Dry Flies, Rivers, Trout & Tarpon.: June 2020

Jun 30, 2020

Evenings on the Fork

What a roller coaster. Sunny and warm days were not hatch-friendly. Almost every evening was friendly though. A couple were epic spectacles, with some good fish too.

Then the rain came. And stayed. And the Green Drakes came with it. And Flavs, garnished with PMD’s. Brown Drakes not so much after the rains came. So nice evenings, or shitty afternoons fished best. Not much morning activity whether fair or foul.

A little cold and wet for photos, but . . .

A cloudy evening made for a prolonged bite

Our late evening friend that brings up some big fish

Les Kish photo of some clown

The rains came, and the lot emptied by afternoon--right when the hatch gets going!

Yes, snow at the end of June

Our green friend that also brings up the fish to flies I can see. Look how tall that wing is!

I can see this one. Wing could be taller.

Best wildlife I've seen all trip. Just a thing of beauty. Now if we could get a few of the gulls to look like this.

Last evening of brown drakes for 2020 most likely. The Osborne pool.

Last fish on a brown drake for 2020, most likely.

Last chewed up brown drake for 2020, most likely.

This crazy ride needs a journal to remember how it went down. After fishing up top Thursday, and Millionaires Thursday night, I wanted to try something else Friday. It was severe clear all day, and not a bug in sight all morning from gravel pits down to the springs. The fly never left the keeper. Nothing at all really happened all day until right at dusk at Millionaires, just after the sun went down. Then it was brown drake city. Les and I each hooked a couple of really good fish just after the sun went down. It was short and sweet. It all just came late, with little time left to fish. But as Les said, “It’s the spectacle” of the big brown drakes that makes it worth staying up past bed time.

Saturday showed a little more promise with some cloud cover forming by mid-afternoon. The morning was pretty dead again, but I did find a few fish at Last Chance early in the afternoon. Big beetle eaters. Hey, I didn’t really know what they were eating, and I did get a couple to eat a green drake. When I went down to find Les at Millionaires, we had some cloud cover, and fish were rising as soon as I got in. It took a couple hours to get up to the big island because I was throwing at fish. I got several to take the same big beetle I had tied on from earlier in the day. The brown drakes finally came late, but not as heavy as the night before. I still got one more nice fish on the way out and a couple more eats. The bite was longer with the clouds.

I awoke Sunday morning to steady rain. It never let up, and nothing was happening all morning and into the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon, after lunch and a brief nap, I drove to the observation platform around 4:30, and looked out to water carpeted with green drakes, flavs, and pmd’s. For the first time in I can’t remember, it looked like the bug factory it used to be. As the cold rain continued to fall, I went out to the log jam where a few small pods of decent fish ate away on big drakes, as well as whatever else they wanted. I got some eats on the down wing, but couldn’t fish much else in the rain. Even keeping the big CDC wing dry was tough. And the fish were eating the biggest duns with the tallest wings. (Need some of those in the box!) I went through a half bottle of angel dust! Fish were caught, but the fun meter was on low due to the wet and cold. But this was shit dreams are made of, and stories are told of. I came in once to warm up, and went back out again as the hatch waned around 7pm. The rain never did stop for a second. I was a little late, and should have stayed close to the river bank, but it was dead at 2pm, so I was losing hope.

The rain was continuous all night and into Monday morning. With no rush, but the need to exchange my empty propane tank at the station, I got to the parking lot in town around 8:30 and made breakfast. By late morning, the rain was subsiding to showers a bit. A few green drakes started to pop around 11, and I was able to get a couple nice fish early in the hatch above the logjam. Then the rain returned for a while, and I returned inside to drier climates. By mid-afternoon, there was another little flurry of activity when the rain subsided and I went back out, twice! It came and went, and I hooked a few smaller fish in the process. For the last night, I decided to go fish the big pool above Osborne. There were some fish up sporadically, mostly eating caddis, but not mine. I did manage a couple more nice fish with a brown drake cripple. The last fish, the last Fork brown drake fish of 2020, was a nice one.

This drake stuff doesn't last long enough, but fishing size 10's sure is fun and easy. There's no doubt when they eat it either. None of that sipping shit. Now its off to the creeks for a week . . .

Jun 25, 2020

Brown Drakes

Beav. was low and clear-clear, but not many bugs or rising fish. It was, and is, time for the Brown Drakes. When I got to the parking lot and saw one on the shitter door handle, I figured that was a good sign. There's still a few big fish that live in the slow flats of Millionaires. There weren't a ton of drakes, but just enough to get a few fish up. Caddis and PMD's is mostly what they were eating though, and not too regularly at that. I got two nice fish early on a caddis, and two late ones on the size 10 softy. What joy to use such a thing, and nearly get to the end of my backing twice.

Jun 23, 2020

Creek Day

Found a rare cancellation opening for the 23^rd on Depuy’s over the weekend when deciding what to do about the flood on the Missouri. I jumped on it. On the water early, but the first sign of PMD’s was right to the minute at 10 am. Pretty good hatch from then until 2-3.

I still can’t solve that fucking early hatch mystery in that slow water on Eva’s. The one where the fish are eating like pigs all around and in front of me, moving all over side to side big time for the nymphs 2-6 inches under the surface. Then every 15 seconds or so, they rise and take something invisible in the film that’s not an adult, cripple, or spinner. I know what it is. It’s the nymph right at the surface, or just a hair under. But I still don’t have the trigger that makes them turn wildly and get it, or even eat my imitation as it float right down the middle of their eyes. A greased pheasant tail, or something similar fished on a greased tippet, would probably work. A nymph dropper would probably kill it. But I didn’t have any, or go there. I tried all my “crawling out” concoctions I tied this winter, as well as last year’s, but they still weren’t havin’ it. I got schooled for the first half of the hatch.

The cdc loop-wing emerger was what finally started working. Should have stuck with it sooner, but I wanted to try to find what they really wanted. As the bugs thinned just a bit, I also got a little more attention on the buzzer, I mean, Depuy’s Hanger. The one. The little one. I had an eat here and there on the little yellow soft hackle, the pheasant soft hackle, a Harrop LC, a couple on a cdc comparadun, one on a PHD, and a couple of other random picks. Just a charity eat every hundred drifts. I actually saw and caught fish eating duns. When I moved down lower to the faster water below the log at Eva’s, things got much easier. The morning would have been easier there too, but I wanted those ones above the log.

Those flats fish were son of a bitches early-on. Entertaining, frustrating, educational, and occasionally rewarding. The way I like it in hindsight, but no so much when I was making perfect drift after perfect drift without so much as a refusal while the fish were chowing down. I’ll float a nymph next month if I need to, just to see.

The rest of the story . . . After an early dinner and Blizzard, I returned about 6pm. Shortly after, once the very first shadows touched the far side of the creek, the spinner eating began. It was like a different creek. Every fish I cast the yellow soft hackle to attacked it. It was like throwing pellets in a hatchery raceway. Just nuts, even before the shadows fully covered the water. The spinners and mosquitos were about equal in number, and I donned my light rain jacket and covered myself in Picaradin to keep from getting sucked dry. From the top of the curve down, it was damn near fish-a-cast. After the best fish at 8:45, I knew when to say when.

The day started as an exercise in futility, and ended like Disneyland. All in a summer day on Depuy’s.

Watched this guy for 90 minutes from the bench in the morning

Bench view

This was it early, but it took me a while to figure it out

Does this count as one fly? Doesn't matter, it didn't work.

This got occasional love

Last of the evening

Jun 22, 2020

June

I haven’t logged anything this month because I just didn’t seem driven to remember the same things again. I left on June 13, blew right past the already overcrowded Fork straight to the MO, and proceeded to fish the blanket PMD hatch daily in everything from cloudy and rainy to hot and sunny. It looked like it would be a banner week, but the water never quite got down below 6500. Fishing was ok at 6500-7000, but then they had to keep bumping it up to make room for rainwater up river. It ended up at nearly ten fucking thousand. Despite the thick daily hatch, the fish never really got going on the bugs. There were a few select spots that had a few select fish in the high and rising flows, but not pods or flats covered with heads like there should have been. Not even close. The best fishing was the evenings, and in the top reaches above WC Bridge where there were fewer bugs. Otherwise, it was the same old song, only with very few rising fish. I still dream of the 3-5 year catastrophic drought again in my able lifetime. Get those lakes half dried up, then they’ll hold back some water like the good ole days.

On my drive down to the Fork to give it a look, I stopped at the little spring creek tributary to the Madison by Varney on the way. I saw a couple fish rising, but spooked them both. The Madison was down to a trickle at only 600 cfs, as low as I have ever seen it. It looks great! Easy wading and plenty of slower pocket water. There were only a couple cars at three dollar. Problem was, there were no bugs at sunset. None. Zero. Maybe it needs a few days, or even just one.

Fished the Fork this morning. Well, sat on the bank of the Fork. I did cast to a couple fish and got one to eat, and saw a couple more working in front of someone else, but that was it for the morning. There were a few PMDs and some Green Drakes on the water but the fucking Franklin gulls ate every one of em before a trout even had a chance. The whole place below Last Chance was packed. Should have gone to Millionaires, but I wanted to see some Green Drakes. This river still has a long ways to go to get back to its former self, if it ever does. Henry’s Fork Foundation? Ya, whatever. They seem way too sidetracked on a bunch of irrelevant shit the past few years, even though they are doing some good things. Priorities out of whack. Fish counts and their health, and bug counts and their health, on the Ranch, are all that matter. Both are not good.