2011 Playing Hooky Thread

Well it’s a new year and time for a new thread.

It’s already been busy around here as well as cold. The river I fish is virtually frozen over but it’s been a tad warmer the past couple days so I thought I would poke around up there.

On the way up I spotted this guy first sitting on an iceshelf in the middle of the river, but by the time I got the camera out he was perched on this rock outcropping.

Then he took off and I snapped a couple more pics as he made a big circle around me.

Finally I made it up to my favorite winter time hole only to see I wasn’t going to be fishing where I usually fish here.


Just before christmas I puled a couple fish out of here in short order. I caught fish between the big boulder you see in the middle of the river and the smaller rock just downstream (flow is towards you in this pic) that is barely poking out above the ice in this picture. Then I caught a couple more just to the right of that little rock. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen again today.

Here’s another pic of the cold cold river.

I continued to drive up river until I arrived at another favorite spot I have often found fish sipping midges. I was pretty sure it would be frozen over as it is a long slow stretch that is a long way from any riffles. Somehow though this little stretch was relatively ice free (at least in the middle) so I got out and looked around. Things looked dead but I started walking along the bank dodging the thick willows that choked the bank. As I turned away from the river to duck through a narrow opening along the bank I heard a slurp that sounded a lot like a fish plucking a midge off the calm surface. I quickly turned around and spotted the dissipating ripples of the rise. A couple seconds later another fish rose then several more and I got that instant jolt of motivation and practically ran through those willows back to the truck to slap on the waders and grab the rod. A few moments later I was hooked up with my first fish of 2011, and to make matters sweeter it was on a dry fly marking the 12th month in a row I have managed to catch a trout on a dry.

I fished for another half hour over sporadically rising fish with no luck but my cold feet were beginning to scream that it was time to go. Just as I was about to call it a day another carbon copy brown took my fly and fish number 2 came to hand. This fish looked so much at first glance like the first one I wondered for a while if it was the same one, but further examination seems to prove otherwise.

So my first outing in 2011 was a success.

Honestly I enjoy the reward of challenging winter fly fishing about as much as anything I have ever done. What a blast.

on eleven !!

John

That is great beautiful country, eagles and fish. I need to thicken my blood a little and find a few more clothes and go to the Hooch.

I don’t have any eagles nearby that I am aware of, but one morning suddenly there was a hawk on the patio outside my office window, now 10 ft. away. Then feather started floating down from our deck above and I saw a dove in its talons. Hawks have to eat too.

Great start! Top-notch report/story/pictures as usual!

Ben, most excellent, brother! Proud of you for getting out in such conditions and striking gold. Appears those two could be twin brothers or sisters…thanks for sharing.

I really appreciate the report since I’m unable to get out, but it certainly pains me all the more that I can’t get out and do the same. Keep 'em coming :smiley:

Kelly.

THATS IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!! If the temperature ever gets to above 0 I’m going out! It’s -6 right now with the wind chill at about -20. Nice fish though.

Oh, yeah, it’s not fair because I can’t play hookie. I own my own business and I’m the sole employee…sooooo not fair.

TT.

Don’t let Betty see this thread. She might not make it up to South Dakota on her next trip…
:wink:

Ed

Thanks everyone.

I had so much fun yesterday I headed out for a little bit today as well. With the cold water temps most of the activity lately has been closer to the dam in this tailwater where the water is a little warmer. Today though I was pleasantly surprised to find rising fish in a run very low on the river cutting about 20 minutes off total drive time. The fish were again taking midges and they were pretty big midges. The #20 pattern I used because it was the biggest I had, and usually pretty much as big as I need was dwarfed by the naturals. Luckily a couple fish still played along. The first was another nice 18" fish that looked a lot like the two I landed yesterday. A few minutes later I was into fish number 2 that was a little bit smaller but fun none the less.

Then as quick as they came they were gone. Tis the way with these winter hatches. The come and they go, and it seems to be a mater of being in the right place at the right time. This week I feel pretty fortunate to have had a couple very nice outings.

Way start the ball rolling for 2011 Ben!!. Even if it does resemble a snowball. :slight_smile:

Try not to educate EVERY fish in that crick please. I’m not that good and fall is a long way off.

Rich

Hey KD,

Niccce!!! Great pics. How are you taking your own picture? If the fish didn’t have different markings, the pose the background and everything are almost identical. Congrats on a great start to the new year. Thanks for the report.

Beaver

Wonderful stuff of course - your continuing reports and fine photos are an especially fine contribution to this web site - thanks so much for being a part of FAOL!

I don’t think of it as educating them Rich…I am getting them warmed up for you. :slight_smile:

Thanks Beaver. I have a little tripod that fits on my camera that I set up near where I am fishing with the timer set. Catch a fish, keep him safely in the water in the net, push the button, wait a couple seconds, then lift, click, back in the water.

Thanks a lot for the kind words and I appreciate this site and everything you do!

Awesome man!

I love winter fishing! On a much smaller scale it is exactly what it is like fishing the Pecos this time of year. Of course along with the size of the river being smaller so are the fish…

My old handle “KeatonsDad” is not working for me so here I am posting under an alias…although not a very creative one. :slight_smile: So until “KeatonsDad” gets fixed you are stuck with version 2.0.

I did make it out once this week and as you will see by the picture the weather has been a bit warmer. The snow is almost gone, the ice shelfs are quickly receding but the feeder creeks are dumping mud like you wouldn’t believe into the river. So I had to fish at one of my favorite spots close to the dam and once again things went pretty well for a short outing. Plenty of fish eating midges up in a nice stretch of river but the wind was blowing causing some pretty good size waves making spotting fish and keeping an eye on your fly that much more difficult. I managed though and pulled in a couple decent fish in a short half hour outing.


It’s sunny!

Ben, you continue to be my hero. Thanks for getting out there and making it happen.

Kelly.

It’s been busy lately so my apologize for the sparse reports.

I got out last week once and it was a pretty standard outing for this winter. Fish up in the usual spots in the heat (30 degrees) of the day snacking on midges. I managed to stick a couple in the lip including this buttery little Brown.

Then this week I made a single trip up to the river but for the first time I have made that trek this winter I saw absolutely no surface activity. It was a quiet river and I didn’t feel like rigging up with nymphs for the short amount of time I would have had to fish so I spent a few minutes taking an informal census of the Skwala nymphs in some of my favorite runs. The returns were promising as nearly every rock I turned over had at least one of these guys clinging to the bottom of it.

Last year my first fish on a Skwala dry fly pattern came on February 17th. If I had to guess I would think it will be a little later this year but none the less the time is nearing!

Once again, great thread, and AWESOME PICTURES, Ben! :slight_smile:

Wow I finally got out again today and the fish sort of kicked my rear. They were rising to midges but they were on the move in the slower water so anticipating where the next feed would come from became the challenge. I fished hard for an hour and a half, missed a couple strikes but other than that had been having no luck getting things timed up right. The transitional midge I was using drew the interest of a couple fish but with so many bugs on the water I finally switched things up and tied on a big old parachute adams with a white post that was easy to see and dropped a zebra midge about 18 inches off the back of it. When the going gets tough I always can fall back on the old Zebra midge. Sure enough a few casts later it was fish on. Despite a tough day I can’t complain when a fish like this comes to the net.

… Benji, would be to strip a baitfish style streamer through the middle of it.

I first used the tactic about five years ago while fishing the South Fork and coming across a good number of fish rising to a hatch in a spot that I could not reach with a dry fly and maintain a decent drift. Put on a Thunder Creek Minnow on a full sinking line and it just lit the place up. Subsequently, I learned that this is a tactic that not many folks are familiar with, but it has been used by some people for a long time with really good results. Some time in the '70’s, Art Lee, I believe it was, wrote an article in one of the then popular fishing magazines on this subject.

I’ve used the tactic a dozen or so times with very good results, on quite a variety of water for quite a variety of trouts - browns and cutts on the South Fork of the Snake during baetis and PMD hatches, rainbows and brookies on the Big Lost tailwater during mixed baetis and midge hatches, and cutthroat on Big Elk Creek during the Western Green Drake hatch are the times that come quickly to mind.

My fly of choice for this situation has been my PSC. Fish it high in the water column.

John

P.S. With all those big meat eating browns in that crick you’re fishing, the PSC would undoubtably be successful whether there was any kind of hatch on or not. Quite a departure from the approaches you’ve been taking, but if you can stand the jolt of a big brown taking a stripped streamer …

Good suggestion John. I can get in a bit of a rut at times and get a little narrow in my focus. That is something that honestly did not cross my mind but it sure would have been worth a try. I will have to keep that thought in my back pocket the next time the situation arises.