That one is my favorite…it has some excellent colors!
… but somebody has to do it.
The flows are up a bit more, and I think this time as a precursor to some serious runoff. The highs are forecast into the low to mid 70’s starting Saturday and for at least the best part of a week after that.
Today it was in the 50’s with a bit of cloud cover on and off. Made for some difficult light conditions, and while the FEB Skwalas I fished were always visible, the takes were as often detected by splash around the fly as seeing the fish coming to the fly and hitting it. And I only saw a couple refusals - may have been more but obscured the light conditions.
Something of an experiment ** today. Started here.
Had a bunch of these guys, with lots of variation in size, spotting, and, to a lesser extent, coloration.
Then went here.
And the fishies kept on feeding.
Ended the day at this place.
Only got one, but he was one of the bigger fish on the day, at about 16-17".
** The experiment involved testing a proposition that color is the least important in priority. I tied three different color combinations for the FEB and substituted natural deer hair for the wing on one version and for both the wing and bullethead on the third one.
First on the water, the candy cane with a fluorescent red and bright white FEB.
Caught somewhere around a dozen fishies with this version.
Next up, a combination of bright orange and brown olive for the FEB.
Caught about eight with this version.
The standard version accounted for another half dozen being fished last in the line up. All in all, a really good day, and the results with the different color FEBs supports the notion that color is least important of the priorities in fly tying, the others being, in order of importance - size, silhouette, and action.
John
In a matter of three days, the streamflow went from just over 6,000 CFS to about 12,700 CFS at Lowell, which is 30-50 miles downstream of where I usually fish, but is the closest monitoring location.
The outing today was more about observation than any real expectation of catching any trouts. With the flows doubling in such a short time, it would be unrealistic to think that the fishies had acclimated to the dramatic changes in their world and were ready to eat again.
Took some pix of places I’ve fished recently for comparison.
This was the really productive place last outing. Today the water is about three feet deeper and the edge of the water is a good 20’ up the bank. If I had taken waders, there would have been some chance of dredging for some trouts, but I didn’t and there wasn’t.
This place only gave up a couple fish on the previous trips this spring. Didn’t even try fishing it today. The water was at least two feet deep over the rocks I had been standing on to fish from last week.
Another place that has been interesting and challenging the past few weeks, and has been productive on and off. Got in a little casting practice while I was there. This is one of those scary places where you really don’t want to slip on the wet rocks and end up in the river. The consequences of a small mistake could be catastrophic.
Finally, a tough spot just got tougher. More exercise waving the rod around and watching the fly.
A couple other observations. Actually saw what I took to be a couple adult skwalas today, on the wing. They were definitely stoneflies, and it is too early for the salmonflies and golden stones to be out.
There were several hatches in progress. Lots and lots of BWOs in several of the places I stopped. A very small dark stonefly, much smaller than a neumora. And a small gray caddis. All three of these insects would be tied on size 18 or 20 hooks. Tried to catch some for some macro pix, but those little guys are downright tough to catch. The times one or another would land on me, they would be gone before I could get focused for a pic. Also saw a few larger mayflies, maybe March Browns, or a drake.
My guess is that the runoff will increase over the next few days and then stabilize for a few days while some cooler weather moves through the area. It will likely peak in maybe three weeks at about 16-17,000 CFS at Lowell, compared to a peak flow over 21,000 CFS in early June 2011.
If it does stabilize late this week, it could fish well for a few days. If it does peak in three weeks, the prospects for some lights out salmonfly fishing when it starts dropping are excellent.
John
… out at 16,000 CFS.
Checked the streamflow at Lowell this morning. It went up to about 16,700 CFS as of 6:00 a.m. BLOWN !!
This does remind me of a situation over there about five or six years ago. The week after the Idaho Fish-In that year. Late September, maybe the first week of October.
A huge storm system moved across Washington and into northern Idaho. The day before the system hit the Bitterroot Mountains, the Lochsa was flowing at about 300 CFS and the Selway was flowing at about 500 CFS. The Clearwater was running about 1,000 CFS, gaining from a couple smaller tributaries below the confluence of the Lochsa and Selway and above the monitoring station on the Clearwater.
In just over 24 hours, the Lochsa blew up to about 20,000 CFS and the Selway went to about 28,000 CFS. The Clearwater went to over 50,000 CFS.
John
P.S. It occurred to me yesterday that I still need to get a PFD for fishing the runoff.
… out at 17,000 CFS in a few weeks.
It blew by that yesterday, and this morning at 6:00 a.m. was running 19,600 CFS at Lowell.
John
… last week, including some higher elevation rain that accelerated the snow melt, totally blew the river. The highest figure I saw was 21,800 CFS early Friday.
And then it dropped almost 10,000 CFS in time to go fishing today.
The water was high, and fast, and in great shape.
No action on a dry, so I went to a rubber legs stone fly nymph. Took a while, but …
… at least a few ( three ) fishies were willing to play.
Also tried stripping a streamer in this spot, with no hits.
Moved on upstream and tried a couple other places. Nada.
Then, with an FEB Skwala, right in the pocket …
off the big rock …
… had a hit that didn’t hook up, a hook up that came unbuttoned after a good tussle, and a couple in hand.
Moved down just a bit and drifted the skwala over an interesting little drop …
… for two more hooked and two more in hand.
Lots of work. But when you are fishing a major run off, any action is great, and seven fishies in hand in five hours is just dandy.
John
… today, back up to about 11,500 CFS. Forecast for cool weather with a bit of wind, but nothing too dramatic.
Fished a stonefly nymph for a couple hours here …
Lost two cutts to long distance releases. Landed one of the biggest mountain whitefish I’ve caught on the Lochsa - just at 17".
Fished a dry for a while with no action.
Moved on upstream and hit a couple spots. Nothing.
Moved up again. To here …
And got some action with a salmonfly dry …
Moved down to a spot with some nice structure …
And promptly hooked up with this 17" fishy.
Snagged some instream stuff and bent the hook. The next fishy almost made it to my hand, but flopped once at the wrong time, slipped off the bent hook, and missed his photo op.
Moved on up a little way to the place that I first fished the run off last year.
Still working with the bent hook, managed to land this guy.
Let’s see - snow going over, on and off while fishing, and on the way home. Rain going over, on and off while fishing, and on the way home. Wind going over, on and off while fishing, and on the way home. Sunshine going over, on and off while fishing, and on the way home. Must be May in Northern Idaho and Western Montana.
And it’s much too early for salmonflies, except the trouts were eating adult salmonflies. Talk about blind, dumb, starving, and confused fishies !!
John
LOL Seems to be the same thing here with Brookies… today going to be almost 90 ? Is this the month of May ? The brookies don’t know they love my favorite flies, there are so many hatches going on now all at the same time! I sat on the stream side the other day and just watched, there was hatches from 22 to 10 and some flies looked big enough to maybe eat the Brookies for dinner lol Poor fishes or poor fisherman? Or yeah fishes and yeah for the fisherman? 
… yeah, right. :roll:
It started snowing about ten miles from home and kept on snowing all the way to the place I intended to fish first. Several times along the way, when it was coming really heavy and sideways, I thought about turning around and heading for home. But what the heck, I tied three FEB salmonflies this morning for this outing, and the weather forecast was for something better.
First place looked good, with the water quite a bit lower and looking great.
Fished a salmonfly dry for a while with no action, not surprisingly. Went to a rubber legs stonefly nymph and picked up a couple trouts and a whitefish.
Snow and salmonflies … yeah, right. :shock:
Put on one of the FEB salmonflies and fished here…
Got four fishies in hand.
One of the flies I tied this morning was tied on a hook which I broke off just at the back end of the barb. I’ve been thinking trying “pointless” hooks on and off for a couple years now. My “game” is hunting fish and getting them to take the fly. Playing and landing them are not a priority. Since hunting is the point and it can be done with pointless hooks, why not give one a shot.
This little pocket can be really good. A couple days ago, when the water was a bit higher, I got one trout on the salmonfly dry.
Today, fishing it with the pointless fly, I had 12 to 15 fishies hit the fly and try to eat it in about twenty minutes. Felt the tug by most of them, had several on for a short tussle, and almost landed a couple of them. The action was fast and furious, with no time wasted landing and releasing fishies, and the trout not disturbed by having one of their buddies charging around the pocket with some strange thing stuck in its jaw.
Before I left this pocket, I put on a fly with a pointy thing and caught this guy, who is pretty typical of the fish that hit the fly, although several were somewhat bigger.
Stopped at one more place that can be really good before heading for home. Found one pocket that was full. Like with half a dozen fish that were willing to play the pointless game in about ten action filled minutes.
Very interesting day. Glad I didn’t turn around because of the snow, and that I did fish the pointless FEB salmonfly. I’ll be doing that some more.
John
I think I am going to try this!
My wife thinks I do too many things that are pointless without trying to be pointless. I think I will stick with the hooks with a point.
[INDENT]… involved an experiment with three different versions of the FEB Salmonfy. The results were …
… straight pin version - 14 trouts
… “pointless” version - 6 trouts
… regular pointy thing - 14 trouts
Started with the straight pin version. First spot was on fire while it lasted - five fish on the fly is less than five minutes. Felt every one tug the fly. Two of them held on and took the fly 2-3’ deep before giving it up.
Second spot, still with the straight pin, was almost as fast and furious. Nine trout on the fly - several were splashy takes that didn’t really give much of a tug, several gave it pretty good tugs, one or two took it deep, and Number 14 held it long and hard enough to break off the 5X tippet.
After the break off, I went to the “pointless” fly. Had three more on in the second spot, and for sure thought I was finally going to land one. Didn’t happen. He came unbuttoned after a valiant struggle ( on his part ).
Third spot, I stayed with the “pointless” fly. Had three cutts come up from way down in some very soft, deep water and hit the fly, all three tugging it pretty good.
After the three good tugs, I went with the regular pointy thing. Hooked up a couple nice fishies in the third spot, and then went back to the second spot and hooked up several more, and landed all of them.
Headed on down to spot four, which I didn’t think would be fishable from the bank. Wrong. The water has dropped enough that - eight fish ate the pointy thing and stayed with it all the way to manual release.
Stopped at spot five on the way home. No way a fish will come up through that water. Wrong. One did come up and hooked up, but took a long distance bye-bye after a brief struggle.
Ran into an acquaintance near the end of the outing. Offered him my last used pointy thing, and a couple “pointless” versions. He opted for the pointy thing.
John
[/INDENT]
… rock. From 21,800 CFS about ten days ago to under 7,000 CFS this morning.
Looking for big changes, and headed to some new water. The first place today is one that I only fished one time last year. It is an incredibly beautiful stretch of water, and still looks pretty wicked compared to how it was last summer with streamflows well under 1,000 CFS.
Fished here for a couple hours, with a variety of straight pin, pointless, and pointy thing FEB salmonflies.
Next stop was one of my regular places. Big changes. Almost back to how it looked when the FEB Skwala did so well a few weeks ago.
With the lower water, the fish were moving away from the edges, and finally getting out into some faster water. Not a lot of hatch activity, just a smattering of PMDs. This guy was willing to eat a pointy thing.
Made another regular stop, more changes, and the fishing was pretty slow. Caught several, but moved on rather quickly.
The last stop was the most changed stretch of water. The fishies had been in close to the bank the couple times I’ve fished it the past week. Today they were out in the current.
Bunches of them. This guy is pretty typical of the ones I saw hit the pointless fly, and the few that I landed using the pointy thing.
Moved up about 25 yards to some “fresh” water and had a bunch more fishies all over the fly, a couple right at the edges, but most out in the fast currents.
These are the conditions that make you really pay attention. When the trouts hit the fly, they hit it hard and fast and getting a hook set demands quick reaction. This was one of the stronger fishies on the day. He wasn’t quite as dark as in the pic - it was getting late and I was in a well shaded place.
This was a particularly interesting place today. There were caddis coming off, and there were fishies up on them. The last two fish for the day were ones I targeted, casting back to their rises to naturals. They might have been taking caddis naturals, but that didn’t stop them from slamming the FEB salmonfly.
Over the course of five and a half hours, fishing five different places and covering a great variety of water, I tallied something over 35 fishies on a mix of the different versions of the salmonfly. Also got to see a small number of refusals as fish came off the bottom to look at the fly.
John
… to yesterday’s fishing report.
I had the opportunity to talk to an Idaho Fish and Game biologist. She was checking a trap on the Crooked Fork Creek for chinook salmon and steelhead parr / smolt. There are bunches of them in the system now, all wild, mostly about 3" long, up to 5", and they are already headed for the Pacific !!!
Late in the afternoon, I did hook up momentarily with a little fishy - 4-5" - but he came unbuttoned and I will never know if I hooked my first salmon or another steelhead yesterday.
In another place, I had a little guy come up twice, or two little guys each come up once, to look at the fly and refuse it. Those guys will do well on their trip to the ocean.
I continue to be completely awed by the wild chinook salmon and steelhead in the Lochsa system. I have no interest in fishing for the salmon when the big guys arrive later in the summer, and it is not legal to target the steelhead, but it is a joy when you get to see them time to time while trout fishing.
John
Great reports John. I’m really interested in your experiments. For dries, colour is probably not overly important given that the fish see the fly against the brighter background of the sky. So, as has been talked about before, they probably see the silohette in black. Hence, size and shape are where the triggers are. Nymphs, or wets, may give more importance to colour. I’ve had some days where I would take fish on a yellow bodied fly, or maybe one that had red in it, but switch to a similar shape and size without the key colour, and the fish stopped taking. Go back to the original fly, and action on again. Of course, I’ve had other days where it seemed anything goes and, more frequently, I apparently left the required fly at home!
Also, it’s interesting to see that you’re getting about as many flies with the pointy things as the pointless flies. It seems that the big hook thing doesn’t put them off all that much, which is interesting since it would affect the size and shape that they see!
Fish, you can never really figure them out. Just make some guesses that seem to work for awhile. I think that’s part of the fun though.
- Jeff
… probably is less significant on the FEB flies I’ve been using because of all the “appendages” in the way of flexible tails, legs, and antennae, up to eight, total, plus the FEB itself. When you float one of these flies in a clear glass of water and look at it from below, there is so much stuff going on that it is difficult, at times, to even see the hook, or recognize it for what it is.
Of course, that is what the human eye and mind see, and I, for one, don’t have a clue how a trout’s eyes and mind see. Except that they do see a lot of different flies as food, not fake. And virtually all flies have that big hook thing, and for most of those flies, the hook is a prominent feature.
I tend to agree with you on the color aspect for flies fished beneath the surface, but from what I’ve read, the deeper the subsurface fly, the less significant the color is. Again, the human perception, with no way of knowing if fish really see in a similar manner regarding color.
The pointless flies have been a kick ( to include the straight pin versions ). Beyond the reason that I started tying them - because my highest priority is hunting / finding fish - and closely related to it, is that they can be used as an effective “searching” tool. If you wanted to go out and determine where the fishies are playing without disturbing them so much, say a guide scouting a new stretch of water to see if it would be good for his client the next day, there really would be a point to fishing a pointless fly.
John
P.S. A couple random thoughts -
While fishing, it doesn’t happen often, but the FEB does occasionally wrap around the hook further obscuring it - and the fly still catches fish.
It has been my thought from the outset that the FEB’s flexibility / movement / action would be an important factor in the success of the fly. I do think that gives the design some advantage over more traditional patterns, with rigid abdomens, for the same insects.
… probably is less significant on the FEB flies I’ve been using because of all the “appendages” in the way of flexible tails, legs, and antennae, up to eight, total, plus the FEB itself. When you float one of these flies in a clear glass of water and look at it from below, there is so much stuff going on that it is difficult, at times, to even see the hook, or recognize it for what it is.
Of course, that is what the human eye and mind see, and I, for one, don’t have a clue how a trout’s eyes and mind see. Except that they do see a lot of different flies as food, not fake. And virtually all flies have that big hook thing, and for most of those flies, the hook is a prominent feature.
I tend to agree with you on the color aspect for flies fished beneath the surface, but from what I’ve read, the deeper the subsurface fly, the less significant the color is. Again, the human perception, with no way of knowing if fish really see in a similar manner regarding color.
The pointless flies have been a kick ( to include the straight pin versions ). Beyond the reason that I started tying them - because my highest priority is hunting / finding fish - and closely related to it, is that they can be used as an effective “searching” tool. If you wanted to go out and determine where the fishies are playing without disturbing them so much, say a guide scouting a new stretch of water to see if it would be good for his client the next day, there really would be a point to fishing a pointless fly.
John
P.S. A couple random thoughts -
While fishing, it doesn’t happen often, but the FEB does occasionally wrap around the hook further obscuring it - and the fly still catches fish.
It has been my thought from the outset that the FEB’s flexibility / movement / action would be an important factor in the success of the fly. I do think that gives the design some advantage over more traditional patterns, with rigid abdomens, for the same insects.
John, I’m thinking I might try some slightly smaller versions of your fly on the local bluegills and crappies. I have printed off your tying instructions for your JC’s Salmonfly that was posted in the FOTW on June 7, 2010. Other than colors, have you made any tweaks to the pattern or how you tie it since then?
Dave -
I think the FOTW article on the FEB Hopper would be a better place to start. Same design, and closer to what I now tie for all the FEB patterns ( with the exception of deer hair bulletheads for the skwala and October caddis versions ).
Follow the link.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/fotw20090810.php
John
… from an Idaho Fish and Game trap.
Just as we passed by, the local Fish and Game biologist was bringing in today’s catch from the trap on the Crooked Fork Creek. Great opportunity to see a bucketful of natives, as in …
… steelhead …
… bull trout …
… and chinook salmon …
… along with a West Slope cutthroat about the same size as the bull trout.
Also got to see how the salmon and steelhead, which are all wild and native, get tagged so their movements down to the Pacific and back can be monitored as they pass through the fish ladders on the dams along the way.
Bon voyage, guys. See you in a few years.
John
P.S. Gotta love that little salmon !!