New report, FINALLY!!

[Brian Wise]

After over a month of yo-yo water(that I am not a huge fan of fishing) water levels are getting very stable.

For a little over a month the water levels climbed to over 1000 cfs twice and then peaked at that big flood at over 16,000 cfs.

Saturday (16th) we floated from Kelley Ford to Blair but started off rowing up to the Spring to start. Caught 1 out of the mouth of the spring but was still trying to figure out the higher, dark green water. That fish was caught on an orange egg pattern. Decided to drop an egg off of a Golden Stone for fishing Lamb Shoal and caught 2 there both on the stone.....no pattern. First of all I should probably say the upper part of the river (from Kelley Ford to McKee Bridge) hasn't been the best water in a little while now so my expectations weren't crazy high for the trip that day anyway. Ended up with 4 fish in the half-day which turned out to be probably more fish than I had thought he was going to catch for that water and so short of a day of fishing. BUT we did figure some stuff out for the next day of fishing 1: The fish are FAT 2: Fish insanely deep 3:Use huge stoneflies

Sunday (17th) we floated from ROLF to Blair. Picked up a nice fish on a #6 Golden Stone at Jack's riffle, picked up 2 fish right in front of the Tree House at River of Life, picked up a couple at Cave riffle (see a pattern here ) He caught fish every where we stopped, nothing real big, actually the biggest probably going 15" but there were plenty fish caught to make up for the lack of size. ALL fish caught on Sunday were on the same #4 Golden Stone, hung it up a few times but HAD to get it because who carries a bunch of #4 Golden Stones!!!

Brian

[drew03cmc]

#4 Goldens? Wow! Have not heard much about anyone catching a whole lot on stoneflies here recently. Is that a winter pattern or are the stones year round?

[Brian Wise]

Drew,

You can catch fish on the stones year-round. Basically they are a bug that is in the larva form for a few years so they are always in the water, some years there are more than others (like lately there have been more goldens than we have seen in years...if not ever.) But yes it seems the stones start moving more around mid to late fall and are very active through the winter. Honestly though I will use the Stone as my lead fly on a two fly set up all year long, mostly because they are a super heavy fly and they can act like split-shot, but split shot that looks like a bug that is in the river and it has a hook in it We have literally caught fish consistantly on stones for the last several months.

A #4 Golden is a "touch" on the big side (ok, it's really big, we usually use 8's or 10's) but I decided to give it a try because of the higher water and because of the clarity of the water, something a little bigger in profile.

Brian

[Brian Sloss]

Brian,

After rading your report, I went fishing on the 11 Pt (not trying to drag another river into your section) and when I got to the river I remembered your report and had 1 golden on me, so I put it on with a dropper to see if I'd get the same results you did over there. Well, the second cast produced a chunky 15 incher that when I reached down to release by grabbing the fly and not the fish, kicked as soon as I popped the fly out of his mouth and his tail got hooked by my dropper. By that time I was holding the leader and the whole rig was lost. Thanks for the report, just wish I'd have brought more goldens.

By the way, I've got a friend with a cabin by McKee bridge and we are hoping to go over there for some fishing this winter sometime if you are interested in meeting up while we are there.

Don't know when, but will let you know when we do.

[Brian Wise]

hahahaha, gotta love those goldens. Actually when we were on the Spring River last winter and the river was a little blown out that same golden saved the day.

I would really like to fish the river with you. Pretty much all of January won't be good for me, I have a big trip the first weekend and then going to Denver for the Best of the West competition.

We'll hook up...sometime

Brian