We knew it was going to get hot, so it was important to get an early start. I had picked my starting spot well in advance - a spot I'd fished three times already this season. It's a series of 4 holes, where the lower hole is rarely productive, but the second and top holes are often very productive.
Keeping in mind what I wrote in my last post, I got to the river about 5:15, rigged up with a strike detector, a leading Prince Nymph, a middle Pheasant Tail, and a trailing green caddis emerger. We were allowed to start fishing at 5:30 and I was standing in the river ready to go at 5:28. As soon as my watch switched to 5:30, I made my first cast - a close cast designed to get a nice clean dead drift, and I started intently at my strike indicator.
For 4 or 5 casts, I saw nothing, but then, I noticed my strike indicator move upstream just the smallest amount. The fish was a native rainbow, about 12", and it fought hard. It had taken the prince nymph. My first fish was recorded on my score-sheet at 5:39. I had to untangle a bit of a mess (the fish had hit the top fly but was tangled a bit in the trailing tippet material. I finally got everything done and cast again. This cast - close in - brought a quick strike from a stocked fish. I landed this fish quickly, and I had 2 fish by 9:45. Last year, it had been at least 11:00 by the time I caught my second fish.
And then, things slowed down for a while. No more strikes in this huge hole/seam. It just seemed to go dead. Eventually, I moved to another hole maybe 30 yards upstream. I usually have good luck in this hole early in the year, but nothing at all was happening. I thought I had the right flies and good drifts, but nothing at all. By now, I was glad the morning was overcast. This was going to give us a little extra time before the river really got hot.
I did lose my bottom two flies, and I made a slight change. For my middle fly, I switched to a Montana Prince Nymph, and for my trailer, a different green caddis emerger with a bit of red and a soft hackle.
And then, I started to work upstream to my favorite hole at this spot. I worked things thoroughly on the way up, taking advantage of the low water and the strike indicator to put my flies on as many fish as possible. At the top of the hole, I got one stocked fish on the caddis emerger. That was 3 fish before 9:00. Last year, it had taken 16 fish to win the amateur division, so I had no dreams of winning, but I was just hoping to beat my 50.5" of fish from last year, and maybe finish a little higher in the rankings. Eventually, I gave up on the upper hole and started working back downstream. In the middle hole, still nothing.
But, the lower hole was exciting. Early on, I hooked a wild rainbow. The fish was jumping like crazy on the way in, and as it got closer to me, I noticed that it was flanked by two large rainbows in the 20" range. Very odd. I wasn't sure if they wanted to rescue the fish or perhaps eat it. Either way, it seemed that the combination of being hooked and being trailed by 2 big fish was too much excitement. Inches from the net, the fish managed to get off. I know that doing things the "right" way - barbless hooks, in particular - is going to cost me fish. But, sometimes in tournaments, I wonder if I'm doing myself a disservice with barbless hooks.
When the fish shook loose, one of the big rainbows disappeared with the little guy. The other settled onto the bottom of the river, about 5 feet in front of me. For 5 minutes or so, I drifted my flies right past that big guy, with no response at all. Finally, that fish took off as well. On my next cast, I hooked a stocked fish, and it also shook free right at the net. It was now 9:30, and I had 32" of fish on my scorecard and it could have easily been 50". Next, is where I might have made a mistake.
I'd hooked 4 fish from one large pool/seam, seen 2 other large fish, but I was guessing it was time to move on. I wonder now if I would have simply moved around a bit and stayed in the area if I might have picked up a few more fish. Instead, I went to my car, got a quick drink of water, and drove downstream half a mile. I was surprised that no other tournament fishermen were on this water. It starts out with some long slow pools that hold stocked fish. Then, some fun pocket water. And way downstream, there is a railroad bridge that results in 3 distinct holes that can produce fish. It's a long hike, but I decided to give it a shot. It was now almost 10:00, the sun was high, the clouds were gone, there were no hatches, and it was getting hot.
I fished quickly through the upper deep pools, knowing that lots of local fishermen hit this spot with bait and spinners as well as flies. By the time I got to the pocket water, I slowed down. I was far enough from the bridge that I was in water that rarely gets fished. Most people simply won't wade downstream for half a mile for a few small pockets of decent water. I worked these pockets carefully, and at 10:15, I hooked and landed my 4th fish of the day - a 9.5" stocked rainbow. This caused me to slow down and work the water more carefully, hoping that perhaps there were more fish in these little pockets. But, I had no luck and I eventually headed for the railroad bridge.
Here, the wading to a bit more treacherous, with the risk that a misstep would lead to be being washed into a very deep pool. I was very cautious, and while I got some casts into the limited shade, my casts were probably not to the ideal locations. But, safety comes first and I did as much as felt safe.
From the bridge, I headed downstream to a stretch of water that I used to love. It's where I caught my biggest White River trout ever. But, two winters ago, the river flow, split by a nearby island, had changed and the majority of the flow moved to the other side of the island, essentially strangling a great stretch of water. I fished through this water quickly, and then exited the river. It was now 12:30, hot, sunny, and I hadn't had a strike in over 2 hours. I had a 30 minute walk back to the car.
By the time I got to the car, I was hot and exhausted. I needed some water, but I had one more little stretch of pocket water to fish. After no luck there, I drove downstream to the nearest convenience store and got an ice cream bar and a drink. I sat in the air conditioned car, contemplating my next move. Finally I decided on an area of the river where I'd done well late in the day last year - lots of ledge dropping off into deep pools.
I got there about 1:30, leaving me with about 90 minutes to fish. A group of 2 men and 2 kids pulled up beside me and I was pretty sure they were heading to the same spot as me. But, we talked a bit and they just wanted to drown some worms, so I pointed out a good spot for them. They had caught 3 fish in deep water on worms before I had fished around the corner.
Despite my best efforts, the heat seemed to be in control. I fished almost 90 minutes without a strike before calling it a day.
The largest fish this year was only 15" - smaller than last year. Either of the big fish I'd seen would have won that category easily. Also, the winning total in the amateur division was just over 60" If I'd simply landed the 2 fish that escaped beside the net, or gotten lucky with the 2 big fish I saw, I might have won.
Next year, I guess.
While this was my best fishing day of the year, I am still averaging less than one fish per day of trout fishing.
We've had lots of rain this week, so streams may not even be fishable this weekend. It may be time to work on some projects around the house and take a weekend off fishing.
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