Trout Fishing in America Terrorists

"One of us had a piece of chalk and as a first-grader went walking by, the one of us absentmindedly wrote 'Trout Fishing in America' on the back of the first-grader."  ... "We watched the first-grader walk away with 'Trout Fishing in America' written on his back.It looked good and seemed quite natural and pleasing to the eye that a first-grader should have 'Trout Fishing in America' written in chalk on his back."  

Trout Fishing in America, 1967 Richard Brautigan 

Portrait of a trout No.1

The rainbow spawning orgy is still underway on the North Platte.  Jeff, Brad and I fished from about noon until 5PM.  The fish eagerly gobbled size 20 or 22 WD40's and a size 18 red midge larva all day long.  The mob chucking eggs  had far less luck than we did.  Of course, there are eggs being dropped by the hens, but the eggs were just not as effective today as the midge patterns.  When an egg pattern finally did prove successful to the downstream group, I overheard excited hollering from the group on the opposite side of the river "Was it one of the ones with a red dot?"  This would seem to be the fine point of egg pattern fishing; red dot or no?

When we pulled up  I talked to a fisherman eating lunch by his truck wearing Colorado plates. I asked him what they were taking - he said that the fishing was tough - so I asked him what they weren't taking.  He replied, "Bacon and eggs."  A rig consisting of a San Juan worm dropper with an egg on the point.  This is the standard  recommendation from the flyshops to the tourists. It does catch some fish, but this is the standard recommendation largely because so many people just don't believe the small flies will work or they think they won't be able to tie them on.  Carry a cheap pair of reading glasses if you must.  To me, an inveterate tailwater fisherman, a size 18 is looks huge a size 20 seems standard. Size 24's are small.

Portrait of a trout No.2

On technique:   A good dead drift can only be beat by a dead drift augmented with the occasional twitch. Most of my takes were on the twitch.  After I showed Jeff the technique he started hooking up consistently. Cast upstream and across.  Keep mending line upstream to establish a good drift. Once the fly is down and the drift is perfect - give the rod the a wiggle and a slight lift to move the fly in the water, halting the drift for just an instant, before  lowering the rod and resuming the drift again.  This is the old Leisenring lift scaled to midge fishing.    The WD40, with it's oversized hares ear thorax, is an emerger pattern and the fish are keyed into the upward movement of the emerging insect. It's a wonderful BWO pattern, but I've found it to be very effective when the midges are hatching.   Many patterns go by the name WD40 (just do a google image search to see them) - the real ones look like Ed Engle's pattern (on page 86) in his book Tying Small Flies.

I watched many of the fishermen (and women) on the river expending huge effort false casting.  You can spot the experienced fishermen because they keep their flies in the water more than they do in the air.  Often, false casting is just unnecessary.  It takes practice to develop a well timed crisp casting stroke, but it is far more effective than the long arm full body casts so many resort to when trying to get a few feet farther out.

Another mistake I saw throughout much of the day was that folks tend to wade right out into the best water. Of course this is partially related to poor casting skills - you spot a fish and can't quite get your fly out to it - so you wade a little deeper.  But often, in response, the fish will just move a bit deeper into the run. So you wade a bit deeper still.  Very quickly, you're standing waist deep in the middle of the run.

Brad Watson with a beautifully spotted  fish that took the red midge larva.

 The river was crowded and I started by moving into an inauspicious looking open slot thirty yards downstream from the next man. I intended to cross the river to fish the less crowded side but I ended up fishing my short beat all day.  I lost count of how many fish I hooked but I counted 17 landed.  All the ones I landed were cleanly hooked in the mouth and released as quickly as possible. On the way home Jeff read the regs and we realized we could have kept six fish apiece.  Had we done so - it might well have caused a riot ... and I would have had to buy finally spring for a smoker.

Jeff with a fish that took on the twitch.

North Platte, Wind River, Big Horn

Gerry fishing on the North Platte upstream from the raft.

Synopsis: Spent a week fishing with Gerry Cox.  We started with a day and a half on the North Platte river at Gray Reef. Wade fished the dam the first day and floated from the dam to Lusby the second.   We stayed at Sloan's cabins in Alcova.  From there we drove overland through the Rattlesnake Hills to the Wind River at Boysen State Park.  That was about 60 miles of dirt through some rather beautiful sage country.  We wade fished the Wind in Boysen State Park for the afternoon and into the evening catching many large rainbows (18" to 24") on size 18 caddis.  We probably should never have left Boysen. We drove north, spending the night at the Greybull Historic Hotel (which I can recommend should you happen to pass through Greybull WY.)  Continued north, over the Big Horns and up into Montana.  We did a quick tour of the Little Bighorn Battlefield and then to Fort Smith on the Big Horn below the Yellowtail damn.  Stayed in a small but very new and clean room at the Bighorn Angler. It was an unbearable 98°F and we waited until almost 5PM to wade fish at the three mile access - and it was still brutally hot with icy water at about 47°F.  On the fourth of July we floated the Big Horn from Afterbay below the dam to 13 mile takeout at Bighorn.  The final day we floated the three miles from the Afterbay to the three mile takeout.  The fishing on the Big Horn was difficult and the average fish is nowhere near the size they were fifteen years ago, and we were not the only ones saying so.  We left Fort Smith at 2PM and were at home, sitting on the couch sipping bourbon, a bit after 9PM.

Gerry with a nice North Platte rainbow.

Dates - 30 June 2013 to 5 July 2013
Miles Driven: 1042
Miles Floated: 24 - Grey Reef to Lusby (8), Afterbay to Bighorn (13), Afterbay to Three Mile (3)
Longest Overland: 42.5 of dirt (Dry Creek Rd. Alcova WY to Gas Hills Rd. Riverton WY)
Best Sleep: Greybull Historic Hotel, Greybull, WY
Best Meal:  Pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, Up in Smoke BBQ, Buffalo WY
Weirdest Meal: Subway, Garryowen MT
Biggest Fish: 25" Rainbow - Wind River, Boysen State Park, Shoshoni WY
Coldest Water: 47°F - Big Horn River, Fort Smith, MT
Warmest Water: 66°F - Wind River, Boysen State Park, Shononi WY
Hottest Air Temp: 98°F - July 3rd, Fort Smith, MT

Wind River cutthroat - over 18"

A Day on the Green

Leopard spotted brown. 

After working every day but one for the past month, I managed to take a day to fish the Green River on my drive home from a conference in Utah.  The Green River below the Flaming Gorge dam in Utah is a world class fishery.  There are reportedly 20,000 fish per mile and I believe it. The "A section" extends seven miles downstream from the Flaming Gorge dam to Little Hole.I'd planned to fish downstream from the dam access but I abandoned that plan because of the crowd.  Instead I drove downstream to the Little Hole access.  The parking lot there was nearly empty when I arrived at 9:30 AM.  It's the takeout for boats floating from the dam and by afternoon it is filled with trucks towing trailers that have been shuttled down during the day.

It turned out to be a very good day. Saddly, I was a week late for the Blue Winged Olive hatch, though a few olives did come off during the day. Even so, the fish were still keyed in on BWO nymphs, and I caught as many fish as I care to in a day. I know because I lost count. If I had to guess I landed 15 and hooked about twice that many.  None of the fish I landed was under 15" and none were over 20".  All of them took my Black Back Wet Dream.

BBWD tied on a size 20 Dai-Riki #135 hook - black flashback.

I tie this version of the WD on size 18-22 Dai_Riki #135 hooks.

Black Back Wet Dream (BBWD)
Hook: size 18-22 scud/pupa hook
Body:  olive or  brown olive thread
Tail: a few fibers from a Wood Duck  flank feather
Thorax: tan/brown dubbing
Wing Case:  Black Holo-Tinsel

In the pictured fly I used 70 denier brown olive Ultra thread, the thorax is SLF Spikey Dubbing in natural fox color and the wing case is black Holo Tinsel.   It is a synthesis of Mark Engler's original WD (wet dream) pattern with a flashier version of Randy Smith's Tyvek Baetis.  Engler's pattern was renamed the WD-40 by  Umpqua when they commercialised it - so as not to offend delicate sensibilities. I do not share their compuction. Many folks assume the WD stands for "wood duck".  Good marketing at work I guess.  Smith's pattern uses a wing case tied from Tyvek that has been colored black.  Mine uses black holo-tinsel.   Feel free to tie as many as you like, it's proving to be an amazingly effective pattern, but also, consider this post a copyright on the pattern should you want to commercialize it.

An eighteen incher.

The Green is primarily a brown trout fishery although I did catch some nice rainbows too, fat fish. These fish are heavily pressured and can be selective feeders.  The water is extraordinarily clear and good sized fish hang on the banks. You see many many of them as you hike up the trail.  It can be a frustrating experience for the tyro to fish to one of these large trout, clearly on the feed, in shallow water.  There is nothing more satisfying than taking one of these fish.  Once again, I complain that the fly shops are pushing the big flies to novices because so many fisherman are reluctant to fish the small flies.  The green has a good hatch of cicadas and a big black foam fly is a common pattern there.  Later in the summer there is good hopper fishing as well.  The fly shops are starting to push those flies though I did not see one cicada nor did I see any hoppers.

I met a man on the trial who I took to be from Oregon since he talked about fishing to spawning rainbows on the Williamson River. These are fish that run up out of Klamath Lake. He seemed somewhat disappointed with the Green in comparison. He said he'd done well the day before but he complained that he'd had to fish size 20 flies.  When I first met him he was fishing a cicada and when I saw him later had a streamer tied on.  By that time he'd had one hook-up.  Somewhat hopefully, he told me how he'd met someone the day before who frequently fishes the Green and who prefers to tie on an Adams or a Royal Coachman. A size 20 Adams would actually be a decent imitation of a BWO and there is a kind of local beetle with red/orange colouring. So who knows, maybe an Adams or a Royal Coachman would be just the ticket.  I expressed my doubts which prompted him to walk on.

Looking down into Little Hole on my way out at about five-thirty.

The Green is a great river.  I caught it yesterday at an in between stage, after the BWO hatch but before the summer hatches.   I promise myself that next year I will catch the BWO hatch.

Cold day on the Platte

A nice rainbow that took the green leach pattern.

Spent a good day on the Platte yesterday with Jeff.  New license, patched waders, new wading jacket, first day out this new year.    For some reason, my feet were damn cold almost all day though the patched waders did not leak! Maybe I needed a warmer hat! Temps may have reached 40F but it felt cold to me all day. It was windy off and on with the occasional welcome calms but at other times there were serious gusts - strong enough that most non-Westerners anglers would sensibly call it a day. With a flow of 500 CFS the water was as low as I believe I have ever seen it. The Gray Reef holding reservoir is essentially empty. It was easy to cross the river below the dam at a number of spots going no deeper than mid-thigh.

A nice rainbow in Jeff took with the leech.

While the midges were actively hatching mid-afternoon a bead head midge pattern was a good bet.  Mid-morning when the fishing was slower I thought that perhaps something bigger than a size 22 midge might stir them to take.  I tied on a green leech pattern which Garrett had used so successfully on a similar day a few years ago.  As soon as I tied it on (with a midge dropper for good luck) I started hooking up regularly - with a slow drift though the deeper holes.  About 2/3 of the takes were on the leech though some fish still preferred the midge.   Sometimes it is hard to believe how the right patter at the right time can make such a difference.  I gave Jeff one and he did very well with it all day.

This was one that was working best.