Current River Fishing Report 6/16/2017

[cleabig]

Fished from the wire down to Tan Vat.  Got in the water at 8:30AM, fished until 5PM.  The river is FULL of fish of varying sizes.  Got bit on my first cast (an Elk Hair Caddis fly with a caddis emerger dropper).  Caught fish consistently on that combo up until 12:30PM until the bite died down quite a bit. The action was split evenly on the dry and the dropper.  I even had a double on for a moment or two until the 2nd fish spit the hook.  Fished that elk hair caddis most of the morning then switched to nymphs.  Just down from the wire is a submerged sand bar in the middle of the channel.  It forms an inverted "V" with the water flowing at the bottom of the "V" (I always forget which is upstream and which is downstream).  Along the "V" the water is no more than 1' deep.  In the center of the "V" it might be chest deep, or deeper.  Anyway, the fish were holding in the middle of that "V" and along it's edges.  I spent at least 3 hours fishing that one spot of the river.  After a late lunch moved down to Tan Vat and turned right against the current (again, don't remember which is upstream or downstream).  Didn't do as well right away, but found some fish in an area about 500 yards from the ramp in deep water.  Picked up a few more with a John's Rubber Legs fly.

I caught 35, or more fish, and my buddy over 40.  Released every fish.  

General comments:  The river looks much different that it did when I was here last year.  Lots of big trees down.  Wading is more difficult.  There are a few places where the water is chest deep.  Lots of sand. The bite was so good and the fish so numerous that I wonder if they have eaten all the forage in the river and are hungry.  Not sure if that's possible, but this is my 3rd time there and I've never done better.  My buddy, a regular on the Current, had his best day ever as well.  Saw only a 3 other folks fishing on that stretch of the river the entire day.

All in all a great day.  Thanks for reading.

[bkbying89]

I have fished Tan Vat and Baptist camp and the fish seem to be everywhere. I read somewhere on this forum that the biologist don't believe that three of four of the small trout will survive the winter. Like you, I think the trout are eating everything that attempts to hatch. As the water cools into the fall and winter the trout may move downstream looking for food. I wonder what the possibilities are that the limit could be increased to allow more of the trout under 10 inches to be kept. May as well thin them out now rather than let them starve.

[NYMPH~o---]

I've hit the Current under Baptist twice this month as well. Electric fishing with bites every about every 4th cast. Hit 4 in a row at one point with a Fox Hair Squirrel Nymph, but they were taking everything. Managed only one 15in Brown on an Orange Stimulater (crushed it though). Fish were holding in pools and seams. Very different river with a few blockages that require floaters to walk/portage.

Agree that they should consider a reprieve on the size and number limits with all the stockers down there. I'm C&R but if they're gonna fade anyway, I'd fry up a few - especially to maintain the Brown population.

- Nympher

[jdmidwest]

4 hours ago, NYMPH~o--- said:

I've hit the Current under Baptist twice this month as well. Electric fishing with bites every about every 4th cast. Hit 4 in a row at one point with a Fox Hair Squirrel Nymph, but they were taking everything. Managed only one 15in Brown on an Orange Stimulater (crushed it though). Fish were holding in pools and seams. Very different river with a few blockages that require floaters to walk/portage.

Agree that they should consider a reprieve on the size and number limits with all the stockers down there. I'm C&R but if they're gonna fade anyway, I'd fry up a few - especially to maintain the Brown population.

- Nympher

Don't worry, enough will be taken out of there by poachers when they find out they are there.  No need to change regs.

[bkbying89]

3 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

Don't worry, enough will be taken out of there by poachers when they find out they are there.  No need to change regs.

No doubt they already know. I just worry that by the time the small trout have been thinned the insect hatches will be decimated to the point that it may damage the stream ecosystem. The trout have to eat something. 

[SpoonDog]

I don't think it'll be a major issue.  As water temperatures continue to warm through summer, fish will move back into the Park where they'll be harvested.  

[jdmidwest]

14 hours ago, bkbying89 said:

No doubt they already know. I just worry that by the time the small trout have been thinned the insect hatches will be decimated to the point that it may damage the stream ecosystem. The trout have to eat something. 

I doubt insect populations will suffer any more than normal. You have to remember that the ecosystem was designed for zero trout and has adapted well over the last 100 years the trout have been there.

[Gavin]

The Browns will grow fat on all those little stockers.

[bkbying89]

7 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

I doubt insect populations will suffer any more than normal. You have to remember that the ecosystem was designed for zero trout and has adapted well over the last 100 years the trout have been there.

The Current, all rivers are resilient and yes there were no trout, to begin with, and has adapted quite well but this is a huge inundation of a carnivore to have dumped into it all at once. I believe the reason fishing is so good right now is the fact that competition for food is very high right now and that any resource has its limits.I am not predicting doom for the Current's fishery just another hiccup. Who knows, if the trout make it thru the fall maybe they will spread down to some of the spring branches further down the river. I know a few are making it downstream now. 

I don't know how many Browns in that river are large enough to make a meal out of some of the trout I have caught since the flood but I wouldn't mind bumping into one on a personal basis.

[jdmidwest]

You are right, the competition for food is greater and you will see more trout feeding in the daylight.

They dump in 8000 small Brown Trout each spring in the upper 8 mile stretch and the same thing happens, more competition for food.  But, predators and poachers do a number on them and things resume back to normal pretty soon   Even catch and release has its mortality rates.

The larger trout come out to feed at night and I am sure there are trout there still big enough to feed on stockers.  There always has been.  But you seldom see them except in the Fall during the spawn.