Monday, September 16—Fishing with Bill

DATE: Monday, September 16, 2013

TIME: 8:25AM TO 12:15 PM

WEATHER: High 80s, partly cloudy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek to Mill Dam Eddy

FLIES USED: #14 Gray Norfork River Scud, #20 black/copper Zebra Midge, #14 Furnace Cockleburr, #14 Pink Cockleburr

ROD USED: 8’ 6” 5-wt Winston JWF

HATCHES: Midges, occasional cranefly

OTHER: I fished with Bill, and he ripped lips with the Zig-a-jig and spinning rod combination, while I managed a dozen or so on a combination scud with a zebra midge dropper.  Fishing behind him is like hunting squirrels with a .22 rifle behind someone hunting them with a 10 gauge shotgun. 

Monday, September 9—Ed Has a Still Another Great Day

DATE: Monday, September 9, 2013

TIME: 8:25AM TO 12:15 PM

WEATHER: High 80s, partly cloudy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek to Mill Dam Eddy

FLIES USED: #14 Gray Norfork River Scud, #20 black/copper Zebra Midge, #14 Pink Cockleburr

ROD USED: 8’ 6” 5-wt Winston JWF

HATCHES: Midges, occasional cranefly

OTHER: I fished with Ed.  The river was still falling when we walked in at Mill Dam Eddy, but we waded across, walked up the island, and began fishing the riffle above the island.  Ed was into fish immediately.  He seemed to constantly be hooking up, playing, and releasing fish.  He ended the day with 35 fish, using some 9 different patterns.  I didn’t catch near as many, but did have lots of fun, particularly with the pink cockleburr.

Wednesday, September 4—The Fraser River

DATE:  Wednesday, September 4, 2013

TIME: 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

WEATHER: Low to mid-70s, mostly sunny, wind, light rain

WATER CONDITIONS: N/A

LOCATIONS FISHED:  Fraser River Beat 2, Granby Ranch, Colorado

FLIES USED:  Ant, #18 Caddis, #10 Deer Hair Hopper

ROD USED: 8' 9" 5-wt Winston LT

HATCHES:  Caddis

OTHER:  John and I made reservations to fish the private waters of Granby Ranch today. Granby Ranch's private three-mile stretch of the Fraser River is a beautiful gold-medal tributary of the Colorado River, containing brown, rainbow, and cutthroat trout. Starting time was 9:00 AM, so we paid our trespass fee, signed a release, and drove to water's edge of Beat 2. A fly shop in Fraser has exclusive "guiding" rights to these private waters, and the shop owner told us that Beats 1 and 2 were his choice as to where he takes clients. At the river, we put our rods together, strung them up, and donned waders, boots, and vests. We both started with flies purchased at the Fraser fly shop. I had a couple of misses on the big ant, and changed to a #18 caddis, success as the little 6-inch brown was a fighter. Over the course of the next three hours, I constantly changed flies, even using several two-fly combinations, and caught an occasional fish here and there, with lots of misses; the fish would miss the fly, failing to hook up.

Shortly after noon, I switched to a deer hair hopper, and after several misses, a 9-inch brown inhaled the hopper. For the next 3 hours, I fished the hopper without hooking up, but got strikes at almost all undercut bank sections. Thunder, lightning, and a light rain finally drove us off the river. John had several fish for the day, mostly on nymphs, but of course, he's the nymph master. This was a fun river to fish, with riffles and pools at every bend. It might take a couple of days, but I believe the code could be broken.