Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Got a cool down today... of sorts. Cloudy and alittle rain but the humidity is high so it still feels hot. I got out this morning for an hour- 10 am I boated up 200 yards short of Lookout Island and started fishing a #12 red stimulator (dry fly) along the bluff bank. It's that time of year when our rainbows (and a few browns) start looking up. Water was slick, no wind, and very few boats. No activity as I boated up- I always look regardless of the time of year when I'm boating up past the bluff. I look for any surface activity, giving me a hint of what I should tie on first. But this time I was GOING to fish a dry.

As I started, I had a few rainbows start feeding along the bank but 10+ feet from the edge. That's ok- that's where I threw. I caught 2 small rainbows right off the bat. Then a nice one- 15 inches. I love when a fish takes a surface fly- nothing like it. Moving down the bank real slow, I threw either to rising or to places that looked fishy. I'd leave the fly on the surface for 20-30-40 seconds which is a long time if you think about it. Caught 2 more medium sized rainbows and then they quit. Ran into Babler and he said he had the same thing happen- was catching fish and then they stopped abrupted. I did what I wanted to do and it was time to do some "real" work.

The hot spot still has been down by Cooper Creek. Bill said they've found schools of nice 12-14 inch stockers down there for the last week- some schools are fresher than others (stupider). Most are taking a spoon but some are taking a jig under a float better. Buster is using a jig head with a power bait egg under a float 5 feet deep and doing excellent. That the way you can use power bait on your fly rod!! Jig and float with a pinch of paste!

Best fishing was been mid morning to 2-3 pm. Early fishing just isn't that good unless you're fishing off our dock in which the early bite is best using night crawlers and power baits.

Generation is coming on anywhere from 11 to 3 pm, depending on heat. Babler drifted a #12 tan scud under a float 10-12 feet deep on the flats from Andy's down and did real well Monday and Tuesday. But it had to be deep- twice as deep as the water depth. Used alittle split shot above the fly 24 inches too. He did say he saw 3-4 BIG rainbows on the shallow side of the lake below Andy's yesterday during generation. They were real spooky. He said they were 10 pounds-plus. Beautiful fish with lots of red on their sides.

Linc has been fly fishing a bit below the dam. He's been doing real well using a #18 black zebra midge under a stimulator as an indicator. He was a report up and I'll tell him to add to this one with more info.

I'm leaving for Alaska Sunday night, flying out Monday early. Will be on the river by 5 pm Monday their time (3 hours early). Wish I had room for everyone... I feel guilty going when so many never get the chance to go and this is my second trip. All Bill and I are having to come up with is our airfare- we are technically "guiding", helping out Jim Johnson with his clients while his brother, Tom, is delayed because of an accident his wife had. He is a seasoned Alaskan guide and will be up in a couple of weeks to spell us. Dano has agreed to watch the kids while I'm going, although I hope to check and report from a library computer in King Salmon during our stay.

Be Blessed!

[Lincoln]

All right, here's my $.02,

The last few days when they've been running the generators hard, I've been boating up just above lookout to the island on the right side. I'm looking for rising trout, and I usually (but not always) find them along there. I'll pull up in the weeds behind the island and drop anchor.

My usual set up is a dry/dropper rig, and I'll generally do well. The last couple of times have been a little more sporadic. I've thrown a bunch of flies at those fish, always catching one or two on the new offering before the little buggers decide they've seen enough of that. I've used #18 black cracklebacks, #20 zebra soft hackles, #24 griffiths gnats in addition to the #10 stimulator, #18 beaded midge combo. All are catching fish. I have to second Phil's comment about fish taking the dries. Watching their nose come up for the take is an exercise in patience. Getting the hook set correctly can be tricky sometimes.

I'm going out to try something new after work today. We had some guests boat down to Monkey Island and slay 'em on brown rooster tails the other day. I've got to give that a try. It's been forever since I did anything other than flyfish, so wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Thom]

My family spent last week from 9-14 th fishing both above and below fall creek. Fishing was slower than I have seen it in a while. The fish were running small with a few larger 13 -16 inchers scattered in. The posted fish was caught on #16 black zebra out from the condo's at short creek.

Our best offering were #16 black zebra midges with copper tung heads and silver or copper wire wrapped tails. I had more strikes when I tied just a very small white hackle on the head and a 1/4" tail with a piece of trimmed hackle spike.

This worked well fishing from the shallow part of short creek off into the deeper water letting it drift into what current was present.

The midges were fished 18 inches under an attracter egg fly or another midge with copper head and salmon egg fly yarn wrapped tapered to point. I caught fish on both flies.

We also fished below the darn early in the morning from #3 outlet to rebar stripping sculpen leaches on sinking tip and caught several larger 15 + rainbows and two 16" browns. We were throwing almost strait out to 1 oclock and stripping until they began to swing back.

My 13 year old grandson tied and caught over 50 fish on the midge that he ties for himself and dad. Copper dun midge on 16 or 18 2487 with copper tung head.

Gray scuds also did well in the trophy water tied on 1/124 lead jig with a very small olive maribou tail. The spikeyer the dubbing the better the bite. They worked best if they were just slightly nudged 2 to 3 times about every minute. I seemed to do best fishing from the deep holes throwing over to the shallow gravel at about 4 foot deep starting at the first houses by lookout and moving downstream.

With water running hard midges fished at 4 to 6 foot or light pink or salmon egg flies also worked on ocassion but not consistantly.

We also did fairly good behind the island at lookout into the shallow water when they were running 4 units especiallly when it began to rain early in the week.

One of the slowest weeks I have had at Taney but I usually fish later in the year. I will be back next late october.