Home Water-Big North Edition

This water has always grown bigger than average trout.  It's two reservoirs have grown bigger than average trout since their completion 60 years ago.  The river between them flows for 78 miles, and I've fished alot of it over the years. Its my Lando.  Like most tailwaters, the richest sections are closest to the dam.  It's windy, ugly, and a little off the well-traveled path.   I fish the run a couple miles below the dam, and another at Dodge Bottoms.

There's small fish rising to midges here and there, and once in awhile I see a monster roll, but am not sure if they're actually rising to eat something or just rolling to roll.  I've got the five weight, rigged to a 2X tippet and the big brown leech.  I'm not here to play games.  Late one afternoon I see someone land a brown easily over 2 ft using some kind of nymph.  Next day a couple of youngsters take a bunch of fish from a riffle with bobbers and something. I land a couple of rainbows between 22 and 24 inches, plus one that gets away. Some garden variety 16-20 inchers keep things interesting.  A big rainbow is easily the longest, fattest rainbow of my season.  There's browns and Colorado cutthroats in the mix.

Sunny and mid 50's.  November's miracle hangs on.

Bird's eye

That's a fish waking

Colorado River Cutts

Caught these just laying in the riverside mud.

G4 light show tonight

Over the river

September in November

Or is it June?  I'll take November and a size 10 dry fly with 60+ degree afternoons.  The crowds are gone for the season.  The flow is as low as it gets. I see only two other wade anglers both days and just a half-dozen boats float by late in the afternoon.  The place is abandoned by any standard, and just 45 minutes from home.  Trout are eating, hook-jawed browns waiting for a meal along the shallow banks, and cookie cutter rainbows rising in the winter runs.

The baetis and midge eaters are picky at this point in the season, but some are eager for one last steak dinner.  Some do that push, where they come up closed mouthed, pushing water underneath the fly in a sarcastic refusal.  The fish here are notorious for that, and turning around to follow big bugs downstream for a bit.  Both the big winged beetle and tiny baetis take fish, but the beetle is the sure winner.  Some even eat it skittering.  Must be some sense of urgency, like winter.

The approach

Tons of these cookie cutter rainbows.

Splashdown channel is nearly dry at this flow.

A light sunny day baetis hatch both days, all afternoon.

Sunny and 64 baby!  

The shadows creep in fast mid afternoon

An occasional big rainbow

The end of the half-mile walk back out

I don't know if they take it for a cicada, a beetle, a horse fly or house fly, or maybe just a big mouth full of calories.  Whatever it is, they sure take it!

In a #20

The higher double peak flows ended October 1st

The fish and this fisherman love a graph like this.

The road home

I guess it's only fitting that I finish my summer on the water where my summer started at the end of May.  I use the term "summer" loosely, as it's late October, snow has fallen, and more is in the immediate forecast.  But I think of summer beginning with the first time I hook up the trailer and leave home after winter. It ends when I tow it back home for the last time and put it in the garage until the cycle starts again next May.  There have been years where I towed it some place warm to fish for a few days like Lees Ferry or the San Juan.  One year I went to Silver Creek and the SF Boise in November, but I left the trailer home and stayed in a motel.  This is the last planned trip though.  I'll still cast a trout fly between now and May, a bunch of times, but this is the final stop of the summer.

So I zip down here from Montana.  It's the traditional pit stop on the long road home.  There is one truck in the parking lot, and the sole fisherman is down river. A quick look over the platform reveals a few rising fish around the log jam.  I know how to deal with this.  It goes according to planned and I take three quality fish, as well as a few smaller ones.  I'm working for 'em with lots of casting. My hands don't freeze and my casts go where I intend them to go.  The reservations I had about leaving the Missouri are erased.  The water still flows at a trickle, the wading is easy, and there's no boats.  Hopefully the trout overwinter well.

The last morning starts below freezing, but the overcast sunshine warms things up.  Its calm to start, and there's nobody here.  I wade in late morning for a few-hour session before the last leg home.  I get three more good fish before the wind kicks up pretty strong.  It's time to go.

Low and clear.

Some really nice ones in the slick here.

You should have seen the one I couldn't get my hand around!

The only fly I tied on.

Beautiful conditions

The sunrise view from my favorite campsite.

From the camper window

More clouds this morning

This could be the one I couldn't hold yesterday.  My last Ranch fish of the season.

No brown drakes now.  There should be in June.  See ya then.