2/26 River Fishing Report

[BrowningFisherman]

Cabin fever is really a tough thing, I handled it for nearly 3 months before I had to get out. I knew it was cabin fever because I caught myself checking the forecast and the USGS Water data about every hour. The water was up a little and swift but not at all muddy I would say off-color if anything but nothing that would make me change my plans. We fished from Tan Vat up a couple hundred yards from about 10am til lunch and then we worked our way down stream about a mile after lunch. I started with a sculpin pattern, as it had been my best fly on my last trip last fall. I quickly rolled 2 fish and then nothing; so I made the switch to my old stand by midge/prince combo. The entire time we were noticing numerous fish rising, to the point that I wondered if there were even fish down where my nymphs were. I knew it was emergers because of how hard they were breaking the surface but I couldn't see what they were at all. I tried cracklebacks, soft hackles, elk hair caddis (in multiple sizes and colors), but all to no avail. The prince is my fail safe/slump buster, and it did catch me my first fish but when we stopped for lunch that was all I had. After lunch started to show promise but it wasn't easy fish were still rising in every hole and it seemed like the nymphs were only working in the faster deep runs but still it would only be 1 fish every 50 yards or so. I can honestly say that I was worried that my timing would be off but it wasn't for the most part the fish that were biting were biting hard and I didn't miss but a handful. The last fish I caught under the water was at about 4, I let my drift go a little further and hooked a beautiful 15" brown on the swing. We continued downstream only to determine that we should start to head back we stopped at the same hole where I had landed the brown earlier because the number of fish was too high to ignore. Finally I opened the dry side of my box and pulled out the smallest thing I could find a #22 Lt. Cahill, and it was like night and day to the earlier fishing. The cahill wasn't perfect but it did the trick we caught most of our fish for the entire day in the last hour including a 16" brown out of the very same hole. We walked back up to the big hole by the parking lot and finished it out until dark catching a couple more on top and a couple more on the sculpin. For those of you wondering what the hatch really was, it was a Blue Wing Olive and my poor selection of drys didn't go near small enough, from what I could see on the surface they did increase in size as the day went on but Tan Vat was literally dry fly or bust from 10am to 6pm.

[ozark trout fisher]

Cabin fever is really a tough thing, I handled it for nearly 3 months before I had to get out. I knew it was cabin fever because I caught myself checking the forecast and the USGS Water data about every hour. The water was up a little and swift but not at all muddy I would say off-color if anything but nothing that would make me change my plans. We fished from Tan Vat up a couple hundred yards from about 10am til lunch and then we worked our way down stream about a mile after lunch. I started with a sculpin pattern, as it had been my best fly on my last trip last fall. I quickly rolled 2 fish and then nothing; so I made the switch to my old stand by midge/prince combo. The entire time we were noticing numerous fish rising, to the point that I wondered if there were even fish down where my nymphs were. I knew it was emergers because of how hard they were breaking the surface but I couldn't see what they were at all. I tried cracklebacks, soft hackles, elk hair caddis (in multiple sizes and colors), but all to no avail. The prince is my fail safe/slump buster, and it did catch me my first fish but when we stopped for lunch that was all I had. After lunch started to show promise but it wasn't easy fish were still rising in every hole and it seemed like the nymphs were only working in the faster deep runs but still it would only be 1 fish every 50 yards or so. I can honestly say that I was worried that my timing would be off but it wasn't for the most part the fish that were biting were biting hard and I didn't miss but a handful. The last fish I caught under the water was at about 4, I let my drift go a little further and hooked a beautiful 15" brown on the swing. We continued downstream only to determine that we should start to head back we stopped at the same hole where I had landed the brown earlier because the number of fish was too high to ignore. Finally I opened the dry side of my box and pulled out the smallest thing I could find a #22 Lt. Cahill, and it was like night and day to the earlier fishing. The cahill wasn't perfect but it did the trick we caught most of our fish for the entire day in the last hour including a 16" brown out of the very same hole. We walked back up to the big hole by the parking lot and finished it out until dark catching a couple more on top and a couple more on the sculpin. For those of you wondering what the hatch really was, it was a Blue Wing Olive and my poor selection of drys didn't go near small enough, from what I could see on the surface they did increase in size as the day went on but Tan Vat was literally dry fly or bust from 10am to 6pm.

I am envious. I need to get to the Current soon!

[Buzz]

Great report. Thanks.

[mic]

I was out a couple of weeks ago, and I already have cabin fever. Great report.