May 23, 2014
Everything is finally coming together nicely for the long weekend.
Water flows on all the rivers are down to excellent fishing levels. The East Outlet should be around 1900 all weekend and Brassua at 650. The Roach River just saw a bump in flow to 250 cfs. That will liven up the fish already in the river and bring in more.
The West Branch is at 2300 down from 3200 cfs.
The Blue Wing Olives are just beginning to show on the rivers. The Hendricksons shouldn’t be too far behind.
The suckers are spawning in the big rivers and fish began eating our egg patterns the middle of the week.
The photo above is of Ian McKechnie with a 17′ West Branch brookie. On the cast before he caught this brookie he caught a 21″ white sucker on a prince. We switched to a sucker spawn and he caught this trout on the first drift over the same spot. He was a happy lad.
We also have been catching fish on a variety of nymphs. Since hatches haven’t begun in earnest fish are picking away at lots of stuff like princes, hare’s ears, pheasant tails and small black stones. Have a close look at a fishes nose. We were seeing plenty of scratches all over their noses, a dead giveaway they have been probing around the rocks searching for something to eat. Don’t forget to swing your favorite streamers. Fish haven’t given up chasing them just yet.
Here’s another pitch for the small pond trout fishing. Every pond fisherman in the shop the last couple days are saying it couldn’t get much better. Twitch just about any pond bug on or just under the water and they’ll grab it. Blue Dunns and Quill Gordons are due to start any day now.
The stars have finally lined up for a very fine stretch of fishing.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend and stop in on your way by to say hi.
