Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Wednesday 8/12/15 Report - All is well.

The Farmington is 320cfs and clear through the catch & release area. Fished yesterday afternoon after the morning rains to some good action on both green and tan colored caddis larva. After nymphing for an hour or so a conga line of trout started feeding toward the far bank. I changed to a Flying Ant #18 and it was eaten immediately by a brown. Landed that one, dressed the fly and repeated with the next cast, landed another. After that the trout became a bit more way and the rises more infrequent but I still managed to land another four before heading home around 4pm ---- Grady

The most rising fish will typically come before daybreak to noon & after 5pm. Afternoons will see the least bug activity, but you can catch trout on midges, beetles & ants if you move around and look for rising fish- don't neglect banks and shadelines. You can also blind fish the riffled water. Morning hatches (Needhami & Summer/Winter Caddis) are still going strong, evening hatches are later & sparser. Tricos are hatching in early to mid AM in Collinsville. Isonychia are coming off in the C&R section after 5pm. Blue Wing Olives #20-24 and cream colored Summer Stenos #20 are hatching in the from late afternoon through later evening

Many of you ask were the big trout are.... the answer is everywhere and where you are not. The best trout have grown big by avoiding the easy places to be caught. In general they will be on the bank away from a major access to the river. and in areas that are hard to get to but provide protection. A spot where a big trout will reside usually has a big trout there year after year so if you catch one there.... it or its brother will be there in the future. If you are nymphing with a 2 fly rig, make sure one of your nymphs is small, as in #18-20 (#16 can be small enough if tied on a shorter shank scud style hook). This time of year when flows are at normal summer levels (say 150-350cfs ), the trout really key into smaller nymphs, as that is what is mainly available. The exceptions would be Isonychia & Stoneflies, they are both bigger bugs. Also, nymphing the broken, faster water will greatly outproduce nymphing the softer, slower runs. Focus on medium to fast choppy water, and don't neglect the calf to knee-deep sections. Currently effective nymphs include: Hot Spot Nymphs #14-20, #10 Tungsten Carotene Jig, Wade's Clinger Nymph #14-16, Olive nymphs #16-20, Yellow Sparkle Prince #14-18, Sulfur Nymph #16-18, Rainbow Warrior #16-18, Caddis Pupa & Larva in both tan & olive/green #10-18 (#14-18 on the pupa), Jig nymphs #10-16, Pheasant Tails #16-20, Isonychia Nymphs #10-12, Fox Squirrel Nymph #10-14, Prince Nymph #10-18.

The brand new Scott Meridian saltwater rods arrived at UpCountry (we have #7-10 in the rack), and to say they are impressive is an understatement. They won Best of Show in their category at the recent annual Fly Tackle Dealer/ICAST show. They are in the same vein as the popular Scott Radian series, in that they have tremendous power and are very castable, without being pool cues. They are exceptionally light in the hand, with blanks so thin in the butt section they look more like trout rods. Scott uses cutting edge technology to create a rod that has an incredibly fast recovery rate to generate line speed, as opposed to just making a stiffer rod that takes more effort to cast and has no feel. I was super impressed when I picked them up. Come by and cast one and tell us what you think.
   -Torrey