Sweet 20" brown on a small Blue Winged Olive dry by customer Mina, now a member of the 20-20 Club (20" or bigger trout on a #20 or smaller fly). Good news- the MDC bumped up the release from the dam on Monday, we went from about 70cfs to 106cfs total in permanent Catch & Release section (89cfs from the dam in Riverton). We are also supposed to receive about 1.5-2.5" of rain from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning. Finally! This should end the super-low water and put us back to a normal flow, at least for a while. Plenty of good fishing reports over the past weekend, with some very nice trout landed. Cold nights means there is no need to get here at the crack of dawn, most of the better bug activity & fishing is in the afternoons this time of year. The general rule of thumb with trout is that the most comfortable time of day is usually the best time to fish- it's true about 95% of the time. The one exception to this is the Winter Caddis (#20-24), which typically hatches early to mid mornings. In the afternoons look for #16-18 Tan Caddis, #10-12 October Caddis, #22-26 Blue Winged Olives, and Isonychia ("Iso's") averaging about a #14. Streamers, smaller nymphs (#16-22), and egg flies are all producing well at moments and are the way to go if you don't have rising fish. Trout are spawning so please be careful not to step on the redds (lighter circular areas in the gravel where they lay their eggs). Water temps have been running from upper 40's to mid 50's, depending upon time of day and distance from dam.For optimal success, make sure to adapt to the low water conditions- use longer leaders (12' or even longer), wear drab clothing, be stealthy in your approach, and use smaller flies & lighter tippets. Main hatches in the afternoons are Isonychia, Tan/brown Caddis, and small Blue Wing Olives. Mornings will see Winter/Summer Caddis. Fall trout get aggressive (it's spawning time, plus they put on the feedbag before winter), so streamers are catching fish- play with colors & retrieves, some of my clear water fall favorites are olive, white, yellow, tan, black. Sometimes in the normally low/clear waters of fall, especially on sunny days, slimmer old-school traditional patterns will outfish the typical modern bulkier flies- try Baby Brown Trout, Grey Ghost, Black Ghost, Muddler Minnow, Mickey Finn, etc. Riverton (from just below the dam down through Whittemore) was stocked in late September with well over 2,000 brown, brook & rainbow trout 12" and bigger, and not surprisingly has been fishing well up there. Having said that, we are getting good reports from the dam in Riverton, all the way down through Unionville.
Dries, streamers and nymphs are all catching trout. Look for deeper & faster water for the best action, spots like that will concentrate the fish at this lower level. Blind-fished dries are working well, especially in the quick water. Bigger dries such as Stimulators #12-14, Tan Caddis #14-16, and Isonychia #12-14 are all working well as searching flies in the afternoons, and can be combined with a nymph dropper for even more action. When nymphing, try smaller patterns (mostly) such as Zebra Midges #18-20, Yellow Sally Stonefly nymphs #14-16, Egg Flies #12-18, Hot Spot Nymphs #16-20, Wade's Clinger Nymph #16, Blue Wing Olive nymphs #16-22, Yellow Sparkle Prince #14-18, Rainbow Warrior #16-18, Caddis Pupa & Larva in both tan & olive/green #14-18, Pheasant Tails #16-22, Prince Nymph #14-16 are all working well. Soneflies #8-14 (in black, brown, and golden/yellow) have been working as well.
We literally have a ton of sale and clearance items at the moment- rods, reels, lines, etc. We've been getting trade-in rods & reels faster than we can list them on our website, so make sure to stop in the store and take a peek, the best stuff goes fast. We just received a pile of closeout demo Scott rods from our rep, so if you are a fan, check 'em out ASAP. We also have lots of closeout rods & reels from Sage, Hardy, Winston, Redington, Echo and others. We are receiving next years products on a weekly basis, as most of the companies debut their new stuff in the early fall. This includes the new Hardy Zepherus rods, Scott Meridian rods, Redington Hydrogen and just about all of the new rods from Sage. Grady has let me slowly but surely let me beef up our book selection. There are some fantastic books available that can shortcut your learning curve big time. Take a peek, and don't be afraid to ask me (Torrey) for suggestions, I'm a book fanatic. FYI George Daniel's new streamer fishing book "Strip-Set" just came out, and it's phenomenal. Local fly tyer/guide/author/streamer fanatic Rich Strolis is prominently featured.
-Torrey