Railroad Evenings

After leaving Wyoming Tuesday afternoon, I arrive just in time to see some brown drakes right on schedule as I enter the river about 7pm.  There are just enough bugs to bring some fish up and keep me casting for a couple of hours.  The cripple is the bug they eat.  Word in the parking lot is that this hatch had started up two nights ago.  Am I in the middle, or closer to the end?

Wednesday night starts slower, but I hang two nice fish waiting for the drakes, one on a beetle and one on the Galloup spinner.  At 7:30, the drakes appear and the fish immediately get on 'em, though not boiling by any means.  However, it ends up as the heaviest brown drake hatch I've ever seen, and I get schooled.  I have the whole run mostly to myself, with not a breath of wind.  This follows two brief, but heavy, mid-afternoon thunderstorms that clear the place out.

I never thought I'd say there were too many brown drakes, but the water is covered in adults, emergers, and nymph cases.  I don't have the right emerger, but I get some takes early in the hatch with the Last Chance Cripple version in a size 10.  The big cdc floating nymph works at dusk, but it takes me a while to get to that one. Hundreds and hundreds of duns float over these fish untouched.  So are the cripples, emergers, and soft hackles I'm serving that have worked so well in the past. So while it has been a few years since I have seen this hatch at its seasonal peak, as short as it is, I hit it "just right."  Sometimes the stars all line up, or in this case, the biggest mayflies in the river, and the west.  

Thursday is a day with winds blowing 25-40 all day long, and even though I get in the river at 7pm, and there is a decent number of big bugs, the fish aren't on 'em.  I see two fish rise twice in two hours.  The water stays riffled, and sometimes I  hear a splashing rise, but can't ever locate or get position on a good target.  

Friday night.  That's the night for parties, right?  Bingo.  Jackpot.  Home run.  It's classic partly cloudy and calm.  Not a warm sort of humid, but a cooler night with temperatures in the low 60's to start.  The drakes came earlier with the first real numbers and rising fish starting about 6:30.  I was in the spot by 5:00, so I got to watch the evolution from the beginning.  7:30 is once again when things sort of explode.  I have the whole upper side channel to myself and the fish are there, or they just moved up in there from somewhere else.  However they got there, it was a field day on the captive emerger.  I did get the first fish on the newer soft hackle emerger, but quickly changed  to the captive after the second target didn't eat it.  After the switch, I watched fish turn around to get the captive, sometimes eating it going downstream.  I never switched flies other than replacing a chewed-up one with a new one.

All big fish on these bugs, 20 inches and up.  Fatties.  Big beautiful Millionaire rainbows with ripped lips.  I only miss a couple fish all evening, the kind of evening I dream about.  The weather, the bugs, the fish, and the old guy with the stick in his hand are all on the same page at the same time.  There are lots of words to describe it, but really no words can capture it.  Two hours worth of perfection.

One interesting side note to all this is that the hatch and the fishing isn't lasting past sunset.  In the past with these bugs, sometimes it doesn't even get going until right before sunset and lasts well into the twilight and near darkness.  Tonight especially, as the sun went down the bugs disappeared and the water was completely flat without a riser to be seen.  For some reason this year, it seems to be starting earlier and finishing earlier.  Maybe because of the cooler weather?  Not sure.

Saturday night, the last night before moving on, is a pretty nice encore.  I have more company on the weekend night, but that is about the only limiting factor.  Another heavy hatch fills the air full of bugs and gulls. There are no fish in the side channel, but that could be due to human traffic around it.  I still have some water sandwiched between guys above and below me, and the captive emerger is the only bug I tie on, and never get a refusal that I know of.  Another 5-6 fish evening.  Nice ones.

And so goes the spectacle known as the brown drake hatch.  Its nice to know it still exists, especially on those cold October days when a tiny baetis seems big, and an even smaller midge might be the norm.  The recollection of evening sailboats and slurping rainbows warms the bones, and I look forward to the possibility again late next June.  The box is full of captives and emergers!

That's the one

This channel was full of fish Friday evening.  Not so much Saturday.

Pre-hatch fish catcher

Pictures don't do the bugs justice.  They're huge.

Light hitting them

Another pre-hatch fly

Got a few eats.  Needed this Wednesday night!

The gulls know.

This is the brown drake spectacle!

Dusk on a Saturday

This is the clear, overwhelming winner!

It got some eats and fish the first couple nights

Last light, last night.

This didn't seem to bother much, and it was still easy wading.

One of the rare daytime fish from Last Chance.  

As a post script, I did fish Millionaires and Last Chance/upper Ranch a couple of mornings each into the early afternoon, and neither produced.  There were some caddis around, even a green drake or two, but nothing with fins or scales seemed a bit interested.  Every morning I saw some brown drakes hatching and/or flying too, but again, not enough to get anyone's attention except all the old farts walking up and down the banks grumbling.  A fish eats a bug now and then, but it ain't happening.  

Gotta Love Wyoming

Brown trout country.  Pmds starting late in the morning and popping right through the day. I dealt with the famous Wyoming winds howled for several days in a row.   When I could find a place to get in and cast straight up stream or straight downstream with the wind at my back, it worked. It kept some of the riff raff away too.  Didn't see a soul one of the days.

This place is chock full of fish right now, as many as I've seen in a very long time.  They seem to be in decent shape as well.  It has made me question why I pay $120 a day to fish Livingston, although the two really aren't comparable.  But in a lot of ways they are similar.  The fish here seem to be just as picky, at least the bigger ones in slightly slower water.  Most of the fish moving from the holes into the riffles every day about noonish will eat readily once they are comfortable with your presence.  They're all spooky was you approach them in the shallow riffles though.  But when I wait a few minutes, they come back in for the most part.  I did find myself changing flies frequently.  

The Ranch and the brown drakes are calling one more time.  Hopefully anyway. I said I was leaving yesterday, but I couldn't.  And maybe the day before, but I didn't.  Gotta love Wyoming.  

Morning spinners, but bigger fish weren't interested

This little number of Depuy's Fame fooled most of the fish in slower water

Always

Windy couple of days

Loop wing Captive Dun for the win, and wind.

Peacock and partridge for an emerger.

Great in the riffles when the fish came out to play.

Beaverhead Clear

Yep, that's what they call the water 'round here, and it is. Fished normal little stretch a couple times.  The fish aren't looking good, though they are there. I fished the magic little riffle twice, and I felt a little guilty the second time through it.  The fish were there and they would eat whatever floated over them.  Pretty sure I was catching the same fish on round two.  The little wall upstream had fish during the evening bite that were there for the taking right up the bank. They all look a little skinny this year though.

It was full of eager Beaverheads

Evening bite upriver was good.

Spud Country

This is SE Idaho's MO.  Its got a lot of fish, and a lot of big fish.  Great hatches, and lots of people.  Fairly close to bigger towns and small cities.  Right on the road to Yellowstone from all points south, where the airports and people are.  So, we all just go anyway and join in the free-for-all.  Everyone gets along and most are hooked up.  Its not brawling like the South Fork. The water moves very similar to the river at Last Chance, only a tad faster.  Its a nice detour when it snows in Island Park and temperatures get frigid.  That just happened.

Summer bugs like summer weather, and they're here.  Drakes, flavs, pmds, and caddis are all present, so its a hard place to leave.  There's still an odd salmonfly and golden around too.  I'm just minutes from the best milkshake in Idaho.  Access is easy along farm roads, and I can easily walk a mile or two up or down from the overflowing parking at Vernon, plus wade clear across and lose 75 percent of the other guys.  I go up a mile or down a mile with the intentions of fishing back to the truck, but rarely make it.  A hundred or two yards of water keeps me busy during the hatches.

Most everyone is dry fly fishing, so it doesn't seem as crowded as the MO, though it is.  The boats stop or anchor and fish a spot for a while, so you're not getting floated over every few minutes during the peak.  Its a little reminiscent of Last Chance 30 years ago, only with brown trout and lots of floaters.  I almost feel like a cop-out sneaking down here and leaving the hallowed Ranch waters, but its June, and I'm just trying to enjoy summer's short window.  I get enough techy stuff on the creeks and Ranch, so its nice to fish some great hatches and catch a bunch of nice fish.  And its not snowing.

I've never really chronicled this part of the river because I usually only fish it in passing.  Stop for a few hours, catch a few, and move on to Silver Creek to the south, the Beaverhead to the northwest, or back to the Ranch just 30 minutes up the hill.  At this flow, around 1300 give or take, its knee-high in most places.  Deeper runs will bowl you over.  Large tributaries come in downstream, and it gets bigger.  Down at Fun Farm, water is in the grass, even with the Chester diversion open.  Like most western rivers, this is irrigation water, but it it just happens to be great year-round trout habitat full of bugs.  The fish rise nearly everywhere because they really are just about everywhere.   Sweet spots are the bottom of riffles and the banks,   Fish gather anyplace the current is slowed, or there's a depression, much like the South Fork. However, this one flows at 1,300 instead of 13,000.

Tuesday afternoon, just before I put my waders on to go hit the flav hatch, I heard on the radio that Willie Mays had passed at 93.  When my childhood idol is gone, who was the subject of the first book I ever read cover to cover in second or third grade (read it over and over!), its hard to get focused.  

I still remember where I was steelhead fishing on Prince of Wales Island when Paul Harvey announced that "legendary fly fisherman Lee Wulff had died in a plane crash."  I remember the sky, the bears, the exact spot I was sitting in my Explorer.  I could drive back to it today, 30+ years later.  I have a fishing spot on my home lake we call "Willie Mays" because its the greatest all-round spot on the 90 mile long lake.  Its waypoint 24 on the GPS.  So now, every time I pull into Vernon, I'll think of this afternoon, the flavs, and of Willie.  Maybe this is part of what this whole fly fishing thing is about, but I digress.  We still don't go walking up and down the river without a rod and too many flies.

So Tuesday afternoon I missed a ton of fish and just didn't execute well.  But they were up and doin' it, nice fish.  The partly cloudy light and glare on the choppy surface were murder.  It was hard to see 12's and 14's, and I couldn't see the fish until they rose.  They were moving too.  When I did get the eat, I couldn't hook a fish no matter what I did.  I've been fishing straight upstream or very up and across a lot here because its a great way to approach the fish, but I'm struggling with the hookup rate.  The fast current pulling on the leader doesn't allow the fly to go into the mouth as far, or at least, that's my story. 

Here's another one:  The super-long day yesterday caught up with me this morning.  I got a mile from the truck, up river, and faced a double emergency.  I didn't have my angel dust with me, and I was wearing the wrong sunglasses!  I had removed the bottle of fumed silica from the vest to refill because I had used up a bottle already this trip.  I forgot refill it and didn't notice not having it.

I have two pairs of matching polarized bifocal prescription glasses, one for driving and one for fishing.  1X readers for driving to see the gauges, and 3X readers for tying on any fly with any tippet, piece of cake.  So here I am with the 1X on my face, can't see to tie on the fly, and how the hell am I gonna keep my fly up?  (Never much of a problem in my life, but another sad digression)

Well, I just made do with tying on the flies.  I mean, 4x and 14's-16's isn't too tough anyway.  And, as a bonus, I could actually see the fly in the fish's mouth down in the net.  That's usually a bit of a struggle, and requires dropping the shades because the 3X reader is too strong at that distance.  The 1X was perfect for in-the-net.

As for floating my CDC collection and other bugs, I did have two life savers.  In a vest pocket I found a tube of Tiemco Dry Magic.  It works great on CDC, and once applied sparingly and it dries a little, it actually lasts longer than the angel dust.  It doesn't blow away every time you take the lid off either.

Secondly, I had on my vest my handy-dandy little Westlake Special rubber band fly-flicker.  You know, the rubber band thing with a ring on one end, so you can hook the fly to it and snap it dry.  Ya, one of those.  Between the two, my fly was up all day!  Emergency averted.  The two worked as good as the angel dust would have, especially on a warm sunny day.

I don't change flies much during the flav hatch until I miss one that I want a second chance at.  I couldn't get any to eat the same fly again without a 5 to 10 minute rest, and I can change flies in under a minute, so that's what I do for the second (and third) chances.

So its been a great little three days down here in the low country.  The daytime riffle and bank fishing was just great, and the late afternoon/early evening caddis fishing on the banks put the evening bite back on the schedule.  I'm pooped.  On to some smaller water up over a bigger hill in the morning.

First look down river

And up

Nice to see you

Here's the stunt double for Mr. Flav.

Any break holds good fish

The riffle in the middle was just loaded

Bank had some pigs sipping.

Hot fly, from the house of the man who lives just down the river from here.  No surprise.

Corn fed, to skitter

Visible spinner

On the far bank, you just walk the bank and stalk upstream.  Fish hold right on the bank around the rocks, lots of fish.

Downstream access

These little stones held some monsters

Anywhere there's water like this . . . 

Ha!  Yes, I did that!

One of my summer goals was to catch a large fish on a bee.  I tied three like this one just to try.  The chenille is hard to keep floating, but it worked!

These little side "coves" of slower water held some pigs sipping spinners and caddis.

Evening caddis in the house

The partridge and real hares mask with the antron shuck took the tougher fish, straight upstream.

There's a bunch like this!

The best caddis, with imitation hares mask body and genuine antron shuck, riding low.

Some rainbows too, but not many this trip.

This mess is in front of the parking lot and boat ramp in the evening.  No, I did not participate.  I was busy fishing my own stretch of water.  It wasn't ever close to this bad anywhere else.