04-24-2019, 04:58 AM
Made a trip up to Stanley last weekend 4/18-4/21 had a lot of fun with amazing weather and clear water. Fished below the hatchery. Fished next to a lot of people on large snow banks. Most of the fish had made it to the hatchery so most fish we caught were seen and then casted at over and over and over again. The hardest thing was locating the fish, once fish were located it made the relentless casting steelhead fishing requires much easier. Ended the first day with 8 steelhead all under 30 inches. All of the fish were keepers but I returned all of them. A couple of them I think I caught more then once!! The second day I caught 5 with one female at 31 inches! That was a lot of fun but pretty hard work and a lot of hiking and casting to find the fish. I did check off catching a steelhead on a fly rod off my bucket list though. All were caught on a fly rod with a egg pattern fly or a brown stone fly. Also got to soak in the sun and view some amazing wildlife. I bet I seen 200 elk and a few bulls with antlers still! If you haven’t done this I would recommend this but only if you have amazing patience and love beautiful scenery. The third day a rain storm came through and with warm melting snow the river rose a lot and color changed from clear to muddy eliminating our chances of catching any more fish. All in all a great trip though.
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