Great Weekend At Roaring River

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What a weekend, the water turned clear on thursday morning(the spring started running clear) and it kept getting better all weekend. The water is still colored, but it is clear enough we are seeing some fish now and you can sight fish a jig in 3 ft of water, but I would still call it high and off colored.

The flow is still above normal but the water is getting clearer everyday.

This is the first weekend in about a month that some were catching fish on top regulary, cracklebacks, caddis, and adams seemed to be best, I caught a few on a humpy on friday, and one fellow came by said he had

a good day on a stimulator.

The hatches are good everyday, the tricos are comming off every morning now, and there are good caddis and blue wing olive hatches most everyday, but the high water is keeping the trout down right now, if you find the right piece of water you can find trout rising, and as the water continues to drop the dry fly fishing will only get better. I had one fellow come in on sunday, and he told me he had caught 15 in zone 2 on a black beetle, it is early but with the temps getting into the 60's and 70's everyday the ants and beetles should be out in force.

Nymphs and buggers are still good choices in the faster water, copper johns, pheasant tail nymphs, flashback hare ears and prince nymphs were all doing well. I think the guys doing the best were fishing two flies, I talked to several that were fishing a pheasant tail or copper john as the lead fly and using a zebra midge or small egg pattern as there dropper.

Egg patterns and san juan worms worked very well this weekend. Olive, black, tan and brown cone and bead head buggers were good choices all weekend, they woolybugger will catch fish about anytime you use it.

Marabou jigs, and thread jigs fished under an inidcator did well for the fly rod fisherman, the spin rod guys did very well using woolybugger jigs, micro jigs, and glo-balls, in zone 2.

In zone 1 the powerbait eggs and the powerbait worms are still catching the most fish, orange, white and hatch brown are the best colors for the eggs. White, cheese yellow, and orange have been the best colors in the worms.

Small crankbait lures work well in zone 1, the rebel crawfish, and the rapala minnows in black/gold work well year round.

One important thing, most people that come in that are having trouble catching trout right now all have the same problem, most of them are not putting enough weight on their lines, if you are not getting on the bottom once in awhile while fishing plastic lures, you probably don't have enough weight on. We are still using 1/8 oz bass sinkers and 1/16 and 1/8 oz slip sinkers to get the powerbait eggs to stay on the bottom.

Roostertail spinners are still good in the morning, black, skunk, brown, and the white seem to still be working best, roostertails work during the day some when the water is up like it is right now, just fish them close to the bottom and reel them just fast enough to keep the blade spinning.

In zone 3 powerbait nuggets in the hatch color and rainbow paste has been working well, corn, and marshmallows are working also, and if you have them minnows and nightcrawlers are working well.

Good luck on the river this week.