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Went out for a few hours this afternoon and pulled a brown and a rainbow in. My wife pulled in a cutthroat that I didn't think to take a picture of (can only think of myself apparently).
Water on the main channel is really fast and definitely high other than the few eddies that everybody tries to get into first and sit on all day. We managed to find a spot that wasn't too bad, but the current still played hell with our line at times. Just used a little bit of weight and a worm. Tried powerbait and as expected it didn't work...that stuff has never worked for me.
Overall we had a good time, and the fish are definitely biting.
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Good job with the catch. I always struggle when the water is high and fast.
I have never had luck with powerbait either with the exception of crappie nibbles on the end of a jig.
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Just got in from fishing it, right before dark there was a decent hatch on and caught a few on BWO, was also a few random caddis on the water. Water is pretty murky still, prob will be for a few more weeks.
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Take the head of the rainbow in to the F&G or leave it in the places that they have set up. They will scan it on certain days and look for a small tag. If your fish has an electronic tag you could win a prize.
Windriver
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Yeesh, I already cooked him and the waste is in the garbage. Think it's worth it to fish him out AGAIN? lol
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could be worth several hundred bucks. The only time I have luck with power bait is on ponds and lakes.
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I totally spaced reporting on hatch / fish surface activity. Fish were hitting the surface pretty much all day, I never went more than 10 minutes without observing one coming up to the surface. Bugs were definitely hatching, but I don't even want to try and identify them. Based on time of year and area I have a feeling some of you will know.
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I've been going out to the South Fork/ Heise area about once a week lately, and if you drive back far enough down the river look for some of the bends in the river and the boat ramp that's clear back in there. The water pools up in the turns and stays fairly calm. Using worms I was literally pulling in 5 fish an hour. They've been mostly cutthroats and browns, a couple of the browns were around the 18" mark. I picked up a two pole permit and dropped a worm in on one and lure fished the other, but I hardly was able to use my lure as the worms were getting action almost a soon as the worm settled on the bottom.
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I haven't been up there since Thursday last week. Weather sucked bigtime, probably the reason I was able to get the spot.
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Just got back from the camping trip. Was rainy and miserable part of the time, but overall had a good time and caught some fish.
My wife pulled in the first fish just 15 minutes or so after we pulled in. I was still setting up camp. It was a pretty 14" or 15" hybrid. Nobody else caught a fish Friday in the three hours of daylight we had, so she won the prize. We just threw him on the grill over the fire in tin foil without spices or anything and the kids ate the hell out of it.
This morning we fished the channel by our campsite and none of us seemed to be able to set a hook right even though we had a fair amount of nibbles. My buddy's fiance almost got it right, but the fish splashed up against the bank and came free of the hook.
Around 11am we hit the spot by the boat ramp I've always wanted to try out. Talk about a bad time given the weather, lol. Wind was blowing, we were getting sprinkled on, and I was getting a bit cranky with the lack of bites. My wife pulled in a (swear to god) 2.5' sucker. Biggest sucker I've ever seen. I was just jealous she caught SOMETHING. About 20 minutes later she pulled in a decent little cutt, about 12", maybe a bit less. We got out of the spot right around 1pm because we obviously weren't doing well and headed back to the channel by our campsite.
Fast forward to 2:30, and I finally got a decent bite and was able to set the hook. Pulled out the attached 17" cutt, and I was pretty excited I managed to catch something, especially a decent sized pretty fish. Sorry the pic isn't better, was in a hurry to get him back into the water...bank there isn't too friendly as far as keeping them in the water, thus the bucket.
No more than 20 minutes later my wife pulled out a cutt that looked (at the time) identical to the one I pulled out. I figured the stupid creature came back for more, lol. She snapped a picture and I wasn't aware of it until we got home, so it's attached as well.
Other than that, bugs were hatching. Water had risen a little bit and was a lot more muddy than it was on Wednesday. Fish seemed a little bit less active, but water quality was probably the biggest factor in that. Had a lot of bites in the morning, a decent dead spot and then about half an hour of bites in the afternoon. Absolutely nothing after 3:30 until we left at 7pm. Got my first mosquito bite of the year (and only one thank goodness).
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Thanks for the report. Sounds like a fun time.
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nice fish, looks like the name of the game was some good ole fashioned patience yesterday.
Saw you guys setting up as we were headed up river. Was one of a couple of jets on the river sat.
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Looks like you had a good time. Steelfisher and I tried Fall River for a bit, but it was high and pretty muddy.
Windriver
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Hit that channel again today, wife and I both pulled in one cutt a piece again. Had a good time.
Didn't see ANY surface activity, and water has risen a lot. Pure chocolate. Surprised we got bites at all, but it was a nice day in the sun with the family...can't complain about that.
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Tried Enterprise Canal out as well, spent about 20 minutes and didn't have any bites there. It's running pretty high and fast too (went to the end of E 150 N)...also chocolate milk.
Would have probably hit different bodies of water but with the way the wind was, I figured the river / canal around Ririe would be best.
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fist shake at him, lol.