Most local rivers are still high but subsiding. We are in the tail end of run off. I visited two rivers recently. One that was low (controlled flow) and one fairly fast and high. I walked a lot and found a few nice fish rising. Hatches are starting. I saw some pmds mid-afternoon when things warmed-up; some small (yellow and lime sallies) and larger caddis; a few small western green drakes (flavs); some golden stones…
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ANOTHER ROAD TRIP.
It was much warmer three hours south of home. Almost Summer-like for a day or two. Even some classic warm weather thunderstorms. It was also greener. There were blossoms. There were Pale Morning Duns (pmd’s) on the river I was on; another sign of approaching summer. There were Olives. There were Midges. There were Callibaetis in a slow (lake like) section of the river that I spent too much time on. In the evening there were shimmering clouds of size 22, Olive colored mayflies, that behaved like Tricos. Tiny olive spinners? I don’t know. After a long day I was too tired to inspect them closely. Suffice it to say, there were plenty of bugs around from morning until nightfall.
The Pmd’s were small, size 18, but much easier to spot than the Midges and Olives, especially when sunlight touches them and they illuminate.
I’ve learnt more about dry fly fishing and trout behavior on this river and one back at home in Alberta, the Crowsnest River, than anywhere else. It’s the combination of prolific insect life, many rising fish, and clear water that allows you to observe the reaction of every single trout targeted. You cast, watch and learn. You are constantly getting feedback. The amount of feedback condensed into a single day on this type of water is like a whole season of learning on some other, less insect rich, rivers.
I camped near Wolf Creek. In the mornings I visited the On the Fly Coffee cabana for a breakfast burrito and a coffee. Then I went to the aptly named Wolf Creek Angler Fly Shop. It’s a great little shop. In the past I’ve stayed in some of their cabins. It’s decent lodging and a reasonable price for the region. The Shop changed hands several years ago. Author Neale Streeks used to guide there and might have been a co-owner. If my memory serves me correctly it was called Montana River Outfitters then. One of his books, Small fly Adventures in the West– Angling for Larger Trout, is an excellent resource for fishing tailwater rivers. I read it from cover to cover several times over 20 years ago when I first started visiting the river having mainly fished small freestone rivers in the east. I still refer to it today. It made me a better angler on tailwater rivers, spring creeks and other rich rivers, which I gravitate towards whenever I get the chance.
Here are more scenes from Wolf Creek and this road trip….
SOME IMAGES FROM ANOTHER BRIEF ROAD TRIP SOUTH. I focused on a river section where I’ve had some of the best small dry fly fishing that I’ve experienced anywhere. It’s a shallow flat water section on a large river. In the Spring and Fall often there are midges in the morning, olives in the afternoon, then sometimes midges again late in the day. Insect life, a fairly calm day and low light conditions can bring out some fine brown trout. I hit it right on this road trip. On most days the weather was cooperative, and the small hooks (size 18 and 20) and fine tippet held.
Cold at home. In fact snow hit the ground. So I headed south across the border to a Trout Town on a wide tailwater river. The weather was slightly better but still behind schedule for May. Most days it was fairly cool. My dog’s water bowl was frozen most mornings.
I camped in a section called Mid-Canyon to try an avoid the ever present wind. The dry fly fishing was for the most part poor. I rarely saw a head/nose break the surface in spite of some good hatches. Most surface disturbances were trout displacing water when feeding on emergers an inch or two below: BWO’s. I still managed to catch several on dries: Klinkhammers and Parachutes while sight fishing.
There were no sipping trout on the banks or even in collector areas, or on the flats. And there were few fish feeding in some of my favorite side channels. The water was as low as I have ever seen it. That’s a ongoing condition out West. There was high wind and a lot of sun. Not the best conditions to find large rising trout.
Trout would bulge (emerger feeding) in the riffles when clouds rolled in, then disappeared when direct sun light returned. It was a yo yo (fish up, fish down) event on days with a mix of sun and cloud. Fun to watch as it became so predictable.
SPRING. It has been slow in coming. Insect activity has also been slow to develop. Hatches have been weak. I haven’t been able to check river temperatures as my thermometer was tucked in a shirt pocket and went through a Wash and Spin cycle. It’s certainly clean now and shiny looking but unfortunately it is stuck at 10c. Not a bad temperature but inaccurate at this time of year. The water is much colder. Warmer weather and water will bring out the bugs and trout.
On cloudy days I’ve seen some midges, some Olives (size 18), March Browns (size12) on one river, and a few Skwala stoneflies. There simply hasn’t been enough bugs to get a lot of the bigger fish “looking up” on the tailwater rivers that I’ve spent some time on. The window of opportunity in my region for quality Spring dry fly angling is brief as just when the fish start to rise, mountain runoff ( high water) begins to threaten. Hopefully a few good days will come. Here are some photos from recent outings. Some early season trout caught on dries…..the start of a new season.
WIND. It has been making rivers out on the Plains challenging. Top water angling out in the great wide open has been poor. So I’ve been looking for calmer conditions, some shelter and hopefully some sight-fishing opportunities up in the forested mountain valleys. Here are some nice cutthroats and hybrids (cuttbows) found in some sheltered streams caught on olives, small and mid-sized drakes, and beetles…
When you head out to a river for a day or evening of angling you often have a set of parameters that you operate by. For some people these criterion are broad. For some they are very narrow. The longer you’ve been at something like fly fishing, or any other pursuit, the more you have probably refined the way you practice it; the way you go about it; the path you chose to take. Over time you focus more intensely on some things and discard much of the rest.
Here are some fine trout fooled with small dry flies: mostly ants, beetles and pmd’s in contrasting landscapes and rivers. Some wide flat flows in open austere terrain and smaller clear ones in a treed mountainous landscape. Trout, from the Plains to the Rockies…
trout on dries 