Tuesday, July 9, 2013—Dry Fly Fishing at Ol' Charlie's

 

DATE:  Tuesday, July 9, 2013

TIME:  8:25 AM TO 10:35 AM

WEATHER:  Low 80s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS:  0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Riffle Across from Ol' Charlie's and Riffle at top of Island

FLIES USED:  #20 Kay's Gray, #14 Furnace Cockleburr, #14 Pink Cockleburr

ROD USED:  7' 9" 2-wt Winston WT

HATCHES:  Midges, occasional sulphur, occasional caddis

OTHER:  I fished solo.  A single fisher was fishing near the stocking chute, and had a fish on as I waded across; the area was stocked last week.  Otherwise, no one else was in sight, even across from Ol' Charlie's and it has always been a good place to fish dries, midges, and emerges.  There was a heavy mist over the water, but fish were still sipping midge emergers.  I tied on a #20 Kay's Gray, and took an occasional fish until the mist burned off.  And then, fishing picked up.  A sulphur would hatch here and there, so out came the pink cocklebur.  Sure enough, the first cast produced a fish, and they continued taking the fly until I moved upstream at about 9:45 AM.  Fish in the upstream riffle also liked the pink cockleburr, and were a bit larger and heavier than those in the downstream riffle.  Some put a significant bend in the 2-weight Winston.  With generation forecast to begin at 11:00 AM, I left the water early, having caught about two and a half dozen fish, all on dry flies.  It's so fun to cast to a rising fish, and catch it, or even to get a brief hook-up.  It doesn't get much better!  

Monday, July 8, 2013—Wadable Water Again

DATE:  Monday, July 8, 2013

TIME:  8:25AM TO 12:15 PM

WEATHER:  Low 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 sulphur

OTHER:  I fished solo, beginning an upstream wade at Mill Dam Eddy, and walking upstream to the pool above the island (between the riffle and the island).  I fished the gray Norfork River Scud with the Zebra midge dropper, for several minutes without any action.  About halfway up the pool, I began catching fish (8:54 AM). 

The second fish proved to be a large, slender brown, the longest fish of the year —so far; it was the skinniest large fish I have caught on the Norfork.  The action was slow, but the fish hooked-up consistently.  I took a dozen fish out the pool, and all but the brown were small.  The riffle produced several fish on the furnace cockleburr, but they fish were sipping rather than slamming the fly.  Some takes were so innocuous that they were hard to detect, except for watching the fly very carefully and actually seeing the fish sip it in.  A couple of the fish would easily measure 15 inches, but most were smaller than what I had caught there previously.  The plunge pool below Ace in the Hole did not yield any fish, though there were lots of sippers; I only threw a half dozen casts.  Downstream, along the island, the fish were taking the furnace cockleburr on top, but mostly on the swing.  I caught 10-12 fish along the island, including a nice 15-incher.  It was a good day, but fishing was tougher than usual—the dog days of summer!

Saturday, July 6, 2013—Family Fishing, V. 3

DATE:  Saturday, July 6, 2013
TIME:  8:30 AM TO 11:15 PM
WEATHER:  Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS:  0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek
FLIES USED:  #14 Gray Norfork River Scud, #20 black/copper Zebra Midge, #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED:  9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES:  Midges, a few Sulphurs
OTHER:  I "guided" Karyn and Matt.  Hoping for a repeat of late yesterday afternoon, we waded upstream expecting the fish to be rising like crazy, but instead found several dead fish in the pool below the riffle. (I suspect poachers had been in the area during the evening.)  I tied on a scud and zebra midge dropper combination on both Karyn and Matt’s lines, but hook-ups proved to be evasive, with only a few fish caught.  Switching to a pink cockleburr proved to be no better, and in fact resulted in less hook-ups.  Matt fished the plunge pool above the riffle but didn’t have any success.  It was a slow fishing day.  

Friday, July 5, 2013—Family Fishing, V. 2

DATE:  Friday, July 5, 2013
TIME:  4:15 PM TO 6:30 PM

WEATHER:  Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS:  0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek and Plunge Pool below Ace in the Hole
FLIES USED:  #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED:  9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES:  Sulphurs
OTHER:  I "guided" Ron and Matt.  On our return from the White River a couple of hours earlier, we noted that the Norfork River was unexpectedly down.  After gulping down a late lunch of tacos, Ron and Matt suited up in their waders, and we drove to a neighbors for private access.  Another neighbor was fishing Mill Dam Eddy, so we walked upstream and noted fish taking bugs on top like crazy.  Armed with Pink Cockleburrs, the guys took one fish after another, and most were 14 to 15 inches and "hot" as firecrackers, not having had a lot of fishing pressure for two weeks.  I waded upstream to the plunge pool and had some ferocious hook-ups; I called for Ron to come up and he, too, had some ferocious hits.  Regrettably, his leader was too short and dragging his fly under.  After rebuilding his leader, he began to see the hook-ups and took several fish.  Both guys had a great late afternoon, and I was glad to that Ron was able to fly fish this trip.  

Friday, July 5, 2013--Family Fishing, V. 1

DATE: Friday, July 5, 2013
TIME: 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM
WEATHER: Mid 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 2 Units falling
LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals
FLIES USED: #14 BHFB Pheasant tail
ROD USED: N/A
HATCH: A few midges
OTHER: Guided Karyn, Matt, and Kaden. The trail that I normally take to access downstream was overgrown, and I could not find it. Consequently, we bushwacked through the overgrown riparian habitat, until I found some semblance of trail. After a short hike, we waded into the still high water. Each of the fishers started with different combinations of flies. Karyn started off like gangbusters, catching two fish on a zebra midge. Kayden followed with a fish on a sowbug. And then Matt began what would prove to be a very successful day, catching fish on a BHFB PT. He is a fearless wader, and fished the entire area of the river. And he did it with only one fly, and no accessories or other flies. Karyn was outfitted with Kay's vest and wading staff, but found the deep water in combination with the multitude of rocks strewn along the bottom to be treacherous, getting wet a couple of times, but seemingly covering the whole river. Nevertheless, she's a good sport and still caught fish. Kayden remained near our access, and caught 4 fish. He continues to improve as a fly fisher.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday, June 24, 2013—3 Spell Trouble in River City

DATE:  Monday, June 24, 2013
TIME:  8:00AM TO 1:30 PM

WEATHER:  Low 90s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS:  1 unit

LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Quarry Park Access to Island at Ol’ Charlie’s

FLIES USED:  #14 Weight Fly, #14 cerise San Juan Worm

ROD USED:  Winston 9’ 6-weight BXT

HATCHES:  Midges, sulphur

OTHER:  I fished with Ed and John.  There’s always trouble when the three of us fish together—entanglements of fishing line, leader, and tippet; casting over another’s line; and lots of long distant releases.  One never knows what will happen, but you can be sure it will always be fun times.

We launched at Quarry Park Access, Ed drove to the White River Access at Norfork and parked the trailer, and Kay shuttled Ed back to Quarry Park.

The Resort Hole produced nothing.  The Long Hole, however, produced at least a fish on every drift.  Ed started out like gangbusters, but the action slowed for him, and I only picked up a few on the Weight Fly.  More and more “guide” boats ended up drifted the Long Hole, and it became too crowded for us.  The pool below the Upper Riffle at McClellan’s to just above McClellan’s proved to be a good area, particularly for John as he pulled at least one fish in on every drift.  We moved further down, and the pool below McClellan’s produced nothing.  The wind really picked up just before noon, and made keeping the boat on a good drift line near impossible.  The pool below Mill Dam Eddy fished very poorly, with only a few fish caught.

Based on past experiences fishing the Norfork with generation, today proved to be a very slow day.

Thursday, June 20, 2013—Not A Repeat, And A Bonus Recipe

TIME:  8:30 AM to 12:35 PM

WEATHER:  Mid-80s to low 90s, partly sunny, windy

WATER CONDITIONS:  0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Mill Dam Eddy, to near McClellan's

FLIES USED:  #14 gray Norfork River Scud, #16 black/copper Zebra Midge, #20 black/silver Zebra Midge, #14 pink Cockleburr

ROD USED: 8’ 6” 5-wt Winston JWF

HATCHES: Midges, a few Caddis, Sulphurs

OTHER:  I fished solo.  Shedding the fly fishing vest in favor of a small Mayfly necklace pack, I felt "nekkid", and missed the several hundred flies normally carried.  Also, tried a different floatant, and found that I did not like it as much as what I had been using.  Again this morning, the river valley was shrouded in mist, and the sun was not yet high enough to begin burning it off.  Wading to the top of the island, and then upstream along the left descending bank, I caught only a couple of fish in the pool between the island and the riffle; the fish were not rising to the surface and sipping insects like yesterday, and the mist may have kept the fish down. I bypassed my favorite riffle and waded upstream to the end of the gravel, and then further towards McClellan's.  This area produced lots of fish last year on the gray scud, but this year has not been productive!  I caught two more fish at the top of the gravel. 

(The photo is looking upstream from the gravel at Otter Creek.)  Two and a half hours of fishing a scud/zebra midge combination produced only 4 fish, and no big fish!

Wading back downstream and switching to a pink Cockleburr, I fished the riffle above the island (my favorite), and took only a few fish, but there definitely were not as many fish there as last week.  It appears that when a small area is fished really hard for several consecutive days, the fish will either stay down, or leave, and this area has been pounded the last 6 days from daylight to high water.  I did note a large number of fish holding in the funnel at the top of the island—could they be from the riffle?

The chute along the island did not produce any fish, though I had several misses and refusals, until the last tree downstream leaning over the chute (in the photo, water is flowing from right to left).   Typically, this area does not produce fish except for September when it is loaded.  However, the last couple of days has been different.

From there, immediately under the downstream overhang of the tree shown here (3 fish were caught at the overhang within a 4-foot diameter area) and for the next hundred yards, I caught at least half dozen fish—mostly rainbows, and one cutthroat and one brookie.  The cutthroat was about 10-12 inches long, so likely not one hatched from the eggs put in last year.

Mill Dam Eddy was the hot spot today, yielding about a dozen fish, all on the pink Cockleburr.  Several fish hit the fly as it was stripped back.  

PINK COCKLEBURR

HOOK:  Tiemco 100BL Dry Fly Hook (or similar), Size #14-#20  (I use #14 exclusively)

THREAD:  UFC Red, Size 140

BODY:  Pink All Purpose Rabbit Dubbing with guard hair

HACKLE:  Ginger, oversized by 2 sizes (e.g. #10 hackle for a #14 fly)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Lay a base of thread on the hook.
2. Tie in hackle at the gape of the hook (above the barb, if hook is barbed).
3. Sparsely apply dubbing via noodle, or splitting the thread, technique and wrap forward to about two eye lengths behind the back of the hook eye and tie off.
4. Palmer hackle to about two eye lengths behind the back of the hook eye and tie off.
5. Whip finish.

HOW TO FISH THE COCKLEBURR:

1. Fish the Cockleburr as a dry fly, applying floatant (particularly after every hook-up), and casting to rises or emerging fish.
2. Fish the Cockleburr as an emerger by casting the fly quartering downstream, pulling it under, and stripping back in 2-inch strips; you’ll feel the fish hit.
3. Employ a combination of the above two techniques, pulling the fly under after its drag-free drift, and stripping back.

NOTE:  This fly was featured in the fly fishing column in our local newspaper, the Baxter Bulletin, last year about this time.  The author, a local guide whom I've known almost 20 years, was having difficulty hooking-up fish, and I offered him my spot at the riffle, giving him this fly and suggesting he use it, on the condition of silence—asking him to swear secrecy about the pattern and his using it—to no avail as it was in the paper the next week.  It is effective from mid-May until mid-September, and is particularly effective during a crane fly hatch.