TIME: 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM
WEATHER: Low 70s to high 90s, sunny, windy
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle below Resort Hole to Riffle above McClellan’s
FLIES USED: Yellow Wayne’s Fly, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge, #16 Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph, #20 Special K, #14 Big Ugly, #10 Big Ugly, #14 Furnace Cockleburr
ROD USED: Winston 9’ 6-weight BIIX
HATCHES: One sulphur (or crane fly); nothing else observed
OTHER: Fished solo via an Outcast pontoon. Unlike the previous two times, the riffle at the bottom of the Resort Hole did not produce any fish, though I tried a yellow Wayne’s fly with a zebra midge dropped below. I took time to rearrange fly boxes, flies, etc. so as to avoid wearing the heavy vest. As written earlier, the entire reach from below the Resort Hole all the way to the top of the Long Hole is a continuous riffle, with water depths varying from almost two feet to almost 4 feet.
The right descending bank has been stabilized with a combination of downed trees with root wads intact, rock, and earth. It’s probably the “best” environmentally acceptable method, though I would like to have seen less uniformity, less rock, and more trees, letting the trees/root wads do their thing. Anyway, about halfway down, the riffle produced several fish, including this nice 16-inch brown (yeah, I know the marker shows 14+ inches, but the tail extends a couple inches beyond the “0” marker).
Just below the top of the Long Hole, a deep hole on the left descending bank produced a couple of fish, but held many more, though I was in a hurry and did not fish it long. I rowed against the wind the remainder of the Long Hole, anchored the pontoon, and fished the riffle at the bottom of the pool (aka the riffle above McClellan’s). The zebra midge worked on a couple of fish, but neither the large nor small Big Ugly resulted in a hook-up, though both experienced several misses; somehow, the fish just would not hook-up. I tried a #20 Special K but had a couple of refusals, then tied on a #14 furnace Cockleburr. This fly was apparently the ticket as I hooked and landed about 9 fish, including a nice 16-inch rainbow, and missed at least that many more. By then, it was 11:35 AM and having an appointment at 1:30 PM, I began the arduous job of rowing downstream against the wind. At the riffle above the island below McClellan’s, I visited with a young man who inquired about scheduled generation. It was his first time to fish the Norfork, and he was really enjoying the experience. He was a biologist with the Florida equivalent of the game and fish commission. I made it to the takeout point about 12:30 PM and Kay there to pick me up, having communicated a few minutes earlier via walkie talkie. It was a good day on the water, but would have been even better If more time could have been spent fishing the Cockleburr!
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