Hooked up ...

... a couple big ones.

I was fishing my home water in Northern Idaho yesterday, having a pretty decent day of it on great water in beautiful weather.

On the last stretch I was going to fish, something caught my attention 75 yards or so upstream. A large brown blob was moving downstream in the current, but not quietly. As it got closer, I could see some white on the blob and make out a shape - widespread wings on the surface and the head barely above it.

About that time, the wings really started flapping and the blob started to take flight, heading off quartering upstream away from my position. Its talons finally cleared the water, but not so the very large fish it had hooked up. After dragging its prey 30-40 yards upstream on the surface, the osprey finally gave up and did its own version of catch and release. After that, he had no trouble gaining altitude and going off to sulk wherever it is osprey do that kind of thing.

So back to fishing. About ten minutes later, a large splash a way upstream caught my attention. Out of the spraying water, a large blob emerged and began its downstream drift. Passed not more than 30 feet or so in front of me as it struggled to lift its body off the surface. It continued struggling, brown wings flapping on the waves, white head bobbing and body torquing, drifting another 50-75 yards before it gave up, came free of its load, and lifted off to go back to that place where osprey sulk.

John

P.S. Reminds me of that old saying about being careful about what you wish for. :?

They're amazing birds, sounds like they shouldn't be quite so picky about what they pick up and settle for something a little smaller.

... how the local predator can put down the trout.

Or so it seems comparing yesterday's experience with today's experience.

Yesterday, the osprey was very active on a run that usually fishes quite well at the current streamflows. I couldn't catch or even raise a trout on that stretch over the hour or so that I fished it. After giving up on that stretch, I moved downstream a little way and tried a spot that hardly ever produces before run off is over. That spot gave up about fifteen fish in not much more than half an hour.

Today, with very little change in the streamflows, I started in yesterday's hot spot, and got just one fish. Then I moved upstream to the run where the osprey had down so well yesteray, and the fishing was just insane. Hooked a couple dozen fish in a little over an hour and landed most of them. And had a number of misses and follows.

The only apparent difference was the osprey stirring things up yesterday, and no osprey around today.

John

So, did the fish move out of the run where the bird bothered them, then back in?

The osprey must've had a pretty big fish! I had an osprey on my line once, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We were trolling foot-long baitfish for Roosterfish, and the osprey came down and plucked one of my baits out of the water. It was never hooked as it just had hold of the fish, but I fought it with the stout trolling rod...I pulled hard enough that the hook finally pulled out of the bait, but the osprey didn't even seem to dip in its flight. I was amazed... STRONG birds! The osprey won the battle and the fish, and my guide had a good laugh.

Karen -

I wouldn't want to make that leap. The conditions were slightly different day one to day two, and that alone might account for the difference in results. It seems very likely that the commotion of the osprey flopping around twice in a matter of minutes on the prime part of the run might just have put the fish down. It is possible that they moved downstream, but that strikes me as less likely.

If anything, considering the rather subtle but definite difference in conditions, fishing should have been better on day one both on the "osprey" stretch and the hot spot. As it was, the hot spot might just have washed out with the slightly higher streamflow, while the higher streamflow didn't effect the willingness of the fishies to come up for the fly.

Dave -

Neat anecdote.

Most of the fish I caught yesterday in the "osprey" stretch were 15-17", were healthy and were really feisty. I was surprised at how big the osprey was ( were, if there were actually two of them ), but there is a huge different between your hooked up baitfish and the wild fish they were preying on, and I wasn't surprised that it ( they ) couldn't lift off with the kind of struggle and load it ( they ) had to deal with.

I actually started to feel worn out near the end of fishing that osprey stretch yesterday. One time when I had fish on back to back to back casts, the third time I almost groaned. :( ;) Almost. But it has been an exceptional year so far, both with the quantity of fish and the quality / size. Over the past month, I've had several 19" fish, lots of 18" fish, and a huge proportion of fish in the 15-17" range. Very different than the past two years on this river, and better than '12 and '13 which were both outstanding seasons.

John

Yeah, those ARE bigger, heavier fish! :) You've got quite a treasure there, John!

Nice to see that your river has recovered so nicely from that awful fire.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herefishy

Nice to see that your river has recovered so nicely from that awful fire.

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... it's too soon to say the river has recovered, although the early signs are encouraging. There has been a pretty steady March brown hatch for the past couple weeks, usually on the light side but with a few pretty decent hatches. The fish have been up on both MB emergers and duns occasionally. Also, there have been a few skwalas around, and some smaller caddis.

The fishing has been really good, with a few spectacular days. This past Monday bordered on epic. But the real story will be told after run off winds down, and it looks like that will be sooner this year rather than later. The proof will be in continuing and changing hatches through the fall and whether the fish stay up high in the system, especially the larger fish.

John