Tuesday, May 1—A Long Wade

DATE: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
TIME: 10:45 AM to 3:30 PM
WEATHER: Mid to upper 80s, sunny, slight to strong wind
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Elisabeth Creek upstream to above Otter Creek near McClellan’s Dock site
FLIES USED: #20 furnace Cockleburr, #14 furnace Cockleburr, brown Wayne’s Fly, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge, #16 red/black Zebra Midge
ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6" 5-weight WT JWF
HATCHES: Midges, Caddis
OTHER: Fished with Wayne. Today fishing with Wayne was like old times, starting off in the Pool and wading upstream, except for the absence of big fish.  We both caught enough fish to make the day interesting, and laughed a lot along the way.  Though he has not fished much the last several months, he still outfished and outwaded me!
We both began catching fish just upstream of Elisabeth Creek; I was able to fool a few with the #20 furnace Cockleburr fished dry among the rocks while he was catching fish on his yellow fly.  I switched to a brown Wayne’s fly as we wade upstream but the pool fished very slow as neither of us caught many fish. At Mill Dam Eddy, I switched back to the Cockleburr, first the #20, then the #14, and caught several fish.  Meanwhile, Wayne fished a tiny hole/riffle made by a downed tree root wad and caught 8 fish out of the sofa sized hole—he’s still the man!  Above the island, we both caught several fish in the riffle on river right; I had switched back to a brown Wayne’s fly with a zebra midge dropper. I waded upstream above Otter Creek as far as water depth would allow—I have had good success there in the past—but the combination of wind and low water prevented a drift and I only took 3 fish.  I waded and fished back downstream, but kept getting tangled as the dropper was too long.  After meeting up with Wayne at Ace-in-the-Hole, we began the long wade towards home, fishing sporadically along the way.  At the island, I had one fish and 5 misses under the upper most leaning tree.  Mill Dam Eddy did not produce anything this time around for me, though Wayne did catch a couple of fish. 
I ended up with about 3 dozen fish, including rainbows, cutthroats, and browns, and the largest may have been 14 inches.