… which made for some good fishing.
Places …
… and fishies …
… on dries …
… and nymphs …
Started slow, finished fast. The FEB Salmonfly was good for a dozen plus cutts and the rubber legs stonefly nymph was good for something around eighteen cutts and one mountain whitefish.
The average size is up somewhat from the first couple weeks this year ( starting in late March ). A lot of 13-15" fish and a good sprinkling of 16-17" fish now.
John
Don’t you ever fish anywhere else? 
I really wish that wasn’t 12 hours away. Our state’s too wide. 
If I may be so bold.
John
To elaborate, Patrick.
Since just before Christmas, I’ve fished about fifty times. Twenty one times on the Lochsa, and twenty nine times spread around on five or six other rivers, with an emphasis on the East Fork of the Bitterroot.
Looking forward to things settling down after runoff and seeing some other, and hopefully new, water.
John
If I was catching 15-20 nice cutts every day, I’d probably have a hard time convincing myself to fish anywhere else either.
… considering what a big rain event did overnight. :shock:
Without any more rain, it would be a couple days before it settled down. With more rain, and it is forecast through Thursday, it will likely be a bit longer before the fishing is enjoyable.
John
Very nice report John… all we can do is fish when and where we can, peace…
There aren’t many rivers that are that pretty, that will also give up so many great fish - you lucky ducky.
… would be the term, if that is what it is.
I’ve caught a fair number of lighter complected cutthroat but none have them have shown real evidence of rainbow / steelhead traits. Until this one. Notice the ( splotchy ) rainbow effect down the side ?? That doesn’t seem to be residual of the parr marking that the juvenile cutts have, but evidence of the red side of a rainbow / steelhead. If that is what it is, and I think it is, this one is a cutthroat / steelhead hybrid.
According to the Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologists that I have talked to, all the “rainbows” in the upper Lochsa are in fact steelhead. That is not simply a legal designation, but the real deal with “rainbows” that go to the Pacific and back.
John
… in three days. That is the most radical change I’ve seen in the past year as I have been able to observe this river closely through an entire cycle. The big rain event a few days ago took it from 11,000 CFS to 19,000 CFS in one day, and then with only light rain, if any, across the area and lower than normal temps, the river dropped to 12,000 CFS in 48 hours.
I didn’t expect much today. But I started fishing the 2011 runoff on May 25 and wanted to finish out a really interesting year on the Lochsa however it presented itself.
The first three hours were tough and slow. Nymph fishing with the big stoneflies. Fishing several different places, I hooked eight or nine fish, to include a couple mountain whitefish, but only landed four of them. During that time, the streambed and the streamside foliage hooked about that many ( 8 ) of my flies and landed all of them, and didn’t release any of them.
Late afternoon, out of the big nymphs, I finally went to a FEB salmonfly dry.
The timing was right. Over the next hour and a half, fishing just one stretch of the river, I hooked up with a dozen on the salmonfly and landed most of them.
This guy …
… came out of here …
And this guy …
… came out of here …
Considering how high the river was, I was pretty happy when I just turned a couple fish with the dry fly before the fishies started hooking up. After they got started, I hooked every one that I could see come to the fly, although with the difficult light and surface conditions, I couldn’t see that many of them before they hit it.
All in all, the catching was much better than I expected, especially with the dry fly. It was a great way to end a yearlong cycle from just before the 2011 runoff peaked well into the 2012 runoff.
John
… looks like this.
Historically, runoff peaks during the last week of May.
The next 60 day streamflow chart will look a LOT different. :shock:
John
John, I see two line with no legend. Would you mind explain what they mean? If you have already explain I either was not paying attention that day or I can claim being old and not remembering.
Thanks,
Jesse -
The blue line is the streamflow over the past 60 days.
The line of brown triangles is the median daily statistic ( streamflow ) over 84 years.
Since I look at these charts for a number of rivers in Idaho and Montana on a regular, if not daily basis, it didn’t occur to me to include that information until you asked. :oops:
John
… dropping 10,000 CFS in four days ( from over 19,000 to about 9,000 ), the fishies were off their feed. Or pretty much off the flies, anyway.
One of those days when it took a lot of work to get some trouts in hand. The first place, which has been giving up nice fishes to dry flies, didn’t produce a single rise to the FEB Salmonfly. I did eventually hook three with the rubber legs nymph, and landed one of them.
Second place made for an encouraging change. Fished the dry over a big patch of really soft water and actually had about five trouts attack it. Fortunately, only one of them hooked up solidly so the releasing was the easy part of fishing here.
The one that did come in for the photo op was definitely one of the handsome ones.
While at this spot, I tried stripping the FEB salmonfly across the surface rapidly, like in quick 2’ strips, several times. Finally had a big ol’ cutt chase it down and really hit it hard on about the fifth strip, and then he took the fly on back down to his lie while I pulled in line to tie on a fresh one.
Next spot got two hits and one pretty good hook up on the dry. The good hook up came unbuttoned after a good tussle. Went with the stonefly nymph for a while and dredged up five or six smaller cutts with it.
Went back to the big patch of soft water and worked downstream a way from there, back again with the dry. Picked up a smallish cutt. On down a bit further, there is a large instream boulder providing great cover and a nice little pocket …
Used a downstream presentation, and hooked up with and landed the largest fishy of the day - right at 17".
Tried a couple more places, briefly, on my way home. No action at all. Pretty much what I expected, given the radical changes in those places the past few days.
While it was slow most of the time over the four plus hours on the water, there were several bursts of action which put about a dozen fish in hand out of about eighteen hooked.
John
… on the far side of the river ( just to left of dead center ).
Fished some water.
Caught a bunch of fishies with the FEB Salmonfly.
Fished some other water.
Caught a bunch of fishies with a FEB Skwala.
The streamflow was below 8,000 CFS by the time I finished up late afternoon. The water is in great shape and coming down to levels that make for consistently good dry fly action, with fish moving out of the pockets and off the edges out into the main current.
After a slow start with about eight fish in hand in the first three hours, it picked up with about eighteen fish in hand in the last hour and a half. About two thirds ate the salmonfly, the other third took the skwala. Lots more action than that with a number of long distance releases and some refusals.
John
… and while I was scouting a creek, it occured to me that I had left the reel in the car. Got to wondering what I would do if I found a spot to fish. Remembered that I had a bright orange 10’6" Tenkara line / leader in my chest pack, so I could just tie it to the tip of my rod, add some tippet, tie on a dry fly, and go fishing.
Well, the creek didn’t offer any opportunity to try it. So I made an opportunity on the Lochsa, here …
This guy wasn’t very happy with the way I rigged up …
Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, landed another one …
… and notice that the length of the tippet is about 9" long.
Had one other trout go for the fly, but I pulled the trigger a bit too soon and missed him.
John
P.S. Saw another moose today. This time pretty close up, and in a place we could watch him for fifteen minutes, or so. Young bull, with his antlers just starting to show.
… not so much like a dry fly day, but that is what I went with for the most part. Wanted to finish up a full month fishing the FEB Salmonfly.
I did finally fish further up in the system. It is still high and fast, but it is coming in to shape and it is now only a matter of a couple weeks, or so, away, I hope. I did start here with a rubber legs stonefly nymph, although maybe I would have been better off with the dry.
The only action I got here was a hit on a bright yellow thingamabobber by a very big fish. I did change out to the big dry and drifted it over the area where I got the hit, but that didn’t produce any results.
Down in my usual stomping grounds, things were not only wet, but slow.
It was rather pretty, in a very different way than most days I spend over there. Late in the afternoon, there was a mist hanging over the entire river. Pretty neat.
Hooked about ten fish, landed most of them, had a couple hits and a few refusals.
The fish that I had in hand were smaller than they have been lately, on average …
… but very colorful, maybe more so because of the rather drab background ( and wet sleeve from several hours of a light but steady rain ) …
John
I’m still in twice a week therapy for the wrist surgery, coming along but slow - still no feeling in most finger tips, more awkward than one might expect…drop a lot of things (like forks at dinner ) I’m told it will get better, I’d sure like to go fishing, but Trav hasn’t been out here locally since the Big Horn trip so it isn’t quite so bad.
John,
I LOVE your fishing reports and pictures! Thanks for sharing!
Karli-Rae
… last outing bumped the river from about 7800 CFS to just over 13,000 CFS in 48 hours. But it stabilized last night and started to drop this morning, so …
As expected, it was high.
But looking at the high water marks on the tree stumps right at the bank, it was obvious that it had dropped well over a foot since earlier in the day.
But even at these levels …
… the fishies will eat.
Started with an FEB salmonfly at pixels one above. Had a couple on but lost them. There were occasional, sporadic rises to a hatch. Went with my new Duck’s Green Drake. Got several fishies in hand and lost several. Left there with nine on and four in hand.
Headed off down to pixels two above. Couple more hits on the salmonfly and landed one.
Then up to pixels three above. And a few more fishies trying to eat the salmonfly and a couple more in hand.
Back to pixels one. Still some fishies rising. Went back to Duck’s Green Drake and did quite well with it. For information on the new fly and the results, with fish pix, follow the link.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?46534-Duck-s-Green-Drake
John