Thursday, August 23, 2012—Mill Dam Eddy

WEATHER: High 70s to low 90s, sunny, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Mill Dam Eddy

FLIES USED: #20 furnace Cockleburr, #20 Kay’s Grey, #20 Dunn’s Dun, #20 furnace Cockleburr, Big Ugly

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT JWF

HATCHES: Midges

OTHER: I fished with Kay. Our intent was to walk upstream to the riffle above the island and enjoy some relatively easy fishing. However, we saw two fishers near the top of the island, wading towards where we wanted to fish. We also considered fishing at Mill Dam Eddy, but there were already two fishers on the gravel near our walk-in point and close to where we would fish. It appeared one was a beginning fly fisher and the other was giving him very basic instructions. We waded upstream of them so as to not interfere with their fishing.  We opted to fish with emerger flies, but both of us had to change what we already had on.  We each tied on a #20 Kay's Grey. Kay struck first, catching a pretty rainbow. Soon after I caught a rainbow. Over the course of the morning, I caught about a dozen fish, most browns, but had to use several different patterns to catch the fish. I missed hooking up with a large fish, estimated at about 20 inches, that attacked the fly ferociously, but did catch a nice 15-16 inch cutthroat. We also caught a fish on the Big Ugly.  The wind began blowing, and we called it quits after a great morning on the water.