Never Say Never

Just when you think . . .  Several years ago during the last June high water event, I wrote in this journal that I'd never go back to the MO when it was at flood stage.  12,000.  10,000.  Even 8,000.  I don't even like it at 6,500!  But the Fork was getting tougher each day after the opener, bugs were few, the cold was coming in, and I needed a move to some rising fish and lower elevation.  All roads always lead to the MO. Hell, everyone in their right mind knows that.  Figured I'd just drive up, take a look at the river, spend the night, and find something smaller to fish for a few days.  I mean, the fish don't even rise when its above 6,500, right?  Everybody knows that too.

Well, things change I guess.  The first pool I drove  up to at Lone Tree had rising fish all over it late in the afternoon.  Flow:12,000ish.  I can't get in the water, but I can walk next to it in some spots.  Most places the water slows a little has rising fish.  Most can't be reached where I can make a cast.  Cliffs, sheer drop offs, and willows see to that.  But PMD's every morning, and some caddis adding to them in the afternoon are keeping fish up.  It's sort of happening.  If the water was down, or I stood about 9 feet tall, it would be red hot!  She's "down" to 10,000ish now.  Still raging.  PMD's starting right after sunrise.  Hard to get in the water to cast, or for a picture.  Its cool, need a sweatshirt and hoody.  Furnace running in the trailer nightly.  Glad Norman's with me.  I used a lot of different flies in addition to the soft hackles.  They all worked.  Often, it was change a fly, get an eat.  No more eats, then repeat and another eat.  The fly doesn't matter, except when it does, or might.  Never say never.

Campground pool, first night, boiling with fish.  Just shore fishin'.

Caddis and PMD's.

Can't even step off here.  Raging through the bridge.

Still can walk down on the point and in the mucky grass above it.

Can even wade into the water a couple steps here.

The fish are sippin' in the deeper water, hard to reach, especially with a decent drift.

Rising off the point every day though.  No more beaver lodge below the island.

Not a lot going on upriver

Some fish up this trail above CA

Some risers here.

Shore fishing from the rocks

There are still bows!  They outnumber the browns, but not on my flies.

Aside from the jaw damage, he's a looker.  Big one too.

This loop wing was a standout.

Not quite a soft hackle, and not a stiff genetic.  A medium hackle! (Metz #3 neck from the early 80's)  It still has the all important motion.

Missing Link.  No, that's the name of the fly!

Corn Fed is right!

Open Season

Cool.  The weather that is.  Less Crowded (Thank you John McDaniel!)  It hasn't been too good the past few days.  Wind.  Showers.  Not many bugs at Last Chance.  Fish didn't want 'em.  Unfishable wind yesterday.  But now its Christmas.

Steve Guest was first down the trail on his bike, but I was FIRST ONE to the water, and in the water, to kick off 2023 at Millionaires.  The swans don't count.

First Millionaires fish of 2023 at about 21 inches.  No witnesses!

There were more

They're scrappy even after netting

Last of the afternoon

Late morning into mid-afternoon.  Sparse, but enough with no wind and hardly anyone else fishing.

Dead ringer, partridge and pheasant, PMD version.  Spinner/emerger/dun.  Its gonna be the year of the soft hackle.  Already has been!  Will I ever need anything else?

Just a few other fishermen all day.

Here we go low flow

Two to three morning hours of March Browns brought some fish up, and that was about that.  Fun while it lasted at the logjam.  Water is low and the wading is easy.  Can't say that about too many places.  

Eaten up for the March Brown.  Just munched.

Wet after being munched.  Before the dust.

Five fish later . . . 

Happy to be back again

Hatch, what hatch?  Just take the damn picture.

Bed hog.

Spring? What's That?

Its mid-April, and the snowiest, coldest winter on record in northern Utah continues with snow in the forecast tonight.  The ski areas have had over 800 inches.  The lake is still entirely frozen in over a foot of ice.  But there's been a flash of another season the past few days, enough to get to the river without cold hands, ice in the guides, and snowshoes on the wading boots. (Like I did that!)  

So now its mud and flood season. They'll call 'em spring storms instead of winter storms from now on.  I did get hopeful yesterday when I saw the high temperature in Great Falls was 4 degrees higher than Miami!  Makes a guy want to load up the trailer and head north. On the home water 30 minutes away though, I've still got a steady, rock-bottom winter flow of 800cfs, and a big stack of firewood ready for the next storm.   Places I'm tempted to run off to are starting to get roaring.

It's warm enough down in the river canyon for Norman to come along, have fun, and not shiver.  He's ready now.  The fish?  They look pretty skinny as a whole.  They must of had a tough winter like us terrestrials.  The bugs?  Not many on these warmer sunny days, but the poor fish are grateful for anything coming their way.  We've had targets more often than not during bankers hours.

We're supposed to be heading north, for real, in less than two months.  Considering I'm an out-of-work fishing guide/bum due to the prolonged frozen pond, I'll live for the moment and not give a shit about the future.  Hopefully the runoff in Idaho and Montana is closer to "a little above average" instead of what has started in southern Wyoming and Utah.  I fear one of those damn high-water years coming though, so I'll take what I can get now.

Adams for most of 'em, Sri Lanka for a follow up, and the Mole for the pickier ones.  

76!  Really!