2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

[Underoos]

Got out with Underroos and a non-mag for a few days of wilderness floating. Hard logistics, dodgy weather, amazing camping, good people, and 35 miles of solitude made for some well needed adventure. Fishing was pretty good too!

Man, what a great time!
My video will be out in 2 weeks.
Non-mag video and podcast tbd.

[swimmy]

Throwing streamers while float camping on a swollen river...hell yeah!

[MarsB]

I got out for the first day since October yesterday, now that the backyard river has finally gotten wadeable again. Bugs were in the air, but nobody was rising for dries (likely due to all the cotton and pollen on the water) but I just couldn't bring myself to tie on a nymph rig. I just recently read an article about small water streamer fishing so I switched to a size 10 muddler minnow on about a foot of 4X. That was the ticket, what a blast throwing tiny streamers on a 3wt! Landed some small browns (nothing over 10") but got me on the board for 2023.

My dad meanwhile, who is definitely far cooler than me, caught this nice bowfin back in VA.

[tgapp]

checked out the local creek for the first time tonight. came poorly prepared, gonna follow MarsB advice and throw a little streamer next time on my 3wt. beautiful place with great water. so peaceful.

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[Rasputin]

For the first time of the year I sallied forth to my favorite cutthroat stream, I'd been waiting for the waters to subside before going, because it's fifty miles away from town, I wanted the trip to be worth it, and I don't have the money to put in the tank these days (another story entirely). I'd been checking what little intel was available on whackingfatties.com, but found their stream-flow to be highly suspect, as it claimed that this tributary creek had twice the flow of the Blackfoot! I found there to be a bit more than a foot higher water than I'd seen last fall. My goals were to catch trout fish and to do some exploring of areas I hadn't fished yet, I did both.

Day one, I showed up fashionably late on a warm sunny day, and after trying out various nymphs and flies for an hour or two, I snagged up on a root in an undercut bank, then crossing a backwater to get up on the bank I fell backward into 30" of water, and filled my waders. After emptying them out I drove up to my first camp spot near the "fish bowl" where I caught my longest cutty last year.

After setting my boots and socks out in the sun to dry, I went to try the hole out. The additional water changed the hydro dynamics considerably, what had been a pool was more of a fast glide fed by a roiling surge. I caught nothing, but managed to lose my second fly of the day, which led to losing a double nymph rig I'd removed, and temporarily hooked on the poorly named "fly keeper foam" on my pack. Four flies gone, not a bite yet.

After my waders were dried, I booted up and headed down a side channel that had never had water last fall. I got down to the corner (a right angle turn in the stream where it comes to the road). I tied on a Pat's rubber legs with a zebra midge trailer. As has been the case every time I've used a zebra midge, I snagged and lost it. Undeterred, I kept fishing the Pat's and caught my first fish of the trip, and first rainbow I've ever caught in this creek.



As the sun had set over the steep hills and the light faded, I headed back to the truck, and saw some fish rise in a side channel, there were some orange looking mayflies swarming so I decided to try a small orange simulator, and hooked up on my first cast, only to lose it after a few seconds. This happened a second time, but though I'd lost them, I was pleased with myself to have chosen a pattern they went for. It was almost dark, and then something beautiful happened, the setting sun reflected downward off the clouds, creating an incredible alpen glow.



Day two, I fell in the water, in the morning, while crossing the stream, then after getting dried out again, I fished fruitlessly until mid afternoon, then found one of the big holes unoccupied, though the water there was fast. I tied on a wooly bugger and had a big fish flash at it immediately. I continued trying, and got a heavy fish on, but lost it. After an hour of no more action I was going to move on, but as I was walking away, I said to myself, "Then again...." and chose to tie on a double bugger, which was a brown beadhead wooly bugger, with an unweighted one tied on the hook shank, less than an inch behind, creating a five inch articulated streamer. After a cast or two I hooked up, and battled a pig of a cutthroat who eventually ended up in my net. My first cutty of the year:



I scouted out a camp site further down the hill, but despite my headache I was excited enough to go try streamers elsewhere, after all there were several hours of light left. I tried an area near an official campground (since the nearby pool I'd wanted to fish was occupied) which had a number of downed logs. Switching to a small black bugger, I hooked up again, and brought in a 15" cutty who was much thicker than the picture looks.



I then went up toward the "rock wall" where I've caught big fish before, I started fishing a streamer, but soon noticed the fish had begun rising boisterously, apparently for some light colored mayflies. My eyesight is poor, so I tied on my jack-of-all-trades standby, the renegade. I'd bought a few huge ones in size ten, meaning to use them as indicators for small trailers; I tied a griffith's gnat behind it. After spending an inordinate amount of time tying up the rig in the fading light, on the first cast my renegade was slammed by a sixteen inch female, who still had a nymph in her mouth stolen from another fisherman. Both my renegade and my trailer got ridiculously snagged in my net.



It was already the best day of fishing (in trout weight) I'd ever had, but I said to myself "maybe lightning will strike twice" and tied on another jumbo renegade, as the first one was so slimed it wouldn't float, and boom went the dynamite!



I tried further, and got another strike that looked comically like someone had a big fish silhouette on a stick raised above the surface, but I didn't hook up. The headache won out, and I had to go lie down. The next day featured a strong hook up in the morning which threw the hook, no falling in the water, no further luck, a drenching t-storm, and an debilitating headache which lead to my departure, but it was a great trip nonetheless.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Fished somewhere new today. Three hours of nothing until I figured out the sort of water to target. Then it was great. Pretty place, pretty fish:

[bigwaterbird]

Finally escaped the brewery for a day in the land of big native Brookies. Fished hard for 24hrs, only landed one fish. Better than work though…

[tgapp]

pack it up boys i got fish of the year here, y'all can go home.

really tho it was good to get out with MarsB and fish beautiful water. tons of fish in the net, lots of action, etc. great day!!

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[I've seen black diamonds!]

^^^^ I caught one like that a couple days ago. When I threw it back a big ass rainbow came rocketing out of the depths to eat it. The "follow through" left him a couple feet out of the water and half a rod length from me. That was more exciting than any of the fish I caught that day.

[swimmy]

^^^^ I caught one like that a couple days ago. When I threw it back a big ass rainbow came rocketing out of the depths to eat it. The "follow through" left him a couple feet out of the water and half a rod length from me. That was more exciting than any of the fish I caught that day.

That's bad ass. I would've immediately tied on a flashy streamer and seen if I could stick that rainbow.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

That's bad ass. I would've immediately tied on a flashy streamer and seen if I could stick that rainbow.

Oh, I did. Pretty sure I briefly hooked that same rainbow earlier in the week before he jumped and shook free. There aren't many big ones in this creek and it was the same prime lie. He made me say, "holy shit!" both times I got a look at him. I'll be back soon for another crack.

I've been going through these like crazy:


Jig streamers have been so damn reliable it's almost getting boring. But just as reliable are the logs and branches hung up around the boulders where the better fish are hanging out. Luckily they're quick to tie.

[::: :::]

What size are those?

[I've seen black diamonds!]

What size are those?

Size 8. 4.6mm tungsten bead. Lead-free wrap. Marabou tail, cactus chenille body, ice dub + marabou scrap dubbing loop collar.

Sinks a bit faster than a hackle-wrapped bugger and I don't get pissed off when I lose one because it is so fast and easy to tie. Great for plunking into deeper pockets when the water is high. I'm sure it would fish fine without the collar in fast water, but I think it adds something when you jerk one through a pool or back eddy. And you don't need to tie the collar precisely. Just slap it on and brush it out.

I didn't invent any of this. I tried a bunch of variations of popular jig streamer patterns and settled on this as a good combo of fast-to-tie + catches fish.

[::: :::]

Thx for the recipe! Gonna try those

[swimmy]

On the board!

[jpcm]

Catching windows between the storms.



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[tgapp]

Storm fishing here too

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[Rasputin]

Sweet! Folks are getting after it.

Cue Plugboots to post 40 20"ers caught in an afternoon.

[swimmy]

Sweet! Folks are getting after it.

June is my favorite time to fish. I probably spend more nights this month sleeping in my camper on the river than I do at my house.

We are at a sweet ass spot for a couple of days. I'll post a shot in the next day or two.

Big bugs are out but also getting heavy rains...which can be a bit frustrating

[Underoos]

Hot mag on mag action

[swimmy]

Trout camp

[swimmy]

Hot mag on mag action

Just watched. Good stoke.

[swimmy]

There are few things in fly fishing more enjoyable than throwing a salmon fly tight to a cut bank and watching it get nailed.

Today was solid.

[Rasputin]

Dang Swimmy!

While I didn't throw it near a cut bank, I too threw a salmon fly today with results. It was funny, I had on a rubber legs and a hare's ear under an indicator, and was stripping it in, and in just a foot of water, about 18" from the shore, this little fish attacked my indicator, which put a smile on my face. I pulled the rig through the same spot, and again a little fish attacked, this time the hare's ear, and flew out of the water, but I didn't hook it. I did it again, and this time a little fish attacked the rubberlegs, but I didn't hook it. I walked away down stream a bit to where there was a large back water. I thought about it, and thought how I'd heard that the salmon flies were hatching on lower rock creek about ten miles away. There were some rises in the back water, so I decided to tie on a salmon fly, and see if I could get lucky. It didn't work, but when I went back to the little fish ambush area, bam! My first Clark Fork Cutthroat! (Darn camera focused on the background again, but it shows where he took it in the lower right corner.)

[The Reverend Floater]

It's been a brown couple of weeks.

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