Fishing Buddy Report

[eacoffman]

My wife and I checked in at Lilley's, then went straight to the water on Sunday afternoon at about 4:00 PM. We both used 5 weight rods with 6X tippet. We saw trout midging below the stairs at outlet #3 so Janet put on a black zebra midge and I chose red, both #16. We had not been in the water five minutes when the horn blew. I got one hit before the water started to move. We hung around the stairs for a few minutes waiting to see how high the water would get. The final water level created some nice riffles about 200 yards below outlet #3 in the middle of the lake. Janet stayed with the midge and caught one rainbow in shallow water. I changed to a #16 red bead headed San Juan worm, I had it 3' under a palsa indicator. I fished it in about 2' of water and caught three rainbows (none large) fairly quickly, all near the end of the drift. Then I couldn't get a sniff for 10 minutes, I then realized I was missing the worm from my fly. I removed my wormless hook and replaced it with a #18 pink scud, with a small shot about 4' under a palsa indicator. I caught two rainbows in about 3' of water, both near the end of the drift. It was getting dark, we went to eat.

I left Janet at Lilley's and I went to the dam at 9:00 PM to try night fishing for a few minutes. I used a white Pine Squirrel with 5X tippet and started about 200 yards below outlet #1, no hits. I walked down below outlet #2 to get a little current to create some swing. I got four fish on, all as the fly began to swing, but could not get any to the net. The two that got close did not appear to have any size.

Monday morning at about 9:30 AM it was overcast and thundering in the distance, about 65 degrees, no water running (all day). We again went a couple hundred yards below the rebar hole. I used #18 tan and pink scuds all morning set up like above and only caught two rainbows, both about 15". Janet gave up on the scuds and put on a pale yellow micro jig under an indicator, moving the depths trying to keep it about a foot off the bottom. She caught six rainbows in and around big hole with this setup. Off to lunch.

We got back to the dam at 2:00 PM, Janet caught one rainbow at the cable using the micro jig set at 3'. I caught one 14" brown using a #18 tan scud in shallow water above outlet #1 while goofing off seeing if Janet's micro jig would work at the cable. We returned to the area below the rebar hole and caught nothing on scuds, worms, cracklebacks and jigs until about 4:30. We then went below the stairs at outlet #3, trout were midging. Janet caught two rainbows in ankle deep water in a slow current created by outlet #3, she was using a brown midge under an indicator about 18". I used a #16 black zebra midge one foot under a palsa indicator and casted to midging trout very near the bank. I caught two rainbows quickly then nothing for several minutes, then discovered my fly was gone. I then tried a #16 brown zebra midge about 6" under the indicator and casted toward the center of the lake and caught a 15" rainbow that was very fat. Done for the day.

Tuesday morning arrived at the dam around 9:30 AM and water was running about like it had Sunday afternoon. Janet tied on a #16 salmon colored san juan worm about 3' under an indicator and caught three rainbows in dropping water. I used the same setup except my worm was pink, I caught one rainbow. We were in the same area under the rebar hole. When the water dropped things slowed down drastically. Janet and I both tried an assortment of scuds and worms with no success. It became very windy and dark so I went to big hole and stripped a #10 olive wolly bugger about a dozen times with no hits. I finished the day back below the rebar hole using a #20 gray scud and caught three rainbows.

That was a long winded report to say we didn't do very well, but we had a great time. I saw a bunch of fish being caught in the mouth of the rebar hole at the point. It did not seem to matter if flies were being cast from the point out or from the water to toward the point, fish were usually on. The rebar hole was loaded with fishermen every day when the water was down. The weather was good and had promised to be a lot worse. We fished through a little rain Monday morning but it was not bad. I got to meet Leonard (who I have heard so much about on this forum) at Lilley's this morning, he was there to meet a client, I got to see his little girl, she is beautiful. Phil told us a little bit about his Alaska trips and made us realize we need to get up there. We hope to be back in January weather permitting.

[Leonard]

eacoffman...

Good to meet you too.

I tried to catch up to you after going to the dock,to show you that picture... but I was running alittle late and those guy was ready to fish (BTW.. it was clients, just some friends getting together to fish)..

I'll post a few picture in the next day or so..

Leonard

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Thanks for the report. Very informative.

John

[WebFreeman]

Very thorough report. Thanks for sharing.

[vanven]

That is an awsome report. Thanks for providing the details. Now I have to sit in my cube and think about fishing for the rest of the afternoon.......

-Jerod