Slow weekend

In the fall they cut the flows back on the Rogue in preparation for the winter (and the irrigation needs being less also), so the flows go from about 3000 cfs to around 1000 cfs. When this happens, the fly fishing becomes terrific, because the depth drop opens up the river, allowing you to walk the banks and gravel bars.

50 fish days are normal. This week though it was different. Colder weather seemed to change everything. Nothing hatching in the morning, and the mayflies are smaller and there are less of them. The October caddis are huge, but don't seem to be there in enough volume to have the fish keying on them.

By late Sunday I end up fishing prince nymphs and salvaged Sunday and the weekend by catching three steelhead in the last hour before dark. Until then I had caught 1 cut throat earlier that day. Other fly fishers I had spoken too that day were equally skunked and looking over maps with furrowed brows, trying to get divine intervention on where to go. I stayed put, figuring it would not make a difference, and waited for the fish to start to move (Well, I guess hoping they would start to move). Finally they did. The first indication was my neighbor fishing down stream of me. By the bend in his rod and the effort, he had caught a really good steelhead few minutes before I did. It must have been a hatchery because he bonked it and went home. All three I caught were wild, but I treat them all the same and just let them go. As I write this I realize complaining about a slow weekend is silly, but I guess it really felt like fall more than Indian Summer.