looking for.

They are there now. Egg patterns, San Juan worms, scuds, sowbugs, scuplin patterns and midge. Streamers will work also. I have seen some big browns caught on tiny scuds in size #24, also bigger ones in size #10.

What happens to all the trout that are present in November in C&R season, but by late Feb you hardly see any fish? Too many catch and releases? Bigger browns found some snacks? Eagles?

Zone 3 seems to have a lot of huge fish in it. The other areas also have big ones but I suppose more can move into Zone 3 from the river pretty easy. Kind of the same on the other trout parks where the big fish move in out of the rivers they feed.

I see people all the time using small jigs on fly rods. Of course they are not using 10wt rods so the micro jigs are small.

Congrats! He is always hooking his clients into some big fish.

Nice report. That's great to hear someone picking up trash. It's a shame that everyone just can't pack out what they pack in.

Never had any.

Nice fish, sounds like a great time on all the other trout.

Yeah - also like when a weather report has 101% humidity.

I would imagine with the bait fishing allowed and low stocking rates compared to the parkk, that section is put and take so it will get totally fished out until the next stocking without any size limits.

Where is Outlet #4? Glad it's not a snake, it may have bit me! That sounds like some warm temps, but with such a high volume of warm rain and the lake not being able to cool off starting this spring makes it hard to let the water clear up and get cold.

There was a photo posted of a guy with a stringer of bass and the MDC did track him down from what I understand. If the employee said something even though they couldn't prove it, that may make them realize people are watching and help end it?

Too bad about the poaching by the various groups, I didn't realize it was a usual occurrence there, but I haven't fished there a whole lot either.

Great pics and report. Sounds like a great time.