Bear River Bird Refuge

[Tin-Can]

It has been almost a month (22 Sep 20) since my last trip to the BRBR. That trip only resulted in one small kitty to stave off a skunk. At that time the main river level was up to what I would estimate about 80%. Most of the irrigation gates  and the gates at the bottom bridges were closed and only a small amount of water was flowing over the tops of a couple gates, so there was very little water flow anywhere. 

Yesterday was a quite different story. The water level on the entire main body of the river was up close to 100% and flowing well. Reeder bridge had water flow under it and the south side of bridge water level was quite a bit more than last month. 
All of the underflow canals that I could see while driving west toward the bottom bridge area appeared to have quite good flow under them. The gates at the bottom bridges all had flow thru them south, west, and north. Water level at the bridge "pool" was quite high. 

That is all good news for the water fowl hunters, I think. Lots of water has been allowed to flow out into the marsh areas.  And by the number of shotgun blasts going off in all directions, there should have been a good number of fowl harvested. 

I was hoping that after the last couple nights of cooler weather, the mosquitos would have been reduced. Ahh....but not the case.  There was an almost constant 10-15 mph wind blowing yesterday, and it didn't seem to affect the skeeters either. 
They were thick and everywhere..........  

I started out at the furthest north channel point for legal fishing.  Had several taps and bait strips right off the bat, then nothing.  



After about an hour, I moved back to the guard rail at the north channel gate. Set out my lines, and for another hour or so the only bites I got were from the aggressive mosquito swarms. 
I did have one positive aspect at that location. I met another angler that was working for Walleye. Turns out we both have similar military backgrounds.  I invited him to check out the BFT site as he said he had seen it but never really looked into it.  I did warn him that there can be some real "personalities" on the forum, but most of the time the regulars are friendly and helpful. 
Weather or not he joins up is a question, but the invite is out there.   

I moved further back up river to a spot near Willow Creek ....  spent an hour there. No luck either.   

Not ready to change my BFT avatar yet, but here is a representation of me yesterday......