John,
Good to know that the flashback PT worked for you. I have had many days this year when I thought all the fish had left the river for better waters. I keep changing flies until I get to something they will eat, and the fish magically reappear in the river. Hope your home waters continue to fish well now that the fish have come back.
Ted
Old flies ... old tyers ... old waters ... old fishers ...
Always the BEST!!
Trouts don't live in ugly places.
A friend is not who knows you the longest, but the one who came and never left your side.
Don't look back, we ain't goin' that way.
Time will tell ...
I'm hopeful Ted, but not optimistic.Originally Posted by tedshuck
This river has suffered from major wildfire residue since 2013 and 2014 and the fishery has deteriorated every year since 2015. Since 2014 there have been very few hatches as the aquatic insect habitat was suffocated by ash and other debris from the fires, and the water chemistry almost certainly changed from other fire residue brought down to the river each year during run off.
In mid summer every year from '09 when I started fishing it through '14 the number of juvenile cutts and steelhead coming out of the tributaries into the main river were almost staggering. Anglers used to complain about the little pests getting in the way of the bigger fishies taking their fly - not seeing the juveniles as the future of the fishery.
The past several years there have been very few juvenile fish in the river during that peak mid summer period, which does not bode well for the near term future of the fishery. Thus, my doubt that the river has turned a corner and is on its way back. Also, before 2015, every fishing day would include a good number of fish in the 16-17" range. The past few years, catching a 17" fish might happen once out of four or five outings.
Having said that, yesterday was the third good day of fishing there this past week. With stream flow up considerably from rain fall Thursday and the water noticably off color compared to earlier in the week, the fishing was surprisingly good. Had about 20 fishies willing to play tag with the pointless FEB salmonfly, but the star of the show was a pointless mahogany dun emerger tied with pheasant tail and in the 90 degree hackling method with about 10 playmates in the first place I fished.
The second place is really interesting if you aren't wading. The most likely spots to hold any fishies require long casts - in the 50-60' range. Had half a dozen at long distance on the pointless emerger. What fun.
So ... if I do buy a license next year, it will be so I can continue my thirteen year experience on this river and monitor its continued decline, or recovery if that, indeed, is what happens. Hope springs eternal, but reality always sets in, one way or the other.
John
The fish are always right.
John,
It may be a few more years, but it should come back if you don't get more fires in the mean time. The S Platte had some major fires upstream from my local waters in Waterton Canyon back in the late 90's and early 2000's. This filled up the reservoir directly upstream from the canyon so badly that they spent most of a year dredging the reservoir in 2010. The dredging caused so much ash and silt to flow down river for so long that it pretty well killed all the fish and bugs in this stretch of the river. I didn't bother to fish it for several years. The last few years it has improved every year, to the point that this year it has been fishing as well as it every did before the fires. This past June we had two great hatches that lasted for weeks, PMDs and Golden Stoneflies. I don't ever remember seeing more that a few of these flies before in the canyon. So, the river has come back, maybe better than before, even if it seemed to have to die first.
Ted
Over eons ...
... the Lochsa has undoubtedly undergone many, many cycles like the one it is now in. Not sure of the history of this river, but will assume it has probably run its current course since the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years. Probably hundreds of times it has been affected by wildfires and seen a period of decline and then recovered to be outstanding fish habitat.
To qualify some of my earlier remarks, my experience is limited to the upper thirty miles of the river, which I have fished somewhere around 1,000 days since the summer of '09. I can't speak to the lower forty miles down to its confluence with the Selway, but suspect that section of the river is in the same, or a similar cycle.
Since the fishery still seems to be in decline, it will likely be a good number of years before it fully recovers, and only, as Ted suggests, with the absence of significant wildfires in its headwaters and along its course.
Having said that, I would not discourage anyone from fishing on the Lochsa - simply being in the environment of its canyon and on that Wild and Scenic River is a great experience, with or without a bunch of fishies playing with the flies one chooses to fish there.
John
The fish are always right.
P. S.
... to my earlier post today.
Prior to 2015, there were a decent number of river otters in this river, not that they were around daily, but it was never a surpise to spot one or more, sometimes a family. They were always entertaining. Also, prior to 2015, it was very common to see and / or hear osprey anywhere along the river, occasionally diving into the river and emerging with a trout or whitefish, or flying overhead with a fish in its talons.
Then, I went three years without seeing any otters. In mid-summer of 2018, I was chatting with an acquaintance at a river access point and commented that it had several years since I had seen an otter. About that time, I looked downstream and saw some disturbance in a rather slow section of water. A few minutes later, the disturbance appeared just downstream - an otter. Guess we should have been missing them and talking about them more often. Two more years went by, until the fall of 2020 when a family - mom and two pups - made at appearance at one of my regular fishing spots. My guess is that the otters stayed away for the lack of food as the fishery declined, and because of the changing chemistry of the water.
Similar experience with the osprey. Seeing or hearing one has been a rarity the past several years. A couple riverside nests that had been quite active from 2010 through 2014 and had chicks every year during that time frame have been silent and empty the past several years. There is an occasional osprey around, but it is a rare treat to even see one rather than a regular part of the experience there. The osprey are following the first of my Three Teas for Trout - fish where they is, not where they ain't.
John
The fish are always right.
Hate to hear your report on the Lochsa. Only fished there once, but really enjoyed the serenity and natural beauty of the whole area, to include the Selway. Although I may not get back there, let's hope she recovers sooner than later for you and those who fish there frequently.
God Bless America
I believe the 'HO' is a reference to our vice-president. (think gangsta' lingo)
Work is something for people that don't fish.
OLD thread - but I'm sorta an OLD man so. . .
I tried a poly leader a few times and it was kinda quirky but it worked.
I also got gifted three or four homemade sections of T-8 and T-12 in a couple of different lengths with loops tied on each end.
Those work pretty well but are a little bit to a lot "hingey" feeling at times. Still, they work ok for getting a fly down in fast water.
They just aren't much on casting.
Or maybe I'm not much of a caster with those looped on. But, I'm not all that good at casting all-in-one piece sink tip fly line unless it's short distances like against a bank either but I'll keep trying
If you're inclined to look: type "sink tips" into the big auction site search window you'll see some homespun sections of T-xx on there and get an idea what I am talking about if you haven't seen them before. After just searching that myself I think I need to start tying and marketing those ! Whew weee. They're proud of those.
Good luck out there!
JD
Last edited by jdfog2; 04-05-2022 at 10:07 PM.
Time will tell ...
... whether getting an annual license for this year will result in further observing the decline of this fishery, or note its improvement and potential recovery.
So far, the early returns are at least positive and somewhat encouraging. The past week or so there has been some hatch activity, one day last week a strong hatch with quite a few rising fish and the past couple days just moderate hatch activity with no fish up. March browns and maybe some drakes. At least this is a start.
The fishing has been somewhat inconsistent, but there have been several relatively good days. A couple days with something north of fifteen fishies willing to play, mostly on an FEB Salmonfly, and a couple days with almost thirty fishies in the game. So the numbers are reasonably good for the amount of time on the water, roughly three to three and a half hours each day, and the weather and streamflow conditions on any given day.
Also, the quality of the fishies willing to play is noticeably improved compared to the past few years. Considerably more larger fish. Yesterday, for example, I had one pushing 19" followed shortly by one over 17". And a couple fish I turned playing tag looked to be in the upper teens as well. It has been a long time since I've seen fish like that on this crick.
One of the really interesting things yesterday was one spot ( out of the six where I mostly played tag ) that has never fished well before runoff. Even getting a single fish there was much less likely than getting skunked. Yesterday there were eight fishies willing to play. I almost didn't bother stopping there, and ended up with the biggest surprise of the day.
So the early returns on my investment in a license are pretty favorable. But .... time will tell. I'll know in a matter of months if the fishery has turned the corner and is on the road to recovery or in continued decline. Either way, it is a worthwhile investment of time and expense.
John
The fish are always right.
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