Quote Originally Posted by tedshuck View Post
John,

... Hope your home waters continue to fish well now that the fish have come back.

Ted
I'm hopeful Ted, but not optimistic.

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