Dana,
You must have been up there at Chapman? I’ve never stayed there, but have driven past it on my way over Hagerman Pass a few times.
I fished the river below Ruedi with my Dad this past Friday-Sunday as well. It wasn’t as good as it has been in the past (I’m not sure if it will ever be that good again), but it wasn’t too bad either. They dropped the flow to 230 cfs early on Friday morning, just below what I consider an ideal fishing flow of 250 cfs. We caught an average of about 20 fish per day and a prety mixed bag of Browns and Rainbows in the 12"-18" range, with a smattering of small Brown trout fry (~6") mixed in (not counted), so I’m not complaining.
However, we caught fish on more different nymph patterns than I ever recall using in one trip before. 
It seemed like we would try something and it would catch a few fish, then stop working. We would switch to something else, catch a few, then repeat. We used several patterns I have come up with over the years for the 'Pan which normally catch fish consistently all day with the same unusual result. It was strange. I even went through the trouble to seine the water a few times just to see if there was something unusual coming down the river but did not see anything out of the ordinary. Lots of PMD nymphs and little greenish worms as usual with a couple of mysis thrown in.
The PMD Comparadun was about the only dry fly that seemed to really work. They came off several times throughout the day, and the fish did seem to key in on it. We tried several PMD variations I’ve used in the past to no avail (along with several other patterns), so Friday when I took a break for lunch I tied up a new variation on the PMD that the fish did seem to like. The dry fly fishing was on and off like a light switch. The fish were really killing the emergers (that was where we had our best luck), so I think that not too many were actually making it out of the water.
I had to keep a rod rigged specifically for dries just to catch the hatch in time! I did land quite a few on dries, but had one heck of a time hooking up! It seemed that when I set the hook expecting a fish, there would be nothing there! My dad spoke with an old timer who said he’d been fishing the river since before Ruedi was built (and until recently also owned property just down the river a little ways), and never had so much trouble hooking up on dries. He said he had missed over half the fish that ate his fly too. Again, strange. :-?
At least the new Hofer strain rainbows they stocked last year seem to be doing well. 
We caught a few in the 18" range. Those must be the ones that were in the 12" range last summer. I’m beginning to agree with my dad in that the tailwater seems less crowded on the weekends than the weekdays anymore. That’s OK with me! :tieone:
PS - I forgot; there was a pretty good rusty spinner fall in the evening, but the fish all but ignored them.
