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 . . .