Sunday Night Report

[fly2fish]

Sunday headed toward the dam about 9:45 pm from Big Cedar, called on the way and it said 3 units and lake level 706. D@m now I have more choices ,drift fish outlet 2 or jig fish outlet 1 (706 is perfect for that). I thought I would decide when I get there, if no one is at 2 then I would fish it, it there was I would go up towards 1. No one in the parking lot except that white car that has been sitting there for the last 3 or 4 days. I rigged up with a bead head scud, red san juan worm and pink/orange egg, top to bottom I also put 3 split shot about 4 inches above the egg. It looked like the water may have been less than 706 when I got down there because the rock at the bottom of the stairs was out of the water. Had my first fish on the 3rd drift, notice the water was dropping fairly quickly, I would be standing ankle deep and 15 minutes later on dry rocks. I called the gen number again and when it got to the no. of units running it would be garbled but the level was like 704 point something, then 704 about 11:30. I caught 9 between 10 and 12 o'clock, 6 on the egg and 3 on the sj, all were between 14-24 inches, 1 brown the smallest, to get this a 24" sucker. When I got it up and the light on it I could see its head was about 3" wide and long and thought I had a good brown since it didn't ever break the surface, then I got it up and it rolled on its side and I could see what it was, caught it on the egg too.

I have pics of several rainbows caught at outlet 2, plus the catfish that Leonard the Noodler and I got Saturday night. I brought the camera in this morning and thought the cable I have here at work was the same for my camera but its not.

About midnight I noticed that the 3rd rock just down from the stairs was out of the water so I knew it was time to head down to the point above Big Hole. Called from the parking lot and this time heard "0" units running and 703.4. Rerigged the 4 wt with a black and purple Hibenator and headed out across the gravel bar water was about shin deep but not moving much. Got to where I thought the point should be and started casting and it was ON, unlike the last time I hit it when the water was dropping the first dozen or so where all 15-20 inches. I had a problem not with LDR's but with MDR and SDR's I would get them over half way in before they would pull loose, one fish had me bent double and headed slowly up stream and I don't think it even knew it was hooked. In stead of following it up I just put more pressure on it because I had 8 lb. leader but it pulled loose. On a cast that I thought I should have had a strike after 15-20 seconds I would give a quick hard strip and would have a fish on. After about an hour the fish started getting smaller down to where about every other one was a silver bullet. I was going to keep 4 of them for a guy here at work and at 2:00am I kept the first one (number 50 of the night) it took 17 more before I had 4 in the bag, either they were over 12" or I would drop them getting them off the hook, I forgot my net. Finally at 2:30 I got the 4th and headed back. I had totaled 67 for the night since no one else was around to talk to and loose count, I was able to keep count of just the ones that I at least got my hand on the leader, all but the first 9 coming between 12:30 and 2:30. I had at least that many MDR's and SDR's and if it had not been for that it would have easily been a 100 fish night, but that is what keeps us fishing, the ones that got away.

If you can hit it just right when it has been up and can get in there when it is between 703 and 702 it will be non-stop for about an hour and half. I didn't move more than 50 feet from that one spot, when the water got about knee deep I moved a little closer to the south bank. I used the same fly all night and it is still in good shape after at least 200 fish over the last several trips and the hook is still sharp.

Will post pics tomorrow.

F2F

[Leonard]

missing all those fish is probably because of that "wimpy" little 4wt...

Get report Henry.... Glad you got into a few..

Next time I see you .. I have a few more of those articulated PMS's done....

Leonard

[fly2fish]

missing all those fish is probably because of that "wimpy" little 4wt...

Leonard

I don't think it was the 4 wt and I wasn't missing them, I think I was just trying to bring them in to fast thinking they were the usual average size and they weren't should have played them longer. Shoot I could have landed that catfish with it I think the only difference between Saturday night and Sunday was they ran more water Sun. (3 units) vs. Sat. (1 unit). When it is high and they shut it off completely, you can't have better conditions for a couple hours than that.

Going to try and plan on coming back on July 24th if not sooner but pretty busy between now and then.

F2F

[tippett7]

Wish I had been there with you. Thanks for the report. I was there Saturday night on the ledge and caught some fat fish.

[fly2fish]

Here are the pics from Sunday night. The first few are from outlet 2. You can see the egg fly still in their mouth.

and this is one of the little guys from down by Big Hole.

F2F