06-11-2018, 09:45 PM
Took the tube to Strawberry on Friday morning. Fished 7:30a to about 1:30p… it was looking pretty bleak for a while. Nabbed 1 early on a Carey Special, but largely struck out throughout a massive Chironomid hatch. I had to tell myself that there must be so many naturals in the water that the fish simply cannot locate my flies. [laugh]
Even more frustrating were so many fish feeding at the surface and I could not entice a single one of these to hit either. Really loaded up the fly drying patch during this stretch.
Water temp was 53* F when I launched, and figuring that Callibaetis should be on the menu by now I started slow trolling (creeper gear) a #12 mayfly nymph along with a #8 olive Wooly Bugger and started hitting fish almost right away. In fact I broke off the first out of surprise overreaction Roland Martin style hookset. Around 10:45a the action kicked in…. Callibaetis nymphs were suddenly everywhere bobbing up to the surface tension among the spent midge shucks and the action was non-stop until I kicked back to shore around 1:00p.
Final tally was 18 in the net (12 Cutts, 6 Rainbows) and all but 2 were in the 18-21 inch range. The big Rainbows were particularly exciting… successive cartwheels followed but scorching runs into the backing. Fish were pretty much split across the 2 flies. Not sure the depth of water I was in, but I like to call it the beginning of the abyss… I see bottom/weeds on one side, and the deep blue sea on the other.
A few pic’s attached…
[signature]
Even more frustrating were so many fish feeding at the surface and I could not entice a single one of these to hit either. Really loaded up the fly drying patch during this stretch.
Water temp was 53* F when I launched, and figuring that Callibaetis should be on the menu by now I started slow trolling (creeper gear) a #12 mayfly nymph along with a #8 olive Wooly Bugger and started hitting fish almost right away. In fact I broke off the first out of surprise overreaction Roland Martin style hookset. Around 10:45a the action kicked in…. Callibaetis nymphs were suddenly everywhere bobbing up to the surface tension among the spent midge shucks and the action was non-stop until I kicked back to shore around 1:00p.
Final tally was 18 in the net (12 Cutts, 6 Rainbows) and all but 2 were in the 18-21 inch range. The big Rainbows were particularly exciting… successive cartwheels followed but scorching runs into the backing. Fish were pretty much split across the 2 flies. Not sure the depth of water I was in, but I like to call it the beginning of the abyss… I see bottom/weeds on one side, and the deep blue sea on the other.
A few pic’s attached…
[signature]