DoveTail

The stock from the hatcheries are fall spawners (rainbows), they are gearing up now and will be doing some in 2 weeks.

Yes, I always use fluorocarbon, even for the dry flies. It doesn’t pull them under but I can break the surface tension with it. Plus, less gear to pack knowing all my tippet spools are fluorocarbon tippets. Thanks for the tips. I was doing that putting a dropper under a big hopper. About 1 in 5 hookups would be on the dry. I’ll have to make some #20s and #22s for the WD-40s. Could have been the timing I was fishing during the day, they’ll shut down for whatever reason, then at different times you can’t keep them off the hook. I noticed the fish have great colors and the males are doing the dance. Lots of surface splashing going on…you would think it was a huge trout on the surface, instead it’s the little guys playing with each other. The egg patterns are starting to pick up, they always seem to be producers year round, in the fall is the best. I was using 7x for the WD-20s, had some 6x on originally for the big flies not knowing how hard if any hits the big dries would produce. If the hurricane doesn’t produce much rain mid week as they are predicting, maybe the streams will only be slightly stained and might be able to get away with some 6x. I’ve always been too chicken to use the 8x.

Nice fish. Looks like it was kept in a live well for a while having all the foam on it. Is that dock in the trophy area? Wondering if they hauled it back up to the trophy area if it was hauled downstream?

Forgot to mention, I caught a little blue gill on the yellow marabou midge size #20 with copper holographic wrap. Bman - you're going to have to show me how to fish there! I did see some pretty big rainbows along the concrete sidewalk on the opposite side from the gravel road. They were hiding well under the aquatic plants (not the moss but the foxtail looking vegetation). The only reason why I saw some was the smaller trout would swim too close to the big ones and they would come out chasing the little ones off, then they would tuck back under for cover. Yes, I tried to get their attention, but they did not like my flies.

The human hatch increased with every hour but there was still some nice action in Zones 1 and 2. Fished about all areas and usually could find some casting room. As usual the trout would turn it on and off, then totally shutting down. For whatever reason they would start slowing rising to the surface after hitting midge. Early in the morning, I was fishing a #16 zebra midge under an indicator and would catch fish pretty consistently until they realized that thing bites and went about 2 hours without a bite. It appeared that everyone was having a slow time. One guy was hooking up a few as trout fishing…whatever he had they liked for that moment. After the lull I noticed a few trout starting to rise to the surface. Something tiny and I was looking at fish 5 feet away and could not see anything. That didn’t matter as I threw larger #14 dries in about every style I had. I could pickup one or 2 fish, then they would figure it out, so I would tie on something different. Lots of lookers would come to the surface – more than would actually take the fly. The dry fly action stopped. I tried stripping some crackle backs after letting them drift. They would follow but no luck. Tried about every color I had – nada. Eggs and San Juan worms got some looks but no hookups. Did manage to get 3 on a #18 Pheasant Tails, another on a bright green #16 Pheasant Tail imitation (just holding my rod under my arm getting ready to tie on a different fly because nothing had even looked at this – it was twisting in the film ready to pull it in). No luck on black, green or orange leaches / wooly buggers / streamers. Tried all of those...another day they will attack them. Some guys were using crank baits and rooster tails limited out early. A gentleman went into Larry’s Fly Shop and said he was tearing them up on a #12 Renegade. The camera phone pic didn't turn out that good of a "fish on" shot. Didn't take many other pics. I didn't want to drop my cell phone in the water!

Arrived around 11am so all the bait fishers had packed out for the day mostly. Plenty of room to find a quite spot. Most people were bait fishing and they would limit out. I would get a lot of lookers but not a lot of hits. Big hoppers actually were getting some hits around 1pm. Caught 3 on hoppers. The first strike was immediate down around the wooden bridge near the river and broke off a 6x tippet. Later went to a red midge (size #16 w/ silver wire and silver bead head) and would get some action enough to keep me entertained. Tried scuds, streamers, yellow marabou midge, eggs and about everything I had but the big dries and midge were the meal ticket (for that day). Also tried WD-40s in grey, yellow, black and red in size #18 but not takers? Lots of big fish stacked up near the hatchery / protected area!

On the strands of marabou, if you tie in the tips and work the herl towards the eye of the hook it will get thicker and use 4-5 herls. Using the tips and wrapping will leave about 1/2 the herl that will be cut off (so this makes a very neat small fly). If you tie in about mid section of the herl and wrap it, it will get thick and look like the pics posted. Ostrich will probably give the thicker apperance - may be too much for an 18 hook?

http://www.flyshack.com/DisplayItem.aspx?ItemID=23470 Here's a pic:

Nice report, thanks for posting.

Thanks for the report. With summer closing down and mid week, good the hear the boats are off the water.

The are hard on a habitat because they consume a ton of fish. I was fishing a small creek backing up off a lake that had a bunch of gars in there, most were in the 4 foot range but you could see some big waves where the big ones would spook and break the surface when you approached. Probably 1 out of 4 bass caught in that creek had big bloody cuts on both sides of their backs between the head and dorsal fin. I suppose those are the ones that got away and survived. Makes you wonder how many fish the gars eat? A large farm pondk had some wonderful 3-4 pound black bass, bluegill and other game fish in it. It had to be fished hard because of all the little bass and other fish in there (over populated). Somehow some gars got started in there and in a few years there were NO more fish other than gars. It took a few years for all the gars to die from nothing to eat, then more years to get the pond back with any game fish in it.

Of course there is not much demand for electricity in those early AM hours so I see why they would shut it down then. It would be nice if they would shut it down during some daylight hours. At least it is a step towards some nonstop high levels. Sounds like fun.

What fly patterns were you using for the bass?

Nice fish, congrats!

What can be done to restore the shrimp populations as they once were??? Why are there very few if any 20" rainbows in the lake? Do bait fishers catch all the 19" fish? Granted brown trout may prey on the rainbows, but at least some should show up more than 20"?

Very nice photo.

The guage shows the water is going down, it only peaked a little so hopefully it will be good. Probably a little stained but that never hurts, you can get away with bigger tippet.

Recent rains show about 2 1/2 inches to 3 at BSSP. Rolla recieved isolated pocket of 6". Just when things were getting good. The spring shot up, not sure how much higher it will go. Maybe it will clear out fast?

Hopefully the water will go down for some wading. Then another line of thunderstorms rolls through. Congrats on the catch.

Thanks for the report. How was the 'Human Hatch' there? Probably still crazy during the peak summer. At least the water levels seem to be getting down.

What is an Aglia, do you have a pic?

Great report, thanks for posting. The fish look really nice.

I think most of them washed in from the spring floods so the fishing may be better in other lakes? Heard of some people catching and keeping those they did catch.

It's no excuse, but seems to happen a lot in trout parks. Crowded areas, everyone pays a marginal $3 to fish so they have to get in where they see a fish being caught. The fish are all over the stream, no place is any better than then next in reality but they want to step in. I have seen it where I pull my line in to change a fly and make a step or two and someone will come in and try to get where I was fishing. They say "I thought you were leaving". So, that goes with the trout parks. The rivers and streams around are not as crowded, so people tend to spread out and respect your comfort levels. Most people are very nice and friendly. I guess it only takes a few that leave a bad impression.

Ummm...wife swap?