7/2208 General Report

[Brian Sloss]

The river is fishing well right now folks. A 9lb rainbow was caught in the blue ribbon area this weekend. I saw it at Turner Mill and it was a beautiful fish of about 27 inches. All the fins were in great shape, it may have been streambred by the looks of it. I wish it would have been released, but it was a legal fish, so there you have it. Fishing has been best in the deeper water in the tailouts of the shoals and the upslopes coming into the shoals. Working the seams between faster and slower water has also been key. Big stoneflies have been producing well with a San Jaun dropper. I have been seeing a lot of green caddis on the rocks in-cased in little rocks and will be trying a pattern a tie up for this situation next time out. We will be seeing hexes toward the end of August and all the way through Sept., so it will be Hex nymph time soon. The outlook for the river through the fall is good as the river is in good shape and all 20 miles of trout water are fishing well. Fish DEEP.

Thomasville has finally got to be more trouble than it is worth for floating. It is crazy that we got to float it all the way up there until mid July though. Cane Bluff to Greer is still fine and the fishing has been good some days and off others. Not as consistent smallmouth action as earlier this year. Riverton to 142 might be a good smallmouth option now, though I have not gotten any recent reports.

We have seen a lot of the conservation agents on the water enforcing regulations, which I for one welcome. Kudos to them.