Trout Source

Soup Day (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
It was dark. It was gloomy. It was even rainy at times. So yesterday was a great day to stay the hell inside and find a nice soup for lunch.

Trout Love (Au Sable, MI)
Once the browns are in full spawn and the fish are on redds, the trout will become much less interested in biting and much more interested in trout love. Let the trout on the gravel relax and do their thing.

Taimen (Mongolia)
Jako continued to land big ones in his beat. He got at least one 4-footer each week. 

The Vacuum Cleaner (CA)
[Mike Mercer] is that good [at catching fish]......and a great guy too.  They call him "the Hoover" as in vacuum cleaner.

Nasty = Good (Au Sable, MI)
This is the time of year of the many follows, shadows, swipes and swirls.  Of the hook-jawed browns and the disinterested females.  It is great, constant sport on the good days.  And even on the worst days, there are still a few good hours of fishing.  The worst days, by the way, are the beautiful ones.  The good days are, of course, the nasty ones.

Dirty Little Secret (CA)
Everyone has a dirty little secret. Mine is bass fishing with gear.

Cast and Blast (Au Sable, MI)

Trout Decision-Making (Catskills, NY)
while there were large numbers of Hebes and Isos, the trout certainly weren’t going to move through 5,000+ CFS to get them.

How Turbid? (Catskills, NY)
it’s definitely not chocolate milk, but certainly has visible staining.

Fly Fishing Appreciation (San Juan, NM)


How many miles is it? All of us hunt it, but none of us really knows for sure. Two?, two and a half?, three? Probably more like two as the crow flies, but it sure seems like a lot more with this heavy pack. If you're not in shape by the time season begins, you sure will be by the time it ends, or else they'll find your emaciated carcass lying somewhere along his trail. Just a couple more seconds to catch your breath, you think about this year's past surgeries and wonder if all the stitches, mesh, and metal parts hammered into bone, are all going to hold, then rise, arch your back to stretch your aching muscles, and push on. I love to hunt, but it's days like that from last week that really make me appreciate fly fishing.

Deep Thought (Catskills, NY)
Please don’t drive through this stuff when this happens – you never know if the road is washed out underneath. Photo: Bart Larmouth

Priorities (CA)
Spent two nights in the hospital after spinal surgery. Not fun. The first 24 hrs. were hell, but I’m feeling pretty decent today, walking around a bit(slowly).  Won’t be pulling on oars until at least December, but will eventually be back on the water.  Bummed I can’t get out this week.  These next two weeks could be the best two weeks of the year.

It Begins (Missouri, MT)
At times it was a little Western out there on the river with the north wind blowing icy crystals right in your face.   Coffee, soup, a buff and handwarmers where needed throughout the day, as were BWO cripples and various nymphs.  This afternoon, one could have spent hours fishing dry flies to skinny water sippers and big head rises.   Tomorrow?  Well first we’ll have to scoop out the snow that is falling into the boats, drink another cup of coffee and then talk about how cold it is…..before we hit the river.  The forecast tonight for the Missouri Area is up to 16 inches of snow in the high country and 2-5 inches in the river bottom.  I love Tuedays on the Missouri in October when it snows……it’s gonna be swell.

“Stoke Is In The Air” (Trinity, CA)
So how does one deal with low flows and sensitive conditions? Piss, moan and whine or buck up and deal with it. Easy, no room for buzz killers—it’s the 2012 steelhead season man! Stoke is in the air, flourishing fall colors are coming on, fellow friendships are being rekindled, new equipment and flies are being tested, promising waters are waiting to be fished and strong numbers of fish are already scattered throughout the system. The table is set for those eager and willing.

The End Is Near (Au Sable, MI)
We still have three good weeks of the season.

“Might As Well Stay Home” (Yellowstone)
Tie flies. Go to your job. Watch soap operas. If you have to ask why, you aren’t in Livingston and you haven’t checked the wind forecast.

Fly Of The Month: “Lipstick Butt”

Extreme Squats (Pit, CA)
Well I had a blast fishing new water! Some tough fishing for sure. Even harder wading. I had a few stumbles as well as a few extreme squats. Not once did I fallin tho. Beautiful scenery! Not a bad first outing on the pit.

Big Honkin’ Chubs (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Just a reminder that there are definitely some honkin’ big chubs out there. Photo by: Jeff White
The trout-to-chub ratio was difficult to determine

Chub Grub (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
we had some great Iso hatches. The only issue was – nobody came up to eat them. The Chubs decided to feed voraciously, however, so anyone who would actually target those things must have had a field day.

Fall in High Country (Truckee, CA)
Gotta love fall. Brown trouts, streamers, beer, baseball playoffs. It’s full on fall mode here in Hirschdale. The river is fishing about is good as it gets. Cold in the mornings, nice during the day.

…And In Washington (Yakima)
When I first started fishing the Yakima, a guide mentor that I met in college referred to the Yakima as a “fall river”.  He told me that anglers in the know don’t even bother fishing the Yakima until October when the water begins to cool and stimulates feeding activity and bug life.

Fall Isolation (Au Sable, MI)
It's freeing to think, while fishing, that you are closer to the nearest black bear than you are the nearest human.

Stacked Olives (Au Sable, MI)
When the clouds came a little gust of accompanying wind would stack the olives against the far bank, blowing the olives into some duck decoys that sat in front of a duck blind (a camo sheet, and two lawn chairs...seriously).  The trout were rising amongst the decoys.  If you've never tried to get a drift through cheap duck decoys, it's a bit of a trick.

Alaska
…I accepted a position guiding at Rapids Camp Lodge for the remainder of the season and arrived in King Salmon on June 21st.  We fished all over the place, places with names like moraine, kvichak, brooks, naknek and many other legendary waters of alaska. The fishing is not the only thing that really brings folks up here, its also the amazing scenery and the bears. Brooks is very close to the lodge, about a 20 minute flight in good weather, and it has some of the most amazing bear viewing you could imagine when the sockeye are running through.  Since I have a whole summer of info to share, instead of just rambling I am going to throw a bunch of my favorite pictures from the season up….






Steelhead Trip -- Life-Changer (Klamath, CA)
One day on the Klamath River could...change your life forever.  A few weeks ago we had a very nice young married couple come into the shop for some help with their Steelhead trip to the Klamath River. This guy’s wife had set up a one day guided jet boat trip on the Lower Klamath River for his birthday present. That's my kind of woman.  I told him if all went well he would be a different person after that day.  He returned yesterday with photos.  He landed two fresh run Silver Salmon well over 5 pounds each and about 11 Half-pounders that day.  He said he is changed forever and is now a Steelhead maniac too.  He is headed this weekend to the Trinity River in search of one more Steelhead...  This is what I enjoy about my job. (Bill Kiene)

Golf Is For Sissies (Au Sable, MI)
I heard later that some places just north of us (Frederic, Gaylord) had blizzard like conditions with real snow falling.  In fact, George Mertz, Headwaters TU board member, sent a picture of snow on the ground on a golf course and said "I guess golf season is over."  Well, yeah, golf.  But there are tons of fishing opportunities left, and some of the very best streamer fishing of the year is yet in front of us.  With the afternoon olives rolling nicely in their normal areas (upper Holy Waters, South Branch, and North Branch), and rain in the forecast (maybe some real rain on Saturday), we're licking our chops.

“Dying To Fish” (White, AR)
Pinkerton said he and other anglers were feeling pent-up following weeks of heavy generation and no fishing prior to the nearly fatal outing.  “Sure enough, on Oct. 25, the water was down to wading levels early in the morning. S o I quickly joined the crowd which was extensive, and waded across the river to find some solitude,” Pinkerton said. “Suddenly an acquaintance alerted me to rising water, so we promptly started back across, which I had done numerable times when generation had started.  “That day was totally different. The surge of water was so swift and strong I couldn’t keep my footing,” Pinkerton said.  “I was swept downstream, became unconscious and was saved by a fisherman from Oklahoma on the other side,” Pinkerton said. He was hospitalized briefly following the incident.

26-Hour Fishathon (Alaska)

A friend and I once spent a summer in the small town of Cooper Landing on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Our purpose for being there, was to fish, and fish we did. Summertime in the Land of the Midnight Sun, lends itself to a lot of fishing opportunities, because; as the title suggests, you never really experience darkness during the course of a normal day. While this anomaly could be viewed as a boon for those who really love the outdoors, it can also lead to some negative consequences for those with an unbridled enthusiasm to fly-fish, in that you could literally-- fish yourself to death. On one particular day during one of the salmon runs, we both went on a "fishing binge" that started on the Kenai River then on to Russian, Kasilof, Ninilchick, Anchor, and might have even included Quartz Creek. At some point towards the end this "fishathon", my friend found me lying on the cobbled banks of the Kasilof, exhausted, finally trying to take a little streamside nap, and using a rather large rock as a pillow. It was at that precise time that he asked me, if I realized that we had been fishing for the past 26 hours; and honestly, I hadn't really bothered to notice.  (Read more…)

The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.  ~Babylonian Proverb

Nearly Drowning Fisherman Ignored – By Other Fishermen (Feather, CA)
..he watched as the two tried to wade across a stretch of the river where the water is chest-deep, to reach a rock ledge midstream that's just under the surface. The ledge is a good fishing spot, he said.  He said part way across, one of them lost his footing and the current caught them, sweeping them downstream.  They attempted to fight the current but kept bobbing under and coming up.  Ultimately, one of them didn't come up.  …He said he then jumped in and pulled the man to the surface and helped get him into the boat.  The man who'd been under the water was transferred in serious condition to Oroville Medical Center.   Alexander was ecstatic to learn the man wasn't dead at the scene. "I thought he was done," he said. "I was bummed all day." He called the paper to complain about the callousness of some of the anglers at the scene, a couple of whom he thought had a good chance to save the pair in distress, but just kept casting.  "It was sickening," he said.

Graveyard Report (San Juan, NM)
…someone once said: "there aren't any fish rising in the graveyard", thus my advice is to get out, if you can.

Leper Colony? (San Juan, NM)


Stylin’ (Deschutes, OR)

Zenith (Penns, PA)
massive BWO & Brown Caddis hatches on the lower creek. Also October Caddis are starting to hatch on the lower creek. It won’t get any better than this weekend. Olives love cold wet days to hatch.

”Best In A Decade” (Bighorn, MT)
Flows remain at 1750cfs. Fishing is spectacular right now! It could hardly get any easier or be more exciting. Hatches remain consistent and prolific. Yesterday the Tan Caddis and Trico Hatches were probably the best we have seen in a decade. Spinner falls until 2PM and then caddis after that!!!!

“All Hell Broke Loose” (Bighorn, MT)
The dry fly fishing was simply awesome yesterday.  The cold weather has made the bugs explode even more.  Before we even got in the boat we took advantage of numerous fish sucking down trico duns right below the boat ramp.  The tricos fished well until around 10am.  By late morning all hell broke loose and the pseudo emergence poured off in droves.  The first hour of the emergence was the easiest to fish, before the surface of the water became blanketed with bugs.  It didn’t help that by early afternoon the black caddis hatch got really strong and added to the bug soup.  There were plenty of fish up to put your flies over, throughout the entire river.

Pod Casting (Missouri, MT)
Trout within a pod become extremely competitive for the drifting fare, eating flies every single second for minutes on end.  Do you realize the amount of food that is cruising by to get this kind of response?  Sometimes, one must make ten or fifteen perfect drifts in order to hook a fish.  While other times, one can make five cast and hook three fish.  Timing is everything, as is a little luck.  Making that first drift count is always helpful too……

Fall Colors (Au Sable, MI)
Fall Colors mean something different to everyone.  For me, it's brook trout...


The leaves have peaked and the wind has since swept a fair percentage from the trees. 

Beacon (Montana)

Spawners (Eastern Sierra)
Rainbow and Brown trout are beginning to pair up for the fall spawn in the Sierra.

Urgent Report (Walker, CA)
Looks like a pretty good catch. The brown isn't bad either.

More Breaking News

McCloud Fire Aftermath (McCloud, CA)
The McCloud River remains closed. I received an e-mail from the Forest Service yesterday noting they were not sure when it will open. Reason being safety concerns due to rolling debris and tree snags that come down to the river from the burned side. On the other hand for those of you angsting over the shape of things here's some shots taken 2 days ago on a special ops recon mission down there. Yes, Dogpatch has it's own boots (we call him Ole Boots) on the ground for this event .... unauthorized of course. As you can see the old girl has weathered the fire for the most part and dodged a bullet. All structures are intact and unscathed. The roads are a little beat up on the west side of the ridge. The river is as pretty as ever and beckons us ..... just be patient, our time will come but she needs to heal a bit.

“Hour Glass Is Draining” (Au Sable, MI)
The glaze of morning ice in the bottom of the guide boats is a quick reminder that the hour glass is draining slowly into winter.  High, high skies this morning.  The 8:30 a.m. temperatures is sub-thirty.   The forecast reads like the happy daydream of leaf fanatic.  The bird hunters are happily rolling out toward distant coverts.

Autumn Two-Fer (Penns, PA)
The fishing is really good, The leaves will change over the next two weeks.

Streamers, Dammit! (Au Sable, MI)
…we need rain.  And not just some rain.  We need a flood.  The kind of epic fall deluge that turns overnight into a mushy sleet and spurns hundreds of northern residents to hurriedly fire up chainsaws and make oak piles.  Because the fishing, while pleasant, was very tough two days ago (though better yesterday), and with seven more days of blissful, mid-sixty degree days with only a few puff clouds in the afternoon forecasted, the prospects of fishing size #20 droppers on 7x fluorocarbon seem rather strong.  Not there's anything wrong with that.  But we want to throw some of these dammit:

Streamers – You Got It (Yellowstone)
With fall approaching, it could only mean one thing to people that share a passion for large Brown Trout, STREAMER SEASON!  …the fall time is very special because as Browns get ready to spawn, they get particularly aggressive toward big flies. It may be that they’re trying to pack on a couple of extra pounds for winter, or it may be that they are showing their dominance, but either way it makes for a fun time for streamer anglers.  In the fall on the Yellowstone there are two color schemes of flies that I would not want to be without, Olive/White, and Yellow/Brown. It is also good to have flies with lots of motion this time of year; it really seems to cut the chases down, and turn them into takes.

Pithy (Yakima, WA)
"Rockin" - End of Story

Waiting For Cold Fronts (Truckee, CA)
I would like a few cold fronts with some rain to come through and shake things up a bit, but for now, I’ll bask in the sun while we have it.

Montana
Fall….three months is not enough.  It’s September, one of three months I can’t  live without.

 

Hungry Bears (Upper Sacramento, CA)
Oh yeah, the bears. They are getting active with blackberries now at their peak of ripeness. They have been feasting on them and a few sightings have been reported. Note the large pile of scat in the middle of the tracks that almost caused a derailment.
Dogpatch Blackberry Jam Pile

The “Golden Season” (San Juan, NM)
And now we come to that "golden season", when the heat of summer fades, replaced by cool mornings and evenings, and rich, resplendent, fall sunshine. Days on the water, surrounded by the changing colors of the cottonwoods, crisp clean air, and the sound of rushing waters, occasionally punctuated with intonation of geese and ducks, in flight. A grand time to be on the San Juan.

Autumn Haiku (Au Sable, MI)
Another cool crisp fall morning.  Summer is over.  The leaves are changing.  The fish are on the move, arriving at their typical pre-spawn haunts.

Also In Arkansas (Norfork, AR)
The brown trout spawn is starting early on Norfork tailwater. Please be aware of active redds and avoid them.  Summer is coming to a fast end. Expect some cooler weather for the next couple of weeks.

“Within Our Sights” (Montana)
The arrival of September has brought cooler days and longer nights which has helped improve our fishing. Fall Baetis and great streamer fishing is within our sights!

What More You Gotta Say? (Bighorn, MT)
Fishing is spectacular right now! It could hardly get any easier or be more exciting. Hatches remain consistent and prolific.

Streamer Anglers (Au Sable, MI)
In the fall, cool, cloudy, wet weather is what we want...and it's what we're going to get.  The streamer anglers become very excited this time of year.

Olive Anglers (Au Sable, MI)
But there is another breed of angler that also waits for cold, rainy weather: the olive anglers.  With two different olives (#20...#24 or smaller) that hatch during these nasty afternoons, the fishing can be downright wonderful.

Streamer + Nymph Dropper? (Au Sable, MI)
Some of the guides have been trailing beadhead nymphs (#12-#14) off the back of the streamer and catching quite a few fish that way.  Fish chases the streamer, sees the nymph, and takes.

Weather’s Impact (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
The cold water has the Trout on the feed... Anglers planning to fish do need to realize that the Trout are not everywhere. There has not been enough rainfall to spread the fish throughout the system yet.

Big Mouths (Northern California)
Zen Thought Of The Day ....... Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths.

Irregular Flows (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Yellowstone Hatch Guide – Illustrated
Adult Midge

No Drilling (Au Sable, MI)
SAVOY ENERGY IS NO LONGER PURSUING THE APPLICATION TO DRILL AT THE PROPOSED SOUTH BRANCH WELL AT THE CHAPEL.  This fight began in 2003.  That's 9 years ago.  Anglers of the Au Sable and many other groups fought tooth and nail against this, and won a case requiring an Enviornmental Impact Statement be prepared with regards to the well.  That led to this announcement.  It's now over...officially.

Fishing In Hell (McCloud, CA)
Low surface fires …continue to burn, with hot rolling material backing down steep slopes into the McCloud River.

Metamorphosis (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Here’s one from last fall – an AMAZING picture of a hatching Isonychia taken by Bob Lewis.

Nicotine Withdrawal (McCloud, CA)
[after the influx of fire fighters] the local market and gas station is out of chew, those guys love their Copenhagen and get rather cranky when without.

Toxic Algae On The Klamath (CA)
"It hasn't resulted in a fish kill. We are concerned, but right now they are holding their own," Creager said of the spawning salmon.

Upper Sac Fire (Upper Sacramento, CA)
9/12:
Looks like the fire fighters are getting a handle on the Ward Fire today, much less smoke. Here's a shot from yesterday taken at Sweetbriar.
9/11:
THIS JUST IN : A new fire has just started above Sims on the Upper Sac called the Ward Fire. It is about 300 acres and throwing smoke into the I-5 corridor. Helicopters are moving back and forth over Dunsmuir picking up water at Lake Siskiyou. Just what we don't need, another @#!* fire!
Official Update
Aggressive suppression efforts have enabled suppression forces to contain the Ward incident at 100 percent today. Expected release of both helicopters off the Ward incident tomorrow. Cooper's Type 2 team took command of Ward incident at 1800 9/12/2012 and will continue to manage the Bagley and Ward incidents separately.

McCloud Fire / Ah Di Na & Ash Camp Update (McCloud, CA)
9/12:
As a side note I talked to the US Forest Service folksin Mt. Shasta a short while ago and they are saying the access to Ah Di Na and Preserve is weeks away from opening. There is major cleanup, some fire suppression work, and erosion protection to be done. It doesn't look good for the fall for anyone getting down there.
9/11:
The smoke that had settled in here has finally disappeared and the activity that comes with 2000 fire fighters has diminished to the less noticeable hustle and bustle of 550. On the flip side the local market and gas station is out of chew, those guys love their Copenhagen and get rather cranky when without. The only active and uncontained portion of the fire remains on the McCloud River from Ash Camp into the Preserve. But reports show steady progress each day on the fire line at the river with no signs of it jumping it. Access to the area remains closed with no word when it will open.
Official Update
Planned Actions:
Continue mop-up, line improvement and suppression repair. Concentrate on suppression repair efforts to minimize future sediment issues due to runoff into the McCloud River corridor. Support BAER operations with logistical needs. 
Remarks:
Fire line supression repair continues at a steady pace, approximately 25 percent of the work has been completed. Water quality and fisheries continue to be a major concern for suppression repair efforts along the McCloud River. Federal acres burned: 32,208 Non-federal: 13,803. 
Fire Behavior:
Green island of fuels inside the perimeter of Divisions B and E continued to slowly burn out. Low surface fires in Division G continue to burn, with hot rolling material backing down steep slopes into the McCloud River. Generally, smoke on the fire is being generated by deeply imbedded heat within thick duff, stump holes and large fuels.
Updated Map

Read Kiene Discussion On Fires

Trico Cloud (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Yep. Those are Tricos. We had numbers like this last week, but they are finally starting to wane. Photo: DRC

Another (Bighorn, MT)

Beer + Duns = Spinners (Bighorn, MT)
if you are willing to get up early, you can hit the trico dun emergence and get trout while they are on the hatching duns. If you had a few too many beers the night before or don’t feel like getting up so early, you’ll most likely be fishing trico spinners.

Coffee & Baseball (Yellowstone)
Cold again this morning!  Frost on the fields in some places!  Definitely enough time to have a second cup of coffee and read the baseball box scores in the newspaper.  Needless to hint, the mornings have been a little slower.

Fall At Last (Penns, PA)
The fishing is just starting to get good. After this cool down the fishing should be great. October Caddis, Slate Drakes, Caddis, Bwo's

Frost vs Grasshoppers (Hot Creek, CA)
I found frost on my car this morning, so if you want to fish hoppers, don't wait much longer as it's not getting any warmer.

Caged Animals (Au Sable, MI)
The surprise hot spell these past two days is currently diffusing, and today's forecast (sixties, afternoon drizzle) has the guides pacing around the shop like caged cats.  They're ready to hit the river.  Already the fish have begun chasing a variety of fall streamers.

Predator (Au Sable, MI)
Josh Nethers and his client Danny hooked a bluegill on the South Branch.  Which is story enough, except the bluegill was promptly eaten by a 20" brown.  The brown ran around the river before ejecting the bluegill.

Hydraulic Complications (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
No big drop in flows last night, just down to a 464 release which should not dramatically affect the hatching, holding areas, etc. It will allow downriver to warm up a bit more (especially with 80-degree temps predicted), so we will likely “lose” the lower Main today insofar as decent hatching is concerned.

Comfort (San Juan, NM)
I know I should break out of my routine and get up into the mountains and onto some of those streams, before the snow starts to fly, and another high country season slips past me. But, there's something addictive about catching a lot of big fish on water that's as comfortable as your favorite old pair of jeans

Transparency (Truckee, CA)
I think being a good guide means keeping no secrets. I share everything. All my secret spots, all my flies, and techniques. I keep nothing from anyone who comes on a guided trip. I don’t save water to go fish with my friends the next day, or take people to the same generic place that everyone else goes.

Luckiest Guide Alive? (Montana)
Yesterday, I woke up early with fog on the brain, and headed to BZN for the Bozeman Marathon.  My lovely wife is a mad runner and I, as her husband, turned out along the way for a little support.  I finally found her (I was late) between mile 15 and 16 and from the looks of this shot, she actually enjoys running.  Myself on the other, will gladly drive the 26.2 mile course behind the wheel of my Toyota.

The Larval Stage (Montana)
It's been about 35 years now since my father and grandfather put my first rod in my hand. At the age of 5 you don't realize this is something you will be doing for the rest of your life. In between being told not to throw rocks in the river I would try to listen to what was being said for me to do.

 

Bagley Fire Update(Northern California)

McCloud Nature Conservancy -- Official update for September 6
a spot fire was discovered over containment line in the vicinity of the Nature Conservancy McCloud River Preserve facilities. Firefighters and helicopters quickly attacked the spot and were able to contain it at .25 acre.  Planned Actions: Patrol and mop up along the McCloud River.

Ash Camp & Ah Di Na -- Ted Fay (September 4)
Here's an update on the Bagley Fire impact on the McCloud River drainage. The fire has burned to the river in the public water section from Ash Camp to near Ah Di Na. Fire crews are stationed full time at the Conservancy and at the River Club protecting structures. Fire crews are being ferried across the river by a local rafting company. Crews are working only during daylight hours. Some spot fires have jumped the river but have been extinguished. Wind conditions remain favorable and containment is progressing but it is still very precarious situation. Thank you to all the fire fighters and their fine efforts.

Night Shot From McCloud Reservoir



That's Ah Ni Na Over The Ridge

Pit River Impact
Pit #5-#7 are fishing great, but road closures thanks to the Bagley fire will prevent you from getting near the river

Hat Creek -- On The Positive Side
The dry fly fishing can be really good when there's a smoky haze thanks to forest fires off to the west.

Kiene Discussion 1

Kiene Discussion 2

Man Bites Dog (Oregon)
one should not hold a fly in their mouth while leaving fly line laying in the bottom of the boat, lest one’s fishing buddy gets his feet tangled in the line and stumbles around, jerking vigorously on the line to get it free… and also, it is important to carry some wire cutters capable of cutting hook shanks.

Monster Pigs (Yakima, WA)
we have been hooking at least one monster pig a day

Monster Alert (White, AR)
Fishing is about to get real good in less than a month.  I say this because it's about to be BIG brown trout time going all the way into February. This is my favorite time to fish and a lot of it has to do with in search of "the one" on Taneycomo and the White. September is the month when I start watching the migrating trend as these monster browns make their way upstream. I'm actually seeing a few more browns holding up top to.

Jackass Audition (Lower Sacramento, CA)
So, unfortunately I had to witness things I hate to see on this river this week. Couple guys from outta town with a shiny new red and white boat... maybe been wet a handful of times. Not a well used boat --which reaks of inexperience.... So after finally watching some local guides, they caught on and started to find a few fish. Good for them. I hope everybody catches fish when they float here... BUT, they'd hook fish in fairly fast water, and DROP ANCHOR right there to fight the fish back up the strong current.... making the angler work twice as hard, as the fish just gets more exhausted. ( I float along with a hooked fish, or pull into dead water to fight the fish - as do 99% of the guides here. Less stress is better... for fish and angler!).  So, after fighting the fish to near death levels of exhaustion, they boat a nice fish, take about 10 pictures, then THROW the fish back into the river, where the fish proceeded to go "Belly-Up" and most likely died soon after.  Please don't be one of those guys. Handle fish with care. Pull out of strong current to fight and land your fish.  Be smart...  They weren't

Pit River New Flows Video – Mike Weir (Pit, CA)

Reaction On Kiene’s
I love the honest editing. Views of the stream bank show the absence of a shoreline. Views of wading show people either sliding down the edge of rocks into unseen holes or else taking a swim.  My heart rate went up a little during some of the scenes. It put me into my Pit wading mindset - "Crap, now how am I going to get to either bank without swimming for it?".

Iso Anticlimax (Au Sable, MI)
As soon as the storm passed there were Isos pouring off of the riffles and three small/medium fish up and rising.  I thought, here it is and switched to a dry fly with the same optimism of certainty that I'd have in June.  No dice.  The bugs quit.

3-Incher (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Our Iso from yesterday molted overnight, and I thought I would give some size perspective. with his forearms extended, this guy is near 3-inches long. Dang. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

Separated At Birth (Au Sable, MI)

Trash-Feeders (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

A lot of the fish are in that trash-feeding pattern due to the fact that you may not have one specific hatch that blankets the water and the fish are picking off what comes by. Terrestrials are tough to beat for this situation.

Versatility (Au Sable, MI)
So yet another use for the Yeti.

Glory Days (Frying Pan, CO)
This is the time of year when you can watch fish rise thousands of times throughout an afternoon as one hatch bleeds into the next.

When’s Best? (Green, UT)
Best Times: All day

Wistful Goodbye To Summer (San Juan, NM)
Labor Day Weekend, the last big hurrah of summer and the harbinger of fall. After two fantastic days of fishing, I stood alone, late in the day, on a section of this river that is normally known for its crowds and began to think of how this was a fitting end to yet another summer on the San Juan. A tapestry of lengthening shadows on the canyon walls and the soft sound of the closing of the day, bringing with it a sense of something greater now ending. The finality of another season, past. A certain sadness mingled with that contented feeling that follows a solid day on the water, the contented feeling that follows truth, when you know that you have done your best and been rewarded accordingly. A moment when you are likely to be as close to fulfilled, as at any other such time in life, feeling that "good tired" which means you'll sleep well tonight, satisfied. Hating to see it go, yet knowing its inevitability, the brilliant sunshine of summer replaced with the more benign rays of autumn, the smell of creosote, sage, and summer rain, displaced by that of ripe peaches and the fragrance of roasted chilies. I will surely miss it.

Fine Wine (San Juan, NM)
my advice, dear friends, is to get out there and enjoy it while it lasts--maybe another week, maybe two, maybe longer. Big fish on big flies, it's an opportunity that doesn't come around that often and like fine wine, must be savored.

Monsoons (Colorado, AZ)
This is a great time of year here at the Ferry. Afternoon monsoons provide us with cooler weather and even cooler nights.

Apocalypse Last Week

McCloud Fire Closure (McCloud, CA)
-- latest updates
Cal Fire crews, under a Unified Command with California Interagency Incident Management Team 1, have completed the construction of contingency containment lines from McCloud Reservoir to Grizzly Peak
-- Kiene discussion 1
Pray for the McCloud, folks. She needs it.
-- Kiene discussion 2 – Pit affected as well
[a local Forest Service official] expects the closure to continue at least until late September. Best to call the Mt. Shasta Forest Service office before venturing to the McCloud or Pit Rivers 530-926-4511.
-- Fall River impact: The overcast the smoke creates has improved the dry fly fishing
-- Pit River: The Pit River has been outstanding but due to the Bagley Fire, we have not visited in the past week.
-- latest maps

Washington Fire Over (Yakima, WA)

The “burn is behind us” - a literal phrase represented in this picture taken in the Upper Canyon between Cle Elum and Thorp yesterday.  It was my first time through that float since the awful Taylor Bridge fire that originated just a few miles from the put-in we used at Bristol Flat.  The fire burnt up to the river in many places and even burnt down the vegetation in many areas.  As many of you know that read the Powerhour Reports page, there were 61 homes destroyed in this fire.   Fortunately however there were no human fatalities although there were no doubt some family pets and horses lost in the blaze.

Turning The Corner (Catskills, NY)
As is always the case after a hot summer autumn nymph fishing is excellent. This action is already very good in the freestones.

Cooling Down (Catskills, NY)
Crisp overnight air temperatures helped bring water temps down and felt very nice this morning.

Positive Trend (Upper Sacramento, CA)
Evenings are getting cooler so look for fishing to improve in coming weeks.

Anticipation (North Fork Yuba, CA)
I can feel it, like all animals do this time of year. Autumn is on the wind, drifting in slightly with a few clues to those who look. The wind has a crispness to it, a slight chill. Pine needles have began falling and the tips of the big leaf maple are turning a slight yellow. Warblers in the high country are on the move and the rest of our feathered friends have changed their normal summer behavior. But the one clue that Fall is on its way was the Blue Wing Olive mayflies I saw in the past few days on the North Fork Yuba river, that just says it all!

Heater Activation (Truckee, CA)
Our heater in our house kicked on this morning, first time in months. 34 degrees this morning in the Hirsch, I know fall and consitent fishing is around the corner.

High Sierra Seasonal Musings (Truckee, CA)
I’ve often talked about the things I see, going to and from the water.  Just as interesting sometimes, is what I don’t see.  Since late May, a family of killdeer have met me at a trail head.  They have moved on………  The golden stone shucks that have littered the shore for a few weeks, are gone.  The bits of cray fish that colored the stream bottom for more than a month, are gone….  The pale morning duns are tiny and sparse. Almost gone….  Now, when I roll out at dawn, I might put on a jacket.  The water is a little cooler every day.  Nighttime air temps dropped to mid 30s in the canyon.  Days getting lighter, later.  And getting darker a bit earlier in the evening.  Found some Oct. Caddis shuck today.  A full month early…..  All in all, a perfect start to Fall.  Lots of fish looking at grass Hoppers now, because of fewer food choices. Drown them….  No color change in the foliage, yet…  I say fish now, or hold your peace this Winter.  It’s coming……

September In Michigan (Au Sable, MI)
September is the most relaxing month to fish for trout in our area. Unless it’s cloudy and rainy and we’re fishing for brown trout, the pace is slow and easy and dry flies. And to my favorite trout—brook trout.  If you want it more x-games adrenaline style, then pick a rainy day and go for browns in the drift boat with a great guide. Or for an even bigger bite, give us a shout and I’ll put you with a top tier Salmon guide. We’ve got a few spots open and those tackle busting fish are measured in pounds.  Nothing like the Fall in Northern Michigan. There’s so much to do.

October Caddis… Coming soon (Truckee, CA)
I am seeing......October Caddis shucks now.  Broke one open (for the cause) and it was about a week away.

Stonefly Hatch (Yakima, WA)
As you can see by this pic, the Stonefly hatch is going absolutely CRAZY right now.

Back To School (Green, UT)
With school back in session the recreational traffic on the Green River is down.  Weekends will see a little bump in traffic, but compared to the hot days of summer, it’s much quieter.

Discussion Board Rumble (Kiene’s discussion on 30” brown)
I thought all the "my genital organ is bigger than yours" comments occurred on the steelhead threads.

Spoiled (San Juan, NM)


When you know that you can go out at pretty much anytime of the day and still get into some quality fish, you sometimes lose your edge and don't approach it with the zeal you once had when the opportunity was a little harder to come by. It's a little easier to have that extra cup of coffee and stay a little longer at the shop, BSing with everyone, when you really should be on the water, making the most of every day. I'm spoiled and I know it. I came to this realization the other day after I spent the morning lollygagging around and finally managed to get on the water at the early crack of 9:30, to find fish rising everywhere to a morning midge hatch. I wasted no time fishing tiny midge patterns to rising fish for the next 45 minutes or so, but I couldn't help wondering how long this had been going on before I got there and how much of it I had missed. That's what happens when you think you know too much.

…But Still Got Mojo (San Juan, NM)
The staying late thing, I have never had a problem with. As a matter of fact, I caught some of my best fish this past week when I stayed, what some would consider too late, twitching a hopper pattern to rising fish that gave me some explosive takes, well past what a sane person would consider dark. So I paid for it with having to make three attempts to cross the channel I was on and I floundered around a little in the bushes on my way out with the mosquitoes, it was worth it. I like that time out there, alone as you could ever feel, just you and these fish, the lonesome hum of tires from the oilfield trucks on their way home, blocked out by your concentration on that last rising fish and the familiar buzz of a mosquito that, like you, refuses to quit.

Praying for H2O (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
If reservoir levels don’t increase by the end of this month, releases could be reduced further.

Trico Guarantee (Au Sable, MI)
“If you do everything right to a pod of trout eating tricos this time of year you might catch a couple. If you do everything wrong and throw something else to the same pod, you’ll probably catch a couple.”

Moonlighting Browns (White, AR)
The fishing is fair at this time but not as great as it was but then we are also entering another full moon phase this month as well when the fish will feed primarily at night. 

After We’re Gone (Au Sable, MI)

WTF? (Au Sable, MI)

Devil’s Breath (Au Sable, MI)
The Mist.  Devil’s Breath.  The Killer Fog.  For the first Midnight Derby, there was lots of it.  And on a normal night, perhaps more folks would have quit.  …Night fishing is voodoo.  We are descending deep into the psyche of the biggest brown trout.  Meeting them on their terms, in an environment that would be impossible for us without waders and wool hats and good flashlights.  The best anglers find a way not to think like a trout, but instead, to think about learning something new.  The fly becomes their hypothesis.  The trout not a success, or a conclusion, but a trend in an otherwise long and enjoyable DEET-slathered experiment. 




 

Watch the full movie for free on YouTube

Snake’s Ass (Dunsmuir, CA)
Holy melting popsicles part 2 ...... it's been hotter than a snakes ass in a wagon rut and so hot the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs.

”Leviathan” (Truckee, CA)
Robert got this baby on his third cast today. Sometimes the Truckee River kicks some monsters out. 30 inches of brown trout. Robert put the wood to this monster and we landed him before the fish took off into fast water. Good job Robert.
First comment regarding the post on Gilligan’s: “holy shit!”

Fall Cometh (Au Sable, MI)
And now, just like that, it seems to be fall.  We hit 31 degrees for a low three nights ago.  That’s cold.  We’ve had several small flights of flying ants.  Olives are hatching at dinner time instead of at dark.

King of the River (San Juan, NM)


I still stay in limited contact with a few friends of mine from those days of working in the big cities up and down the east coast of the U.S. and from time to time they comment on their envy of my trout-bum, seemingly carefree lifestyle. I never really bother to point it out to them, but what they don't see is the less glamorous side of my way of life and all those vicissitudes I must daily endure in the pursuit, thereof. It's easy to say you would gladly give up being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for the opportunity to be standing knee deep in the crystal clear rushing waters of a world-class trout stream, under a big bluebird western sky, tossing dry flies to big rising fish. But would you really trade in your chilled- gazpacho- and -rare -ahi- steak- with- garlic- aioli- and- Pellegrino- water- lunch in a comfortable, air conditioned downtown restaurant, for my cold- ham -and- cheese- sandwich- and- lukewarm- water- from the tap at Abe's, if you had to hurry and  wolf it down on a little goose poop covered island while swatting mosquitoes in 100 degree heat, because the fish are rising to PMDs out there and you can't waste time on something as trivial as food right now?  Would you be willing to give up that double-pump-mocha-latte at Starbucks and swap it for the last remaining dregs of yesterday’s coffee from a 20 year old stainless steel thermos, because you drove all night over one of the most treacherous highways in the lower 48 and the nearest form of a coffee shop is at least an hour away, just to fish? Be careful what you wish for my friends--"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

The Rise (San Juan, NM)
this was one of those deals when the fish took the fly with more conviction than a Baptist preacher at an old time tent revival. The kind of take that looks and sounds more like a toilet bowl flushing, than the rise of a trout.

Calendar Shuffle (Catskills, NY)
Over the last few days I have rescheduled most of my Trout trips for later in the Autumn. Right now the conditions are hardly worth traveling a long way to fish. This will not change until the current trend of hot humid weather breaks and some substantial rainfall occurs. This will most likely happen in early September.

Hatch Omelet (Montana)

CIA? (Yellowstone, MT)
There are many midnight stones out and dropping a small girdle bug off a Fat Frank or chubby has worked well.

Mutant Subculture? (Yellowstone, MT)
… has been good with hoppers and chubbies.   Bring a Barrett's Mutant Stone or chubby in purple or red and skate it across the water pretty quickly.

Ozark Fishing (White, AR)
Mike works part time at Feather-Craft Fly Fishing in St. Louis.  We fished ants, midges, SJ Worms, Planaria and Scud.

Rise and Fall Of The Yellowstone

“Cheap Beer And Dusty Love” (Yakima, WA)
Rest of the day fu-git -about-it too hot ,too bright but there is always cheap beer and dusty love.Just sayin'

Heaven?  (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Epic Steelhead Season? (Klamath, CA)
There are a zillion salmon all ready to move up river. This could be one epic steelhead season coming up!

White Fly Squadron (Au Sable, MI)
white flies are showing up below Mio and the next ten days look like a good time to be a Michigan Trout angler.

Fire On The River (Yakima, WA)
Fishing remains good but unfortunately Kittitas county is under fire, literally, in some areas.

Inferno – but still fishable (Yakima, WA)
Most of you have probably heard about how big the fires have gotten. It has affected the upper river between Cle Elum and Thorp. We would recommend staying away from that part of the river for a while. We are good to go in the canyon the fishing has been good especially the dry fly fishing.

“Thunder Thighs Hopper” (Yellowstone)
The Thunder Thighs Hopper in yellow, size 10, took several decent fish on the surface.





Fat Bottom Girls Video

Early Fall – In Michigan (Au Sable, MI)
Given the changing leaves in the maples, the cooler night air, and the beautiful 10-day forecast, it’s easy to recognize the beginnings of fall.

August Sludge (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
The “sludge” is a problem in the upper reaches making nymph fishing difficult as the fly requires cleaning off often…  For those looking forward to the fall, conditions usually improve by early Sept.

Mud Plug (Yellowstone)
There was a mud plug on Sunday but it should be all through now, algae bloom is dying off and flushing down.

Gas Bubble Trauma (Bighorn, MT)
Despite the low flows, warmer temps, long periods of sunlight, algae and gas bubble trauma, the Bighorn River trout continue to be the most amazing fish in the Northwest.

Shitty Drifts (Yellowstone, MT)
Bring the A game.  By now, our trout have seen thousands of shitty drifts and they want to see the fly drift perfectly.

Trout Of A Lifetime – did he land it?  (somewhere in Colorado)

Occasionally; my wild streak still comes out and I'll get an idea in my head and act on it, before the sensible side of my brain can act and spoil all the fun...  After…the coffee wore off a bit… I found myself wondering if perhaps the night had written a check that the daylight wouldn't be able to cash. But after a glimpse or two of some crystal clear flowing water and the sound of the rushing stream from my open window, my sense of adventure was renewed by visions of those big trout in the bottom of my landing net.  …my indicator disappeared into the abyss of a deep run and when I lifted my rod tip, and a brown trout the size of a large log drifted to the surface and gave me the evil eye. Fighting back initial panic, a surprisingly short fight ensued and before you know it I had wrangled the biggest trout I have ever hooked, to within ten feet below me into the shallows. [read more…]

The Little Things (Catskills, NY)
The new garbage cans and some new benches have been placed on Stewart Ave and they are really nice looking.They are kind of sleek with a black finish.  New distillery will be opening in the fall at the old firehouse in Roscoe.

Next Generation (San Juan, NM)
We had 5 year old Tee on boat who was a great fisherman. He caught more fish than his dad.  It was great to see all the kids this young catching fish. Truthfully this is what fishing is all about. The new generation coming along and enjoying what their parents have enjoyed for years. We love trips like this and we know it will stay in their memories forever.

Leviathan (White, AR)
A fellow guide Jeff Moore of http://arkansastroutguide.com had a fisherman hook and land this brown trout this morning at 9:00 am on spinning rods that weighed 36.7 lbs on the upper end of the White River.

Micro-gasm (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Oh what a day for 7x tippet. The name of the game is trico in these late summer months, which can be difficult but the consistency is good. Between 7 and 10 in the morning the fishing is just on with clouds of little bugs hanging out over the water and I really do mean clouds.

Moonlight Sonata (Au Sable, MI)
So we went out in the full moon on the too cold night, and we weren’t 50 yards into the wade when I was trying to net Matt’s fish with Matt’s ridiculously small net.  It ate in the middle of the river, in the middle of the moonlight.  Moonlight so bright you had to squint. 

Mountain Fishing (Central WA)
Creek fishing with small rods for small trout might be the heart and soul of this sport.

What Drought?  What Slow-Down? (Michigan)
Our rivers are cooler, and they have water.  The fishing has been good at all hours, from morning tricos to lingering olives, to the good mix of olive spinners at dusk, and so on.  A smorgasbord of fishing.

Fringe Benefit Of Fly Fishing (Colorado, AZ)

August Crayfish (Truckee, CA)
August brings on a couple of changes to the river. There are not as many bugs or hatches and the food source changes for the fish. Crayfish begin to molt and become soft shelled. They become a very important food item for the fish as the bugs become harder to find. Dead drifting Crayfish patterns is a deadly way to fish in August.  This is the unofficial start of “Big Fish Season” on the Truckee.

Outlet Closure (Feather, CA)
After decades of madness, mayhem, vandalism, and possibly the best shore-based fishing in the entire state of California; it's all over at the infamous Thermalito Afterbay Outlet.  The Outlet closure is complete and permanent; no fishing of any kind for a 250-foot semi-triangular radius upstream, downstream, and outward of the Outlet itself.

Midnight Derby (Au Sable, MI)
Now that it's night fishing season, it's time to start signing up for the First Annual Midnight Derby, on August 18th.  This is a one-fly, night fishing "tournament" composed of teams of two.  Basically, you and a buddy each get one fly, and you go fishing together.  We'll meet for dinner at the lodge at 7pm, and the "gunshot" start is at 8 pm.  Fish anywhere in the state.  You must return by 3 a.m., but most folks will be back around midnight or one a.m., I suppose, for snacks, discussion, picture viewing and libations.

 

Grim Reaper (Madison, MT)

Mutant Fatties (Lower Sacramento, CA)
Fish were all really, really fat. Super healthy fish right now. Heads on 18" fish that could be from a 10" fish.  Huge bodies.  It does not suck.

“Hidey Holes” (Yakima, WA)
The last 45 minutes of fishable light has been two thumbs up with the bigger boys coming out of their hidey holes to smash a dry on top.

Clandestine Trico Ops (Au Sable, MI)
Getting locked in on a pod of difficult fish during tricos produces a sense of secrecy.  That the world has shrunk to its finest point.  It's not invisible fishing, but the realm of invisibility hangs over the proceedings.

Sulfurs (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Bug Sauna = Bad Fishing (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Man, tough going out there yesterday, even up in Deposit. I guess the fish / bugs decided they didn’t want a sun tan. The air temps remained bearable throughout the day, but our tricos never fell, and as mentioned the sulphurs decided to lay low as well.

Heat Reprieve = Good Fishing (Au Sable, MI)
Much better.  That's the report up here, where the temperatures have dropped from sweltering to tolerable, the morning bugs are happening after breakfast, the fish are eating hoppers and assorted "junk" in the afternoons, and the evening spinners are tapering nicely into the kind of clean, clear, cool night that stirs the night fisher in us.  It's now a summer that we can enjoy.

Gadzooks! (Au Sable, MI)

Bull Trout + Bald Eagle = Dead Trout (McKenzie, OR)
Do we all believe Scott just had the battle of a life time, a huge Bull Trout, release the near dead hatchery fish, and now the Eagle?
Blog comment: The day wasn’t so special for that trout. Talk about a BAD DAY!

Hotter Than...A Whorehouse On Nickel Night… (Upper Sacramento, CA)
Holy melting popsicles! It's been hotter than a whore house on nickel night here in Dogpatch.

Trico Assault (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Tricos! Holy *&%^! We had a ton of them all over Home Pool this morning.

Coming In Waves (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
The bugs are coming up in waves so don't be discouraged and head back when you haven't seen a fish in fifteen minutes.

Nymphing Sermon (Upper Sacramento, CA)
When nymphing my sermon as always is "git ur down" ..... thy weighted flies is thy savior.

“To hell with the weathermen” (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
We went from getting an inch of rain yesterday, to not even a drop falling out of the sky at any point. I was looking forward to the cloud cover and fun evening fishing but nooooooo.

And The Bureau Of Reclamation (San Juan, NM)
Hey Bureau Of Reclamation, you're making me look bad here. I caught some flack in the shop this past week for reporting from a BOR e-mail I had received that Friday, that they intended to take the San Juan flow down to 650 cfs, on Monday, and it actually ended up closer to 800 cfs.

Summer Pattern (Catskills, NY)
We are now in true summer conditions with most hatches early and/or late in the day.  Small flies and long leaders are a plus at this time of year.  Terrestrials really come into their own as we continue into summer.  Make sure you check water temps.  The freestones remain very low and warm while the tailwaters remain the choice of where to fish.

…Ugly (Catskills, NY)
These rivers are at summer flows which means large amounts of the river beds are exposed. Overall the fishing quality in these rivers is poor and limited for Trout.  In the Beamoc waters the Sections below Livingston Manor and Below Roscoe are too warm for Trout fishing. The Trout in these sections have already moved to deep and cold water areas, Additionally the section of the Beaverkill in Horton, from the Acid Factory Pool downstream to the Route 17 bridges  is closed to fishing. This is to protect the Trout in this section during the summer months.

Mud Slides (Yakima, WA)
Severe, localized thunderstorms caused rock and mud slides near MP 20 in the Canyon on Tuesday. This is the same area that was hardest hit by slides July 3rd 1998. The 1998 slides were much worse, dumping massive amounts of debris in the river. The current slide was limited for the most part to dry land. The Canyon road was closed yesterday, but should be open by today or tomorrow. We also had a major mudflow from thunderstorms in the Teanaway river basin yesterday.  This should clear up in the next day or two barring further heavy rain.

Up In Michigan (Au Sable, MI)
I’m sitting on our front porch writing the fishing report, watching the clouds and drizzle and trout rise to what must be small olives. It’s a perfect looking day to catch trout: cool, dark, and wet.

The Thrill Is Gone (Au Sable, MI)
The hazy nights of big bugs are gone and so is the blood lust that comes with them.

Nocturnal (Au Sable, MI)
The night-bite is my favorite way to lose sleep.  There are large trout in all reaches of the watershed and if you can bear the ominous sounds coming from the forest, you will be rewarded with a major rush of adrenaline and your best chance at a trophy brown until the fall.  Tie on something your cat would eat and cast at the bank, mend downstream and hold on to your rod.   …Denny earned his nickname “Green Beret” after releasing this handsome brown.

Scuds (Green, UT)

Careful With That Axe, Eugene (Oregon)
Finally please do be careful at your next boat launch.

Revenge…On Bugs (Au Sable, MI)
And don’t forget to fish the bugs that bite you. If only to get even, fish deer flies. Deer flies eat people. Fish eat deer flies. So   . . . ? I’m not sure where the logic goes.

“Nothing But Greatness” (Yellowstone)
GRG’s owner floated this river the past five days and reported nothing but great-ness. Those were his words.

Life Ain’t So Bad (Au Sable, MI)

Sticky Balls (and much more) (Yakima, WA)
It is 95 at seven PM. This is way past sticky balls. I came through the canyon yesterday from a trip to Idaho and the summer zoo on the Yakima is in full bloom. You name it, it is probably tattooed to some fat white woman's behind.  Cheap beer, hot weather and dirty love all making for another Blue Ribbon summer on the Yakima.  I say embrace the season, be the season.

Sphincter Tightening (Truckee, CA)
as we were packing it up around 9 pm, I see (another first) a friggen wild black bear no more than 40 yards from us. Scared the crap out of me.

Hillbilly Nostalgia (San Juan, NM)
I'm drawn to [dry fly fishing] like a hillbilly to a banjo tune, there's just something about it that stirs the soul. I haven't lived in my native area of Appalachia for over 30 years and I've long since traded my overalls , straw-hat, and bare feet for waders, wading boots and ball cap, but I must confess that when I hear the intro of Foggy Mt. Breakdown, my feet involuntarily start tapping and I get a "hankering" for some of that old corn likker that the Artrip brothers used to run through the copper tubing up in the holler.

Central Valley Hot (Lower Sacramento, CA)
I'm not one to beat around the bush... so here goes-- Holy shit, it's hot out !!

“You Could Fry An Egg” (Truckee, CA)
It’s hot, 94 here in the Hirsch, hot for us mountain folks, 100 in Reno. Get out there early.

Stay Away (Penns, PA)
Please stay away from Penns until the temps drop back down. Right now you will stress the trout and they could die from being caught.

Thirsty River (Au Sable, MI)
More days of no rain.  More drought.  More low water.  The South Branch trickles on at a pitiful 80 cfs.

Alaskan Thirst Quencher

Gates of Heaven (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

You Can’t Do Any Wrong (Yellowstone)
You can't do any wrong, except for catch whitefish on every nymph under the sun.  The Stone is the place to be right now - the drop and clear is the name of the game and some of the best fishing of the year on the Yellowstone - I would highly recommend getting on it now.

Nirvanna (San Juan, NM)
that final moment of commitment when they slowly engulf it, when your mind and synapses must all come together in the precise moment of the lifting of the rod tip and your heart skips a beat, the whole world stops turning for just that moment, and you become tight to a fish.

End Of Story (Yakima, WA)
the Yakima is fishing good to great / end of story

CALIFORNIA UPDATE

Summer flows on the Upper Sac and McCloud, but good hatches early and late

Warmer water on the Truckee

“Springers” on the Trinity

Summer steelies on the Klamath

Fat ‘bows on the Lower Sac

Hex hatch at 9pm on the Fall

Pit staying strong

Hat Creek “fair”

Chrome reported on the Feather

No reports on the Yuba

No steelhead on the American

Upper Owens is good, but Lower is poor

Hot Creek is hanging in there

SNAPSHOTS

NorCal Mountain Lion Attack (S. Fork Yuba, CA)
…it attacked a sleeping camper from Marin County around 1 a.m. Sunday near the Yuba River, northwest of Nevada City.  For as long as two minutes, the man told Fish and Game, "the animal attacked, bit and clawed him through his sleeping bag. He said it bit through the cap he was wearing and his clothes. The animal ceased the attack, looked at him from 15 feet away for another 15-30 seconds, then ran into the night."

Bullseye

Start Your Engines (Yakima, WA)
Good luck, it is time to fish.

Sign Of Summer (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
”Slop” is starting to be a problem.

More Signs (Beaverkil & Willowemoc, NY)
both rivers are low and warm. They are now too warm to fish at anytime. The Horton section of the Beaverkill is closed as of July 1st through August 31st to protect trout from thermal stress.

Don’t Murder The Trout (Penns, PA)
Penns Creek is getting too warm to fish. Trout have great difficulty extracting oxygen from the water when the water temperature is over 70 degrees. A trout that is released when the water is this warm will most likely die.

Huddling Brookies (Au Sable, MI)
Running a shuttle to Dam 4 just minutes ago showed a sad sight: three different pods of brook trout, arranged by size, huddled in front of three separate springs.  Open.  Exposed.  Heron bait.

Fish Early And Late (Au Sable, MI)
You’ve gotta watch the water temperatures this time of year. Fish early and fish at dusk when the temperatures are cool enough not only to protect the trout, but to find your best opportunities.

So Hot (San Juan, NM)
It's so hot...... Well, you can fill in the blank.

Africa Hot (Au Sable, MI)
Wow it’s hot . . . real hot. Africa hot.

Solar Panel Hot (Owens, CA)
Go elsewhere.  …the weather is only good for rattlesnakes, horny toads and solar panels!

Tricos (Au Sable, MI)

Trico fishing is flat the best way to become a great dry fly angler. Lots of bugs. Lots of fish noticing. Long, fine leaders and tiny flies fished in low, clear water to small, finicky fish may not quite be for everyone, but like practicing drills at basketball camp, it flat makes you a better player. In many ways, trico fishing is the best dry fly angling of the year.  It’s consistent and challenging.

BWO’s – “the real star” (Au Sable, MI)

The real star of the show . . . the big blue-winged olive .  This one occurs toward the end of the trico hatch each morning and can bring up the next class of trout.

Cicadas (Colorado, AZ)
Its been a few since the last up date so I will give you a brief look at whats happening for the month of July.  CICADAS.

Bull Trout (McKenzie, OR)

Reflective Blogger Moves East (Oregon to Ohio)
Arguably, I’ve been on the sidelines for the last couple years anyway. The pressure cooker of a young family, a wife pursuing a PhD, and a new job really put the brakes on my activism, and fishing.  And when I try to rationalize this move, I tell myself “Hell, with my parents helping out with Paul, and the money I’ll save living in a post-Industrial wasteland, I’ll be fishing in Oregon about as much as I do now anyway!” And while we all know that’s probably not going to happen, I can promise to try.  What I’m trying to say is that I’ll miss all of you, and this place, dearly. I wasn’t born here, but chose this place as my home.

CALIFORNIA

• Experience “epic” evening caddis on the Truckee
• Swing for rainbows and browns on the Trinity
• Don’t sweat the high flows on the Lower Sac
• Catch rainbows (or smolts?) on the Klamath
• Upper Sac has recovered from last week’s precip and fishing is good
• McCloud getting crowded, but afternoon/evening dry fly fishing still good
• Hex are on the Fall
• Hat Creek and the Pit seem to be doing well
• No reports on the Yuba, and only shad and stripers on the American and Feather
• Hopper season has started on Hot Creek
• Big Trico hatch on the Upper Owens
• Lots of wind lately on Hat Creek and the Fall and Truckee.

 

NATIONAL

Moby Dick (Au Sable, MI)
Bunch of haggard looking shop rats and stinky guides shuffling around the shop this morning. We’ve pursued our white whales for the last 3 weeks and have had a pretty darn great Hex year.

Hex-ual Healing (Au Sable, MI)

For others, there are still a few hex experiences that must be exorcised from the blood, and for these folks, they must become detectives, driving about swirling around the weeds for shucks, snooping about fly shops and bars for any tip they can get as to where the bugs are.  And they’ll have to travel across this county and then, when it’s exhausted around here, head north, as if chasing Heywood’s snowfly (possible cartoon: a desperate angler asking an Inuit if he’s “been seeing any big bugs”).

Dr. Phil (San Juan, NM)
Fishing; as life itself, sometimes carries its share of little disappointments… When you go from catching lots of fish on big foam imitations on one day, to struggling to see a fish the next, it can cause some severe psychological problems that even Dr. Phil would find hard pressed to cure.

Warhol? (White, AR)

Worth It (Bighorn, MT)
Algae continues to be a problem below Three Mile, but the good fishing makes it tolerable.

Wolf Kill (Yellowstone)

When The Day Is Done (Yellowstone)

A Good Day (McCloud/Bollibokka, CA)
Weather was great - not too hot, not too cold. Big rainbows and browns were caught and released. Cold beers were consumed. New skills were learned. No bears, cougars or rattlesnakes around this time. What more can I say ??? Private rivers kick ass.

Wind Vs. Bugs (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Well, I'd rather have lots of wind and lots of bugs than no wind and no bugs. We've had wind and we've had bugs the last day and a half and the fish are coming up for them. The wind has been pretty bad, but the you couldn't ask for any more bugs and fish.

Summer Setting In (Beaverkill, NY)
Hatches are mainly early and late. At this time of year water temps can be an issue.  Success drops dramatically as water temps reach 70 or more.  In general, we are now having summer conditions with most hatches early and late in the day.

Not As Much On Tailwaters (Catskills, NY)
At this time the dry fly activity on the freestone rivers is early and late. The tailwaters have a bit more daytime activity with sulfurs from mid afternoon until dark.

Peaking? (Penns, PA)
Yesterday was the best day I've had on Penns this year, water 68 at 1pm.  I caught fish on Slate Drakes, Cahills, Golden Drake, Craneflies and nymphs.

Angler Hatch (Northern California)
The weekends are producing a big angler hatch on both rivers. The beauty of the USac is that it offers a plethora (shit load) of places to fish if you encounter people ... unlike the McCloud (McCrowd) that can sometimes offer used water only.

A Matter Of Style (Au Sable, MI)
To me there are two styles of attractor fishing.  The first involves… throwing an abnormally large fly in an attempt to raise a quality daytime fish.  …The other style is more analytical.  This involves smaller flies.  Each cast a hypothesis.

Super Size (Madison, MT)

Match The Hatch (Montana)
For Your Early Weekend - We Suggest Calling In Sick and Going Fishing...

Yellow Snow (Green, UT)
Yellow Sally Stoneflies and Caddis flies are fluttering about making it look like snow when they are dropping their eggs.

The Next Generation (Madison, MT)

Kiene Says Go Now (Northern California)
Many of the trout streams in California are fishing well.

The “Black Hand” (San Juan, NM)

Keywords: mojo, groove, Ju-Ju, “get your mind right,” “albatross around my neck”
"The Black Hand", that's what one of my fishing acquaintances and a fair raconteur in his own right, Clayton Gist, calls it. Theories abound, as to its cause, ranging from lack of sleep, rushing out the door to the river without that second cup of coffee, or just simple preoccupation with the issues that surround us outside of fishing, in this thing called life. Whatever the reason, it's something you don't want to become afflicted with. It's bad "Ju-Ju", brother, and if you think that the theories for its raison d'etre are myriad, there exist about as many as for the common cold, for its cure. One of the more prevalent ones is to repair oneself to the nearest bank and have a leisurely lunch, or rearrange your fly box into color-coordinated rows; or better yet, put all the flies into their order of taxonomy and zoological classification as they exist in the entomological world. Anything to restore your equanimity and as the Strother Martin Jr. character in "Cool Hand Luke" says, "get your mind right."

“Dean Of The Green” (Green, UT)
I talked to the “Dean of the Green”, Mr. Emmett Heath today.  It’s always good catching up with the big fellow on what’s going on at the Green River throughout the fly-fishing season.  He’s still got it dialed in.

Greenie Weenie (Penns, PA)
A yellow stimulator and green weenie would be a good bet.

Klamath Steelies (Klamath, CA)
Steelies are already showing on the lower Klamath (about three weeks early) and is a great indication of a solid steelie run.

And 91 Trout (Klamath, CA)
Hello fishermen; The Salmon fly and stone fly were great this year and the fishing was also. The last few days I fished there I was averaging 50 fish landed each day, the last day which was this last friday was the best. We landed 91 trout.

“Epic Stuff” (Upper Sacramento, CA)
High sticking with dry/dropper - fish sitting 2 ft. off the rod tip, casting while crouched down hiding behind bushes.... epic stuff.

Early Dog Days? (Catskills, NY)
Its going to be very hot for the next few days. Please watch the water temperatures and anticipate only morning (possibly evening) fishing

Slowing Down (Middle Fork Feather, CA)
The upper river that was so good two weeks ago is entering its Summer mode already. Water temps are now running 62-66.7 degrees. Fish are now located right in the well oxygenated white water of riffles and heads of pools during the day.

Trout Posing As Lamprey? (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Experience Required (Yellowstone)
The Yellowstone is still high at 11,200cfs, but less muddy and dropping. It can be floated right now, but only by the most experienced oarsmen.

When I Was A Lad
I caught a lot of fish ---to the point where my mother and sisters told me not to bring any more of them dammed fish home unless they told me to.

OMG – McCloud and Upper Sac (Northern California)
Buster (gitten em), my slacker sources and yours truly are experiencing some OMG days as well we should after the last 2 early seasons.

Man Enough? (Owens Gorge, CA)
Stinging nettles are back. Also watch out for snakes.

Green Drake (McKenzie, Oregon)

Thousands and Thousands (Penns, PA)
there are lots of other hatches including stoneflies by the thousands, Craneflies by the thousands.

Covert Hex Operation  (Au Sable, MI)
It starts in the middle of the night, a flutter of wings from the stink-muck in the weeds sometime around midnight.  A few people are there, hoping for "first bugs", sitting on the bank and shining a light for shucks.  They aren't talking...

Hex Adult

Visible on Radar
(Mississippi River in 2006)

Hex Nymph

Hex Eruption (Au Sable, MI)
the hex has erupted throughout the Au Sable river system, and not even the last two cold nights could halt it completely.

Hex’d Employees (Au Sable, MI)
Look forward to late nights and punch drunk, bleary eyed fly shop guys for the foreseeable future.

Summer Already? (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
if this warm, clear weather continues, the action will start to be concentrated solely on the West Branch.

Summer Slow-Down (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
The Main Stem seems to be warming up and the fishing is slowing down because of that.

Hit The Shade (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
You may also consider fishing the upper stretches of the rivers (where the trees provide more shade) during the day, and hitting the main sections in the evening.

Have A Pulse? (San Juan, NM)
if that slow, methodical take of an ant or cartoon hopper doesn't make your heart skip a beat, then you need to stop reading this right now and call your cardiologist and get an EKG scheduled.

NorCal Abundance
Too many places to go right now. Shad, Mac, UpperSac, LowerSac, Pit, etc....

NorCal Water Overview
Straight Aces (Pumped- up watershed overview)
Late winter/spring rains have truly been a blessing and saving grace to northern California lakes and rivers and no time more obvious than now. What appeared to be a dismal critically dry year in all of northern California has been replenished with great water qualities in most all watersheds. Currently snowmelt and runoff has peaked and most all lakes are full, or near full capacities while Coastal/Central Valley rivers are supporting healthy flows and slowly dropping into prime mid-spring fishing conditions.

Plethora (McCloud, CA)
A plethora of hatches are happening here so be prepared with a variety of dry flies ..... caddis, mayflies, golden stones, salmon flies, yellow sallies, and drakes.

Caddis Blizzard (Yakima, WA)

Millions Of Stoneflies (Penns, PA)
Lots of bugs hatching, Millions of Stoneflies, Slate Drakes, Craneflies, #14 BWO, Caddis

The Basics (Penns, PA)
Fish rose and were caught last night.

Short Story (Au Sable, MI)
This trout was big…  Dave made a good cast.  Mended.  The fly twitched just slightly.  And the fish exploded.  It kicked our butts.

Red Bull Warning (Yakima, WA)
don't wait until 10 boats loaded up with out of work guides drinking Red Bull have fished over the best trout before you decide to get out here!

Stay Away (Yellowstone)
Still big and brown.  Spiking hardcore.  18000 cfs and climbing.  Big and dirty.  See you in a toward end of June.

Tirade (Yakima, WA)
Well the Yakima sucks, what a surprise. So not to rant but WTF has happened to global warming???? Every year there is months of runoff and cool temps ,its June. Despite what the pimps say the Naches sucks too. We are going strait from Skwalla's to Tattooed whales with nothing but high water in between. I should have stayed in Mexico. Well I feel better now, thanks.

Excuses, Excuses (White, AR)
I got some emails from some of my readers that were a little worried about me. I’m here to say I’m good and fishing a lot, so reports are tough to post right now. I apologize for this, but fishing is what I do and that’s really where my passion lies, pursuing the next excited thing when I’m on the water.

Cicadas (Green, UT)
the Cicadas have really begun to fill the Green River corridor.

Jewelry Salesman (Lower Sacramento, CA)
The old slogan "A Diamond Is Forever" kinda portrays what this river delivers. That would be consistently good and great fly fishing memories.

Campbell’s Soup (Upper Sacramento, CA)
This week the Upper Sacramento has been mmm, mmm, gooooood.

Wheaties (Fall, CA)
The "breakfast of champions", better known as the morning PMD hatch is happening!

G Spot (Lower Sacramento, CA)
Then we got to 'the spot'. I've always loved 'the spot'. Especially during higher flows. We hooked at least a dozen fish, including two double hook-ups while we fished 'the spot'. We could have stayed there for a loooong time... but we only beat 'em up for so long before feeling guilty and moving on. The fish ate all kinds ofdifferent bugs... nothing stood out as 'the hot fly'.

QB (Northern California)
Zen Thought Of The Day ......... being able to read trout streams is just as valuable to a fly fisherman as the ability to read a defense is to a quarterback.

Late Innings (Deschutes, OR)
Still have a little time in the Warm Springs area on the big bugs, but we are looking at the late innings.  Get out and have fun with the big dries while you can.  Next up caddis.

Fly Fishing at 91 (Oregon)

Kiene’s Discussion Bonanza
The board is going nuts

Bolliboka (McCloud, CA)
Guiding in trout paradise. Some of the coolest water in the state. Closed to the public for over 100 years. Browns and rainbows. Nymphs, dries and streamers.  Bollibokka Club on the Lower McCloud River is the most exclusive piece of wild trout water around. Check out the video to the right of this report.

“Bushes are loaded” (with bugs) (Deschutes, OR)
Hitting peak salmon fly and golden stone hatch.  The bushes are loaded up around Warm Springs.

Air, Too (Deschutes, OR)

Epic (Deschutes, OR)
(several anglers reported the best they ever scored it in their lives). Everyone I have talked with who was recently over there said it was totally going off for epic fishing.

Yeah boy… (Deschutes, OR)

Ready To Pounce (Yakima, WA)
It looks like we may get a window for some late spring fishing on the Yakima. Water is down to 3700 and clearing nicely, at 3000or less were in.

Smorgasboard #1 (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Overall there are more than a dozen different insect species you may encounter on the water at any time.

Smorgasboard #2 (Penns, PA)
Great Slate Drake hatch, Great Stonefly Hatch, Bwo's, Sulphurs, Cahills, Craneflies, Caddis, Green Inch Worms, Beatles, Ants.

All Hell Breaking Loose (Au Sable, MI)
And it was really good last weekend.  Good hot nights.  Good spinnerfalls.  The lodge inbox began to accumulate fish pictures.  The morning coffee crew brimmed with stories.  There was Tom's fish that ran him all over the county, got into his backing, and then came off.  There were rumors of a fish on the Manistee pushing the 30 inch mark.  There were old friends Hal and Tom who did there best to lose a big brown, blinding each other with flashlights, swooping with nets, hooking each other, and otherwise creating a story they'll remember.

Isonychia: Bailout Bug (Au Sable, MI)
The Iso is a bail-out bug.  It seems to happen best when nothing else is happening at all.

Alas (Penns, PA)
The drake is gone for another year.

End Times (Penns, PA)
I believe that the Mayans are right and that the world is ending soon and the creeks being high is just one of the signs of the end of the world. Having said all that...things are looking a little better.

Yellowstone Snow
Right now, we’re in middle of a real interesting Montana spring!  The Yellowstone river almost looks good enough to fish, however it’s also snowing sideways and 35 degrees.  Why bother getting all dressed up for whimpy mountain trout when you could be fishing for steel head in the very same weather!

Yellow Snow (Sulfur Spinnerfall) (Au Sable, MI)

Steelhead Song (Trinity, CA)
Give me a stream on Alaska’s shore,
Where the steelheads run in the spring,
Where they take the lure with a savage tug,
And make the old reel sing.
Give me a riffle below the falls,
Where the stream runs swift and wide,
Where the sun filters through the tall spruce limbs,
And the trout in deep pools hide.
Give me a fight with a steelhead trout,
And may the best man win.
But it’s ten to one if my leader holds,
I’ll bring that steelhead in.
By Richard Eines— (1945)

Fishermen & Veracity (CA)
Zen Thought Of The Day ....... of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most trustworthy.

North To Alaska
I left for Anchorage on the morning the the 24th.  After a pretty long trip up, im finally here. On my flight from seattle to anchorage i managed to get trapped in between a very large man, and an even larger woman with her tantrum throwing almost two year old sitting on her lap. Put in the headphones and tried to sleep.

Klamath Salmon? (CA)
The lower Klamath is still very high but there have been a few rumors of springers taken on the lower river.

Klamath Salmonflies (CA)
The Salmon flies are just starting to appear. We don't doubt that there are rainbows right now, eating salmon flies, while you read this report.

Northern California Salmonflies
Just like a few of it's neighboring waters [Pit, Klamath, Hat Creek], the Upper "Sac" is just starting to spit out Stoneflies and a few Salmon flies.

McCloud Rising (California)
Definitely the star of the show for the past week.

Truckee Wind (California)
We’ve been taking a beating by the wind this week on the Truckee River. Pummeled is the word.

Deschutes Salmonflies (Oregon)

Brown Drake Spinnerfall (Au Sable, MI)
The brown drakes have arrived early and heavy.  Two very warm nights over the weekend quietly kicked these big bugs into high gear, and now they are peaking on the upper North Branch, and starting to roll on the South Branch and the Mainstream.

Yellowstone Run-Off
Is it going to hit 20k?  See you in late June! It's toast!

Beer Belly = Bait Fisherman? (McKenzie, OR)
Those with raised hands are voting to limit bait fishing for redband trout on the McKenzie River.  Notice any patterns among those without raised hands?  From the comments: Not kidding… Everyone who voted against the bait ban was either a deranged septuagenarian, or a morbidly obese redneck. One empassioned old man brought a night crawler with him which he brandished to emphasize his points.

Northern California Hatches Late?
Hatches seem to be running a big late on all the local rivers including the Pit, McCloud, Hat and Upper Sac. Except for the Upper Sac which is still hight, all other rivers are in great shape.

But Early In High Sierra? (Truckee, CA)
All hatches should be a few weeks ahead of normal given the lower than average water levels, and unlike last year we will be able to fish them.

…Hex’s Early?  (Fall, CA)
I expect the Hexegenia will start early this year. Maybe last week of May.

Scenery’s On Time (Northern California)

Drought No More? (Catskills, NY)
we’ve magically gone from a drought prediction to tons of water coming into the reservoir.

…Rainy Month (Catskills, NY)
We really did make up for the dry winter-this has been one heck of a rainy month so far.

“Done” (Yellowstone)
Check back in late June. Done, done, and done till then.

Fugedaboutit (Yellowstone)
Fly Pattern Suggestions:
Dries: A life jacket

Mud (Penns, PA)
The term we have decided to use to decribe the water color is, "MUD SLIDE".

Putting A Good Face On It (Penns, PA)
Sometimes the drake fishing can be very good in brown high water.

Forces Massing (Penns, PA)
GREEN DRAKES are building up strength down around Glen Iron.

Keys To The Kingdom (Au Sable, MI)
One of our great regulars, Odie, said off fishing a spinnerfall the other night, “It was like having a huge ring of keys and trying to find the right one for the lock. I tried one, then tried the next one and the next one until I found one that worked.”

Dry (Bighorn, MT)
The lack of precipitation and snowpack is serious. Algae is becoming an issue, but the excellent fishing makes up for it.

Green Drake (Catskills, NY)

Oliver Spinner (Au Sable, MI)
this big spinner will produce some big trout in May.

Screw Latin (Au Sable, MI)
The fish don’t know the names anyway.

Coming Alive (Au Sable, MI)
Up North is coming alive.  Lots of great fish pics below, but I think my favorite is the photo of the grouse nest--cool to see.

Yellowstone Spring
This blue grouse, or dusty grouse, was in full mating display for several minutes.  We sat down, watched and listened as he courted the female about 3 feet away.  Springtime in Yellowstone is one of the best time frames for seeing wildlife without the crowds of summer.   We saw eight different bears on our drive through the Park, two different sets of a sow and two cubs, and two different single griz browsing for food.  Don’t forget that bear spray!

Lightning Strike (Au Sable, MI)
"Don't charge him for the trip.  He almost got struck by lightning." Within minutes of this picture being taken, the sky was split by lightning.  About two feet to the right of Willy F. a small hole appeared in the water, and the entire boat got a jolt, and a shock.  The hole in the water was described as being "very similar to a trout rise."  No lasting effects, though Willy's dad said that he felt smarter… The best thing to do is get off the water and find low cover.  Leave your rods in the boat too -- nothing worse than holding a lightning rod in a lightning storm. 

Night Of The Living Dead (Catskills, NY)
Last night there was heavy Coffin Fly action after dark.

Mother’s Day Caddis -- Yellowstone (Yellowstone)
It's On! Caddis are out in full force especially in the afternoon. This is the river to be on right now if you want epic dry fly fishing.

…and Roaring Fork (UT)

Mother’s Day Advice (Au Sable, MI)
Fish on Saturday and kiss your mother on Sunday.

Green Drakes! (Penns, PA)
The first of the GREEN DRAKES were spotted at the lower end on Sunday, but the heavy water has stopped them for now. I expect the Drakes to really start this weekend with the warmer weather and lower water.

…Unstoppable
once the drake really starts nothing will stop them they don't know what the weather is above the water.

Sulfurs! (Au Sable, MI)
We're coming into yellow bug time.

…Impending
the big day is in the very near future.
Sulfur Dun soon to be the star of the show:

…No Pushover Either
This is a beautiful mayfly that isn't afraid of cold weather

B-Dubs (Truckee, CA)

Cicadas (Green, UT)
With flows being released early this year and with Cicadas already out, the Green River is shaping up nicely and we’re expecting some really outstanding summer fly-fishing

“Jesus Was A Carpenter Ant” (Truckee, CA)
They’re here, our big winged carpenter ants of spring. All of our finned friends will have ants on their minds for the next couple weeks.

Carpenter Ant Discussion (Northern CA)

Shakespearean Hatch Advice (Au Sable, MI)
Always be ready for what has passed and for what is about to come…

Picasso Flycasting (Washington)
Got a chance to see Steve Rajeff casting at the Ellensberg fly fishing thing on Saturday. Like watching Picasso slashing out a masterpiece, so close to perfection.

Just How We Like It (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
March Browns came early in certain spots, and the fish were up and crushing them, just like we love to see them do.

Truthfulness (Yakima, WA)
Update from the NO PIMP ZONE.

High Crimes
Main character… gets involved with a dead body found just above Lyon’s Bridge. Sheriff… determines this man died of foul play, partially because his eyeball is impaled on a stick downstream of the body, and a Royal Wulff is stuck in his lip.

 

Thanks for reading.

Ballet Practice (Yellowstone)

Trinity Dodges A Bullet (California)
Thanks to late season, March-April rains and snow, the Trinity basin dodged a “critically dry” water year and was allocated a “normal” water year.

Rain Dances Answered (Catskills, CA)
We really needed this wetter weather.

Run-Off Puke (Montana)
The Gibbon puked mud as well.

…and Poo (Montana)
While the Yellowstone river might look like baby poo…the fish still eat.

Hendrickson Wind-Down (Au Sable, MI)
Well if you haven’t trout fished the Au Sable or Manistee River systems yet this year, you’ve missed the bulk of the 2012 Hendrickson hatch. Hope you had a good excuse.

Salmonfly Wind-Up (Deschutes, OR)
We are beginning to see the occasional big bug flying around particularly in the middle of the day which bodes well for the coming weeks.  Stonefly nymphs have been just lighting it up out there and is the number one recommended fly.

Coming Soon (White, AR)
We are now approaching the may fly hatch with lots of the little critters seen in the form most know as Pheasant Tails (PT’S) that will soon emerge into mayflies.

Danger (Yakima, WA)
Unless you are a very experienced oarsman do not attempt this float.  Lots of logs to row between at high speed. 

Good Times (Au Sable, MI)
There's really not a bad day to fish in May.

One Way To Put It (White, AR)
All I can say is the fish are in a good mood.

Folk Wisdom (Au Sable, MI)
Rusty liked to say that there's a big fish beneath every bridge in Michigan.

“Old Dudes Rule” (Truckee, CA)
It’s always great to take a few old timers out fishing. They have usually seen a lot of water, and always have good stories from a lifelong of fishing trips to tell. Sometimes they bring cool rods, like an old Fisher, or Sage LL, with old Hardy’s, or Cimmaron’s attached. They’re patient and courteous, and I always appreciate that, but when they start fishing it’s all business.

Dries vs. Streamers (Au Sable, MI)
In streamer fishing, you create the action. But when casting to a rising fish, you are merely participating in something that would be happening regardless of your presence. In fact, the only way to catch a rising fish is to blend seamlessly into a natural event.

Moonlight Spinnerfall Fishing (Au Sable, MI)
In the moonlight we found a few more fish and caught one: a nice big brown that was eating soggy spinners next to some weeds.

Alien Fly (San Juan, New Mexico)
In the upper river section a cream ufo was the fly. 

Roswell UFO Museum (New Mexico)
“In July 1947, something happened northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, during a severe thunderstorm.  Was it a flying saucer? Was it a weather balloon?”  Was it a midge hatch?

NorCal Preview: McCloud & Fall Rivers, Hat Creek opener, Upper & Lower Sac, & Pit Rivers
This weekend will be your first opportunity to sample the McCloud, Hat Creek and Fall River this season.  The National Weather Service is forecasting near perfect weather with daytime temps in the 70′s. 

“Dead Spell” (Delaware, NY/PA)
We are kinda dancing around the “dead spell” between Hendricksons and March Browns, but we are seeing sporadic hatches of March Browns here and there along with caddis, midges and more stone flies then normal.

Burst Of Life (Penns, PA)
Olives, Sulphurs, Gray Fox, March Browns, Brown Caddis, Green Caddis, Tan Caddis, Craneflies,  # 4-8 Big Stoneflies and Spinners of all...

Hendrickson Marathon (Au Sable, MI)
The old timers agree: this might be the longest running Hendrickson hatch in living memory.

Hangover Fishing (Oregon)
Special thanks to all the pals who rowed our worthless bloated livers around the local waters.

Magic Mushroom Fishing? – WTF? (Frying Pan, CO)
Comment 1: “Must have been that “Cheeseburger” dry fly.”
Comment 2: “This is my kind of fish…Seems its likes beer and beef as much as I do! Will someone please pass the gravy?”

Negligence (Au Sable, MI)
There was plenty of work left to be done and, well, I went fishing instead.

Decision-Makers (Au Sable, MI)
And at about 3p.m., with no rising fish for quite a while, we got the hell out of there and charged over to the mainstream.

…they strike gold
The next two hours were as fine as fishing gets anywhere that trout swim.  We landed a bunch of trout. Constant action.

Spinnerfall Wisdom (Au Sable, MI)
Been getting very heavy hatches but no spinner falls of late with the very cold late evenings. 

Spring? (Yellowstone, MT)
The low tonight in West Yellowstone is 16 degrees, a far cry from the summer like temps we have enjoyed for the past week.  I actually started a fire in wood stove, haven’t had to do that much lately.

Yes, Spring (Frying Pan, CO)
Dry fly madness! Killer midge and beatis hatches on the reg right now.

When The Weather Sucks (Yellowstone, MT)

Streamside Morels & Trillium (Au Sable, MI)

Apocalypse? (Truckee, CA)

High Water Dividends (Green, UT)
Thanks to a number of excellent water years the river has been getting healthier by the year. This year, fish health, hatches and water conditions are all showing the benefits of those good years.

High Water Fallout (Yakima, WA)
The Yakima...Going Going Gone...for the time being. We will keep you updated as things change!

In Summary (Deschutes, OR)
the river is gigantic.

Fishing Partner – RIP (Oregon)
Filbert My Favorite Fishing Partner is Resting In Peace.  for all of you who know him and have experienced his greatness, I am putting some pictures up of him, and also a video I made of his last big fishing adventure with Nikki and I. It was just two weekends ago that we took him to the Owyhee before he had his last bout with the disease. It was great that he got to have his last EPIC fly fishing trip.

Great Deals On Fly Boxes

2-Pack of swing leafs for $15.90 (including shipping)
Plus 4 waterproof models

Public Service Message

Adrenalin Shot (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Towards evening, the whole thing exploded with rising fish.

Hot Creek – you ain’t so tough (Hot Creek, CA)
For years there has been a rumor amongst the most elite of the flyfishers that Hot Creek is VERY technical, only for pros and experienced fly fishers, 15 foot 7x leaders are necessary-size 28 flies are the only thing they will bite.  If you don’t dress like an Orvis fly fishing manikin  & carry a Smithsonian endorsed cane rod while casting- NO TROUT FOR YOU…  BS!!!  This is the easiest place other than Crowley to fish in the entire Sierra.

So Near Yet So Far – Hendrickson Hatch (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
the heaviest Hendrickson hatch I ever saw I was lying on my back on the bank around 17 pool trying to not get hit by lightning. River looked like velvet and I couldn't even make a cast... such is life.

“Velvet” River -- Blanket Hatches Of Hendricksons – see more photos (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Hendrickson Mystery Upon Mystery (Au Sable, MI)
it’s hard to figure out how deep we are into the Hendrickson hatch. On Tuesday, there were very few Hendricksons on the mainstream, yet they were great on the Mason Tract section of the South Branch. Today, Wednesday, there were few Hendricksons anywhere (though there was a good olive hatch…and decent streamer fishing). How long can this go on? Well, it’s hard to say. We’re now entering our third – yes third – week of Hendricksons. But we’ve had few, if any, blanket hatches. With yet more cold nights in the forecast…well, again, it’s just hard to say. We’ve entered what seems to me to be a prolonged stall, and the hatches are starting to overlap: Hendricksons, black caddis, BWOs, mahoganies (a very underrated hatch), and a smattering of stoneflies as well…not to mention a few olive and/or Hendrickson spinners mixed in.

Streamside Convenience (Au Sable, MI)
The fishing was crappy today: an old outhouse "think" tank shipwrecked on a logjam.

Flushing Flows (Bighorn, MT)
The flushing flows worked like magic, and dry fly fishing is as good as it gets right now. Midges and more recently baetis hatches have produced some epic days on the river.

Criminal Activity? (Montana)
Road trips that revolve around fishing don’t suck. Plan one soon.

Low Water Wisdom (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
when the water is low the trout tend to get packed into the riffles and tails of riffles. This is mostly because of the slow clear water in the pools making trout very vulnerable to air predators.

Rise Form Wisdom (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Hatches have become more complex at times with both mayflies and spinners on the water.  Be sure to check the rise forms.  A fish with his back out of the water is generally not taking a surface fly.

Timing Wisdom (Au Sable, MI)
In the end, it’s pretty simple to know when to go—whenever you have time.

Ominous Statement – or business development? (Penns, PA)
Unless we get some rain, the spring fishing will quickly fade to summer. Get here soon.

Combat Fishing (White, AR)
I have to admit I’ve got tears in my eyes at this moment from reading the back of Macs’ vest.  These men and women gave more than we will ever know or and even imagine.  My hat off to every Vet who ever served our country.

5-Word Report (Yakima, WA)
The River is a mess.

McCloud River Gnomes (McCloud, CA)
I just got off the phone with the river gnomes up on the McCloud. They said and I quote "all the rocks and trees are back in place, we just finished installing the river and the fish should be here anyday". [note: the McCloud doesn’t open until April 28]

Twilight Zone (Truckee, CA)
Talk about weird; not only did I recover the exact same lost fly twice in one day, and manage to hook the same fish twice in the same hole, but I also hooked her on the exact same pattern! I also realized that my earlier 2 second meeting hadn't actually been with "Walter"; it was with his little sister.

Shop Dog On-Boarding (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
She was in the store yesterday looking sweet and innocent-very deceiving.  Every evening she turns into a hurricane or a whirling dervish.  She is a handful. Waiting for her to slow down to bring her in daily.  She is now fine and a lunatic-although she is starting to slow down a little.

Fly Fishing Forever (Au Sable, MI)
It was a stipulation made by George Mason as part of the Mason Tract Donation. He wanted it to be a place where anglers could pause for reflection. That’s just what I did. On the copper placard inside the Chapel it says:
HERE MAY THE FISHERMAN RECEIVE THE
SAME INSPIRATION WHICH LED GEORGE W. MASON
A TRUE SPORTSMAN TO BEQUEATH TO THE PUBLIC
THIS LAND AND SANCTUARY BESIDE HIS BELOVED RIVER
1957

 

Thanks for reading!

Hendrickson Male (Catskills, NY)

All Hail The Hendrickson (Au Sable, MI)
to the winter-weary angler, the hendrickson is as much a symbol of spring as the Christmas tree is to a kid in December.  And I guess it's because the hendrickson, in many ways, is the quintessential mayfly to us.  It isn't too big or too small.  It isn't quite a clockwork hatch, but it's damn close.  It's enigmatic, but it's not a brown drake.  It will mate and fall in the evenings, but it's not a hex.  To a fly tyer, the size #14 on which a hendrickson imitation is tied is as close as we get to a perfect canvas.  Small enough to hide mistakes.  Big enough to show off.

Great Fishing “Despite” Blizzard Caddis Hatch (McKenzie, OR)
Great fly fishing on the McKenzie River yesterday, despite blizzard grannom caddis hatches. This hatch can be frustrating. The fish aren’t hungry and you’re eating bugs all day too. But it tapers off in the next few weeks.

Flows & Timing (Yakima, WA)
When the river was down, we were UP!  Now that the river is up... we are down :(   The good part is that when the river drops next week the fishing will be hot again.  If we didn't get these swells we wouldn't see the extreme bite that occurs on the drop and the initial rise.

Blockage Report (Yakima, WA)
-New sweeper in the Irene to Ringer section, easy to slide boat over it
-Koa to Irene is clear above the weir.
-Main channel below State launch is blocked

Risk & Reward (Yakima, WA)
TRUST ME when I tell you, you want to be the first boat through after the river clears. There is some risk involved but there is too much at stake not to try. Anglers pursuing that "magic day" should roll the dice and give it a shot.

Flushing Flow (Bighorn, MT)
“The flushing flow is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, April 9, and be completed by 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 12. During the flush, flows in the Bighorn River will be stepped-up incrementally from the current flow of 2,880 cubic feet-per-second (cfs) to a maximum of about 7,000 cfs and held at that rate for approximately 12 hours before stepping incrementally back down. The maximum flow of 7,000 cfs is expected to occur on Tuesday, April 10 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. During the flushing flow, the river stage is expected to vary by approximately 2 feet.”  This is going to be great for spring fishing and the fishery in general. The river currently has a bit of moss, different than grass, and this should clear the moss and expose some gravel that our hatching insects thrive in.  It may cut down on our sow bugs a bit by clearing out silt, but there are plenty of them anyways!

Art? (Bighorn, MT)

Dry Times (Frying Pan, CO)
With the hot dry weather continuing, last month has been designated as the second driest March on record. This coincided with a decision by the Bureau to drop the flow in the Pan to 65cfs.  In another article, some are lamenting the possibility of a low level run-off this coming year.  It may not be great for the rafters, but frankly after the last few years, it will be great for fishing.

Tough Times (Au Sable, MI)
Did you ever go cold?  I mean, in a fishing sense?  Like, every time you go fishing you get more than your just due of bad luck.  Big fish lost.  Unexpected high winds.  Bright bluebird days and quiet rivers.  The Au Sable has got a mean streak.  We call it paying our dues.

“Tough” Times (Oregon)
it is really tough to hook so many trout in a day that you simply lose count, but somebody's got to do it.

Nostalgic Times (Green, UT)
You can still find risers and moments of greatness, but it is inconsistent.

Reader Beware – of “bullshit” advice
A recent thread on a “popular” fishing forum really got me laughing. Someone was asking about rods/line recs for a trip and I just amazed at the bullshit in some of the responses. Yes, everyone has different casting strokes and opinions on rod and line recs but I am amazed at how many of these recs are so far out of the ballpark, a beginner would be lucky to turn over a bare hook.

Q: Whom Do You Trust?
I've been to a lot of fly shops from Alaska and British Columbia to all up and down the East Coast, to pretty much everywhere out West, and I've talked to countless others on the phone, and I'll have to say that the information I've received about their home rivers has run the gamut from invaluable to useless, and even sometimes possibly deceptive, bordering on outright lies.

A: The NON-PIMP (Yakima, WA)
Update from the NO PIMP ZONE. Fishing has been fabulous, the river is still in great shape, all in all the best Skwalla season I can remember. Although it is slowing up, it has been a great start to spring fishing.

BWO’s – Double Your Pleasure
These bugs love to hatch in inclement weather, so if it's your prerogative, try to fish the river on overcast or even raining days. You'll have more of the river to yourself and the wind and rain will knock the bugs for the fish to gorge on.

“Geezer Patrol” (Northern California)
Bill Kiene: They all fly fished before WWII and have seen the sport really change in the past 60 years. They are all proud members of the "Great Generation". If it was not for these guys I would have never made it in the fly fishing business. They all helped me one way or another.

Audio/Video Of Old-Timer Steelheader Mafia: Obsessive, Ruthless (Northern California)
  
“In those days, you always knew what your status was in the in group.  If they motioned you over and they moved their boats apart to let yours in, you knew you had status, you knew you were one of the guys.  There was a lot of secretive maneuvering, a lot of gamesmanship, a lot of decoying… There’s only a couple of parking spots...  The competition sometimes got out of hand.  It could be ugly.  Hell with anyone else.  …it was not a gentleman’s sport.  …It’s like something that runs your life.  It’s a way of life.  And it sometimes wrecks your personal life.”

Legendary Anglers Headed To The Big Lake In The Sky
In a matter of a few days, the bass fishing world has lost two of its “founding fathers,” if you will, as both Pat Donoho and Don Lee passed away last week.  Legendary anglers and bass fishing pioneers Pat Donoho and Don Lee headed to the big lake in the sky.  Goodbye my friend since 1975. Tell all of our buddies up there that we will be there soon. I love you. Pat was called to heaven to fish a bass tournament with Fred Kunkle, Oakie and Don Lee. We won’t know who won the tournament until we are with him (some of us might not see him). One of Pat’s sayings was “growing old is not for sissies.” He said he finally understood what it met when he got sick. [noteworthy, even if it’s neither trout nor fly-fishing]

 

Thanks for reading.

California Still In Drought
Scientists from the state Department of Water Resources measured the state's snowpack and have concluded that California is still in a drought.  The DWR's fourth snow survey of 2012, performed by both man and machine this week, showed that the water content in California's snowpack is only 55 percent of average. The April 1 snowpack measurement is the most important of the season since it is when the snowpack is usually at its peak, and right before the snowback melts and flows into rivers and streams.  "The wet conditions in March weren't enough to make up for the previous dry months," the DWR concluded.  DWR officials have said that although good reservoir storage will help lessen impacts this summer, California should still be prepared for a dry 2013.

See Regional Snowpack Trendlines

Other California Links

Updated Drought Outlook
Since the release of the previous Drought Outlook issued on March 15, 2012, drought was eradicated in some areas from northern California into eastern Washington... In contrast, warm and dry weather led to drought development in parts of the Northeast, the northern High Plains, and a few areas in central sections of the Rockies and eastern Great Basin.  Overall, the current Drought Outlook extending into early summer is not optimistic. Improvement, or at least some improvement, is expected in west-central and northwestern parts of the country, where above-normal precipitation is forecast through the end of April

...Compared to the March 15 issuance

Another Look – Current Conditions

Early Spring – Too Early…? (Penns, PA)
Water levels are low all around the state right now.  I am getting a little concerned... Trees are budding way too early. Like 4-6 weeks early.  That means the Hatches will be early this year.

On The Brink (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Due to a February run-off instead of a late March/April run-off, all 3 branches are at record low water levels which means the first 3 warm days in the 70's will blow out the rest of the early spring hatches.  Absolutely incredible!

Blue Quills (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)

Hendrickson Slowdown (Au Sable, MI)
These cold nights are really slowing down the hatches, which is just fine…  There's nothing quite so bittersweet as blowing out all your hendricksons in a week of warm weather.


April In A Nutshell (Au Sable, MI)


Bidness (Montana)
The last few days have been filled with business, books and the IRS. Fishing guides are not fond of this type of shit, but then again, it is my business and no one else is gonna do it.

Montana Trip Promotional Images

Motivational Phrases (Au Sable, MI)
[we fished] the bubble lines and sweeps, the logjams, the secondary bubble lines and slow-flowing backwaters.

 

Thanks for reading.

Miracle March For Northern California?
for those concerned about the "D" word forget it.  The shack has received 15 in. of rain and about 10 in. of snow and it's pouring rain now

March Takes Shasta Lake To 93% Of Normal
The high-pressure ridge that kept California dry for most of the winter shifted east this month, enabling many areas to achieve above-normal precipitation for the month, according to National Weather Service gauges. 

Latest Snowpack Readings – 51% Of Normal Statewide
Percent of normal for March 30:
39% Southern Sierra, 48% Central Sierra, 68% Northern Sierra

Drought Outlook From March 15

Early Start (Catskills, NY)
This year there are people here fishing far earlier than ever before so their perception is that things are accelerated.

Sign Of The Times (Au Sable, MI)

A Little Excited About Spring? – 7 Hatches At Once (Penns, PA)
Penns is in great shape!!! Bugs are hatching and fish are rising a lot! Blue Wing Olives, Blue quills, light hendricksons, quill gordons, red quills, little brown stones and Early black stones. Hold on to your hats people, it is gonna be another crazy year! Everything is early so far and I think we will see the grannoms really soon!! Lets stay in touch!

Not So Fast (Catskills, NY)
Last night air temps went down to 17 degrees.

Old-Timer Wisdom (Catskills, NY)
Old timers say that the Hendricksons are about when the Forsythia blooms.  Well, the forsythia is blooming!!  [and] those bugs were most definitely Hendricksons-no doubt at all.

Good Fallback Hatch (Au Sable, MI)
We've seen some Hendricksons.  We really have.  But the cold has stalled these spring mayflies, and left us to fish blanket hatches of the often overlooked early season olives.

Hendricksons: Why I Love Thee (Au Sable, MI)
I’m not sure that I get as excited about any hatch as I do the Hendrickson. That’s probably true of all dry fly anglers...  When it happens, so many cool things collide. First you have the itch to simply get out and go fishing. If for no other reason than to blow the winter stink off. Then the water temperature get to that magic 55 degree mark where Hendricksons hatch and the trout’s metabolism kicks into full eat mode for the first time since last fall. Factor in that the fish haven’t been pressured yet and you’ve got the makings for a spectacular casserole of fishing fun.

No Nostradamus (Au Sable, MI)
I can't say for certain when the bugs are going to "blow up."  Certainly it won't be long, and for all I know, it'll be tomorrow.

To Be Clear (Bighorn, MT)
Spring nymphing and dry fly fishing is in full swing.

To Be Brief (Yakima, WA)
Like a broken record, but better!

Shad Festival – for lunker browns (White, AR)
more shad began coming through the dam today on a full 8 units of water.  Good feeding for our trout to grow big on.

Made Of Leather (Truckee, CA)
The winds though have been a bummer. My hands and face feel like an old saddle.

Thanks for reading.

Hatch Chart Adjustments (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
The unseasonably warm winter may push up this Spring's hatching activity.  Hopefully we will get some cold weather coming soon to push us back into a normal spring pattern.

“This will be an early season” (Catskills, NY)

Due To Warmth (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)
Will someone PLEASE explain to me why I am wearing shorts in the middle of March? We are already over 70 today, and it looks like we will get to 77 or so in ambient air temp. Bugs have been reported from about 12:00 to 3:00, and our first ‘magic hour’ flush happened last night at 6:30 or so.

“Hendricksons are close” (Au Sable, MI)
it’s all about to change. Hendricksons are close. Check out the guide trip special. http://www.oldausable.com/services-23.html  I’ve been looking for rising trout, checking water temperatures, and studying nymphs. They are so close to emergence. Water temp’s have topped 50 degrees in most stretches for the last six days and the Hendrickson nymphs have super dark, nearly black wingcases.

“It's close.  It's real close.” (Au Sable, MI)
The big question every year is whether or not the bugs will be early.  This year it's quite clear that they will be.  The next question has to do with hendricksons.  And yes, those will be early too.  [spring shot below]

Olives (Bighorn, MT)
we are starting to see the water temps up a bit to get our Blue Winged Olives coming off.

“Spring is popping!” (Frying Pan, CO)
Midges are very active, and more fish are rising every day.

“It’s all open now” (Yellowstone)
River wise, pretty much open river wide as far as we know, talking to Toots at B&G River Shuttle it sounds like the river is open and guys are even putting in and floating up in Paradise and doing the Bird Float, so it's all open now!

March Madness (San Juan, NM)
We've got our own form of March Madness going on right here at the San Juan. Lots of Spring Breakers and Weekend Warriors, suiting up and  double checking their equipment in the parking lots and putting all they've got into the preparation for battle with their adversaries of elusive rainbow and brown trout.

March Madness Promo (Yakima, WA)
March madness is here!  Our guide staff is willing to buy your gas if you come out fishing with us before March 31st.

Spring Fever Clinic (Truckee, CA)
[the kind with rubber walls?]

High Desert Drama (San Juan, NM)
Gotta love spring time in the high desert. 60 degree weather one day to rain/snow and wind the next. Such is life here. At least the fishing is still good.

 

Piscine Hitman (Trinity, CA)
He has fish named and numbered in the famed “Society Pool”.  He is on the water almost daily. Believe me you don’t want to fish behind him. 

“Miracle March” Needed For Klamath? (CA)

“The last thing a bug sees before chaos” (Sacramento, CA)

“Massive Caddis Hatch” (Owens, CA)
Get up here and get some of this Caddis fly hatch but I’m warning you, if you smile too big you will find out what a size 14 Caddis tastes like

“Matching the hatch?  Not so much” (Sacramento, CA)

“On like Donkey Kong” (northern California)
What was looking like maybe a tougher season (due to low flows) has just turned around and it should be, as they say: “On like Donkey Kong” soon!

Porn-egon (Oregon)
Now it was Taylor's turn to get tight to a winter steelhead, as Rob was totally stoked to pull out a fish from the swollen water that the recent weather has pumped into the river.

Video footage

Surly Spey Casting Wisdom (Oregon)
(Interview with Mike Maxwell, first steelhead speyfisher)
“Fish the water, and stick to your effective range,” he said. “An angler only really has control over his or her presentation within two to five rod lengths.”
“But Mike, I was instructed that your rods and lines were meant to throw lines of six to seven times the rod length.”
“That’s bullshit. Absolute bullshit! Whoever told you that was an idiot.”

Cranky Thoughts (Yakima, WA)
Well the wind has been awful and today is no different.  Fishing is supposed to be fun, not something to be endured with a clinched jaw, hell that's what the dentist is for. And what is with the gas price?

Lucky Guide Marries Up (Montana)

…and avoids grizzy

Nice Office View (Owens, CA)

Nearby Fly Shop For Sale (Bishop, CA)
I have reached that magical age of retirement and it is time to move on to more fishing, fishing and more fishing.  I want to thank all of you for your support over the past 23 years. For it was you, that made it possible for me. As a child I always wanted to own this business and it came true. This could be your childhood dream come to also… If you have ever dreamed of owning your own fly shop in a beautiful location like the Eastern Sierra, opportunity is knocking at your door now. I want to retire and move on so I am motivated to sell. Please call me at 760-937-2067 or email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to start your dream come true.

Read Exclusive Troutsource Interview With Gary

Work In A Montana Fly Shop
Hardcore Fly Fishers Wanted

Blown out!  ..with more rain coming

11X Tuesday’s flows (Yuba, CA)

8X Tuesday’s flows (Upper Sacramento, CA)

2012 – Bumper Salmon Year? (California)
From the San Francisco Chronicle…
The council’s experts said there are 820,000 chinook in the ocean now preparing to return to the Sacramento River system to lay eggs next fall.  Another 1.6 million chinook from the Klamath River are out there, according to the estimates – one of the largest populations of salmon on record.

 

…but “Don't believe everything printed in newspapers.”
…cautious optimism
…read the actual report

Steelhead Winding Down On Klamath And Trinity (CA)

Saving The Klamath (CA) – interview with Craig Nielsen
It’s a good fishery that could become a really great fishery. 
…see coverage on Kiene’s
…and article on potential dam removal

Exuberance (Frying Pan, CO)
Bananas! that's all we can say about the fishing right now. Wicked good midge hatches throughout the day with fish chowing on the surface and solid nymphing in between hactches. Get on it!  Do it to it! The Pan is going off with midges right now and the fish know it and so should you. The bugs have been poppin' off almost everyday now with heavy numbers of fish feeding on the surface doing their thing. Let's get this fishing season started off on the right foot! Dry fly madness! Killer midges hatches on the reg right now.  GOTTA LOVE IT!  Drys, nymphs and streamers? You name it, you can fish it on this section of the Pan. Great hatches of midges right now makes for some outstanding dry fly fishing happing everyday now.

The Beginning… (Penns, PA)
Bugs are hatching and fish are rising a little!

Circus Coming Soon (Catskills, NY)
there have been stoneflies, midges, and olives around so there is a chance to see rising fish in spots.

Turning The Corner (Bighorn, MT)
streamer fishing is giving way to spring nymphing

Get Ready (Bighorn, MT)
Midge activity is ramping up The fish really want to rise

“March Madness is here: Time for trout fishing” (Deschutes, OR)
Customers and our Caddis Shop guides are reporting seeing “a few” March Brown’s on our local waters.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Truckee, CA)
After these stroms roll out, it should be business as usual. We’re coming into a good time of the year, Spring, to catch big fish throughout the entire Truckee River system, California and Nevada.  Skwalas will be in the air, march browns, and blue wings.

Early Spring (Delaware, NY/PA)

Back To Normal (Colorado, AZ)
To help put the current flow levels into perspective; our current high flow is approximately four vertical feet lower than the flows that we saw last year…the river is finally back to normal.

“Thanks Old Friend” (Montana)
……you were a great companion…..a machine in the field.

“Huge Rivers & Mythical Beasts” & The Meaning Of Life (Oregon
I consider man’s role in society: For millennia our job has been to enter the realm of mythical beasts and to return with bounty or stories. Standing on a gravel bar near a deep pool at tidewater, I feel that tension of lurking danger.  …The landscape sparks a conversation about the afterlife. If I drown right now, would my ghost haunt these waters? …Can we derive meaning by wading in these gray-green rivers, pushing out feathery handmade squid imitations into the current, waiting for some connection to the natural world?

blog comment:
  mike says:
  March 15, 2012 at 4:01 am
  This river is too deep for me.

 

Thanks for reading!

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California Rain-a’comin?
POTENTIAL TO BE THE WETTEST PERIOD SO FAR THIS WET SEASON.  MODEL CONFIDENCE AND RELIABILITY ARE ABOVE NORMAL...  INDICATING SOME 3 TO 7+ INCH AMOUNTS OVER INTERIOR NORCAL...

Oregon Steelhead Photos

Alawys Be Closing (PA)
PS: I have the flies that work

More Self-Promotion (White, AR)
Everyone is friendly and the slow pace is addictive.

Prick Slick (Madison, MT)
The slick in front of his house was renamed Prick Slick, because of how this guy treats anglers who walk the bank (below the high water mark).  In fact, I was there the night this name was conjured up…

Smut-Like (Bighorn, MT)
Streamer fishing has been best in the deeper trenches of the river... A sinking line is necessary to get the streamer down to the fish.

Spawning Cycles (Colorado, AZ)
The spawn is very weak this year. I figure that this is a “compensatory response” due to the fact that the spawn and recruitment has been so successful the past couple of years. This is a natural response by the fish and I have seen it many times over the years and next year will likely be different.

Skwala Orgy Photos (warning: graphic content)

Great Steelhead Porn

Rising Water = Downed Trees (Au Sable, MI)
there are trees down everywhere.  I know that the river is impassable from Wakeley to Townline.  I would suspect that the North Branch and South Branch are also impassible (ditto the Manistee).  This was the kind of storm that rearranges the river.  Which I think is great.  You know the old saying, you never step into the same river twice.  Well this year it’ll be a bit more profound.  As our river swells with spring run-off the deck will be shuffled, as steelheaders are fond of saying, and there’ll be new fish residing in covers that weren’t there last year.

Spring Fever

Catskills (MI)
Everyone is getting the bug to fish

Frying Pan (CO)
Spring is popping!

Au Sable (MI)
Time to get excited boys and girls.  Spring is in the “ten day”.

Au Sable (MI)
Major melt down is happening right now on the Au Sable River.  When is it time to start spring streamer fishing?  The answer is right now!

Au Sable (MI)
it is spring.  The steelhead are spawning on the steelhead rivers.  The rainbows are starting to spawn on the Au Sable.  There have been small hatches of midges and stoneflies on both rivers, and I’m certain that by next week someone will have found an early riser.

Not So Fast (MI)

Early Spring Hatches

Stonefly Blizzard (Penns, PA)
Black Stonefly hatch that was like a blizzard.

Stoneflies, But No Hendricksons Yet (Catskills, NY)
Occasional little black stones will get an occasional rise,but not frequently enough to really get anyone excited.  …water temps are still (mercifully) cold,so we’re not worried about Hendricksons popping as of yet.

Hendrickson Hatch Trip – Sold Out (Central PA)
Enjoy the first large mayfly hatch of the season. We will also have Grammons in the air.  We plan on fishing Big Fishing Creek (Friday) and either Bald Eagle or Penns Creek on Saturday.
Troutnut.com Hendrickson Photos

 

Hendrickson Anticipation (Au Sable, MI)
Another week closer to Hendricksons!  But then the snow came yesterday.

“March Browns Just Around The Corner” (Deschutes, OR)

Profound Advice (Frying Pan, CO)
Do it to it!

XXX Steelhead porn (Oregon) – the conquests of Brian Marz

It is a spot where the bucket is all the way across the river, and you have to hold your fly in there as long as you can while mending over a heavy plume of mainstream current. On my third presentation, I had an insane take, and the fish was running up through the main gut of current before I even knew what was going on. It bopped a huge air, and revealed its chrome bright look, and oversized native body before turning downstream and burning a turbo charged blistering run right to the tailout above a long set of rapids where it stopped on a dime… (read more)

“March of the Skwala - It's about to bust loose” (Yakima, WA)
March madness is almost here!  The Skwala Stonefly hatch will be rockin' so get your waders out of the attic and let's get a move on!

Signs of spring

Lower Sacramento , CA
Hatches are running weeks early, with the famed blizzard spring caddis coming off on the sunny afternoons.  We typically do not see this hatch until well into March. Some March Browns, PMD’s and lingering BWO’ mayflies are mixed in making for an aggressive bite. 
--- guided trip opening this Sunday with Shane Kohlbeck, Lower Sac Trout

Upper Sacramento, CA
Whoo-hoo, 67 degrees in Dogpatch yesterday.... gotta love these early hints of spring which, by the way, is a little over 3 weeks away. Our mild non winter continues to barrel forward and the Upper Sac remains in fishy shape.

Penns Creek, PA
Happy days are here again, 4 trout on dry stoneflies. Its been a long time since I got a Penns Creek fish on a dry fly.

White, AR
Caddis are already moving upstream from the confluence of the Norfork and the White.

Frying Pan, CO
The lower section of the pan is really picking up now that spring is just around the corner.

Frying Pan, CO
With Spring just around the corner, Midges are becoming more active by the day. Rising fish are more common.

Yellowstone, MT
It feels like Spring in Montana these days although it is still a little early to make that assumption.

Thoughts of spring (Au Sable, MI)
Next week looks wonderful, with temperatures in the 40s.  That kind of weather makes it hard to sit still.  It seems like every year we get one of these early thaws.  It's a magical time.  The crust on the swamps melts into the river.  The water rises and stains, and the fish begin to shuffle around.  Deer crowd the south-facing banks.  A few stoneflies hatch.  And we anglers, always hopeful, dig out our dry fly boxes and see what state of disaster we left them in.
…There's nothing like streamer fishing on a sunny day in March.  You're comfortable and dry and the fish are eating big streamers.  It feels kind of like cheating.
…the warm winter has encouraged the guides to offer our annual EARLY SEASON SPECIAL on guide trips at a much earlier date. 

…while in the grips of winter (Au Sable, MI)

Spring water prognosis (Upper Sacramento, CA)
Excluding a miracle March of wetness (I don't see it in the cards) the Upper Sac seems to be headed towards a very fishable river for the "opener" at the end of April and beyond. The snow pack is about 30% currently which translates into bad for the white water people and those of you south of here. Shasta Lake does have enough water stored to take care of you city dwellers but you irrigators, from what I hear, are only getting 50% of your allotment. Oh yeah, for those of you wondering about the Upper Sac and McCloud Rivers there should be plenty of water in the aquifers and all the springs seemed to be charged up nicely thanks to the last two winters.

Heard on Kiene’s (regarding prospective 800 CFS flows on the American next week)
what a difference a year makes. It was 30,000 last year in the spring and we were worried about fish spawning in the parking lot.

Getting dry out east? (Pennsylvania)
Precipitation for most of the month of February was just over one inch, and streams in Central PA have continued to drop. Even larger waters are now getting a little low. Whatever the long term consequences, that means that fishing right now is both practical and good.

Backup plan (Yellowstone)
Calling for sustained winds in the 30s to 40s through Wednesday, so I'd find a stool at the bar

Skwalas, whiskey and beer video (Yuba, CA) (2 weeks old)

Fly fisherman rescued from Kenai River
A Cooper Landing fly fisherman was rescued and rushed to an Anchorage hospital after falling through ice on the Kenai River on Saturday.

Male body recovered from Spokane River banks
Spokane Police Department says the body was above the water on the rocks...   Officials say the call came in after 3:30 p.m. from a man who was fly fishing.

A River Runs Through It – 20^th anniversary – impact on Montana

Midget hatch?
Fishing was great with a solid midget hatch from about 11 to 3  and a few baetis were spotted.

Yellowstone scenery

Steelhead derangement syndrome
If you’re swinging flies, you have to have some kind of suspension of disbelief. 99% of the time, it’s not going to work. But it always could!

Porno Prawn (Oregon)
The sky turned black and rain poured into the valley. The sky cleared and a fresh dust of snow gleamed on a clear cut peak.

Wish You Lived In Oregon?
One day Charlie hooked into a chrome bright hen that took him literally about 500+ yards downstream over a double stair step water fall, and down through boulder strewn set of rapids, and into a long pool to have the fish take the whole fly line 3 more times (with the drag cranked down). When we were standing there getting ready to net (rubber net) the seemingly over 40" chromer with the leader cranked into the rod, the fish gave one last pull, and snap! She was back off to continue her run.....Luckily, we saw this awesome beast, and she was the largest fish I have seen in person (steelhead-wise), and she was in close and personal several times. [bigger than the one below]

Winter Wisdom (Au Sable, MI)
If there's one mistaken notion in our fly fishing, it's that trout "shut down" in the winter. 

Spring Approacheth (Au Sable, MI)
It's not spring, but it's getting closer.  The ten day shows an inconsistent but generally upward temperature trend.  We had some midges hatching the other day and even if the trout aren't eating them (at least off the surface!) it's certainly a sign of life.

…Revealing Itself With Filth (Yakima, WA)
Ahh, springtime on the Yakima, high and filthy, we have warm and windy weather again today so expect the River to be a mess for a week.

…Which Causes Joy (Yakima, WA)
This morning actually looking at the dirty river made us happy? This is the first sign that spring is here. We will see a few more high water events this spring, this first one helps get rid of all the low lying  snow. Remember after these events the river will change, especially in the upper river and farmlands. Please give us a call or stop by the shops before the next time you head out on the river.

Cabin Fever Day
Spring is nearing and with it the promise of more great trout days.  Cabin Fever Day has some traction.

Shad Kill Update (White River, AR)
this is the best shad kill we have had in a couple of years. …These are big bites and they can attract some large hungry trout. … The shad came through so heavily at Bull Shoals that they made their way as far down stream as Rim Shoals (twenty four miles).

Navigating Yellowstone In (a mild) Winter
Running around Yellowstone in a vintage Bombardier is a fabulous way to get a paycheck, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Water Supply Concerns (Colorado)
We haven't had any snow to speak of for a while now. The snow fields claim to have had 12" over the past week but I suspect one has to look under a rock to find it. Hard to believe.  …The big question now is what the water levels will be like this coming season. Actually it is too early to tell as most of the snowfall now tends to come over the next 2 months.

No Rain = Low Flows & Good Fishing (American, CA)
The release from Nimbus Dam to the American River was reduced again to the lowest in a very long time — to 1,450 cfs — and that was both good news and bad news.  The good news is that the river is very fishable for waders, and there has been an influx of fresh fish,  mostly small, but in great numbers. In the upper section of the river above Sunrise Blvd. to Nimbus Hatchery, there are lots of larger, dark steelhead spawning on redds. Unfortunately, they are quite vulnerable to outright snagging, as well as, the more subtle illegal method of lining or “flossing.”

…Piper To Be Paid In Spring/Summer? (Owens, CA)
It has been great for winter fly fishing in the region but the "piper" will be paid this summer and fall with low water in many rivers and creeks. The good news is the reservoirs in this area remain very full from last season’s torrential precipitation and we should have a very good spring and summer in these areas although you will see the levels decrease this year instead of rise as they did last season.

Latest Drought Forecast Map

…But “Insane” Dry Fly Fishing This Spring? (Truckee, CA)
Things are shaping up for a great Spring, much like the Spring of ’07, when the dry fly fishing was insane because lack of run-off.

Water Speculators Threaten McKenzie (OR)
[local paper has reported on] developer Greg Demers’ plans to siphon off our area’s most valuable resource, the McKenzie River, to sell to non-existent customers. He also wants to overturn ODFW’s low-water limit of 2,000 CFS in the summer months that protects our world class fisheries.

Turning Of The Lake (San Juan, NM)
The lake has turned again, probably for the last time, and the water is murky.

Promotional Material (Trinity, CA)
(Those are flies)

California Wolf Is A Killer?
Nash, a rancher from Wallowa County in northeast Oregon…said OR-7 killed two of his calves in May 2011, before the gray wolf left his pack and began his well-documented journey southwest through Oregon and eventually into eastern Shasta County.  …An investigation summary on the wildlife agency’s website concludes that it was possibly a wolf but it is unknown for sure.  “OR-7 certainly could have been involved in that, along with other wolves,” Stephenson said.  John Stephenson, a wolf coordinator for the agency, said Nash was reimbursed for the cost of a calf killed by a wolf that may have been OR-7.  There have been no confirmed cattle killed by OR-7 since he left his pack, Stephenson said.  It isn’t likely that the wolf, who turns 3 in April, will kill cattle while living alone. Most wolves kill in packs, he said. …There are 21 confirmed kills from the Imnaha wolf pack between spring 2010 until Thursday, Dennehy said.  OR-7 belonged to the Imnaha pack before he headed south in September. 

Rancher Disputes Tone of OR7 Wolf Video (Oregon)
“It’s far from what takes place here,” Nash said, referring to the video, which shows OR-7 trotting across a field.

February 23 – Still In Siskiyou County
OR7 has traveled southeast but remains in Siskiyou County.

Protected By State Of California
Any wolf that enters California is protected as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. …there will be an intentional delay in posting new map information to protect the current location of this wolf.

“The Skwala Nation” (Yuba, CA - Jon Baiocchi’s new home river)
Colors of the Skwala are different from watershed to watershed, but most will have a drab brown-olive to black body and head, with soot yellow markings on the abdomen, and a smokey dark wing.  The emergence can start in mid January in our valley rivers, and March or April in the mountains.

High Country Skwalas (Truckee, CA)
The Skwalla stones started emerging today just down-stream from the town of Truckee.  …This the first large bug of the year, on the surface feeders menu.

…and Oregon Brethren (Deschutes, OR)
We are also starting to see a few more Skwalla stones taking flight which is a good sign for the up coming weeks.

"Wide Open, Hatch-o-rama” (Owens, CA)

Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show
This weekend in Northern California

 

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Addiction Is A Powerful Thing

Just this past Friday I was minding my own business, working the shop, during a nice snowstorm.  Not a blizzard. The air temperature was around 25 degrees or so.  Around noon my neighbor walks in and I can tell, just by his smile, that he’s thinking fishing…On the ride home the thermometer said 8 degrees.  The wind chill was in double digits below zero.  I came home and sat by the woodstove for about four hours dressed in a coat and hat while the kid ran around in his diaper.  I will tell you that I love winter fishing.  But I will also tell you that I love spring fishing even better.

Buy A Fly Shop in California’s Eastern Sierra
If you have ever dreamed of owning your own fly shop in a beautiful location like the Eastern Sierra, opportunity is knocking at your door now… Brocks Flyfishing Specialists, LLC is FOR SALE.  I have reached that magical age of retirement and it is time to move on to more fishing, fishing and more fishing. I want to thank all of you for your support over the past 23 years. For it was you, that made it possible for me. As a child I always wanted to own this business and it came true. This could be your childhood dream come to also. Again, thanks to you all.

Oregon Steelheading Near Peak
Runs on many of Oregon’s winter steelhead rivers will be at their peak over the next couple of weeks.

OR-7 Wolf Returns To Shasta County (CA)
After spending about a month in Lassen County, the wolf dubbed OR7 is back in Shasta County.  The 2-year-old gray wolf apparently headed west late last week and slipped over the county line into eastern Shasta County on Saturday morning, according to the state Department of Fish and Game...  Stopher said it is remarkable that OR7 has traveled about 550 miles through Shasta, Siskiyou and Lassen counties and no one has seen him.  ..the wolf hasn't been seen in five months, even though he has traveled some 1,300 miles, Stopher said.  "He's one sneaky dude," Stopher said.

Shanghai Falls – No More (Feather ,CA)
The clay berm that once kept stripers, shad, steelhead trout and salmon in a holding pattern beneath the water's surface is no more.  "It just wore out and gave way," Sutter County Supervisor Stan Cleveland says of the natural landmark's quiet death in mid-January.  On weekends during good runs, "it was probably the best spot on the Feather River besides the outlet up in Oroville," says Boucke.  Johnson says a potential silver lining in the loss of the falls might be represented by a large fish that has, until now, made only infrequent appearances in the area.  "Sturgeon can't pass barriers like that," he says of the falls. "This does open up a chance for them to get up a little farther."
…was a popular fishing spot for generations of anglers

Alewives a comin’? (Upper Delaware River, NY/PA)
With the reservoir hovering around 90%,and no real snow pack to speak of,this is a bit of daydreaming,but I am REALLY looking forward to the early season streamer fishing. In a perfect world,we will get a bunch of spillage right as the alewives are hovering near the warmer water at the surface of Cannonsville –much as we had last year!

Major Shad Kill (White River, AR)
… as of this morning shad were pouring through the dam ...This morning fish were taking shad off the surface as well as deeper down.  We have not seen shad come through like this in 4 or 5 years and they were coming through in weak generation of three units.  …I’m hoping the kill will last another week or so ...  As you can see in [the second] picture the gulls were taking shad off the surface on Saturday and today Sunday tons of shad came through with fish taking them off the surface.


 

Shad Kill Factoids
No other Ozark tailwater event gets local and visiting anglers more excited than the annual shad kill. ... When power is generated, tons of the shad get sucked through the turbines and they end up in the river. The harrowing ride and change in pressure usually leaves the shad crippled, and as they float along the surface they are easy prey for the river’s trout... Growth rates of the trout are amazing during these times and it is also a great opportunity to catch a huge fish.

Flow turnaround in the Northeast
Water levels have dropped dramatically in the last few weeks due to scant precipitation. Streams in Central PA are at or near normal flows for the winter months. Wading is not the adventure that it was a month ago. Fishing is almost easy by contrast…Conditions are stacking up for a memorable late winter−early spring.

Need precip in Michigan
And though it's not unusual to have low water before the spring thaw, it is unusual not to have heaps of snow in the swamps and surrounding forests.  There's just not a lot of water in the woods.  So if we can't have snow, we'll take some rain.

Cabin Fever Day (Au Sable, MI)
Don’t miss Cabin Fever Day this February 25th. It’s a great excuse to go fishing.

Signs of spring

Au Sable (MI)
There are some signs of spring, or at least of a winter that hasn't happened.  We've seen a few wood ducks on the river this winter.  The beavers are starting to build their castor mounds on the bank sides.  There are prespawn rainbows in the upper river, and on rivers like the Pere Marquette, there are steelhead starting to scrape the gravel.

Lower Sacramento (CA)
The fishing has been great! The springtime caddis are popping off the river, delivering crazed rainbows chasing any nymph pattern that is dark and a #16-18.  

Pit River (CA)
Fishing has been great! Hatches of BWOs, early springtime Caddis and Skwalla Stones are responisble for the spike in fishing quality!

Upper Sacramento (CA)
Right now above Sims it's winter like scenery but below Sims it's spring like [see below] …The whacky meter currently is showing bulbs popping up in Mt. Shasta, Robins are back(I really don't think they ever left), people wearing shorts a few days ago were spotted, and the USac has remained fishable so far without missing much of a beat.

Truckee (CA)
The bugs are out, East of Reno that is. …I haven’t seen any fish on top, but that will change here shortly. … It will be a solid month before we see those bugs up around Hirschdale on the Cali side of the Truckee River.

Hot Creek & Owens River (CA)
“I was fishing today on the lower Owens and it was just going off. I was in shorts under my waders and I was seeing 15 to 20 fish slurping bugs,” said Jaeger, who owns Eastern Sierra Guide Service. “Water temperatures are coming up, the days are getting a little longer and it’s starting to get darn good.”

Deschutes (OR)
On Saturday it felt like spring with a plethora of different insects hatching from caddis to BWO's to a smattering of Skwalla stones.

Warm Winter = Consistent Fishing

Frying Pan (CO)
With this mild winter our valley has been experiencing so far this year, the fishing has been staying very consistent from day to day.

Au Sable (MI)
The mild winter continues - trout fishing has been pretty decent overall this winter.

Bighorn (MT)
Water temp in the river hasn't been as cold for this time of year.  Therefore the trout have been more active.

Yellowstone
The mild winter up here has kept most of the rivers ice free which is good for those of us who enjoy rising fish and solitude on the rivers. What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time we were waist deep skiing powder, this year we’re waist deep in the rivers.

…With Some 30 ½” Pigs Thrown In (Frying Pan, CO)

Mysterious green flowing slot near the bushes (Oregon steelheading)
One fish was a large bright wild male that blasted a huge air right after the hookup, tore right between Dale and I, where I got a great glimpse of this specimen. Then it catapulted a huge air right on the leader where the impact broke the tippet, and it was back off to his early premature freedom. Right after that, Jenn struck to a Thingamabobber dunk with a bright chromer on, that released itself after a few big headshakes levered the hook from its jaws. With redemption from the steelhead gods, Jenn cast back out into the mysterious green flowing slot near the bushes with confidence from the brief chrome encounter, and the very next cast went tight! Fish on again! Yeah!!!

Here’s some video of the crime scene:

Steelhead Stomach Contents

Makes you think about what to use for colors, and whether or not steelhead eat, don't eat, etc....

First inklings of spring (Lower Sacramento River, CA)

• We are just starting to see those spring-time caddis (Brachycentrus).
   
• temps are supposed to hit 70*F on Thursday.  This will result in some excellent caddis hatches on the Lower Sac, so fishing should be pretty good.

OR-7 Wolf Remains Stationary in Northern California
…still in Lassen County.

Snowpack concerns (Catskills, NY)
I hope the “Winter” has been treating you well. I put Winter in ””since we really have not had much of one up here in Starlight, with only one storm dropping enough snow to mention…. Let’s hope that February decides to send us a big pile of the white stuff, otherwise we will be starting VERY early this season.

Montana?  Winter? (Bighorn, MT)
It’s 50 degrees. Sunny. Beautifully Calm. Let the season begin.

Yellowstone – same question
If you can believe it, it's January and there's still floatable stretches on the Yellowstone right now...

Well, at least it looks wintry

 

Yakima River Winter Wonderland
(date/time of picture unclear)

Skwala cloud (Yakima, WA)
Driving through the Canyon yesterday the windshield was plastered with Skwala's

…yet “…the Skwala hatch is still a month out but we are getting really excited.” ??? (Yakima, WA)

Yakima Skwala tutorial

Shad for lunch, anyone? (White River, AR)
heavy generation has brought some shad through the dam which is something we look forward to happening most years.  Two weeks ago some came through and were floating on the surface but mostly they came through alive as you could see the balls of shad making their way down stream with the current.  It did turn the river on to white and shad flies for a bit. 

Good enough (San Juan, NM)
this sport is comprised of much more than every moment being a golden moment, and those who love it and do it enough, know that there is enjoyment enough in those times when the fishing is just-- good enough… So every day doesn't have to be epic, but they can be memorable, after all.

More profundity (Truckee, CA)
The best day to fish is whenever you can get out there.

Insanity (Washington)
History repeats itself. We’d done this exact same thing last year, showing up one day after the WDFW closed the best part of the river… These repetitions remind me of that saying about doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results being the definition of insanity. …We fish hard until dark without a grab. And I think of the echoes, the way we live in looping circles.

Not your typical conservationist
Moon has been described as a raw and humorous teller of tales and one of the most non-politically correct voices of our times. A self described elitist redneck, hero to none and a legend in his own mind…

Montana Fly Shop Opportunity – still available
Interested in working in one of Montana’s best fly shops and fishing the waters around West Yellowstone every day of the season?

Switch Rod Package Deal – Save $70.01 and FREE Shipping! -- why not?

Winter Fishing Paradise (Owens River, CA)
We finally got a shot of winter at the end of January and it was much welcomed as the Sierra snowpack is at alarmingly low levels… 

…where the fishing ain’t bad either:
The bigs are still holding and these legendary migratory rainbows that move up during the winter from Crowley are spectacular! ...They can take off like a freak’n missile downstream and around a bend before you can even get moving.

Trinity Steelhead Synopsis
…finally a rotation of what appears to be the lead edge of our native winter runs are filtering up out of the canyons.  …this year traditional winter runs are late, very late with many questioning what’s up. As I have always preached fish don’t go by the calendar. It’s all about current conditions. Keep in mind this has been one of the driest winters on record.

…Trinity footage from January 2011

Skwala orgies on the Yuba (CA)
If your lucky you’ll find an orgy – This is their greet, meet, and get busy single’s bar.

…and on the Yakima (WA)
The big fish yesterday were keyed in on the stonefly nymph - which is not a surpise as we are only a few weeks away from Skwala season.
Video footage from March 2009

…where there’s a promotion named after it

Winter Cheer (Yakima, WA)
First part of February and no ice bergs for the last couple of days.

Oregon Steelhead Glory
… I had a friend visit for a couple of days who is a fishing freakazoid. I was not going to let the swollen flows keep us on the couch thinking about chrome anymore. …We searched for "steelhead water" and that was the hard thing to find with the bloated flows… …most of the water was a torrent of jet wash with heavy whitewater or boiling hydraulic pools that looked intimidating.


"So, waiting, I have won from you the end: God's presence in each element" (Goethe) [Troutsource embellishment]:

 

Wintry Saturday in Michigan (Au Sable)

…It was late at that point, and I considered turning in.  Snow had piled onto my shoulders and I had on my old bootfoot waders, the ones that are "highly water resistant".  I was soaked.  And not in a good place to be soaked.  My hands were cold.  I was alone.  I loved it.

Video Fishing Report (Green River, UT)

Where is winter?

…in New York’s Catskills
Either the calender is wrong or the weather is completely out of whack.  The weather has been unseasonably warm-yesterday and today the highs were in the 50′s.  The rivers have completely lost their ice and waters are flowing easily.  There is no ice even at the shore line.

…or in Montana
Our unusually warm winter has had an upside – little or no shelf ice on the Yellowstone. Which means you can wade fish the river pretty much wherever you please.

…where inspiration is found on YouTube
OK, it’s 45 degrees in Livingston, Montana and feels more like spring than January.  So as we are sitting here working on a few bookings for next season we keep looking out the window and thinking about, what else, fishing of course. …There’s nothing that will get you stoked for the upcoming fishing season like some good fish porn! [see below]

More Yellowstone Wildlife
On our way to Canyon Village, the fox [below], loomed around a small bison herd for about twenty minutes and hunted rodents.  

Updates on Gray Wolf OR7 (northern California)

• Feb. 2, 2012: OR7 has moved northwest and is still in Lassen County.
• Feb. 1, 2012: Wolf OR7 remains in Lassen County.
• more updates

Wolf vs. Coyote
Before OR7, the last confirmed wolf in California was here in 1924 and since then, investigated “sightings” have turned out to be coyotes, dogs, wolf-dog hybrids, etc.

Beer = fish? (Truckee, CA)
One beer can change the outlook on everything. After refusing a beer with brother’s Bryan and Jesse this morning, I finally gave into the peer pressure, then of course, Truckee local, Bryan, landed his biggest rainbow to date on the Truckee River. Good times with good dudes.

Fly Fishing Blogosphere Highlights

 

Thanks for reading.

Steelhead dementia -- in Northern California

Just having fun chasing the beast

…and New York
It snowed all night and all the following day. He said the slush was so thick on Elk Creek that the water was the consistency of a Slushy… both his egg and nymph dropper were little ice cubes. His line, leader and indicator were of course coated with ice. The temp was 21. He normally does not go fishing when it is 20 degrees or colder. Hey, 21 degrees, well that's doable.

High Sierras – snow at last (Truckee, CA)

Aggressive Ice (Au Sable, MI):
Occassionally, we'd be fishing, and the boat would get rammed in the back -- like getting rearended at a stopsign.  Ice flows.  Some a dozen feet wide.

Cold? (Frying Pan, UT)

Winter in Michigan (Au Sable):

This is a dry fly at the bottom of a tippet…

“Winter conditions” in Oregon

Ice Age Retreating
The Yak is looking delicious today after 3 weeks of freeze up.  We plan to fish tomorrow and rip some lips somewhere.

Northern California Storms – Impact Photos:
Eel River before and after 6” of rain in 48 hours

Smith River carnage (CA)
Last week's rains brought the Smith to the brink of flood stage… Aside from high, swift, muddy water, hundreds of trees were swept downriver. Guide Mick Thomas said the number of trees and woody debris in the river reminded him of a logging operation.

But it sure helped the Trinity (see graphs like these on Troutsource)

“Predators are badass” (Yellowstone)
Several hundred yards below 7 Mile Bridge, I noticed a bobcat sitting on an old Doulgas Fir near the river bank.  Off the log it walked onto the bank and moved upstream to another log jam…  Predators are badass and this one put on a great show for us… Several minutes later the cat pounced and pulled out a muskrat from the depths of a log jam.

 

Truckee rainbow -- or rainbow-lahontan hybrid? (Truckee, CA)

Reflections on the Pupal Stage: A San Juan Guide & Shop Owner
When I was much younger, I used to spend a lot of my time hanging around my mother's kitchen, complaining that I was bored. Her standard reply was always the same--"Well, go outside and do something", and my comeback was the usual--"But there's nothing to do." This verbal exchange would always result in her response of running down a litany of activities... Lucky for her, I soon discovered fishing, a pastime that left us both, much happier. I find it a bit ironic, that I now spend a lot of my time as an adult, extolling the virtues of "going outside and doing something", to others.

When the student was ready, the teacher caught nothing (MI):
Man, did I show him a few things. I showed him how to nearly fall in about three times. I showed him how to lose your entire rig from the split shot through the second fly about four times. And I showed him how to just generally not catch fish. He on the other hand showed me how to catch 3 or 4.

Poetry (Colorado River, AZ)
The fishing was better in the softer water up in the boulder field

Baby It’s Cold (Catskils, NY):
Today is extremely cold-about 12 was the high.  Rivers are now starting to freeze over and winter is here with a bang.

…and icy (Catskills, NY)
There was some ice floating down the Willowemoc this morning, but all it takes is a couple of warmer days to get things back on track.

…and icier (Yakima, WA)
Currently, MEGA ICE Flow throughout the system.

…and windy (Yellowstone, MT)
With the strong gusts we have been having here in the Gallatin Valley lately, the Yellowstone doesn't seem appealing right now.  Try to find a spot were you can hide from the wind is the key.

…and snowy (Trinity, CA)

…”Snowpocolypse 2012 is upon us”

…but the trout don’t care in Michigan:
With overnight lows licking the zero degree mark, and all the doors of the truck frozen shut, I was hopeful we'd get a trout or two.   Instead, the fishing was awesome.  …A few cold nights really tends to concentrate the fish.

…and it “ain’t that bad” on the San Juan (NM):
There's a lot to be said for fishing this time of year when you can still do it without your guides freezing on every other cast and dealing with frozen boot laces in the parking lot, when it's all said and done. And how can you really complain when you can still go out and catch rising fish on dry flies, for the larger part of the day, and still be warm enough to have your fingers function to tie knots in 6x tippet? So; all in all, it really ain't that bad, and I've seen a lot worse in my time.

…but it really was that bad on the Gunnison once – minus 35:
I'll just try to remember that time my friend and I decided to fish the Taylor River above Gunnison, Co., because no one else is probably going to be there in January. Well, we were right about that part, but didn’t quite think through the other part about why. The night we arrived, the temperature gauge on the clock at the bank downtown, broke and stayed stuck at minus 22 degrees. The next morning when we stopped at a convenience store for coffee on the way to the river, the clerk acted a little surprised to see someone in waders and offered us the cheerful news that the thermometer reading at her house that morning had been a balmy -35 below.

Flows jump 100-fold on the Smith (CA) in 36 hours – after dry early winter – 8”-12” of rain expected:
For the last couple of weeks we have been praying for rain to open many of our rivers that are closed due to low flows. I guess we need to be careful what we ask for…

 

…more on the Northern California storm carnage:
Only the hardiest of the die-hards are challenging the elements… As of this post the rowdy weather has also knocked down major transmission lines, shutting down Lewiston’s electrical power. Phone lines are also down and heavy icy snow fall makes cell service sketchy at best. Road closures, limited travel, no work, no shop sales, no fishing reports, and no whiners, all unusually quiet on the northwestern front, a mandatory mountain and country style time out… I attempt to gather these thoughts in a dimly lit work space highlighted by a narrow beam from a Stanley flashlight. I chuckle aloud as I reflect back on our past when we first started. No computers, no cell phones, no up to the minute river conditions reports. Back then fishing was a true blind faith adventure based upon gut instinct, hunches, hearsay reports, local knowledge and or a willingness to gamble. As I hand write this blog I find the rhythm odd, out of date yet strangely very comforting. Despite the harsh weather impacts we somehow find a way to move on and discover that things can still be done just as effectively, the old fashioned way, and still with a smile. Life is great in Trinity County!

...while wolf OR7 circles fly fishing waters
A On Jan. 9, he was within five miles of Burney after he earlier skirted the towns of McArthur and Fall River Mills as he made his way down from eastern Siskiyou County, Stopher said. In Siskiyou County, the wolf passed through Lava Beds National Monument and came within miles of Medicine Lake before heading toward Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park and McArthur.  From there, he traveled past Burney and walked nearly to the Pit River Arm of Shasta Lake near Big Bend and Montgomery Creek before he doubled back and headed east. He meandered past Lassen Volcanic National Park on his way to Lassen County.

Exact current whereabouts witheld for "wolf's safety"
The most recent one puts OR-7 about 35 miles south of Alturas, Calif., heading toward Nevada...  In the interests of the wolf's safety, the department will delay posting locations on the map.

State of California: This wolf's movement pattern...has so far been unpredictable...
DFG provides these maps to show the route that Wolf OR 7 has traveled since his entry into California. The maps will be updated periodically as additional data becomes available. However, there will be an intentional delay in posting new map information to protect the current location of this wolf. This wolf's movement pattern, in terms of timing, direction and distance has so far been unpredictable. Therefore the maps will provide useful information on where he has been recently, but not where he is now.
 

Death Match Against The Aquatic Devil – hurts steelhead fishing:
Attempting to stop sea lamprey with an electric barrier has become a thing of the past on the Pere Marquette River... The federal agency recently announced it no longer will operate its electric weir there and will resume treating the river only with chemical lampricides...  “We’ve reduced the larval populations (sea lamprey) in the river to 10 to 20 percent of what the average is without the barrier, but that is still thousands of larvae that still require treatment,” said Greg Klingler a biologist with the FWS Marquette Biological Station.

Update on James the Trout (Au Sable, MI)
I saw the shadow move but I didn't say anything.  But Matt was watching his line and it went straight and he struck: fish on…James wasn't as big as we thought…This was a fish that had baffled Matt, Kyle and myself all winter and now, well, it's time to find another to spend a month figuring out.

Lost and Found (Au Sable, MI):
A kind angler found a fly patch and left it. Flies are rotted now.

Broken rods?  No problem (Au Sable, MI)
Everything was busted in just about every way you can imagine. …So the hell with it. I just went down to the river and hung out knee deep in the river with my friend. Honestly, it was good enough. For me that’s as much a part of fishing as are the fish.

Winter rainbow (MT)

Fighting Unemployment in Montana – “Hardcore Fly Fishers Wanted”
Interested in working in one of Montana’s best fly shops and fishing the waters around West Yellowstone every day of the season?  We have an opening or two for knowledgeable, friendly and hard working shop employees for our 2012 season. 

Oregon steelheading:

Ice ain’t nice (Yakima, WA):
"Major ice flow today, no fishing for a few days."

Anthropomorphism:
“We're still chasing this fish we call James.  Sits in the same place everyday.  We've spent a month on him (or he's spent a month putting up with us).”

Misanthrope? -- A lone gray wolf is now in Lassen County (California)
“We didn't think the wolf would be here so soon"

The State of California speaks:
“Gray wolves pose little direct risk to humans.  Any wolf that enters California is protected as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.”

...Sure about that?‎
“Armstrong claims wolves are the only predators who kill for fun, eating their prey while the animals are still alive and chewing fetuses out of cows. She and other wolf opponents are quick to bring up the wolf killings of Candice Berner in Alaska and Kenton Joel Carnegie in Canada.  Berner, 32, was attacked, killed and partially eaten… Carnegie, 22, was killed and partially eaten, apparently by a pack of wolves, on Nov. 8, 2005.  Both victims put up a fight before they were killed.”

Lower Sac Bobcat (CA)

Thirsty for rain out West

 

Colorado
"There is much talk of course about the low snow fall over the past 6 weeks."

Montana
"This is not our typical late December/ January in southwest Montana.   Most of December was cold and dry, then finally it warmed and the snow began to fall….but only for a few days….enough to allow tracked rigs in Yellowstone."

New Mexico
"With the San Juan Basin now at 69% of normal snowpack for this time of year, we could have used the moisture, but we've still got a lot of winter left to play catch-up."

California – far north
"This winter of non winter weather marches on..."

California -- Tahoe
"It’s the middle of January and still no snow in Tahoe, crazy."

San Juan fantasy:
“Judging by the crowds on the San Juan this past week, you might have thought April Vokey was giving fishing lessons in the Kiddie Hole, in a bikini. Unfortunately, that was not the case.”

So who is April Vokey?

“Fly Gal Ventures is a guiding operation that was created in 2007 by British Columbian Steelhead angler/guide, April Vokey; a Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) certified casting instructor and dedicated conservationist.  …Originally based around local fisheries and workshops geared primarily for women, the vision was to bring specialized courses and instruction to other female anglers and newcomers to the sport. …However…it didn’t take long for the guys to jump on board the excitement of Fly Gal's steelhead and salmon trips.”

Waiting for winter in Northern California (Trinity and Klamath Rivers)
“The surrounding Trinity Alps are void of snow. River flows are abnormally low, winter steelhead are late, and the first generations of Callibaetis mayflies have begun to hatch. Wow, strange and hard to imagine we are currently in the height of our winter season. Or are we?  …I’ll take the odds this persistent west coast high pressure system will eventually lose its grip and sooner than later we’ll receive some kind of winter season.”

”Winter anglers continue to enjoy snow free Sierra”

…but do the steelhead care? (Trinity River)
“Everyone says we need rain. I guess, but really, the fish don’t give a …ck! Steelhead are in the river and the winter fish are on their way and it’s been an amazing season so far, and this February should be off the charts.”

“…as good as we've seen since the epic 2007 season…”

Meanwhile, lone wolf, named OR7, enters area (first since 1924 in California):
“large wilderness areas such as the Marble Mountains, Trinity Alps and backcountry areas around Lassen and Mt. Shasta have high potential to support wolves.  Furthermore, once re-established in northern California, wolves could feasibly repopulate the Sierra Nevada which contains a large amount of suitable habitat in its own right.”

"We cannot predict what he will do next"

Snow, at last, in Michigan (Au Sable River):
“A pretty decent winter storm has come through the western half of the state.  It snowed, but not much.  Pretty though, especially when it first fell and slumped the evergreens over.”

Icy boots and steelhead fishing (Pennsylvania)
“...it was cold and I wanted to get my wading shoes off my feet before the laces froze. Those of you that have fished for steelhead in the winter know that upon leaving the water in subfreezing weather, wet wading shoelaces can freeze in a hurry. On occasion, I have spent time with my wading shoes on in front of the vehicle heater thawing out the laces.”

Yellowstone National Park – a little Led Zep anyone? (nice chromer music …metal heads…)




…and an epic trip getting there:
“Things went as planned until Madison, but we were headed to Mammoth and once we hit the Gibbon Canyon, things were a bit western.  A wind loaded road, combined with oncoming traffic, 40 some odd north bound bison, a single lane most of the time and falling snow made for an epic ride.   After picking up the clients, our five rigs made our way back up the Golden Gate only to get turned around by LE at Rustic Falls.  An hour before we had punched our way through Swan Lake Flats, now it was blowing 50 mph and Winter had definitely arrived in Yellowstone.  So, plan B was implemented and a run to West Yellowtone via BZN was the way out.  Our clients were headed to Old Faithful and honestly, conditions weren’t too bad upon entering the gate at 4 pm.  …Over the snow travel is now here.  Tomorrow marks the first day of tracked rigs and sleds.  Now it feels like Winter is here.”

Can’t get there from here (Yellowstone)

All in a day’s work (Montana)

Winter “adventure” (Au Sable, MI)
“This is the time of year for adventures: both wanted and unwanted.  Yesterday was of the unwanted variety.  We floated a stretch of river only to find that the steep take-out was unplowed.  Well, a little ingenuity never hurt anyone, and while Kyle kept fishing (the jerk!) Matt and I strung together every tow rope, strap, anchor rope, and scarf available to drag the boat out with. …It worked.  And Kyle didn't catch any fish, which served him right.”

Who you gonna believe?
“The myth that trout do not chase down streamers in the winter is so completely over blown by those that love to sit home and just write about it.  During the cold weather months Dec thru March the window for a good bite does shrink to a much shorter period of time each day but trout are still very aggressive.  Typically the warmest part of the day is best and as always with browns the lack of bright sun.  …Winter is great time to fish because pressure is all but gone right now.” 
Now here’s the evidence:

What would Freud say about all this? (White River, Arkansas)
“Effective patterns have been Zoo Cougars, Sex Dungeons and Butt Monkeys.”

Where is winter in Michigan?

“It hardly counts as winter fishing if you don't have to bust through a snow-drift and five-feet of shelf-ice to get to the river.  No ice in the guides.  No frozen waders.  No frozen snot moustaches.”

“So far still no winter in NE Michigan yet!”

And in New York’s Catskills:
“So far this fall and now winter, which started yesterday, there has been little snow.  Presently there is no snow cover in the Catskills.  All indications at present call for an early season next year..  However, conditions can change.  We will keep you informed of any changes.”

It has been winter-cold at night in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California:
“if the nighttime lows continue to get down into the low teens we'll wind up with some formidable shelf ice.”

…but “where is the winter rain?”, ponder NorCal steelheaders…
“The winter steelhead season is upon us and if we had any water right now, we would be experiencing some great early winter steelheading… It has now been almost a month since the last rains and has been by far the driest December I can remember [fourth driest on record, since the 1800’s].  While there are some fish in many of our coastal rivers, they are either closed or too low and clear to successfully fish. The next series of storms we get are going to bring in a big push of fish on many of our systems and should offer some of the best winter steelheading of the season. At the moment, it looks like it is going to be sometime after the first of the year before things get going.”

Washington’s Olympic Peninsula

“I respect anyone who chooses where he fishes based on aesthetics.” (Au Sable, MI)
“Nathan just stopped by to recount his day yesterday, which included catching a few trout, and also spooking a ton of them off the sandy-inside bends.  Today he's headed to the South Branch to enjoy the frosting of fresh snow in the spruce trees and pines.”

One way to keep warm

What he does the rest of the year

Colorado River (AZ):

Steelheading in the mythical “state of Jefferson” (CA & OR):
“In 3 days on the river, we only briefly had an encounter with two other female spey anglers [editor's note: is this what happens in heaven?].  Each morning, we awoke to frozen windshields, waders, and boots. The only things getting us moving are a hot cup of coffee and thought of wild steelhead taking swung flies near the surface… Iced up guides keep the casting entertaining, having to dip the rod in the water to clear the ice in preparation for the next cast…this was my last outing of the season in the State of Jefferson and it proved to be well worth freezing our asses off!”

Winter fishing in Oregon:
“To my mind, winter is the most interesting and dynamic season for the fly angler in Oregon. …After each high water event, fresh fish will quickly move upstream towards their natal spawning gravels. It is our job to be in the right place at the right time to try to intercept them.”

…and in Washington (Yakima):
“Cold with some shelf ice, fishable but chilly.”

Steelhead clock ticking on the Deschutes:
“Still some time left and not all the fish are dark tomatoes.”

Montana snow?  – “not much yet” – but it’s cold, baby
“There has yet to be much white stuff fall from the skies this winter…As I write, the thermometer reads 18 below zero….A few of us hit the Madison River yesterday afternoon, for 3 hours of winter angling…..catch a trout, warm the hands….repeat.” 

…nor in Colorado (Frying Pan River):
“I saw a vehicle driving up the access road on the far side of the flats today indicating how little snow there is on the ground. Usually by now, it is hard to get across baetis bridge and travel very far… It will be a problem for the ski slopes but great for fishing and a nice day out on the river at this time of year.”

…and no rain in Northern California
“The weather has been cold and the heaters have been on.  We could use a big shot of rain.  The action will only get better with some weather.”

Bigfoot, steelhead and dad (Trinity, CA)
“The main thing about this trip was me getting to spend time and fish with my Dad I never wanted, Joe Cerniglia. Since having a bum knee, we really haven’t fished together in almost two years. Joe’s got a new knee, and new outlook on life, especially after he landed a nice fin clipped female of 29″, on our first afternoon. Fishing was fair, and we all managed to hook fish. I was mostly looking for Bigfoot, and not at my indicator. It’s also tough rustling up the nerve to fish the ultra foggy water. I’m sure we could have done a lot better if we did.”
 

San Juan River (NM) habitat improvement makes guide happy:
“I had some really good fishing in the new Braids area, last Tuesday... I am becoming a big fan of this new area; and after spending the bigger part of the day in there, only realized that I had not even touched many of the holes that they have created, until I started to find them by accident, stumbling out to the parking lot in near darkness. There's something for everyone in there. Some deeper, slower runs, some shallower faster ones, lots of boulders, logs, and even a beaver pond for some dry fly action.”

“The browns are stacked in the creek like a cord of wood”(Dry Run Creek, AR).

Trinity River Sign -- bummer
“Warning No River Access. Closed to All Non-Tribal members!”

(Fisher)man’s best friend:
“They say all good things must come to an end, but when it happens in a blink of an eye you gasp for breath trembling, and find yourself asking "What the hell just happened"?  My trout dog Madison, a pure bred Australian cattle dog, redefined the definition of a fishing buddy.  This post is a tribute to his life and the good times we had.”

Snow…in Arkansas! (White River)

 

“Anchor ice” forms on the Yellowstone – not surprising after Livingston dropped to 10 below.

Winter trout in Oregon

The turning of the…lake (Colorado River, AZ)
“The water temperature has been in the fifties, but is dropping and we expect Lake Powell to turn over anytime.”

"Things get to looking pretty bland once the leaves are gone and the skies have their afternoon gray (the curse of the Great Lakes)"

 

Bracing for winter (Truckee, CA)
“The Squirrels are getting some last cheeks full of seeds before they are all buried by snow.  The sound of new studded tires is wide-spread.  A few folks are still laying in firewood, and sweeping the yard for things that shouldn't lay out all Winter.  but most of us are ready...  Happy Holidays all.....”

Fishing in the wind (Truckee, CA)
“This ain’t Livingston MT, but it sure in the hell has felt like it the last few days. We’ve been pummeled by wind. My face looks like Jim Harrison’s. The wind can lead a man to drink, instead of Jim’s Vodka in the afternoon, I choose a good IPA.  Of course, I was stupid enough to guide in it yesterday, which in turn actually came out to be alright. If you waited for the tumbleweeds to float by, put it in the lane, fish would eat your fly.”

Graphic evidence of Old Man Winter:

Advice on fly tying ambiance:

“So crack open a beer, unzip a bag of jerky and get on the vise.”
…and tie an Egg Sucking Tarantula Hairy Leg Leech

Bull Trout on the Yak (Yakima, WA)
“One of our customers caught a very rare and very large Bull Trout while fishing alongside one of our shop staff members in the lower river a few days ago.  That is rare indeed, but it just goes to show that you never know what you are going to catch.  The mystery keeps us coming back time after time.”

Deschutes (OR) steelhead:

“I just got home from a three day steelhead float. November is such a nice month to be on the Deschutes. Yeah, it can be brutally cold and windy, but the normally busy river is almost deserted this time of year. It's so nice to be able to fish all the spots you want and camp in the best camp sites. The fishing? It's not too shabby either this time of year.”

                   

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Trinity River (CA) steelhead video

Klamath River dams to be removed?