Fishing Report 3/12

[BrowningFisherman]

Yesterday was perhaps my best day of fishing ever, I've had some days where I lost count and back when I used to fish with my spinning rod I used to have some crazy days but yesterday I hit 60 fish and missed probably another 100 more. Better than just the numbers was the quality, we caught a lot but we caught/hooked and lost a number of fish that were in the 2-3 pound range. The water is up a few inches, maybe as many as 5 or 6 and it is a little murky visibility is probably around 3-3.5 ft. In my opinion this made the fish that much less leery of my flies and all the more apt to bite. I started with a prince nymph like I normally do but after 6 or so casts without a fish I decided to try out all the new midges (mostly colors changes #16) I had tied this winter. There were a few that worked really well but in general if it was bright it caught fish although I can say that most of the ones that I caught fish on were tied with brighter wire (copper & gold). While I'd like to say that it was some great creation really when you changed colors and fished deep down to them you would light them up. I will say that all my midges are tied with tungsten heads to help them get down and I think that was a factor. Deeper holes like the honey hole were full of fish like normal but because it is deep and you couldn't see the bottom I feel like a lot of people looked over those holes and man o man did they miss out. My buddy kept his #14 prince on almost all day and continued to remind be from the water Id just fished that I had moved on too soon and left several fish behind. The prince started slow but definitely picked up steam as the day went on and we got further down river. At about 4:00 I moved all the way down to above the darn and started skipping cracklebacks, again I whacked them. I did have to change colors every few fish but I will say that it didn't matter hackle or body color they got hammered.

[laker67]

That's just some pretty hard numbers to beat. A day that you will remember for sure. I fished it on friday and had a great day. It sounds like the creek is clearing from friday, and that means that things will get a little tougher. Thanks for the report.

[stlfisher]

Congrat on a great day! I too had a great day on Saturday fishing both the river and then the park in the afternoon. I had about a 40 fish day. I was telling my buddy that I caught fish on every fly that I tied on. I don't think that has ever happenned to me before. I caught a ton of of fish on a #16 hare's ear in the river. Then swtiched up and was catching them on various midges, scuds, #18 adams, #18 caddis, prince nymph's, san juan, and even the fetal emerger. The water was up, but i agree it helped out the fishing...in fact I thought the color was about perfect. Tough for site fishing, but made the fish less spooky. I managed to catch a few on dries which is always a bonus. Covered a lot of terriotry too from the wire to Tan Vat and then the C/R area, the lake, and spring down to the dam. The biggest fish I landed was 17, but it was a great day with nice weater.

[Ill Trout Bum]

Sounds like a great day! I always enjoy when the water is up and a little off color.