Current Conditions On the Elk and others ...
May 2nd , Just a very good 3 hours on the NFSB this evening . All 3 species caught with plenty of browns and brookies and a couple of bows . March Browns and a few Sulphurs with a decent March Brown spinner fall to top off the evening . Water is low but obviously it is fishing quite well ...
April 26th , 2024 , Another good day on the upper river ! We had to work for them with the river down , the sun bright and cool windy conditions but the Lady rewarded our efforts with browns to 19 & 1/2" and bows to 15"s . Another slow hatch day though things picked up in the evening and we got to jump on them pretty good for awhile :) . See you on the river !
September 17th, Does it get better for a guide than putting someone on their personal best wild brown and wild bow on the same trip ? Hmm... nope ! Arrived to low but fishable flows and the rainbows came to hand early and often , Good day already but felt like something was missing ... Enter 2 absolute downpours that had water pouring off the mountain and turned the river brown quickly and within an hour she started to rise ... The brown water put the brown spotted fish on the feed and we hit 4 good ones in the last hour of the trip with the one pictured the best of the 4 . Good day !
August 2nd & 4th , 2 good days spent on the lower reaches of the Lady with a couple hours on the C&R the 2nd as well . Good temps , decent flows and she served up a nice mixture of bows and browns with 3 or 4 brookies thrown in the 2nd . had a client catchb his pb brown trout the 4th . No Codie so no pics ...
July 26th , Spent 5 or 6 hours this afternoon and evening attempting to beat the heat in the cold waters of the Lady . She was in a fairly good mood giving up some really nice wild bows and a couple wild browns despite it being blast furnace hot out today . Flows have dropped off a little more than I expected and I am hoping we get a t-storm or 2 over the next few days . See you n the river !
July21st , It was a good day for catching smaller wild fish ! It could have been a great day period but the 3 big ones I hooked all beat me ... Had a big brown within 5' of the net twice before he made another run and the hook pulled loose . Really would have liked to hold that one and said "gotcha" but it was not to be . Like wise for 2 very good bows with 1 going air born a couple feet and shaking loose and 1 that I just tried to force a little too hard that popped me off . Nonetheless it was just a good time on the upper river spent catching a pile of wild trout . Not a lot of bugs or rising trout until late but they were feeding down all afternoon . Good flows for late July and milky the way I like it . Caught the 1st 3 of this years baby browns , one of which is pictured below :) . See you on the river !
July 17th , Really good summer day on the upper river guiding a fellow Elk"o" holic and excellent angler ! A little bit of early top water action followed by solid nymphing action until around 5 when it turned into very good nymphing action indeed . Netted two 20"ers , both beautiful male browns and got to fool with rainbows up to about 17"s with the best doing a cartwheel and coming unbuttoned in a little non-descript pot hole . At the end we got some good top water action courtesy of the best Cahill hatch I have hit in several weeks with most of the rising fish turning out to be mid-sized browns . Just a great day . It pays to get off the bench and into the game !
July 11th , Hit the lower C&R for the evening . Flows were great , the river was ice cold and all 3 of us caught some beautiful wild fish . Not much hatching and only a few that came up at the end but still a great time spent with good company and good to feel the cold waters of the Elk Springs section on a July evening when most other larger streams are running close to 70* (some more) and shouldn't be fished now . Both C&R sections still have great temps . See you on the river !
July10, As promised here is your upper river update ... Good flows , temps were superb (58* ) and the fish fed well all afternoon and off the charts the last 2 hours or so . 7 - closing time was simply as good as it gets for July . Lights out top of the column action for better then 2 hours ! Codie caught a couple late in the 15-17" range which were the 2 best of the trip with all the rest 14" and down but what they lacked in size this evening they way more than made up for in numbers . We took a few pics early then just fished . Hopefully they will give you a feel for the Lady this evening . Really want to hit the lower C&R tomorrow but it's going to be awfully hard to pass up another slice of upper river pie ... See you on the river !
July 7th , Headed to the NFSB C&R section this evening figuring that the temps would be ok with the big level bounce ... wrong ! Moments after the 1st picture I stepped in to the beautiful flows and discovered it was definitely too warm to be fishing . Should have stayed up by the house or went to the Lady but it was too late to relocate that far so off to a blue line we went ... The trib was on the low side but still nice and cold and we played with the brookies until dark ...
July 1st , Upper river yet again and yes she was at low as it looks . Solid numbers day with a lot of fish moved though they were all in the size range you see below . Very weak hatch day until late when the Golden Drakes and Cahills came off right at dark . Best game again was suspended emergers and nymphs in very slow water .
July 2nd , A repeat of yesterday with 3 real nice browns today to go along with the bunch of smaller fish . Better hatch , spinner fall and rise at the end as well . When I get the brown pics I will share them . Pretty fish !
Wet wading in the cool waters of the Lady is a great way to beat the heat !
July 2nd , A repeat of yesterday with 3 real nice browns today to go along with the bunch of smaller fish . Better hatch , spinner fall and rise at the end as well . When I get the brown pics I will share them . Pretty fish !
Wet wading in the cool waters of the Lady is a great way to beat the heat !
June 29th , Not enough time to take another trip to the Lady this evening so we had to settle for the NFSB 4 miles from the house ... As usual the local water took pretty good care of us . Flows are good , temps ok and the trout willing . Good evening !
June 27th , Good 3 hours on the upper river this evening . Cold with light rain and the fish were rising when we arrived with some tiny bwo's and Yellow Drakes coming off and the fish seemed to be keying on the latter . We got into a bunch of fish though the majority of them were smaller fish with several mid-sized thrown in and we each got ahold of 1 really good one but failed to net either :( ... Flows have dropped off since the other day but are still good for late June and water temps are excellent . See you on the river !
June 24th , We have even more water and the fish are apparently pretty happy to see it :) ! Good nymphing all day with another big rise of fish at the end courtesy of a good Light Cahill hatch . Moved a lot of trout today and being on the upper river they were of course all beautiful wild fish . Keep the rain coming ! See you on the river .
June 20th , We have water ! Big rain last night and we left the river at dark drenched . Today we returned to find brown water but great flows . Ended up nymphing most of the afternoon moving some fish on Iso nymphs . Weak hatch day until late then as the "bugs" picked up the fish started to come up . So good to see current through the pools again ! Hopefully this continues ...
June 19th , No Codie so no pictures today :( ... However it was another pretty decent day of suspending nymphs in very slow water . Mostly browns in the slow water with a few beautiful wild bows thrown in . Slow hatch day in the rain and we didn't get the olive hatch I expected but was kind of nice to come off the river soaked for a change . Another good rise at dark . It will be interesting to see if we get a level bounce out of the rain . Taking off for another round up top in a few minutes and will update (hopefully with pics ) tonight or tomorrow morning . See you on the river !
June 16th , Upper river in very low flows again today . Steady action all day though definitely slower than the last 7 or 8 trips up there . Water temp topped of at 62* so all is well in that department . Good hatches of tiny Bwo's 24-28's during the overcast periods with sporadic Cornuta hatches late afternoon and Cahills , Yellow Drakes and a few #18 Sulphurs at the end . Big Rise of fish at dark ! Most of the fish to hand were smaller today though we got ahold of several very nice bows 16" - 18" . The big bows were more active than their Brown Spotted counterparts . All in all a very enjoyable day spent sight fishing for wild trout in challenging conditions ! See you on the river .
June 16th , Upper river in very low flows again today . Steady action all day though definitely slower than the last 7 or 8 trips up there . Water temp topped of at 62* so all is well in that department . Good hatches of tiny Bwo's 24-28's during the overcast periods with sporadic Cornuta hatches late afternoon and Cahills , Yellow Drakes and a few #18 Sulphurs at the end . Big Rise of fish at dark ! Most of the fish to hand were smaller today though we got ahold of several very nice bows 16" - 18" . The big bows were more active than their Brown Spotted counterparts . All in all a very enjoyable day spent sight fishing for wild trout in challenging conditions ! See you on the river .
June 9th & 10th , Absolutely lights out top water action the 1st evening on the lower river ! Dry & dropper , throw fly , catch fishy fishing . All 3 species with more browns than brookies or bows . Not a lot of hatch activity until the magic hour but they were more then willing to come up anyways . Day 2 was hotter , sunnier and not as easy but my people were willing to work for them and we ended up moving a lot of fish . Had a MONSTER brown fly out from under a rock and attempt to swipe a 13" bow from us . . He gave up 5' from our feet ... Yellow Drakes , Cahills , Iso's and a few Sulphurs comprised the evenings "bugs" with the Yellow Drakes being the heaviest . Flows are very low but temps are still good and she is fishing well . See you on the river !
June 8th, Slaty in low water again this evening . The cruising trout looking for and chasing down nymphs emerging in slow water game is still definitely on . Water temps peaked at 62* at 4pm so all is still well in that department . Mixture of tiny Bwo's (heavy) , Light Chaills , Yellow Drakes and Iso's with another good mixed spinner fall at dark . Most of the fish were about the size of the one below though we did get popped of by a much larger brown and moved a few good rainbows . Just another good day on the upper reaches of the Lady !
June 3rd , Simply had to slide over to the upper reaches of the Lady tonight even though we only had a couple hours to spare . The drive took longer then the time we had to fish but with the way she has been fishing we figured it was going to be worth it . It turned out to be a good choice :) ...
June 2nd , The string of good days on the upper river , in the low water, continues ! Fished the hottest part of the day (11am-5:30) . Almost all the action was in slow water with the fish cruising looking for and chasing nymphs swimming up to emerge . We countered by suspending small Possum nymphs off the bottom of a Usual . A couple of the better browns came 4 or 5' to take it . Fascinating sight fishing and an unusual "game" to be playing on Slaty in low water , bluebird skies conditions . I guess as long as they are willing to keep playing it I will be willing to keep hiking in to join them :) .... See you on the river !
May 30th , Back on the upper river yet again . Hard to stay away when it is fishing this well !! Good Iso action again as well as another afternoon spent suspending drake emergers for good browns in the slow water . The latter has been quite productive and is , to me , just a very interesting game :) ! Another big Coffin Fly fall at dark which gave us a 19" brown male , then a big bow and then an 18" heavy brown in less then 10 minutes to wrap things up . Big bugs + wild trout = Great times
May 28th , Down to the big waters of lower Elk today ! Solid action all afternoon with all 3 species caught . The river is low but really fishing well ! Drake emergers and small streamers were the ticket . More pictures to follow when they send them . We got into some really nice 3-4 lb bows today ... See you on the river !
May 26th, Another great day of wild trout fishing on the upper reaches of the Lady ! Iso's heavy in some sections and the fish were on them ! In others mostly Green Drakes with some Light Cahills and Grey Fox in the mix . The river is low , we had bluebird skies and it was cool but bugs are the great equalizer . Good Grey Fox and Coffin Fly fall at dark and we found a little non- descript run filled with good ones . It was actually pretty darned good all day though with rising fish most of the afternoon . See you on the river !
May 23rd , Blue line time today ! Water is getting low but the fishing was still good . Not much hatch activity but found rising fish on several sections and of course being brookies they were willing to come up anyways :) ...
May 22nd , Slaty today ! Blue bird skies and the water a bit low but was a fairly productive nymphing day with some top water from about 7:30 till dark (courtesy of a fair Sulphur hatch) to top it off right . The Green Drakes have started and the Iso's are picking up steam .
May 20th , Slid off the mountain for a pretty decent 1/2 hour on some hard fished local water . Decent Sulphur fall which brought up several of the brookies and one beautiful brown . Good to have the rod back in my hand for an evening ! As you can see the NFSB is in great shape .
May19th , Great day to be fishing a pair of soft hackles on the Lady . We got into them immediately and often ! All day , solid , wild trout action ... Grey Fox and Bwo's trickled off all day joined by both #14 & #16 Sulphurs late afternoon . Spinner fall was good but no fog tonight with only a modest rise of fish . Fog or no the magic hour produced the best fish of the day and some dry fly opportunities after a full day of slinging lead . Just a good solid day on the Elk !
May 16th , Blue lining today ! Good mixture of bows and brookies and the stream was beautiful . Sparse hatches of Bwo's and Gray Fox all afternoon in a steady light rain , Good times :) !
May 15th , Back on the Lady again after a few days on the Potomac side of life . The Red Fog has arrived ! Big #16 Sulphur fall though most of the spinners didn't hit in time . Still a fun evening with rising wild trout and great company . We fished alone :) ...
April 11 , Good evening spent with my daughter exploiting the Grannom hatch on the North Fork . It was a little past peak on the section we hit but still good solid action swinging a pair of Grannom soft hackles in the runs and riffles . Good times and the NFSB was beautiful . A few Quill Gordon spinners at the end but no top water to be had ...
April 6th , Back on the Lady today ! Good day of wild rainbow fishing . Got into them early and fairly often with the best about 16"s and the rest from 11-14"s . Kind of a weak hatch day with some Quill Gordons and #18 Bwo's being about it . The river was beautiful !
March 30th , Fun day spent in the back country chasing brookies . The water was beautiful and the fish "happy" ...
March 22 , 2023 , Well the 2023 guide season is finally under way ! Still some melt water working through but with some Quill Gordons hatching this afternoon we found some wild rainbows willing to smack a soft hackle ... Good flows (maybe a bit lower then I expected with the melt ) with good clarity . Other then the Quill Gordons there were #16 black stones and a few #22 & #18 Bwo's . Enjoyable afternoon on the Lady !
August 7th & 8th , We have water !!!! Finally got major rain over a couple days and at least for now flows are great . Both days produced lights out action on one of my favorite Pendleton wild trout streams . The fish were at least as happy as I was to see the flows . Just outstanding dry & a dropper fishing .
July 19th , Water getting thin on the smaller streams , still fishable on the mid-size ones and still in good shape on the Lady . Probably should have done the latter but this was closer to home and fished well . Water temps were good , the fish were active but stealth was more important then normal . I would stick to streams with good pool structure or of course the Elk until we get more rain .
July 3rd , 4th and 5th , Just outstanding flows and temps on the Lady for July !! What a pleasure it has been to fish for wild trout mid-summer with no worries of stressing them . Light hatch activity with Iso's , Cahills and tiny bwo's being predominate . The wild bows have been more active then they were during main hatch season . Good times !
June 20 - 25th , We bounced all over the region this past week before finally ending up on the Lady for a couple good days in the much colder flows she is deservedly famous for . She is in great shape for late June and fishing well . The Potomac side of life , while providing good fishing , is badly in need of some fairly heavy rain . Getting a bit thin ...
June 10th through the 14th , Spent all week on the Pendleton side again between a couple good small waters and the NFSB River in the evenings for a couple hours . Flows kept getting progressively lower until mid-day the 14th when we got a big level bounce from the storms . Good to see good flows again . We are in pretty decent shape for mid-June :) ...
Some streams are already into the 2nd round of Iso's with the little #14 being heavier then the big ones . Still a few Green Drakes on a couple little streams with the river dominated by Iso's , Light Cahills , Cream Variants and Golden Drakes . Also still some #18 Sulphurs around with a couple sections of the North Fork producing moderate spinner falls from them . The one constant across the board seems to be #24 Bwo's . Good time to be on the water , beating the heat , with terrestrials getting ready to play a much bigger role in things . See you on the water !
Some streams are already into the 2nd round of Iso's with the little #14 being heavier then the big ones . Still a few Green Drakes on a couple little streams with the river dominated by Iso's , Light Cahills , Cream Variants and Golden Drakes . Also still some #18 Sulphurs around with a couple sections of the North Fork producing moderate spinner falls from them . The one constant across the board seems to be #24 Bwo's . Good time to be on the water , beating the heat , with terrestrials getting ready to play a much bigger role in things . See you on the water !
June 5 through 9 . Spent 4 of 5 on the Pendleton side with decent flows and good fishing . The 5th day was an evening on Slaty with a pretty decent rise at the end . All streams could use some rain ... Bug activity good on the rivers and fair on the smaller waters . A soft hackle tied for an iso was a pretty decent thing to have in the box ...
May 31st , June 1st & 2nd , 3 tough , hot , bright sunshine , lower flow days on the upper river with part of the 2nd day on the Lady's more popular region . All 3 days produced some beautiful wild trout , very few bugs until very late (then too many all at once ) and at least a couple big fish hooked though none of the beasts landed . Flows are definitely better on Elk below the springs(note picture below on left) with the major pools on the upper river back to being lake like . Hate to say it but the Elk valley needs more rain ...
May , 30th , Had about an hour to kill so slipped off the mountain to the closest stretch of river , with butter on my mind ! Some times you just have to accept it was not meant to be ... Still even the river Koi are better then a sharp stick in the eye . Well it is a close race lol ... A lot of water on the North Fork although clarity was very good .
May 29th , Spent he evening on one of our local wild trout waters watching my daughter catch beautiful brookies and wild bows . Good times !!
May 28th , With Elk still brown my client decided to reschedule which left me with an evening without something to do . Hmm... you already knew that wasn't happening ;) !! Off to the wild trout waters it was with the rods in our hands tonight . They are all in fantastic shape and fishing quite well indeed ...
May 25th , Yet again spent the day on the upper river chasing wild fish . Hoped for a repeat of yesterday's snoutfest and for about an hour and 1/2 it seemed to be the case . Had a client hook an absolute beast of a brown getting good ride time and almost getting it to the net but it had 1 last run in it and whipped our butts . After the hour and 1/2 the skies cleared , the bugs went away and we settled into tough mode for hours moving a little one here and a little one there . At the very end we hit this really nice slab of wild Elk butter on a Sulphur Unusual . Nice way to end the day . The Lady's lower reaches are next ...
May 24th , Back to upper Elk for more wild trout action . What a day ! Hit the water around noon to find greatly increased flows and the water milky . Game on :) !! Green Drakes , Iso's , 14&16 Sulphurs , Grey Fox and Light Cahills were all already coming off when we got there and the fish were rising . We spent 5 &1/2 hours on the 1st 2 holes . Fantastic mid=day top water action . The evening rise was only so so and served up a bunch of little fish but after all the better fish earlier the river owed us nothing .... See you on the river !
May 22nd , Just a great day on the Pendleton wild waters ! Had a 1st time brookie fisher and she absolutely rocked the house . The day started with a 10"er which turned out to be the 1st of many that size or slightly larger . No real "big" natives but a ton of very good ones . I think she is hooked :) !
May 21st , Tough going with 1st hot sun and low water followed by a 1 & 1/2 hour downpour ... Still managed some beautiful wild browns on the upper river under the less then prime conditions .
May 19th , Back on the upper river again . Slow going early moving 1 here 1 there mid-day but starting around 6 thing began to get interesting ... Great Sulphur hatch (both 16's and 14's that got progressively heavier as it went and topped of with a big Grey Fox spinner fall thaty had the good fish just chopping by the end . We got into a good number of really good browns and hooked 2 REALLY good browns with the 2nd being an absolute beast ! 3 hours of outstanding top water wild brown action . Flows were somewhat better today though some more rain would sure help the mid-day fishing See you on the river !
May 18th , Slower today on the lower end of the Lady's wild trout water but still moved some quality fish . Iso activity fairly heavy already which was a surprise as I have not seen any a couple miles up river . If you go in via the lower trailhead you would be wise to have those nymphs in your box ...
May 17th , Just solid all day action on the upper Elk today . Low flows but active fish and some really good slabs of wild Elk River butter out and about . Sulphurs and Grey Fox carrying things .
May15th , Sulphurs !! The big show has arrived at least on upper Elk . Very good Sulphur hatch this evening and the good butter was on the fin . Flows much better then last week , still a tad low but a huge improvement . Sparse Grey Fox and tan Baetis hatches mid-day but it was one of those grind it out nymphing days until the Sulphurs started . Got fairly interesting then .... Good to see !
May 14th , Another great small stream day this time in Pocohontas County . Definitely off the beaten track and they were therefore extremely co-operative . Flows a little lower then Pendleton but not too bad .
May 12th, Great day spent catching truly wild fish again . Flows are perfect and the wild bows and brookies were on the feed . Most enjoyable couple of hours on one of the local streams . Truly blessed to live in this beautiful place !
May 19th , Back on the upper river again . Slow going early moving 1 here 1 there mid-day but starting around 6 thing began to get interesting ... Great Sulphur hatch (both 16's and 14's that got progressively heavier as it went and topped of with a big Grey Fox spinner fall thaty had the good fish just chopping by the end . We got into a good number of really good browns and hooked 2 REALLY good browns with the 2nd being an absolute beast ! 3 hours of outstanding top water wild brown action . Flows were somewhat better today though some more rain would sure help the mid-day fishing See you on the river !
May 18th , Slower today on the lower end of the Lady's wild trout water but still moved some quality fish . Iso activity fairly heavy already which was a surprise as I have not seen any a couple miles up river . If you go in via the lower trailhead you would be wise to have those nymphs in your box ...
May 17th , Just solid all day action on the upper Elk today . Low flows but active fish and some really good slabs of wild Elk River butter out and about . Sulphurs and Grey Fox carrying things .
May15th , Sulphurs !! The big show has arrived at least on upper Elk . Very good Sulphur hatch this evening and the good butter was on the fin . Flows much better then last week , still a tad low but a huge improvement . Sparse Grey Fox and tan Baetis hatches mid-day but it was one of those grind it out nymphing days until the Sulphurs started . Got fairly interesting then .... Good to see !
May 14th , Another great small stream day this time in Pocohontas County . Definitely off the beaten track and they were therefore extremely co-operative . Flows a little lower then Pendleton but not too bad .
May 12th, Great day spent catching truly wild fish again . Flows are perfect and the wild bows and brookies were on the feed . Most enjoyable couple of hours on one of the local streams . Truly blessed to live in this beautiful place !
May 4th , Fun day spent catching wild fish on one of the Pendleton streams :) ! Last night downpour had the stream colored up a bit and the good fish were feeding . Good times with good company ! More small stream fishing tomorrow .
May 3rd , Slaty was as low as I have ever seen it this time of year . Honestly looked like late June ... March Browns , Grey Fox . a few Hendricksons and some tiny Bwo's no spinner fall . Got into a couple really nice fish and picked up some little bows nymphing what was left of the runs . All the major pools were lake like with no current . WE NEED RAIN on the Elk drainage ! Much better flows on the Potomac side . Back to the Pendleton wild trout waters tomorrow .
May 2nd , On Elk today :) . Water is very low for early May ! A few March Browns , a few Hendricksons and a couple Grannom were all the Lady served up Moved some fish but defintely had to work for them in the low water and bright sunshine . Still good to be on the river !
April 26th , Been forgetting to update ... Anyways another good day on the Pendleton wild waters catching wild bows and brookies . Good hatches of Bwo's , Blue Quills and really good Quill Gordon activity . Solid all day action !
May 3rd , Slaty was as low as I have ever seen it this time of year . Honestly looked like late June ... March Browns , Grey Fox . a few Hendricksons and some tiny Bwo's no spinner fall . Got into a couple really nice fish and picked up some little bows nymphing what was left of the runs . All the major pools were lake like with no current . WE NEED RAIN on the Elk drainage ! Much better flows on the Potomac side . Back to the Pendleton wild trout waters tomorrow .
May 2nd , On Elk today :) . Water is very low for early May ! A few March Browns , a few Hendricksons and a couple Grannom were all the Lady served up Moved some fish but defintely had to work for them in the low water and bright sunshine . Still good to be on the river !
April 26th , Been forgetting to update ... Anyways another good day on the Pendleton wild waters catching wild bows and brookies . Good hatches of Bwo's , Blue Quills and really good Quill Gordon activity . Solid all day action !
April 6th , All area streams are "running full" and still a bit on the cold side but we hit fishable hatches of both Bwo's and Blue Quill's today with a fair number of rising wild fish . Good times with good people !
June 26th , Forgot to update after the last few trips ... Anyways the Lady was on fire from 11am when we started until we quit around 9:30 PM . We started well down into the general regs area and it was on from the opening bell :) ! Most of the action was on Iso softhackles with the Copper Killer coming in 2nd for the 1st time in quite a while . Later in the day we hit a good Golden Drake hatch which got under way around 8 pm and had the fish up serving up lights out top water action until dark .
June 26th , Forgot to update after the last few trips ... Anyways the Lady was on fire from 11am when we started until we quit around 9:30 PM . We started well down into the general regs area and it was on from the opening bell :) ! Most of the action was on Iso softhackles with the Copper Killer coming in 2nd for the 1st time in quite a while . Later in the day we hit a good Golden Drake hatch which got under way around 8 pm and had the fish up serving up lights out top water action until dark .
June 16th , Back to the Pendleton wild waters today . Absolutely lights out brookie fishing . Too many good ones to count . Back to the Elk side tomorrow ...
June 15th , Classic Slaty Fork high brown water day ! Got into some great fish nymphing then a decent rise at dark and got into some more ... Really enjoyable day . Been way too long since I had the opportunity to do this :) ...
June 12 , Another good day on the Potomac wild waters ! Much better flows after the rains and the brookies were in a good mood ;) ... So good to have normal levels again !
June 10th , Hit 3 streams and caught 4 species of trout today ! Little bit of a level bounce and a good rise at dark . Hard to complain ...
June 8th , Smoked em today :) ! We got into them immediately and repeatedly ... Much better flows then on the Lady yesterday and better flows then a few days ago here on the Potomac side of life . Just milky enough to take the edge off things and the trout were apparently pretty happy to see the level bounce ! Codie's copper killer continued it's onslaught with many taking it as it lifted at the end of the drift . Fun day !
June 7th , Back to the Lady again for the day . The old girl is quite low now and it started out tough but we found a couple corners where the flows worked and they were on the feed ! Forgot to take the phone so no pics today but we got into pretty decent numbers of fish . Browns , brookies and bows graced our net with Codie's special soft hackle being (as it so often is) the fly of the day . On to the Potomac side again tomorrow .
June 5th , Yet another good day at the office today ! Back on the Potomac side today introducing 3 new fly fishers to the sport . Hot and sunny but the river was quite good to us . Really good sight fishing in the low flows ! As I have said several times this week yes the flows are down but the fishing is very good right now ...
June 5th , Yet another good day at the office today ! Back on the Potomac side today introducing 3 new fly fishers to the sport . Hot and sunny but the river was quite good to us . Really good sight fishing in the low flows ! As I have said several times this week yes the flows are down but the fishing is very good right now ...
June 3rd , One of my favorite parts of my job and maybe the one I take most seriously is taking the kids and grandkids of one of my long time clients fishing . Had just such an opportunity today and we made the best of it :) ... Once again headed for the lower sections of the Lady and once again it proved to be a pretty decent choice . Steady fishing throughout the day in the low flows topped off with a pretty decent spinner fall at dark . More browns then anything which of course was fine with me ...
June 2nd , Spent the day with 2 excellent anglers on one of my favorite Potomac wild trout streams . To say they caught a lot of good brookies would be an understatement ... Nothing to hand over 11"s but just tons of 9-10" fish . Yep it is low and rain is needed but it was onfire :) !!
June 1st , Most excellent day on the Lady ! Very consistent from 11:30 - dark . All 3 species as well as a couple smallies in the mix . light Cahills , isos, Golden Drakes , Cornutas and a few Sulphurs with the Iso's and Golden Drakes carrying things . We got into them early and often :) ... Just a great time on the lower river !
May 28th , Little wild fish = big smiles ! The smile in the 1st picture is the result of his 1st ever trout on the fly . There were of course more ... Great day spent on the Potomac drainage wild waters . Oh and there was water falling from the sky late afternoon . It had been so long it took a moment or 2 to figure out what was happening ;) ... See you on the water !
May 27th , Massive mixed spinner fall this evening right at dark . It was a shooting gallery :) ! Definitely the best rise I have seen so far this season . Really enjoying the new stomping grounds !
May 26th , Another great hour and 1/2 on the Potomac side of life . Got on them pretty good with mostly brookies co-operating and a couple bows thrown in . Alas no butter this evening . Lots of Iso's and a few Coffin Flies but it only took an Unusual up and a BH soft hackle P-Tail down to get the job done . Still cool enough for the brookies in the main stem ! Hard fished water 4 miles from my front door .
May 26th , Another great hour and 1/2 on the Potomac side of life . Got on them pretty good with mostly brookies co-operating and a couple bows thrown in . Alas no butter this evening . Lots of Iso's and a few Coffin Flies but it only took an Unusual up and a BH soft hackle P-Tail down to get the job done . Still cool enough for the brookies in the main stem ! Hard fished water 4 miles from my front door .
May 25th , Spent a couple hours on the NFSB this afternoon and found surprisingly good fishing to be had in the low flows . Started at the C&R where we jumped on them immediately (15" brown on the 1st cast , 12"brookie on the 2nd and a Tiger on the 4th ) . Within 20 minutes though we were surrounded by swimmers and decided to head back to the car and move up river . Good choice :) . Stopped about 6 miles up and hiked down 1/2 mile and fished back . Steady action for mostly smaller brookies (8-10") and had the river to ourselves . Had we gotten into some more browns it would have been perfect but it was still hard to complain ... See you on the water !
May 19th , Spent the day on Slaty . She is very low for this time of year . No flow through several of the major holes . We didn't light it up but caught some quality wild trout with a 2-3 lb bow being the best today . Sparse hatches of Grey Fox , Hendricksons and #22 Bwo's throughout the day with a moderate Sulphur hatch around 8 this evening . Fair Grey Fox spinner fall but in the low flows only sporadic top water action to be had . Fun day on a challenging wild trout gem !
May 19th , Spent the day on Slaty . She is very low for this time of year . No flow through several of the major holes . We didn't light it up but caught some quality wild trout with a 2-3 lb bow being the best today . Sparse hatches of Grey Fox , Hendricksons and #22 Bwo's throughout the day with a moderate Sulphur hatch around 8 this evening . Fair Grey Fox spinner fall but in the low flows only sporadic top water action to be had . Fun day on a challenging wild trout gem !
May 16 & 17 , Spent a couple evenings on the NFSB river about 10 miles apart . Very similar results with both sections producing pretty decent mixed spinner falls and decent rises of fish . Cool thing was catching 1 native , at each location , in the big water . You just never know what you will find :) ... Along with the 2 little brookies there were browns to 18" and bows to about 15"s with better numbers of the bows . The stream is beautiful right now ! On to the Elk drainage for 3 of the next 4 days :) .
May 12th , 3 in a row :) ! Another good long mixed hatch with plenty of rising fish and though we were not able to stay until dusk there was a heck of a spinner fall setting up ... 7 different mayflies on the water today !
May 11th , Another very decent rise this afternoon ! Just sat and watched these . March Browns and Grey Fox were the bugs of the day ... Almost walked back to get the rod but after a long cold winter/spring it was simply enough to just watch . If you look closely at the 1st picture you will see my daughter has her Mom's knack for capturing airborne fish with a camera ! General Regs water on a fork of the Potomac :) ...
Both forks have now produced good rises of fish , cold weather or not . Hopefully Slaty will soon follow ... Going to be an interesting month !
May 12th , 3 in a row :) ! Another good long mixed hatch with plenty of rising fish and though we were not able to stay until dusk there was a heck of a spinner fall setting up ... 7 different mayflies on the water today !
May 11th , Another very decent rise this afternoon ! Just sat and watched these . March Browns and Grey Fox were the bugs of the day ... Almost walked back to get the rod but after a long cold winter/spring it was simply enough to just watch . If you look closely at the 1st picture you will see my daughter has her Mom's knack for capturing airborne fish with a camera ! General Regs water on a fork of the Potomac :) ...
Both forks have now produced good rises of fish , cold weather or not . Hopefully Slaty will soon follow ... Going to be an interesting month !
May 10th , Finally !!! For the 1st time this season got to put people on some good big water , top water action . Good mixed hatch and they came up for hours . With all the cold weather I was beginning to wonder if and when it would finally happen . Well the wondering is over on the Potomac at least . I could have been totally happy just sitting and watching them rise . Nice mix of browns and bows ! Hopefully the beginning of a good long stretch of match the hatch fun :) .
May 5th , As you can see below much better conditions on the North Fork today though still a lot of water for old legs :) ... The brookie stream by the house on the other hand is looking sweet . Now , if we can avoid another monsoon , it should be game on this week again . See you on the water !
May 4th , Spent the day on Slaty . Water was up with good color but definitely still a tad colder then normal . Sparse hatches of March Browns with a few Grey Fox and bwo's in the mix as well . No surface activity but moved fish on soft hackles in the heavy water . Not on fire by any means but you can feel the season up there starting to unfold finally . Just need a warm week to really get the big show under way . Unfortunately the current forecast doesn't appear co-operative ... See you on the river !
May 2nd, Spent about an hour on the North Fork this evening , hoping to catch a good spinner fall . Did catch a spinner fall (Quill Gordons and a few March Browns) but the density was lacking and the rise was modest . Still enough to bring some fish up and was able to stick most that did :) ... Flows are awesome and of course being the North Fork clarity was as well . Evening fishing should only get better as the coming week rolls along !
May 2nd, Spent about an hour on the North Fork this evening , hoping to catch a good spinner fall . Did catch a spinner fall (Quill Gordons and a few March Browns) but the density was lacking and the rise was modest . Still enough to bring some fish up and was able to stick most that did :) ... Flows are awesome and of course being the North Fork clarity was as well . Evening fishing should only get better as the coming week rolls along !
May 1 , Finished up days of wild trout chasing on the Pendleton County wild waters yesterday . All area streams are in great shape and fishing well now . Hatch activity is good - very good on a couple and sporadic on several others .
I believe Spring may have finally arrived ! The bigger waters are producing some good March Brown activity in the lower , warmer sections with Blue Quills and Quill Gordons still predominate higher up . Should be hitting the Elk a couple times this coming week and will update after ...
April 29th , Hit a section of the same stream we did yesterday , just 5 or 6 miles upstream . Same result :) !
April 28, We hit another of the Pendleton streams today , one legendary for producing big brookies . Moved a ton of fish , got snapped off a couple times on 5x and netted fish up to 11"s but were unable to put one of the big fish in the net today ... Just a great day on one of my favorite streams !
April 27, Good day on the road less traveled . Hit an upper Potomac trib today going in fairly deep . Good numbers of really good brookies 8" - 10" with several much larger fish both sighted and hooked .
April 26 , Reasonable 2nd 1/2 to the day with the wild trout action warming along with the temperature as the day moved along . Really good hatches of #18 bow's and Blue Quills with a few Quill Gordons in the mix as well .Should be a heck of a week with the forecast calling for 70's - 80 * :) !
I believe Spring may have finally arrived ! The bigger waters are producing some good March Brown activity in the lower , warmer sections with Blue Quills and Quill Gordons still predominate higher up . Should be hitting the Elk a couple times this coming week and will update after ...
April 29th , Hit a section of the same stream we did yesterday , just 5 or 6 miles upstream . Same result :) !
April 28, We hit another of the Pendleton streams today , one legendary for producing big brookies . Moved a ton of fish , got snapped off a couple times on 5x and netted fish up to 11"s but were unable to put one of the big fish in the net today ... Just a great day on one of my favorite streams !
April 27, Good day on the road less traveled . Hit an upper Potomac trib today going in fairly deep . Good numbers of really good brookies 8" - 10" with several much larger fish both sighted and hooked .
April 26 , Reasonable 2nd 1/2 to the day with the wild trout action warming along with the temperature as the day moved along . Really good hatches of #18 bow's and Blue Quills with a few Quill Gordons in the mix as well .Should be a heck of a week with the forecast calling for 70's - 80 * :) !
March 8th & 9th , Back on the Lady for a couple days ! I love the Pendleton wild waters but it sure felt good to be back on the river ! With the melt water passing through the system the 1st day was better then the 2nd but both days served up some quality fish , mostly on ##24 Possum nymphs . Not a lot of "bug" activity in the cold water but some tiny Bwos and a few #16 Black Stones were out and about . Got to see a few old friends and net some stunning wild rainbows !
March 7th , Well after no winter and several days in the 6o's Mother Nature decided to exert her will the night before 3 days on the water … We started the day at 20* with 20 mile per hour winds . What can you do ? You fish :) !! Fun day spent in the backcountry chasing wild trout !
February 16th , All area streams have great flows and are in very fishable condition . Expect good black stone activity ...
January 24th , It has flat out poured all evening . Best guess is that you will be better served tying flies and dreaming of Spring . Should be a lot of water tomorrow ...
January 21st , All area streams are beautiful right now with tiny black stones , black midges and a few Bwo's hatching .
January 13th , Flows are up a bit on all area streams , with good clarity ! Black stoneflies are the order of the day now .
December 16th , The North Fork is absolutely beautiful right now ! Sat on the banks a couple days ago and just watched the fish rise . Just thought I would share a few pics of one of the bigger waters in the new neighborhood today :) … All area streams have great flows again with the "Dries" running on Elk !
January 24th , It has flat out poured all evening . Best guess is that you will be better served tying flies and dreaming of Spring . Should be a lot of water tomorrow ...
January 21st , All area streams are beautiful right now with tiny black stones , black midges and a few Bwo's hatching .
January 13th , Flows are up a bit on all area streams , with good clarity ! Black stoneflies are the order of the day now .
December 16th , The North Fork is absolutely beautiful right now ! Sat on the banks a couple days ago and just watched the fish rise . Just thought I would share a few pics of one of the bigger waters in the new neighborhood today :) … All area streams have great flows again with the "Dries" running on Elk !
December 10 , 2019 , As you can see below even the little streams are looking good again ! The North Fork of the South Branch is beautiful as well .
December 6th , Flows are still low but definitely better on all area streams . Very fishable ! Starting to see tiny winter stones finally . Let the winter games begin !
November 22nd , We are receiving some much needed rain ! Hopefully this will give us a at least , moderate level bounce . All the area streams could use that :) ...
November 17th , All area streams and rivers are low and clear . Good sight fishing conditions but expect them to be on the spooky side :) . Stealth will pay dividends ! Some 22 & 24 bwo's and 24 - 28 black midges coming off sporadically in the afternoons . There is some top water action to be had but you are way ahead to nymph while waiting for it ;) ...
November 15th , Below is a look at the North Fork of the South Branch at Judy Gap . As you can see it's on the low side but very fishable. All area streams are in similar condition . Weather willing hope to hit a couple this weekend ! Will update after ...
November 22nd , We are receiving some much needed rain ! Hopefully this will give us a at least , moderate level bounce . All the area streams could use that :) ...
November 17th , All area streams and rivers are low and clear . Good sight fishing conditions but expect them to be on the spooky side :) . Stealth will pay dividends ! Some 22 & 24 bwo's and 24 - 28 black midges coming off sporadically in the afternoons . There is some top water action to be had but you are way ahead to nymph while waiting for it ;) ...
November 15th , Below is a look at the North Fork of the South Branch at Judy Gap . As you can see it's on the low side but very fishable. All area streams are in similar condition . Weather willing hope to hit a couple this weekend ! Will update after ...
November 5th , Well headed out with the river in mind but , as has been happening lately with alarming frequency , the jeep veered suddenly to the left and we wound up here … Turned out that a couple hours worth of "here" was just the ticket . Caught plenty of each of the age classes shown and spooked a couple that were another age class up . Been about 40 years since I caught my 1st wild bow on this gem , she is still just as loaded as ever and either trailhead is now 15 minutes or so from my door . Life is good !!
November 4th , Hit our favorite blue line today for a couple hours . So good to see flows back where they belong :) . The spawn appears to be over but still have to watch out for redds . Nice laid back big dry and a dropper fishing ! Tomorrow planning to hit some much larger water nearby . Will try and remember to update after …
October 24th , Good day ! Flows are decent and holding well and the brookies are active . Combine these things with fall colors and you have the makings of a pretty decent day … Best to hand was around 11"s but had ahold of one pushing 15" s . Absolute beast of a brookie ! Nothing better then a day spent in solitude chasing wild trout .
October 23rd , We have water again :) ! Got about an inch of rain 2 days ago through yesterday morning which proved to be enough to return us to very fishable conditions/flows again . Have a back country trip for brookies tomorrow . Will update after . Should be a good day ! Stay tuned …..
October 16th , Finally getting a pretty good shot of much needed rain ! Hopefully this will bounce all our area streams back up to truly fishable levels ! Stay tuned ...
October 15th , Went out looking around , checking flows , etc … Ended up on the North Fork which while quite low is definitely fishable . Water temps good and a few up on the fin :) ...
October 12th , 2019 , Back to my old stomping grounds today … Despite how much I am enjoying the killer streams close to our new place I do not foresee a time when I will not be taking people fishing on the Lady :) . Great day spent catching beautiful wild fish ! Flows are definitely down but clarity is good and as always there is good fishing to be had if you look for it . One of Codie's "Copper Killers" in a size 20 was a pretty good fly to have in the box today ...
October 16th , Finally getting a pretty good shot of much needed rain ! Hopefully this will bounce all our area streams back up to truly fishable levels ! Stay tuned ...
October 15th , Went out looking around , checking flows , etc … Ended up on the North Fork which while quite low is definitely fishable . Water temps good and a few up on the fin :) ...
October 12th , 2019 , Back to my old stomping grounds today … Despite how much I am enjoying the killer streams close to our new place I do not foresee a time when I will not be taking people fishing on the Lady :) . Great day spent catching beautiful wild fish ! Flows are definitely down but clarity is good and as always there is good fishing to be had if you look for it . One of Codie's "Copper Killers" in a size 20 was a pretty good fly to have in the box today ...
October 11th , 2019 , Back to business again finally ! Spent the day guiding on an excellent Pendleton County brookie fishery under very low flow conditions . You definitely had to exercise extreme stealth but we were rewarded for our efforts with some great natives . Sparse hatch of paraleps had the brookies rising all day it was just hard to get close enough to properly present a fly . Saw some absolute beasts (14-15"s ) :) …
May 29th , The river is very muddy in some sections brown milky in other as a result of a huge t-storm this afternoon she should clear fairly quickly as it seems to be coming (the mud) from some tribs and wet weather streams ...
May 22 - 26 , Just a series of great trips on a lot of different sections of the river ! From the big water of Webster to the wild trout of Slaty Fork the Lady has really served up her best . The brookie below was a legitimate 13" native from Slaty .
May 22 - 26 , Just a series of great trips on a lot of different sections of the river ! From the big water of Webster to the wild trout of Slaty Fork the Lady has really served up her best . The brookie below was a legitimate 13" native from Slaty .
May 7th & 9th , 2 good days spent with 2 new fly fishers (one each day) on the Lady . Sulphurs are full bore and the river is down and beautiful . Life is good !
May 6th , Fun day spent blue lining with a couple . That part went well then it was off to the river as the temperature plummeted and it was tough sledding though we moved a few wild bows .
May 4th & 5th , Same as below :) … Back to the Elk drainage tomorrow !
May 3rd , Most enjoyable day spent watching my client whack fish on Shavers Fork . It had been almost 6 years since the last guide trip on that river . Easy laid back fishing to almost too co-operative trout . Just an over size dry and a dropper rig and it was on and stayed on !Kind of a pleasant change of pace day (2 more to go) spent in a beautiful setting with good company . Winning :) !!
May 3rd , Most enjoyable day spent watching my client whack fish on Shavers Fork . It had been almost 6 years since the last guide trip on that river . Easy laid back fishing to almost too co-operative trout . Just an over size dry and a dropper rig and it was on and stayed on !Kind of a pleasant change of pace day (2 more to go) spent in a beautiful setting with good company . Winning :) !!
May 2nd , Great Sulphur hatch this evening and a Yellow Head P-Tail emerger was a pretty good fly to have in the box :) …. Then to make a fun evening even better there was a pretty darned good mixed spinner fall and we got to end things with some top water action . Got to love this time of year ! See you on the river !
April 30th , They are here !! The Sulphurs have arrived way early . This is only the 2nd time I have ever seen them in April . Major spinner fall :) . See you on the river !
April 25th , Good Grannom Caddis activity again so of course it was time to break out the soft hackles :) … The river was beautiful with just a hint of color . There were also sparse hatches of Quill Gordons , #18 Bwo's , #22 Bwo's and Blue Quills but it was definitely a caddis day . See you on the river !!
April 24th , Great day with Grannom on the river but we decided to go "blue lining" for brookies instead . Turned out to be a very enjoyable choice :) ! Nice change of pace to throw around big dries and bang all too eager fish . Back to the river tomorrow .
April 16th , As you can see she is back to green and very fishable even at Cherry Falls . Big improvement in the last 24 hours ! Time to grab the Quill Gordon wets and head to the river … Game on :) .
April 15th , Back to the river last night, driving through a fog of Quill Gordon spinners but unfortunately it flat out poured all night . Still good to fall asleep listening to the Lady sing :) . Awoke this morning to find this ….
April 14th , Took a walk on the wild side today ! Brookie fishing is good for the soul :) ...
April13th , Another most excellent day guiding on the Lady :) ! The Quill Gordons have arrived and between them and the bwo's big bug season has arrived . We spent the day introducing them to the black art (nymphing) and suffice to say they took right to it . Best patterns today were Possum nymphs and P-tail emergers . Look for the action to only get even better now daily . Hatch season 2019 is here . See you on the river !
December 31st , Beautiful river to end the year !!
December 20th , Even the big water is back to being very wadable again as these pictures from the bridge at Curtin show . This is another very good section of river that sees almost no fly fishing pressure …
December 15th , Yeah she has come up a tad . Suffice to say the "Dries" are no longer that ... Might want to give her a couple days . See you on the river !
December 12th , Sooo good to be back out on the river with the love of my life doing that which we love to do , that being putting people on fish :) !! Just a really great trip . We jumped on them early and often with 3 browns in the mix to break up the rainbow fest ...Best fish was a 19" bow . #18 ,#22 and #24 Black Stone flies were all out in good - very good numbers and yep there were a number of trout rising :) ... Just a killer afternoon with James and Codie on Wv's finest ! Let the winter games begin !!
December 9th , I sometimes think the river is never more beautiful then in the winter :) ! Most of the snow is gone again but the river has a clarity to her this time of year you very rarely see in warmer weather . Simply gorgeous !!, I
December 7th , The river is beautiful , great flows with excellent clarity and the tiny winter stones are starting to pick up steam :) ... All in all maybe we can settle in to fairly normal Elk River winter fishing soon and leave the constant major level fluctuations behind . Fingers crossed ;) ... See you on the river !
November 22nd , No change . Still cold and lots of flow but still quite beautiful :) ... I would stay in the upper 5-6 miles unless you don't mind fighting the big water downstream (work the banks ... ) .
November 18th , Well she is beautiful again now , still a fair amount of water but beautiful ! Hopefully this trend continues for the 1st time in ... well forever and we get in some very good late fall fishing . Expect weak hattches of tiny Bwo's , ghood hatches of black midges and the tiny winter stones should be starting soon ... See you on the river !
November 17th , We are still caught in the can't make up it's mind weather cycle but she is better :) ... If the forecast holds we should have a pretty good window opening next week . Fingers crossed ...
October 27th , Tough cold conditions today but managed to put a 15" brown and a couple bows (and popped off a couple) in the net for my client in about 3 hours on the water . Only saw 1 #24 bwo and no rising fish . Still as always just good to spend time on the water with good company :) . See you on the river !
October 25th , Simply about as pretty as a river gets today . The Lady is stunning :) !!
October 24th , Not too shabby today . Hit a section of the lower river which turned out to be a decent choice . All bows and all caught slinging lead with a pair of magic maggots . Been better with some butter in the mix but can't complain :) . See you on the river !
October 22nd , Good-great flows with bwo's and paraleps hatching which is to say exactly like it has been all through the fall season .:) ... I can't remember a better water year . Here is hoping the great flows translate into a great brown trout spawning season . See you on the river !
October 13th , Cold dreary day with the river still up and just a few #24 Bwo's hatching but we managed some pretty decent fish , all caught slinging lead ... Only one brown in the mix with the rest rainbows . You definitely had to work for them in the high cold water . I was surprised (pleasantly so) to see a fair number of other anglers willing to battle the high cold flows . Should have some pics from the last 2 days to share when they send them to me . see you on the river !
October 11th, Well we got some much neeeded rain last night which should make for , especially on the upper river , some pretty decent fall fishing :) . Fishable hatches of #18 Paral;eps , #24 & 28 bwos and of course #28 Black midges are all on the water .
October 3rd , Back to very good conditions again :) .
September 27th , Blown out . The cycle continues ....
September 26th , Up and down , brown then beautiful , rinse and repeat ... What an odd weather month it has been but at least we have water , plenty of it :) ! My vacation (break at least) is just about wrapped up after next week it's back at it full time again .In the meantime know that I have been enjoying my time lost in the depths of the mountains hunting ginseng which is my other "favorite" passion :) ... See you on the river soon !
September 12th , Color better (good big trout water) but still a lot of volume . Wade carefully !!
September 10th , Blown out ! We took another big shot of rain yesterday and the Lady is brown and rockin .... Gonna be a few days ...
August 31st , Low and quite clear now . All the below still holds true but now you can expect premier sight fishing conditions as well . Yep the big fish can be caught now :) ...
August 28th , Low (but still decent flows and clear . Expect typical summer fishing ! On the C&R that means go tiny or terrestrial and down river we have another round of Iso's underway this one about a 12 or 14 . Still plenty of fishable mayfly hatches though most are rather low density . See you on the river !!
August 23rd , Great flows , a bit of color and multiple low density mayfly hatches makes guiding a pretty good way to spend an August day :) . Tiny nymphs down and ants & Bwo's on top . good times ! Good numbers of nice fish and quite a few smaller wild rainbows such as the one pictured ...
November 22nd , No change . Still cold and lots of flow but still quite beautiful :) ... I would stay in the upper 5-6 miles unless you don't mind fighting the big water downstream (work the banks ... ) .
November 18th , Well she is beautiful again now , still a fair amount of water but beautiful ! Hopefully this trend continues for the 1st time in ... well forever and we get in some very good late fall fishing . Expect weak hattches of tiny Bwo's , ghood hatches of black midges and the tiny winter stones should be starting soon ... See you on the river !
November 17th , We are still caught in the can't make up it's mind weather cycle but she is better :) ... If the forecast holds we should have a pretty good window opening next week . Fingers crossed ...
October 27th , Tough cold conditions today but managed to put a 15" brown and a couple bows (and popped off a couple) in the net for my client in about 3 hours on the water . Only saw 1 #24 bwo and no rising fish . Still as always just good to spend time on the water with good company :) . See you on the river !
October 25th , Simply about as pretty as a river gets today . The Lady is stunning :) !!
October 24th , Not too shabby today . Hit a section of the lower river which turned out to be a decent choice . All bows and all caught slinging lead with a pair of magic maggots . Been better with some butter in the mix but can't complain :) . See you on the river !
October 22nd , Good-great flows with bwo's and paraleps hatching which is to say exactly like it has been all through the fall season .:) ... I can't remember a better water year . Here is hoping the great flows translate into a great brown trout spawning season . See you on the river !
October 13th , Cold dreary day with the river still up and just a few #24 Bwo's hatching but we managed some pretty decent fish , all caught slinging lead ... Only one brown in the mix with the rest rainbows . You definitely had to work for them in the high cold water . I was surprised (pleasantly so) to see a fair number of other anglers willing to battle the high cold flows . Should have some pics from the last 2 days to share when they send them to me . see you on the river !
October 11th, Well we got some much neeeded rain last night which should make for , especially on the upper river , some pretty decent fall fishing :) . Fishable hatches of #18 Paral;eps , #24 & 28 bwos and of course #28 Black midges are all on the water .
October 3rd , Back to very good conditions again :) .
September 27th , Blown out . The cycle continues ....
September 26th , Up and down , brown then beautiful , rinse and repeat ... What an odd weather month it has been but at least we have water , plenty of it :) ! My vacation (break at least) is just about wrapped up after next week it's back at it full time again .In the meantime know that I have been enjoying my time lost in the depths of the mountains hunting ginseng which is my other "favorite" passion :) ... See you on the river soon !
September 12th , Color better (good big trout water) but still a lot of volume . Wade carefully !!
September 10th , Blown out ! We took another big shot of rain yesterday and the Lady is brown and rockin .... Gonna be a few days ...
August 31st , Low and quite clear now . All the below still holds true but now you can expect premier sight fishing conditions as well . Yep the big fish can be caught now :) ...
August 28th , Low (but still decent flows and clear . Expect typical summer fishing ! On the C&R that means go tiny or terrestrial and down river we have another round of Iso's underway this one about a 12 or 14 . Still plenty of fishable mayfly hatches though most are rather low density . See you on the river !!
August 23rd , Great flows , a bit of color and multiple low density mayfly hatches makes guiding a pretty good way to spend an August day :) . Tiny nymphs down and ants & Bwo's on top . good times ! Good numbers of nice fish and quite a few smaller wild rainbows such as the one pictured ...
August 20th , These pics are from a couple days ago but the point is this .... How sweet it is to have the conditions to do a brookies & butter trip in late August with the butter part being way down river ! Gotta love it :) ...
August 17th , Reasonable day with good flows . Moderate hatch of #28 bwos with quite a few fish rising . Olive Usuals and ants did the job .
August 15th , Spent the day doing a brookies and butter trip . The brookie fishing was smoking good with tons of 6 - 7 "ers some 8 - 9 "ers , a 10"er and hooked 2 that were larger . Down to the lower river for the evening the 1st thing I noticed were tons of iso shucks on the rocks . I would love to tell you it was lights out but while we picked up some good fish (bows & browns) , we had to work for them .... Fair rise at dark that brought good numbers up for a few minutes then just when I thought it would explode , over ... All in all a great day spent doing what I love to do . Hard to complain :) . See you on the river !
August 14th , AS litlle brown milky early at Webster , green milky later in the day . Flows are excellent for August !!
August 10th , Flat out on fire today . Off the charts nymphing action with a pretty good top water finish . Real hard to complain ... The river is light green milky with fantastic flows and other then my client only saw 2 fishermen . Just a great day to be an Elk fisher :) !
August 1st , Big and brown today . Should round into shape in a couple days ... In the meantime Slaty should be good :) !
July 28th , What a great trip ! It was just one of those days where we jumped on them immediately and flat out continued to wail them all day long ... The river fished as well as it has all year and Melody took full advantage of that fact with her pink Sage getting quite a workout :) ! . The one thing all the successful patterns had in common was size . SMALL . #22 - #32 was the ticket with a couple little (tiny) emergers just really working their magic all day . 90% of the action was underneath but there was enough top water action to break things up and keep it interesting . Thanks guys I had a blast :) !!
August 15th , Spent the day doing a brookies and butter trip . The brookie fishing was smoking good with tons of 6 - 7 "ers some 8 - 9 "ers , a 10"er and hooked 2 that were larger . Down to the lower river for the evening the 1st thing I noticed were tons of iso shucks on the rocks . I would love to tell you it was lights out but while we picked up some good fish (bows & browns) , we had to work for them .... Fair rise at dark that brought good numbers up for a few minutes then just when I thought it would explode , over ... All in all a great day spent doing what I love to do . Hard to complain :) . See you on the river !
August 14th , AS litlle brown milky early at Webster , green milky later in the day . Flows are excellent for August !!
August 10th , Flat out on fire today . Off the charts nymphing action with a pretty good top water finish . Real hard to complain ... The river is light green milky with fantastic flows and other then my client only saw 2 fishermen . Just a great day to be an Elk fisher :) !
August 1st , Big and brown today . Should round into shape in a couple days ... In the meantime Slaty should be good :) !
July 28th , What a great trip ! It was just one of those days where we jumped on them immediately and flat out continued to wail them all day long ... The river fished as well as it has all year and Melody took full advantage of that fact with her pink Sage getting quite a workout :) ! . The one thing all the successful patterns had in common was size . SMALL . #22 - #32 was the ticket with a couple little (tiny) emergers just really working their magic all day . 90% of the action was underneath but there was enough top water action to break things up and keep it interesting . Thanks guys I had a blast :) !!
July 26th , Beautiful with good flows at Webster today and some browns up on the fin . Got to love it at the end of July :) ...
July 22nd , Fun day spent chasing wild trout with several friends on the upper river . Getting low up there but still fishing well . Good company and beautiful wild bows and browns is always a winning combination :) !
July 22nd , Fun day spent chasing wild trout with several friends on the upper river . Getting low up there but still fishing well . Good company and beautiful wild bows and browns is always a winning combination :) !
July 18th , Back to green milky already ! She should round into really good shape over the next couple days and isn't too shabby now . So good to have these flows in mid-July !
July 17th , We have good flows again after the storm but she is quite brown at the moment . Shark cahsers only :) ...
July 14th , Another good tiny fly day with a Webster butter big fly chaser :) ! Just typical Elk River summer fishing with the river low and clear . Good to be able to finish off the day with #12's on 5x after nymphing with 28's on 8x all afternoon . So many games , so little time ;) ... See you on the river !
July 12th , Celebrated my 60th birthday with a guide trip that was pure Elk River . 8x and 28's and 30's . Caught all 3 species on the tiny flies but they were definitely on their game in the slow water:) ... Low and clear !
July 7th , Well the good news is we have fantastic flows again especially for July !! This of course will only make the lower river fishing even better then it has been and it has not been too shabby ... The bad news is the "dries" came down brown yesterday and are now only back to milky brown . The window has opened for some Slaty sharking but has momentarily closed on the outstanding midge fishing we have had on the lower C&R . That's one of the great things about the river , always a new game to be played ! Expect the top water tiny fly action to get better as the week moves along though you may wish to cash in a Bergoo butter or Downtown brown trip to pass the time while this takes place . See you somewhere on the river :) !!
July 5th , Sorry for the gap in reports . Just forgot to write ... Anyways ... bit of a level bounce in the lower river thanks to a t storm yesterday . Good flows for July with some color entering the river at the bottom of the C&R ... Not a lot of hatch activity mid day in the heat but the fish were reasonably co-operative and wet wading the lower river is a great way to escape the blast furnace . We picked up all 3 species with a couple wild browns in the mix . Stopped at the trestle on the way out and watched the fish sip for awhile . low and gin clear , very different from the conditions 6 - 10 miles down . So many different experiences to be had on the Lady right now . Pick your pleasure !
June 30th , Great day spent fishing with Codie :) ! Started on the C&R and ran smack into the best midge fishing so far this year . Hard to beat 8x and 28's in my book and we got a good dose of it finally . Decided to run down river 9 or 10 miles and play a different game for a couple hours which turned out to be a pretty good idea . Big dry and a dropper fishing that lasted until dark .Caught all 3 species with a couple bass thrown in for good measure :) . Just an all around good time on the Lady , with my lady !
July 17th , We have good flows again after the storm but she is quite brown at the moment . Shark cahsers only :) ...
July 14th , Another good tiny fly day with a Webster butter big fly chaser :) ! Just typical Elk River summer fishing with the river low and clear . Good to be able to finish off the day with #12's on 5x after nymphing with 28's on 8x all afternoon . So many games , so little time ;) ... See you on the river !
July 12th , Celebrated my 60th birthday with a guide trip that was pure Elk River . 8x and 28's and 30's . Caught all 3 species on the tiny flies but they were definitely on their game in the slow water:) ... Low and clear !
July 7th , Well the good news is we have fantastic flows again especially for July !! This of course will only make the lower river fishing even better then it has been and it has not been too shabby ... The bad news is the "dries" came down brown yesterday and are now only back to milky brown . The window has opened for some Slaty sharking but has momentarily closed on the outstanding midge fishing we have had on the lower C&R . That's one of the great things about the river , always a new game to be played ! Expect the top water tiny fly action to get better as the week moves along though you may wish to cash in a Bergoo butter or Downtown brown trip to pass the time while this takes place . See you somewhere on the river :) !!
July 5th , Sorry for the gap in reports . Just forgot to write ... Anyways ... bit of a level bounce in the lower river thanks to a t storm yesterday . Good flows for July with some color entering the river at the bottom of the C&R ... Not a lot of hatch activity mid day in the heat but the fish were reasonably co-operative and wet wading the lower river is a great way to escape the blast furnace . We picked up all 3 species with a couple wild browns in the mix . Stopped at the trestle on the way out and watched the fish sip for awhile . low and gin clear , very different from the conditions 6 - 10 miles down . So many different experiences to be had on the Lady right now . Pick your pleasure !
June 30th , Great day spent fishing with Codie :) ! Started on the C&R and ran smack into the best midge fishing so far this year . Hard to beat 8x and 28's in my book and we got a good dose of it finally . Decided to run down river 9 or 10 miles and play a different game for a couple hours which turned out to be a pretty good idea . Big dry and a dropper fishing that lasted until dark .Caught all 3 species with a couple bass thrown in for good measure :) . Just an all around good time on the Lady , with my lady !
June 26th , Another very enjoyable trip yesterday :) ! Tiny flies and ants were definitely the ticket with the rainbow below being one of the ant victims . She was just starting to really light up when the downpour put an end to the evening :( ... Oh well you'll have that from time to time .
June 21st , Solid day :) ! Hit the river with client at 11am and walked straight into a mixed Bwo hatch ( 22's , 24's and 28's) that was still happening 5 hours later ... Rising fish the entire time , lots of rising fish . Interestingly enough they were letting the 22's pass unharmed and feeding on the 2 smaller olives . Typical Elk River ! A #28 Olive Usual with a #24 P-tail emerger proved to be a deadly combination . Finally got tired of the game and headed about 6 miles down to finish and hit all 3 species on Iso's . Good nymphing with the river taking on a bit of color . Real hard to complain . See you on the river !
June 20th , We decided to go downtown brown hunting again with just about 2 hours time to devote to it tonight . Figuring a couple hours of 5x big dry and an iso dropper fishing would be just the ticket we rigged up at the Jeep and hit the river maybe a little too cocky . Got even cockier when we saw they were already rising well . 20 minutes later after more refusals then I could count slowed down and took a look at the water .... tiny Bwo's !! 8x and #24's were attached and it was game on :) ! Most unusual for the lower river . Selective sippers in the Webster , gotta love it :) !!
June 20th , We decided to go downtown brown hunting again with just about 2 hours time to devote to it tonight . Figuring a couple hours of 5x big dry and an iso dropper fishing would be just the ticket we rigged up at the Jeep and hit the river maybe a little too cocky . Got even cockier when we saw they were already rising well . 20 minutes later after more refusals then I could count slowed down and took a look at the water .... tiny Bwo's !! 8x and #24's were attached and it was game on :) ! Most unusual for the lower river . Selective sippers in the Webster , gotta love it :) !!
June 17th , Flat out rocked again today !! The lower river is on fire :) . Big dry and a dropper fishing again from around 4-dark . It simply never let up .... Caught a ton of these :) !
June 16th , Well it was way past time for a trip to town for a little "downtown brown" action . Now these trips always start off with a trip to the Main Street Cafe to pick up a couple of the best cheeseburgers Wv has to offer and it is definitely part of the experience ! Then with full bellies it was off to the river and the browns were way beyond willing today :) ! Early and often , big dry and a dropper fishing , lights out for a couple hours with a couple bass thrown in for good measure . Decided around 5 to work our way up river and the brown trout fest continued until dark with only one brookie in the mix the rest pure, sweet , Webster Butter . Just another fantastic day on the Elk less traveled and never had another fisherman in sight on a Saturday .... Gotta love it !! Isos , Light Cahills , Golden Drakes and what I assume will be the last of th Sulphurs for the season that far down were all in the mix with a good Cahill spinner fall at dark .
June 13th , Good late afternoon action on the lower river again today . Fun exploiting the Iso hatch :) ... Fantastic flows for June !
June 9th , Another great day of nymphing with a very good rise at the end . Finally she is down to normal and as is normal when the river is down go tiny :) ..... A #24 P-tail emerger and a #28 little black pupae were good things to have in the box today ...
June 8th , The river is beautiful , hatches are coming late but heavy and it is back to easy wading . Better cash it in before we get drenched again . I almost feel like I am getting away with something when it is not brown and rocking this year :) . See you on the river !
June 9th , Another great day of nymphing with a very good rise at the end . Finally she is down to normal and as is normal when the river is down go tiny :) ..... A #24 P-tail emerger and a #28 little black pupae were good things to have in the box today ...
June 8th , The river is beautiful , hatches are coming late but heavy and it is back to easy wading . Better cash it in before we get drenched again . I almost feel like I am getting away with something when it is not brown and rocking this year :) . See you on the river !
June 5th , Back to fairly decent yet again . Still a lot of water down river but the C&R is wadable . iso's , Sulphurs , Golden Drakes , Green Drakes and several different Bwo's all out and about today . Moved fair numbers of fish but had to work for them today . Expect things to pick up as she continues to drop ....
June 2nd , Planning on heading this way tomorrow ?? I would advise against it :( ... Give her a couple day !
June 1st , Headed back up to the C&R section to take a look after a 5 day down river binge :) ... Unbelievable to see the river empty June 1st but that was the case . Nothing happening on top so we played bridge troll for an hour or so until the bug show got underway . It was late but it was good :) .... Sulphurs hatching , Iso spinners , Coffin Flies , a few Light Cahills and #18 Sulphur spinners heavy at the end . Not a full blown boil but still a very good rise !
June 2nd , Planning on heading this way tomorrow ?? I would advise against it :( ... Give her a couple day !
June 1st , Headed back up to the C&R section to take a look after a 5 day down river binge :) ... Unbelievable to see the river empty June 1st but that was the case . Nothing happening on top so we played bridge troll for an hour or so until the bug show got underway . It was late but it was good :) .... Sulphurs hatching , Iso spinners , Coffin Flies , a few Light Cahills and #18 Sulphur spinners heavy at the end . Not a full blown boil but still a very good rise !
May 30th , Monster #18 Sulphur hatch on the lower river had them absolutely rockin again tonight . Lights out top water from 7:45 until you just couldn't pretend to see :) .... Fished alone while the kids swam and smoked them on a #18 Un-Usual ! Feels good to have the rod in my hand for a couple nights :) ....
May 29th , The lower river was on fire this evening !! Great small streamer fishing early then a great rise the last 45 minutes or so . Nothing better then an evening on the Elk less traveled ;) ....
May 28th , Well finally thought I would get to take a big evening rise with the rod in my hand but Mother Nature had other ideas .... Yet another big storm struck the valley of the Elk this afternoon and by the time I headed down the Lady was brown :( . At this point it seems to be just tribs that are trashed (Leatherwood Creek was blood red and rocking Valley Fork almost as bad ) . If this proves to be all the issue she should rapidly bounce back . If however we got slammed up top and it just hadn't come through yet it will be shark chasing only for a few days . I will let you know tomorrow what turned out to be the case . See you on the river !
May 26th , Slow going on the lower end of the C&R this morning so rolled the dice and took them 10 miles down river to the big water .... Good choice :) !! We absolutely blew them up for hours , lights out . All nymphing until around 8 this evening. When the bugs started it was solid top water until we couldn't see . Bit of a chore wading but definitely worth the effort . Just a stellar day . See you on the river !
May 25th , Solid nymphing action all day and a pretty decent rise this evening , best of the year so far ! The Lady was in a far better mood and infinitely more approachable today (you could wade without fearing for your life ) . Here is hoping she contiues to get even better as the weekend rolls along . See you on the river !
May 24th , Reasonable nymph day with a small top water chaser ... Still a lot of water making for tough wading but if she improves as much in the next 24 - 36 hours as it has the last 24 hours should get interesting . Will post some pics tomorrow just too tired to fool with it tonight ....
May 20th , Right back to brown :( ... enough already it's Sulphur season ....
May 19th , Back to beautiful again !
May 17th , Well she blew out around 10:30 this morning ... Not horrific but rocking pretty good . If we get by without another big storm we should be back "on line" by Saturday afternoon . In the meantime this is shark chasing water on Slaty !! Time to break out the big streamers and the industrial Maggots and head for the brown trout factory :) ......
May 16th , Good day on the lower C&R today . March Browns and Gray Fox started coming off around 1:30 and were joined by Sulphurs around 4:30 -5 . Not a lot of top water but pretty good soft hackle and emerger fishing once the bugs got going . Ought to be a great weekend coming on Wv's finest . see you on the river !!
May 15th , Slaty Fork today . Very weak bug day with only a few March Browns and Gray Fox coming off under the hot sun . Reasonable nymphing although with the river down the fish tended to be on the small side but all of course were wild and beautiful . Hopefully the rain we are to get tonight will pop the levels back up a bit . Fun day teaching a new fly fisher !
May 14th , Massive Sulphur fall tonight . The red fog is here :) !! Let the games begin ...
May 9th , Good day spent blue line guiding . Nice to get a break from wading rough water :) . Only 6 or 7 in the 8 - 10" range but gobs of 6 - 7 "ers and got broke off by a brown that was large enough to seem completely out of place in this setting .... Good times ! The river by the way has dropped back to quite wadable , at least in the upper end (C&R) . Still a lot of water from Bergoo down ...
May 26th , Slow going on the lower end of the C&R this morning so rolled the dice and took them 10 miles down river to the big water .... Good choice :) !! We absolutely blew them up for hours , lights out . All nymphing until around 8 this evening. When the bugs started it was solid top water until we couldn't see . Bit of a chore wading but definitely worth the effort . Just a stellar day . See you on the river !
May 25th , Solid nymphing action all day and a pretty decent rise this evening , best of the year so far ! The Lady was in a far better mood and infinitely more approachable today (you could wade without fearing for your life ) . Here is hoping she contiues to get even better as the weekend rolls along . See you on the river !
May 24th , Reasonable nymph day with a small top water chaser ... Still a lot of water making for tough wading but if she improves as much in the next 24 - 36 hours as it has the last 24 hours should get interesting . Will post some pics tomorrow just too tired to fool with it tonight ....
May 20th , Right back to brown :( ... enough already it's Sulphur season ....
May 19th , Back to beautiful again !
May 17th , Well she blew out around 10:30 this morning ... Not horrific but rocking pretty good . If we get by without another big storm we should be back "on line" by Saturday afternoon . In the meantime this is shark chasing water on Slaty !! Time to break out the big streamers and the industrial Maggots and head for the brown trout factory :) ......
May 16th , Good day on the lower C&R today . March Browns and Gray Fox started coming off around 1:30 and were joined by Sulphurs around 4:30 -5 . Not a lot of top water but pretty good soft hackle and emerger fishing once the bugs got going . Ought to be a great weekend coming on Wv's finest . see you on the river !!
May 15th , Slaty Fork today . Very weak bug day with only a few March Browns and Gray Fox coming off under the hot sun . Reasonable nymphing although with the river down the fish tended to be on the small side but all of course were wild and beautiful . Hopefully the rain we are to get tonight will pop the levels back up a bit . Fun day teaching a new fly fisher !
May 14th , Massive Sulphur fall tonight . The red fog is here :) !! Let the games begin ...
May 9th , Good day spent blue line guiding . Nice to get a break from wading rough water :) . Only 6 or 7 in the 8 - 10" range but gobs of 6 - 7 "ers and got broke off by a brown that was large enough to seem completely out of place in this setting .... Good times ! The river by the way has dropped back to quite wadable , at least in the upper end (C&R) . Still a lot of water from Bergoo down ...
May 8th , Smokin good nymphing today . The Lady bounced back quick from Sunday's flood ... Still high enough to make wading a chore but good clarity , plenty of mayfly activity and the good fish were on the feed :) ... Expect things to only get better yet as the week moves along . See you on the river !
May 5th , Started off like it was going to be a real good one then the monsoon hit and things slowed considerably ... Absolutely bone soaking rain for hours and the river went from 300 cfs - 12,000 cfs overnight . Flood number 8 this year I believe :( ... Dropping rapdily now and hopefully will round back into shape for the weekend . We needed some rain but perhaps not quite this much ;) ... Without a doubt a #22 Possum nymph was easily the "fly of the day" .
May 5th , Started off like it was going to be a real good one then the monsoon hit and things slowed considerably ... Absolutely bone soaking rain for hours and the river went from 300 cfs - 12,000 cfs overnight . Flood number 8 this year I believe :( ... Dropping rapdily now and hopefully will round back into shape for the weekend . We needed some rain but perhaps not quite this much ;) ... Without a doubt a #22 Possum nymph was easily the "fly of the day" .
May 4th , Spent the day guiding on Slaty . Had an absolute blast !! Nothing over 16"s but caught all 3 species with 3 age classes of rainbows and browns . All beautiful wild fish . Good times !!
May 3rd , Great afternoon teaching a new fly fisher ! The river continues to awaken with a few more feding on top everyday :) . Mostly though it was nymphs and soft hackles . Caught some good fish and fought a couple great ones . Moved a bunch !
May 1st , Great day on the river ! Finally Spring arrives and with it lower water and active fish ... Started off with a #22 Possum nymph trailing a #24 Codie's Copper Killer and it was on from the opening bell :) . Early and often with the Possum producing most of the fish . Happy client = happy guide ;) ... See you on the river !
April 27th , Another day at the office :) ! Not as good as yesterday but not too bad and today we got to play top water dry fly for awhile thanks to a moderate density Blue Quill hatch . Got a hold of one real beast today but came up about 6' short :( .... Great fish fight though ! The old girl is shaking off the eternal winter . You can see and feel it a little more each day now ....
May 1st , Great day on the river ! Finally Spring arrives and with it lower water and active fish ... Started off with a #22 Possum nymph trailing a #24 Codie's Copper Killer and it was on from the opening bell :) . Early and often with the Possum producing most of the fish . Happy client = happy guide ;) ... See you on the river !
April 27th , Another day at the office :) ! Not as good as yesterday but not too bad and today we got to play top water dry fly for awhile thanks to a moderate density Blue Quill hatch . Got a hold of one real beast today but came up about 6' short :( .... Great fish fight though ! The old girl is shaking off the eternal winter . You can see and feel it a little more each day now ....
April 26th , Another good trip today ! Caught all 3 species . The Magic Maggot struck again .... and again .. :) ! Fair numbers in the 13" - 15" range and hooked 3 BIG fish landing one , a 23" brown male . , wild beautiful fish and I will share the pictures when they send them to me . Codie had just left taking what I thought was the only picture taking gadget with her when the lightening struck . Thankfully Susan had her phone and we got the shot . Big hook jawed brown beast ! Oh and the Grannom have FINALLY started !!! See you on the river !
April 23rd , Good trip today in the heavy wind with even a little top water action mixed in . Scott went one for two on the big fish putting a 20 & 1/2" bow in the net along with some other real good ones . Still something missing .... butter !! No worries ... The river knowing that was unacceptable with a Yufer on the water , served us up a beautiful little wild brownie to end things . Great day on the Lady !
April 22nd , That wild Slaty butter my buddy posted a couple days ago , looked so sweet I had to slide up for some myself ;) ... Blue Quills and Quill Gordons moderately heavy in a few spots and almost non-existent in others . Find bugs find active fish . Typical Slaty :) ! Totally hard top believe just how high the water was last week . Impressive ....
So good to get to fish to rising trout again ! Unlike their lower river counterparts the last few days the Slaty browns behaved like one would xpect with duns on th water . See you on the river !
So good to get to fish to rising trout again ! Unlike their lower river counterparts the last few days the Slaty browns behaved like one would xpect with duns on th water . See you on the river !
April 21st , Beautiful day with the river once again continuing to drop . Plenty of Quill Gordons and Blue Quills hatching but oddly absolutely no surface activity . They were however receptive to a QG nymph and a Magic Maggot fished deep . Not quite what I had in mind when I left the house but all in all a good day to be on the water . Hopefully as she continues to drop the top water will get going ....
April 20th , Ran down a couple times today in between fly orders . Really looking good now and by tomorrow should be looking great . Saw a few Blue Quills today but really just sat and watched . Ought to be a good weekend for sure !
April 19th , Back in pretty decent shape again and just in time for the weekend . No major league changes from the flooding other then the run above the trestle is free of the huge tree we picked up after the last high water . Very easy to fish again and no scaling trees necessary to do so :) . She bounced back pretty darned quick considering just how high she got . Now if we can just warm back up :) !!
April 16th , Planning on heading here the next several days ... I would strongly advise changing those plans ... We got rocked last night :( .
April 19th , Back in pretty decent shape again and just in time for the weekend . No major league changes from the flooding other then the run above the trestle is free of the huge tree we picked up after the last high water . Very easy to fish again and no scaling trees necessary to do so :) . She bounced back pretty darned quick considering just how high she got . Now if we can just warm back up :) !!
April 16th , Planning on heading here the next several days ... I would strongly advise changing those plans ... We got rocked last night :( .
April 14th , Yet another tough one under the hot sun , with the river down . Had a beginner out , moved a few then headed for easier water and caught some brookies . Fair Blue Quill hatch with a few Quill Gordons mixed in .
April 12th & 13th , Two nearly identical days , both tough ... Moved a few Thursday on #24 p-tail emergers and you had to keep after them at that . Today more "bugs" but a LOT of fishermen so we pulled and went brookie fishing :) ... Good choice ! Water temp was 49.1* today at noon so I am guessing it passed the magic 50* mark by afternoon . Hard to believe how much she has dropped the last few days under the bluebird skies ! She has dropped from 1500 cfs to 370ish this week and is now less then 1/2 normal flow for Mid-April . Feast or famine ...
April 11th , Good day ! The river is low and beautiful , easy wading for a change . Quill Gordons and Blue Quills hatching but only an occasional rise . Moved some fish nymphing with a MITB nymph though . Hopefully the top water will pick up as it warms this week ...
April 12th & 13th , Two nearly identical days , both tough ... Moved a few Thursday on #24 p-tail emergers and you had to keep after them at that . Today more "bugs" but a LOT of fishermen so we pulled and went brookie fishing :) ... Good choice ! Water temp was 49.1* today at noon so I am guessing it passed the magic 50* mark by afternoon . Hard to believe how much she has dropped the last few days under the bluebird skies ! She has dropped from 1500 cfs to 370ish this week and is now less then 1/2 normal flow for Mid-April . Feast or famine ...
April 11th , Good day ! The river is low and beautiful , easy wading for a change . Quill Gordons and Blue Quills hatching but only an occasional rise . Moved some fish nymphing with a MITB nymph though . Hopefully the top water will pick up as it warms this week ...
April 8th , Absolutely beautiful , levels perfect . Now when you combine that with the forecasted warming trend the 2nd part of this coming week .... :) Maybe , just maybe , game on .
April 2nd , We got lucky :) . It poured for a while last evening / night but the river is still in pretty good shape considering the recent weather . A little high & a little cold but all things considered we will take it ...
March 31st , Started off for Slaty but the Jeep suddenly veered to the left at Monterville and we wound up here ! Gonna have to get that darned steering checked ;) .
April 2nd , We got lucky :) . It poured for a while last evening / night but the river is still in pretty good shape considering the recent weather . A little high & a little cold but all things considered we will take it ...
March 31st , Started off for Slaty but the Jeep suddenly veered to the left at Monterville and we wound up here ! Gonna have to get that darned steering checked ;) .
March 29th , Well sometimes you just gotta take on the odds ... This is especially true with temps in the 60's after a long winter . Moved a couple in the raging water with one being a pretty good fish that popped me off on a limb that would normally be well out of the water . She has come down several feet today and should , if we can avoid another monsoon , provide some pretty decent shark chasing water by the weekend . Not a great day but beat the heck out of sitting on the bench waiting ;) ...
March 28th , What you see below is what you will get . BIG river and still rising ....
March 25th , Quill Gordons !! 1st ones this year .
March 24th , She looks good but is definitely on the cold side . Slow going today down river . Really worked way too hard for what we got into but still good to be out knocking off some rust .
March 20th , This is the "Dries" about 2 hours ago . Yep going to be a couple days :( ...
March 20th , This is the "Dries" about 2 hours ago . Yep going to be a couple days :( ...
March 18th , Well just couldn't take it anymore , snow melt or no :) ... Got to fish with one of my "river sons" today for the 1st time in quite awhile . The Lady gave me a couple real pretty fish nymphing and RJ even got a little top water action .Did I mention the water was cold ? Beautiful day and we had the middle of the C&R to ourselves ! Weak hatch of #18 Bwo's with some #16 black stones out as well and a few fish up on them . She is definitely on the rise but as of now still in good shape . See you on the river !
March 17th , Rain and 33* at river level . Left the house with hopes of some major Bwo action but starting at Webster and working my way up river I was unable to find the sailboats ... The river still looks great but there is definitely some melt water working it's way into the system now which of course is dropping the water temps and slowing things down .
March 16th , Still in great shape though I fear we have some pretty good melt water days coming . We got around 15"s total here on top with considerably more up at snowshoe (understatement ) and with rain forecast tomorrow followed by 40"s Sunday it sure looks like trouble coming ... Regardless we plan on hitting it for awhile tomorrow and will finally , hopefully have a real update for you . Between the foul weather and a pile of fly orders fishing time has been limited to say the least . That's a trend I plan on reversing ... See you on the river !!
March 12th , Well Spring was in the air yesterday , mayflies hatching , flowers blooming , etc but Old Man Winter has definitely launched a comeback effort today and a fairly successful one at that :( ...
March 16th , Still in great shape though I fear we have some pretty good melt water days coming . We got around 15"s total here on top with considerably more up at snowshoe (understatement ) and with rain forecast tomorrow followed by 40"s Sunday it sure looks like trouble coming ... Regardless we plan on hitting it for awhile tomorrow and will finally , hopefully have a real update for you . Between the foul weather and a pile of fly orders fishing time has been limited to say the least . That's a trend I plan on reversing ... See you on the river !!
March 12th , Well Spring was in the air yesterday , mayflies hatching , flowers blooming , etc but Old Man Winter has definitely launched a comeback effort today and a fairly successful one at that :( ...
March 11th , As you can see she was low and gin clear . Sat and watched at the Trestle awhile . just a few black stones out and about so decided to run downriver and see what was out . Ran into a heck of a #18 bwo hatch below Broken Bow with a few Blue Quills as well . Wow was it good to see numbers of mayflies again :) !!! Nothing up feeding on them so we just sat and watched them float by . Good afternoon . You will have to look really close at the 2 longer distance shots to see them but they were floating downriver in pods ....
March 9th , Well at the moment she is on the low side for this time of year believe it or not .... Mind you we have 8" or so of snow to go off when it warms . Tomorrow looks like it should provide a pretty good window with highs in the low - mid 30's . Not warm enough to cause melt trouble but warm enough to be tolerable . I would keep an eye out for #18 Bwo's . I have a feeling it's coming soon . See you on the river !
March 6th , Still looking great . gonna be a couple cold ones coming but you can also feel the new season about to explode :) ....
March 6th , Still looking great . gonna be a couple cold ones coming but you can also feel the new season about to explode :) ....
March 4th , Still looking good albeit a bit on the cold side . Concentrate your efforts on the area nearest the springs !
March 1st , Well she is still in great shape at the moment but it has been pouring here this afternoon so .... we are back to wait and see .
February 27th , Well it didn't take her long to get back to beautiful :) ... Didn't fish (though probably should have) just spent the afternoon walking the banks with the family looking things over . Not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon ! Still quite a bit of flow but a big improvement .
March 1st , Well she is still in great shape at the moment but it has been pouring here this afternoon so .... we are back to wait and see .
February 27th , Well it didn't take her long to get back to beautiful :) ... Didn't fish (though probably should have) just spent the afternoon walking the banks with the family looking things over . Not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon ! Still quite a bit of flow but a big improvement .
February 25th , Yep what you see is what we got :( .... She topped off this round at almost 5000 cfs . Gonna be a few days .
February 23rd , As you can see the Lady continues to drop . Almost old guy wadeable in sections now :) ... Now if we can just get through the next few days without getting hammered again !
February 21st , Still a lot of water but she is beautiful and as long as you are careful and stick to the edges very fishable :) . There were #16 black stones "o" plenty in town today . We will just have to wait and see what happens this weekend but in the meantime there is at least reasonable fishing to be had . See you on the river !
February 20th part 2 , What a great day to alive and fishing the Elk :) ! 70* in February is a situation you just don't waste ... Got to chat with some great friends , watch the #16 stones flutter about , catch some bows and watch Codie do the same . Most excellent day !
February 20th part 2 , What a great day to alive and fishing the Elk :) ! 70* in February is a situation you just don't waste ... Got to chat with some great friends , watch the #16 stones flutter about , catch some bows and watch Codie do the same . Most excellent day !
February 20th , The #16 Black Stones have arrived :) ! Fair numbers of them in Webster yesterday and as you can see the river is back to beautiful although she still has quite a bit of volume ... I think we will have to do a little some research on the C&R today ;)...
February16th , More fun with high water ! Eventually things will settle down . Has always happened in the past ;) ...
February 14th , At the moment she is up but looking good BUT we are under a flood watch for the next couple days to be followed by up to a foot of snow Saturday . Hopefully get to slide out for a better look tomorrow (assuming she is still fishable) .
February 12th , Even after dropping almost 4000 cfs since mid-day yesterday she is still at a record high for the day ! Might be another good day to sit by the fire , tie flies and dream of Spring . Been a bench of those this winter ...
February 12th , Even after dropping almost 4000 cfs since mid-day yesterday she is still at a record high for the day ! Might be another good day to sit by the fire , tie flies and dream of Spring . Been a bench of those this winter ...
February 11th , See gauge below .... Yet another good day to tie flies ...
February 9th , Below are pictures of the river at Cherry Falls a little while ago . As you can see she is back to very fishable but there is still a lot of water ... Wade carefully !
February 7th , Shoot ... well the gauge below Webster is at 4150 cfs as a result of the 1/2" of rain and all the snowmelt today . It was a good day to tie flies and dream of Spring which now may be the case for a few days :( ....
February 6th , As you can see she is back to beautiful again :) . Still a fair bit of snow up top but just a dusty streamside . Should be a decent weekend ahead , fingers crossed ...
February 6th , As you can see she is back to beautiful again :) . Still a fair bit of snow up top but just a dusty streamside . Should be a decent weekend ahead , fingers crossed ...
January 29th , Well the stones are definitely picking up steam :) . Ran down to town to mail out a fly order and take a look and there were #18's and #22's everywhere ! No 16's yet but it won't be long now ... Oh and the river is beautiful with great flows !
January 25th , Beautiful again . Should be some pretty good stonefly fishing coming up :) ...
January 23rd , Moderate level bounce and just a tad light green milky now , very fishable :) ....
January 22nd , Dry Fly action in January , gotta love it !! Nice warm day with #22 Black Stones and a few #24 Bwo's hatching and some rising fish ... Only 1 brown in the mix with the rest bows from 13 - 16"s . Definitely helped with the cabin fever issue :) ...
January 23rd , Moderate level bounce and just a tad light green milky now , very fishable :) ....
January 22nd , Dry Fly action in January , gotta love it !! Nice warm day with #22 Black Stones and a few #24 Bwo's hatching and some rising fish ... Only 1 brown in the mix with the rest bows from 13 - 16"s . Definitely helped with the cabin fever issue :) ...
January 19th , Should be a pretty good window opening for a little mid-winter stonefly fishing ! Stay tuned :) ...
January 17th , Well the good news is that she is finally rounding back into shape after being pretty well trashed for several days by the heavy rain and snow melt ! The bad news is that it is frigid again which while it slows things back down makes it miserable on the water . No worries though as it is supposed to fall into a warming trend that should give us a multiple day window of good winter fishing starting Friday :) ! See you on the river hopefully ...
January 11th ,Well snow melt & heavy wind today but after the recent deep freeze we absolutely had to run down for an hour or so . Nothing better then some good January butter :) ... Caught some fish and got to break in a couple of Christmas gifts :) . Good day !
January 11th ,Well snow melt & heavy wind today but after the recent deep freeze we absolutely had to run down for an hour or so . Nothing better then some good January butter :) ... Caught some fish and got to break in a couple of Christmas gifts :) . Good day !
January 10th , Beautiful Lady ! Sat and watched today , glad to finally be back riverside . Black stones and black midges hatching and a couple fish rising . Business as usual you might say but after some of the weather and life events of the last few weeks business as usual was just what the doctor ordered :) ... See you on the river !
December 28th , Bitter cold here with the tribs getting pretty well frozen over and leaving only the river in a fishable state . Of course you still have to put up with sub zero wind chills . Good time to tie flies :) ....
December 26th , Flows are still a little higher then normal for this time of year due to the heavy rain we received the other day but with the bitter cold you can expect the old girl to round into pretty decent condition over the next couple days ...
December 23rd , It is pouring ... We have had some fairly heavy rain , still continuing , early this morning . Expect the Lady to rise considerably unless it didn't happen up river . If they got what we have been getting ...
However if you are planning on fishing this morning /early afternoon as of now , at Cherry Falls , she looks like this :) ...
December 26th , Flows are still a little higher then normal for this time of year due to the heavy rain we received the other day but with the bitter cold you can expect the old girl to round into pretty decent condition over the next couple days ...
December 23rd , It is pouring ... We have had some fairly heavy rain , still continuing , early this morning . Expect the Lady to rise considerably unless it didn't happen up river . If they got what we have been getting ...
However if you are planning on fishing this morning /early afternoon as of now , at Cherry Falls , she looks like this :) ...
December 18th , No change . This is a good thing :) ...
December 12th , No change in the river . However if you are headed this way know that it is bitter cold and will be even more so tomorrow ... There was a time when I felt compelled to fish with sub-zero wind chills . Not so much anymore although I have had some very good days under these conditions . Hmmm... must be an age thing ;) . See you on the river when it warms just a bit !
December 8th , Very low and crystal clear . I would recommend staying up near the springs as we are getting the 1st really cold weather of the year and the drop in water temps will be less severe there . See you on the river !
December 4th , Low & gin clear still . Good time to break out the 2wt and head for the river ! Finally have the tying caught up so hopefully can give you all a far more in depth report tomorrow :) ....
December 1st , Another beautiful day today . Yesterday brought some rising fish for a change , about time :) ... Hopefully this trend will continue . She is gin clear though she is definitely low now for this time of year . Nothing like the low flows of this summer though . Good conditions for tiny fly fishing both top water and sub-surface !
November 27th , No change . Expect good clear flows and low to moderate density hatches of small bwo's , tiny winter stones and black midges .
November 22nd , Good flows and clarity , a few Bwo's and tiny winter stones hatching . You are still better off nymphing ...
November 17th , Reasonable hour and a half spent nymphing today with some really small softhackles presented on 8x being far and away the best thing we found . Honestly expected to find some up sipping but it simply was not the case .
December 12th , No change in the river . However if you are headed this way know that it is bitter cold and will be even more so tomorrow ... There was a time when I felt compelled to fish with sub-zero wind chills . Not so much anymore although I have had some very good days under these conditions . Hmmm... must be an age thing ;) . See you on the river when it warms just a bit !
December 8th , Very low and crystal clear . I would recommend staying up near the springs as we are getting the 1st really cold weather of the year and the drop in water temps will be less severe there . See you on the river !
December 4th , Low & gin clear still . Good time to break out the 2wt and head for the river ! Finally have the tying caught up so hopefully can give you all a far more in depth report tomorrow :) ....
December 1st , Another beautiful day today . Yesterday brought some rising fish for a change , about time :) ... Hopefully this trend will continue . She is gin clear though she is definitely low now for this time of year . Nothing like the low flows of this summer though . Good conditions for tiny fly fishing both top water and sub-surface !
November 27th , No change . Expect good clear flows and low to moderate density hatches of small bwo's , tiny winter stones and black midges .
November 22nd , Good flows and clarity , a few Bwo's and tiny winter stones hatching . You are still better off nymphing ...
November 17th , Reasonable hour and a half spent nymphing today with some really small softhackles presented on 8x being far and away the best thing we found . Honestly expected to find some up sipping but it simply was not the case .
November 15th , Cold today but she coughed up some action ;) . The river is in most excellent condition now and with the tiny winter stones getting started expect things to begin to pick up ... In the meantime I would stick with nymphing until you see fish active on top but then isn't that really always the case ? See you on the river !
November 8th , Spent the day guiding on a pretty decent local small stream . Quite a change from yesterday's fishing with the best brookie being less then 9"s . No sign of spawning activity so I believe on this one at least they are finished . Nice change of pace from the big water yesterday . Back to the river in the morning !
November 7th , Caught the Lady on the rise and taking on color today with clients and while we did not catch a ton of fish we caught some great ones with a measured 23" hook jawed male brown being the best of the day and several others in the 16 - 18" range all in fairly heavy water . It poured all day with air temps in the low 40's and we were all I believe getting quite cold until the big one struck . Amazing how a big brown can warm you right up :) ....
November 7th , Caught the Lady on the rise and taking on color today with clients and while we did not catch a ton of fish we caught some great ones with a measured 23" hook jawed male brown being the best of the day and several others in the 16 - 18" range all in fairly heavy water . It poured all day with air temps in the low 40's and we were all I believe getting quite cold until the big one struck . Amazing how a big brown can warm you right up :) ....
November 4th , Took the road less travelled today and had it all to ourselves . Had to work for them and it was a long release day to boot with some good ones either coming unbuttoned or busting us off . The fish of the day however made it to the net :) ... Very heavy bow , just under 21"s , great fish !
November 3rd , Really liking this month so far ! We have good flows , the river is beautiful and the fishing just ain't too shabby ;) ...
November 1st , Great way to start off the month :) ! Good nymph/softhackle fishing with a pretty decent rise late afternoon . As you can see the Lady is absolutely beautiful again ... Going to be a very good 2nd 1/2 of the week !
October 28th , A couple pics from the 1st 2 of the 3 trips this weekend . Good nymphing with a tiny fly top water chaser :) ! They took some good fishy pics which I will share when they pass them along . Plenty of 13 - 15"ers , browns and bows with one bow over 20"s thrown in for good measure . Great weekend spent on a re-watered Lady !
October 24th , I haven't made it off the mountain to look yet but looking at the river gauge it appears we are done worrying about no water for awhile :) ...
October 20th , Great low water trip today ! From 10x and #32's to big crickets on 5x . just a good time spent with some guys I hadn't seen in WAY too long ! We need rain badly but the trout were on the fin all afternoon . Hard to complain :) ...
October 17th , Decent nymphing today in the slightly increased flows today . You had to work for them but as they were all beautiful fish they were worth the effort :) !!
October 16th , Rain again last night so hopefully we will get another level bounce to carry us until the leaves go off .
October 12th , She was a tough girl today under the bright sunny skies but we managed a few beautiful wild fish :) ... The browns sure are pretty right now !
October 12th , She was a tough girl today under the bright sunny skies but we managed a few beautiful wild fish :) ... The browns sure are pretty right now !
October 11th , Good couple hours this afternoon . Had long release issues with a number of really good fish but still managed to put some good Elk River butter in the net along with a slew of puppies ...
Flows are still good though they have dropped substantially overnight . Everything rising was small today . The good fish were definitely feeding down ...
Flows are still good though they have dropped substantially overnight . Everything rising was small today . The good fish were definitely feeding down ...
October 10th , The river continues to slowly rise :) ! The pictures below were taken at Cherry Falls a little while ago .
Looking good !!
Looking good !!
October 9th , Wow ! I can not tell you how good it is to see reasonable flows on the river again !!!!!! Most of the storm missed us but we got good rain late last night and all morning . Believe me it will be awhile before I take current for granted again . We moved some good fish today nymphing and picked up little guys on top . Good to be back at it :) .
October 8th , Ok we are FINALLY getting some rain !!!!!! Have to wait and see what we get out of the tropical storm over the next 2 days but at least we have received a reasonable amount of moisture already , more then in the last month combined . IF we get what we are supposed to things should get back to a more normal situation by mid week . To say the least I am beyond ready for that :) ....
September 30th , Still waiting for rain ... Now I should make it clear that the Elk can be fished under these conditions . She is still plenty cold (especially in the upper end )and the fish are doing ok . Just don't expect to find much activity ... Most have moved to the big pools and you will have to sight fish garbage to consistantly get at them . Not exactly a river runs through it situation but if you really need a trout fix it is your best bet at the moment .
I would suggest leaving the small stream brookies and browns be until we get rain as they are under enough stress already from the extreme low flows . They are still doing ok in the streams I have checked on but personally I wouldn't feel right bothering them right now .
September 27th , Extremely low now but I have seen her even a bit lower . Definitely in "Elk Creek" mode now ....
There were brown trout rising down below Twin Bridges today a couple of which were 18" class and thick :) . Sat and watched them for awhile but left them be . Really didn't expect that 11 or 12 miles down under these conditions . Good to see !!
September 25th , Wow what a 10 day stretch . I appologize for the no report situation but we were robbed (house broken into ) the 17th and have been dealing with the police , insurance company , installing lock upgrades and a video surveilance system ... Having never been through this before I have to say I had no idea just how much of an ordeal it was :( . The financial loss is of course bad enough but the uneasy feeling you have at your own house is even worse .
Enough of that .... low water (and uneasyness about leaving the house) be damned we are going to be getting back to what we love this week , fishing the Elk . I have always preached that doing it was good for whatever ails you . Time to practice what I preach :) ... See you on the river again ! Elkfisher
September 15th , See the below report . No change :( .....
September 12th , Well I wish I could tell you flows were back to normal again but it just isn't the case ... IF you enjoy sight fishing tiny nymphs to very visible trout under low flow conditions then this is your river . If not .... might want to continue to wait for rain :( ...
September 9th , Back to very low and very clear ... Expect good tiny fly fishing and sight fishing in the big pools .
September 5th , Flows are back to normal for early September , which is to say low but not insanely low :) ... We had another good rain today so hopefully she will have even better flows as the week progresses .... See you on the river !
September 1st , Well we got some decent rain today finally with more in the forecast for tomorrow . Enough ? Hmmm... not so sure about that yet but it is bound to help . Stay tuned !
August 29th , She is very low now . We need (and are supposed to get ) rain over the weekend . In the meantime ... this is an opportunity to do some sight fishing for the big fish as well as get a look at parts of the river that are hidden under normal flows . You might be surprised at what you can learn that will come in useful later :) ...
August 24th , Levels are dropping fast the last couple days ... Decent rise at dark to a hatch of #32 cream midges . Other then that tough sledding today with sight fishing garbage being about the only reasonable game . We could use some rain now . See you on the river !
August 21st , No change , still great flows for late August and still Paraleps and Bwo's hatching .
August 19th , Just another great evening on Wv's finest ! Good nymphing action with a #18 Possum nymph a pretty decent choice ;) ... Loving this water for the 2nd half of August .
September 30th , Still waiting for rain ... Now I should make it clear that the Elk can be fished under these conditions . She is still plenty cold (especially in the upper end )and the fish are doing ok . Just don't expect to find much activity ... Most have moved to the big pools and you will have to sight fish garbage to consistantly get at them . Not exactly a river runs through it situation but if you really need a trout fix it is your best bet at the moment .
I would suggest leaving the small stream brookies and browns be until we get rain as they are under enough stress already from the extreme low flows . They are still doing ok in the streams I have checked on but personally I wouldn't feel right bothering them right now .
September 27th , Extremely low now but I have seen her even a bit lower . Definitely in "Elk Creek" mode now ....
There were brown trout rising down below Twin Bridges today a couple of which were 18" class and thick :) . Sat and watched them for awhile but left them be . Really didn't expect that 11 or 12 miles down under these conditions . Good to see !!
September 25th , Wow what a 10 day stretch . I appologize for the no report situation but we were robbed (house broken into ) the 17th and have been dealing with the police , insurance company , installing lock upgrades and a video surveilance system ... Having never been through this before I have to say I had no idea just how much of an ordeal it was :( . The financial loss is of course bad enough but the uneasy feeling you have at your own house is even worse .
Enough of that .... low water (and uneasyness about leaving the house) be damned we are going to be getting back to what we love this week , fishing the Elk . I have always preached that doing it was good for whatever ails you . Time to practice what I preach :) ... See you on the river again ! Elkfisher
September 15th , See the below report . No change :( .....
September 12th , Well I wish I could tell you flows were back to normal again but it just isn't the case ... IF you enjoy sight fishing tiny nymphs to very visible trout under low flow conditions then this is your river . If not .... might want to continue to wait for rain :( ...
September 9th , Back to very low and very clear ... Expect good tiny fly fishing and sight fishing in the big pools .
September 5th , Flows are back to normal for early September , which is to say low but not insanely low :) ... We had another good rain today so hopefully she will have even better flows as the week progresses .... See you on the river !
September 1st , Well we got some decent rain today finally with more in the forecast for tomorrow . Enough ? Hmmm... not so sure about that yet but it is bound to help . Stay tuned !
August 29th , She is very low now . We need (and are supposed to get ) rain over the weekend . In the meantime ... this is an opportunity to do some sight fishing for the big fish as well as get a look at parts of the river that are hidden under normal flows . You might be surprised at what you can learn that will come in useful later :) ...
August 24th , Levels are dropping fast the last couple days ... Decent rise at dark to a hatch of #32 cream midges . Other then that tough sledding today with sight fishing garbage being about the only reasonable game . We could use some rain now . See you on the river !
August 21st , No change , still great flows for late August and still Paraleps and Bwo's hatching .
August 19th , Just another great evening on Wv's finest ! Good nymphing action with a #18 Possum nymph a pretty decent choice ;) ... Loving this water for the 2nd half of August .
August 18th , Still absolutely beautiful with great flows for this time of year . Oh and we got yet another good hard rain today so it will continue :) ... See you on the river !
August 17th , Nothing like a little Downtown Brown action in August to help kill an hour while waiting to get some tires mounted :) . Honestly just went down to sit and watch the river but as they were rising ..... Also you should be aware that there were fly ants in quantity this evening . I strongly suggest you have some in the box the next few days :) ...
August 17th , Nothing like a little Downtown Brown action in August to help kill an hour while waiting to get some tires mounted :) . Honestly just went down to sit and watch the river but as they were rising ..... Also you should be aware that there were fly ants in quantity this evening . I strongly suggest you have some in the box the next few days :) ...
August 12th , Wonderful day yesterday spent doing yet another "Brookies & Butter " combo trip ! Tim is an old friend dating back to the Trout Ranch era . So good to both re-live old memories and make a bunch of new ones . Thanks for a great day brother :) !!
August 11th , Took the 2wt out for a spin this afternoon . Good #28 bwo hatch with some #22's and some Paraleps in the mix as well . Classic Elk River tiny fly , better be on your game fishing ... The good stuff !! The river is absolutely beautiful with the flows still fantastic for August . Real hard to complain !
August 8th , Great flows . I just can't say often enough how good it is to have these flows this time of year . Between that and the mayfly activity being pretty darned good it has been a pile of fun .
August 6th , Spent the last couple days brookie guiding the 1st half then down to the river for the 2nd . Eager natives coupled with selective sippers makes for a well balanced interesting day :) ! As you can see the river still has great flows for August with a bit of color and decent hatch activity . Most excellent to have water this time of year . See you on the river ! August 3rd , Good evening this evening . The river is just a bit milky and the fish were up from the time we got there (4:30) until dark . Mixture of #28 bwo's and #18 Paraleps hatching with the bwo's being far more prevalent . Just a good classic Elk River summer evening :) !
August 1st , She is rapidly returning to her beautiful self :) . Did not fish today but did sit and watch for a bit . paraleps hatching along with tiny bwos and of course midges and some fish up feeding on them . So good to start August off with good flows ! July 30th , A couple pics from yesterday's guide trip . Started out small stream brookie fishing then down to the brown milky river to finish . Both fished well :) ... I look for the river to really rock as she continues to drop and clear this week :) ! July 28th , It has rained all day . No downpours so far just a good all day rain . I have not seen the C&R yet today but the river at Webster is beautiful :) . Here is hoping she stays that way ...
July 26th , Great top water fishing this evening ! Flying ants , tiny Bwo's and Paraleps all on the water and the trout came up all evening . By far the best rig we found was a #24 v-wing olive with an ant trailed off the back . Hours of rising fish :) ! Good to see the river back in good shape so quickly after the storm . July 25th , I got to fish with the Yufers , both the Old Man & Scott last evening . Amazingly good to see Ken back on the river !! I might add the master picked up where he left off ... The river was good to all 3 of us but particularly good to the Old Man :) !
July 24th , Clarity has improved but still quite a ways to go . None the less I still think that barring another storm she should fish (nymph) fairly well by mid-week . Tomorrow might be a good day to throw the big stuff around ...
July 23rd , What you see is what we got . Water "o" plenty just unfortunately for the moment brown .... Big T storm last night ! Should hopefully round into shape by mid-week ... July 21 , Well we get some rain up river and an inch and 1/2 down by Bergoo . Still on the low side on the C&R and murky . Absolutely killer flows from Bergoo Creek down but muddy :( . Oh well we will take the level bounce ... Should be good in a few days .
July 20th , The killer sight fishing continues ! Didn't take many pics on tonight's trip but did remember to snap a couple . Good fish fight , 20&1/4" rainbow which was a personal Wv best for my client :) ! More fun in the low water . There is some very easy fishing to be had and some extremely technical fishing to be had . It really just comes down to what's your pleasure on a given day . I love this time of year !! July 19th , Decent level bounce overnight . Not sure where the rain hit but it had to hit upriver somewhere ... It does not show on the rain gauges but ran into a neighbor on the river that said it poured near Valley Head last night for awhile . Regardless we have better flows while it lasts with just a bit of color .
July 18th , Got to fish with my granddaughter Abby today . Been way too long ! She got the triple play (brown , brookie & bow ) sight fishing in the low flows . Fantastic day spent with one of my favorite people on earth :) ! July 16th , Real Elk River fishing this evening , the good stuff :) !! In my mind there is nothing better then a pool full of sipping fish , feeding on tiny insects , in ultra-selective mode , unless it would be having that pool full of sippers all to yourself . That was my situation this evening ! They are at the top of their game right now ... There were those I could catch and some I just couldn't fool despite going to 10x and #32's . The drifts looked good to me but a couple of the fish just weren't buying it . This is without question my favorite time of year here ...
July 13th , Late getting this up . Ok really late :( ... Anyways still low and clear with the trout still doing fine 12 miles down . Fished for about an hour near Joe Bottom hitting fair numbers of trout on a #14 Usual . The river is getting warm down that far but still within limits however I will be waiting for a level bounce before venturing that far down again . In the meantime the C&R has been great so I suggest concentrating your efforts there until we get rain . See you on the river !
July 12th , I had to break in my B-day gift , a 9' 2wt Echo dry , last evening . Mission accomplished ! The river fished well again providing both good nymphing and very good tiny fly top water action . I might add that the little Echo performed admirably for both games .... I love low water summer fishing ! Oh and I ran into a couple young men who had a banner day fishing big hoppers . Lots of games available on the Lady in the summer ! See you on the river . July 10th , Flat out on fire this evening !! A variety of small - tiny spinners on the water had the fish on the fin and us smiling all evening . Nothing better then a river full of rising fish , the right fly tied on and only 2 other fishermen all evening . I wish the C&R had fished 1/2 this well during Sulphur season ... She is making up for it now . See you on the river
July 9th , Another great evening of tiny fly fishing with a #28 Mahogany spinner being a pretty decent fly to have tonight :) ... in my mind this is the best the C&R has fished this year , period and yet almost nobody is fishing . If you enjoy nymphing , throwing terrestrials and/or fishing the tiny flies and you are not hitting the river now you are seriously screwing up . Just sayin ...
July 8th , Fished about 4 hours this evening and we had rising fish the entire time . Tiny bwo's 1st hatching , then spinners coming back fueled the rise . There were also good numbers of Light Cahills on the water but in typical Elk River fashion the trout ignored them preferring the more numberous baetis . Excellant tiny fly fishing :) !!
July 7th , Good level bounce today with some color coming from Valley Fork . Fishing was solid all day with a nice rise at dusk . Good nymphing action all day with a pretty decent rise of fish to tiny Bwo spinners at dusk . Flows are outstanding for July !! Hopefully this continues ... July 6th , We fished for an hour or so this evening and I guess the best word to describe it would be solid . A few Light Cahills and quite a few tiny bwo spinners . It didn't boil but it was a good steady rise . Slight level bounce already with more rain on the way ...
July 5th , Hmm... we decided to celebrate 2 years of being out on our own by doing what we do ... We fished :) ! Nothing better then fishing as a family . Oh and a huge thank you to all of you for all the love and support you have shown my crew and myself on our solo flight . It has truely been humbling ...
It was good tonight but not as good as the last couple evenings . I am not complaining though ;) .... A #28 Olive Usual was a pretty good fly to have this evening . July 4th , Missed a 10 , 20 , 30 fish by an inch ... Still a 19" bow on 10x and a #30 Olive Micro Onesy isn't too bad :) ! Suffice to say very enjoyable evening fishing tiny flies to very good fish . Good to have the old faithful 2wt out on the river again ...
July 3rd , Fantastic tiny fly top water fishing this evening ! Got to watch my son Aharon land his 1st four 10x , #32 fish tonight . Very cool :) !! Also got destroyed by some major butter on the 3wt tonight . Should have taken the old faithful Superfine 2wt instead . Rematch tomorrow night hopefully ...
July 2nd , A 4 person trip today had me a little concerned with the river low and the sun shining but the Lady took good care of us :) ! What a great day full of rising fish , good fish fights and smiles all the way around . Ants and #28 bwos were the ticket today . Killer day on a surprisingly uncrowed Elk . the season of tiny flies and terrestrials is upon us . See you on the river !
June 30th , Out scouting tonight for tomorrow's "Brookies & Butter" trip . Spent a large part of the last week chasing the brookie part and figured we ought to check up on the brown spotted end of things . They are doing just fine :) ... Good Light Cahill spinner fall on the lower river tonight with a fair number of them hatching as well .
June 29th , More very good top water fishing and earlier in the day this time . Like an idiot I left the phone in the car , figuring this out after my daughter began to open a can on the trout with a black ant so no pics but plenty of memories . Finally got around to fishing myself but mostly just enjoyed watching Jordyn catch them all afternoon . Good stuff !!
June 28th , Great top water action on the Lady this evening , good to see a bunch of snouts again ! The river is beautiful again finally with great flows for the end of June and the fish were really looking up . Nice mixture of small - medium browns & really nice bows ... See you on the river ! June 25th , The springs are still brown milky with the dries clear but barely flowing . Great levels for the end of June ! We just need some clarity to return , which should happen this week . In the meantime either break out the streamers or hit some of the fantastic local smaller waters which also now have great flows again and as you can see from yesterday are fishing quite well indeed :) . Better yet do both , makes for a well rounded day . See you on the river !
June 24th , One of the great things about living (or visiting ) here is that there are always multiple trout fishing options . With the river up and murky we went with plan "B" today . Turned out to be a pretty decent choice :) .. June 23rd , Sat and watched tonight at several different locations . Not a lot happening on top at any of them with just a few Light Cahills coming off . The river is still a bit murky but not too bad . We have so far missed the big storm :) ...
June 22nd , Levels are approaching perfect but we are looking at the potential for major rain starting tonight (2 - 3"s with a possibility for even more ) so the weekend outlook is impossible to predict right now . Stay tuned ... June 20th , Better but still high and still brown ... Best guess is we are about 2 days away from game on again :) . June 17th & 18th , From low and clear to up and brown overnight . Fairly tough fishing both days with day 1 being the better of the 2 . Big level bounce today with the dries flowing again and the river brown . Still fishable but you had to want them . we did :) ... These last 2 days really made me think how it is a completely different river each day . You never get to fish "that" river again so enjoy each day as if it were your last on a given river because it will be :) ... June 16th , Hit the Ledges tonight hoping for a good rise of fish . It wasn't a very good bug night but got a little better at the end . A few Light Cahills and some tiny Bwo's (spinners) out and about but ants again proved to be the ticket and it was mostly smaller , though beautiful , wild fish that were up feeding . Probably should have been nymphing but I was in the mood for top water so ...
The good news is we have some water again ! How long it will last I don't know but it was good to see flows up again . If we can get another decent rain or 2 to back this up maybe we will be back to more normal conditions . Fingers crossed it is supposed to happen ... See you on the river ! June 15th , Small level bounce this morning in the C&R and there were fish up rising to celebrate . We chose to check things out about 11 miles down and were rewarded with some great fish most coming on ants . We are still in need of rain and lots of it .... I would have been chest deep ,standing where I am in the picture below , 3 weeks ago .
June 14th , Well the Lady is flat out low now :( ... It did however rain this evening and we are supposed to get some tomorrow so hopefully that will help . In the meantime expect to work for them and I would advise staying in the upper 1/2 of the trout stretch until flows improve .
June 13th , Not a great bug evening approx 5 miles down from the springs but enough Light Cahills to keep some butter active for us :) ! 1st time in years I took in an evening rise on the pool we were on as it is a bit of a pain in the neck to get out of there at dark . All browns this evening . June 12th , Oops missed a couple days , sorry about that , been busy fishing :) !! Good afternoon pocket water action today topped off with another good rise on the lower river . Good numbers of browns in the 14 - 17" range , and rainbows from 12" - almost 20"s . Still predominately Light Cahill's with some #18 Sulphurs and of course tiny Bwo's in the mix . Worth pointing out that terrestrials are becoming quite productive now especially mid - day . I will try to remember to take the phone/camera along today ... See you on the river !
June 9th ,More down river fun ! Spent the 9th introducing a great couple from North Carolina to the road less traveled . He ended up with the triple play (brown , bow and brookie ) while she proved to be a butter magnet . Stephanie on the river = brown trout in trouble :) ... The river is low and clear with the trout reacting by taking their game up a notch . You should too .... See you on the river ! June 8th ,Great Light Cahill hatch (and spinner fall ) on the lower river tonight and the kids and I took advantage of it :) ... Drove along just watching the river for awhile but eventually the rising fish were more then any of us could take !
June 7th , Not as good this evening but picked up better then a dozen of the sporadically rising fish, most of them coming by "bopping" a Usual . This is a trick the old man showed me 25 years or so ago . It still works ....
The most prevelant insects this evening , by far were Light Cahills with #18 Sulphurs coming in a distant 2nd and some Iso's and Baetis in the mix as well . See you on the river ! June 6th , Another fantastic evening of dry fly fishing in the cheap seats :) ! Got the triple play with a ton of browns , 1/2 doz or so bows and a brookie . Just spot fished my way upriver spending perhaps 1/2 hour at each location then on to another . Flat out boiled at the last stop ! Pretty incredible river ... June 5th , Had a blast with a couple of great young men from TU Teens of Gallipolis today introducing them to the joys of fishing for Wv native brookies . They fished hard and were totally wore out by the end of the afternoon and decided to skip the evening butter fest on the river . I cashed it in for them :) ....
Big rise of fish this evening , mostly browns , on the lower river . No one "bug" extremely heavy just a good mixed bag of mayflies :) ... June 3rd , Big hatch of Golden Drakes and #18 Sulphurs on the lower river tonight which of course caused a great rise of fish and made for a happy fisherman (and guide) this evening .
June 2nd , Another night , another good hatch and spinner fall and another good rise of fish on the lower river near Bergoo :) ... No one but the fish and bugs for company either . June 1st , Good "brookies and butter" trip today . Hit the blue line early moving plenty of 7 - 10"ers with each of the guys catching their personal best native today :) . Then spent the rest of the day on the big water of the lower river and she was good to us all afternoon and evening . Just a killer day spent away from the crowds , catching fish :) .... May 31st , Another good bug , topwater afternoon and evening , this time on the lower river . Nice mixture of bows and browns with some of the latter requiring flies and methods more familiar to C&R section fishermen (7x and #24 bwo's) . Just a good day spent on the big water :) .
May 30th , By far this was the best "bug" evening of the season , on the lower C&R , up to this point . #16 Sulphurs , #18 Sulphurs , Coffin Flies , Iso's and Gray Fox spinners , all fairly heavy . For the 1st time this season it felt like the Elk is supposed to feel during the last hour of daylight . Butter to the left , butter to the right and oh happy circumstance I had a longtime client on the water to partake . Fun evening !! May 29th , Great afternoon spent with my boy wet wading , chucking big Haystacks on 4x and catching some lower river bows and browns . Aharon with a good one :) ... May 28th , Good morning in the high flows today . They were whacking Iso's and Drake emergers :) . She is back to green and fishing well .
May 27th , My crew today decided to hit a favorite blue line rather then fight the river at high tide . Good choice :) ... May 26th , Well the good news is we have plenty of water again ! The bad news is below :( ... Oh well time to break out the big rods and chase brown spotted sharks !!
May 23rd , Another very reasonable day of nymphing and fishing emergers in the film . Mostly bwo's hatching with the #28's being moderately heavy all day . Weak Sulphur day on the lower C&R .
May 22nd , Tough sledding today but if you hung in there you could put together a decent day , which we did :) ... Very little bug activity until after 8pm when the Sulphurs started to come off at the same time the Bwo spinners were coming back . We hit a number of fish on Sulphur emergers but it certainly wasn't lights out action . somebody up river got a HUGE Coffin Fly fall as they flew past us by the thousands . see you on the river ! May 20th , Well the lower river rocked again today :) ... We fished completely alone again and it was on from the opening bell :) ! Both the Green Drakes and Iso's are solid now down river . Just another good day spent showing some more great people around the "other Elk" ...
May 19th , Good trip on the general regs water today :) ! Started on the lower end of the C&R ended up dodging kayakers and crowds so we headed miles down river to the road less traveled . Good choice ! Fished alone . Well alone except for a bunch of fish ;) ... Green Drakes , Sulphurs and Iso's again this evening with a moderate rise of fish .
May 18th , Best dry fly action of the year so far :) ! Sulphurs , Iso spinners and Coffin flies with the hatching Sulphurs being the ticket . Things started happening around 8 and it was on until it was just too dark to see . Miles down river ...
May 17th , Good trip yet again :) ! Back to the lower C&R today and she nymphed well all day with a little top water action at dark . Hooked some great fish with the best to hand an 18" beautiful bow . Sulphurs , Cornutas , Iso's and 3 different baetis all hatching sporadically . Fun day !
May 16th , Had the rod in my hand for a few hours tonight down river . Green Drakes , #16 Sulphurs , #18 Sulphurs and what appeared to be some Light Cahills (wasn't able to catch any of them to verify ) all on the water with fish rising at Joe Bottom and Webster Springs . All I fooled turned out to be rainbows which was a bit of a disappointment but a fun evening nonetheless . Game on :) .
May 15th , Got the Triple Play on Slaty today with browns , bows and a brookie :) ! 1st client to do so this year . Wild browns up to 19"s , wild bows to 15"s and an 8" brookie . The water was lower then anticipated with bluebird skies and the hatches came late but they did come :) . Fun day . May 13th , Big river today . She spiked about 1000 cfs this morning . Shark chasers only for the next couple days and she should be right for that game for sure :) ...
ay 12th , All rainbows on today's trip but they were active enough to keep things interesting all afternoon :) . Fish of the day was a beautiful 20" wild bow that I do not have a picture of (leaped out of the net before I could get the phone turned on )but Garret got go-pro footage of the fight and netting that I will share when he sends it along . Got to get me one of those gadgets :) !!!
May 11th , Shifting gears completely today :) ...As much as I love chasing good butter and the Lady has been hot in that regard it was great to spend a day with the little fish today :) . Big bushy dries and way too many fish to count . Good times ! Back to the river tomorrow .
May 10th , Well the guide trip butter fest continues :) .... Another couple good days in the murky water . Nothing better then wild Elk River butter . Great Sulphur and Gray Fox hatches again today with a massive Gray Fox spinner fall on the section we fished .
May 9th , Hit a different section today and the day could not have been more different then yesterday :( .... Just a few Sulphurs and Gray Fox hatching , tough wading (to say the least ) and tough fishing . Think we will shift back up river a couple miles tomorrow ...
May 8th , The butter was ripping today , good butter :) ! We hooked 4 , 20" class browns putting 3 in the net (best was 21 & 1/4" ) , lost 1 that was substantially larger , netted 4 in the 15" class and hit some beautiful wild bows from 13 - 17"s . Sulphurs and Gray Fox were both heavy with the Sulphurs absolutely pouring off the river mid-afternoon . My people took pictures of several of them and when they share them with me I will share them with all of you :) . Fun day on a murky river ! May 7th , She is improving . Still a lot of water but that water is steadily dropping and clearing . Shark chasing water but watch your step while wading .... May 5th , Blown out ! She was gin clear and low at Webster at noon with fish rising . Decided to head for Bergoo rather then fish in town and ran headlong into a brown ragin lady at Twin Bridges .... VERY localized rain event that hit up by Snowshoe . All the tribs below Slaty are low and clear . This is setting up some classic brown spotted shark fishing into at least the middle of next week :) ... stay tuned ... May 4th , The string of good trips continues :) ! Windy and cooler yesterday with showers off and on . All rainbows the 1st half of the day but around 6:30 pm the Sulphurs started to pour off and the butter went on the feed :) . Best of the day was Ian's beautiful measured 20 & 1/8 " male . Great fish fight in fairly heavy water . May 3rd , Good day on the Lady guiding today . Lots of bugs , fish fairly active early underneath and 6 takes on top to end the day . 2 rounds of Sulphurs hatching 11-1 and 4-7 , Gray Fox all day , Tan Baetis all day with some March browns and #24 Bwo's in there as well even a few Yellow Sallies . Could have stood for more rising fish earlier in the day but that would be the only complaint . had 5 or 6 hit the soft hackle hard enough to pop off , on 5x , on the take at the end of the drift as it lifted .Thanks Matt , really enjoyed it :) !
May 2nd , Sulphurs are still low density but they are here now from Slaty to Bergoo that I can verify . Time to break out the Usuals , bunny emergers , Copper Sulphates , etc ... Hard to say what the coming cold snap will do to things but I guess we will find out as it unfolds . See you on the river !
April 30th , Good , though challenging , trip again today making it 3 in a row that definitely kept me on my toes :) ... Hit a couple good slabs of butter early (one pushing 20" ) , getting ride time but losing the fight both times . So went the day as we continued to fish hard , struggle in the major runs , but hit some good fish on soft hackles in unexpected places , little corners that the crowds overlooked today . Both the old faithful Grannom soft hackle and Codie's new(as yet un-named) one combined to save the day once again . They banged them in some very fast water ! I actually love days when there is nothing happening because when you really got to work for it and come up with a way to make something happen and you do just that it is very satisfying indeed :) ! April 29th , Spent the day guiding on Slaty , upper 1/2 . water is low and clear and it was a hot one but we managed to move a number of good bows and little browns in the fast water . Good Gray Fox hatch , along with some March Browns , Tan Baetis and the 1st Sulphurs of the season #14's (not a mis-print ) . Very little surface activity with only the occasional rise . Soft hackles did the business again .
April 28th , Well we earned our fish today ... Bluebird skies , hot and very little hatching so it was all couple of splitshot fishing until right at dark when we picked up several on March Brown spinners . Got into some really nice fish though including 3 that flat out tore us up on 5x ! Best in the net were several in the 16 - 17" range beautiful bows . Only butter to hand was the little guy shown right at dark . Other then that not a bad rainbow day but you had to work for them ... Fun guide trip :) ! April 27th , She is beautiful . sparse hatches of several Bwo's today with a few March Browns and a Gray Fox or 2 in the mix also . All in all though I would advise to keep riding the soft hackles , p-tails and Possum Nymphs until she lights up right .
April 26th , Started on the lower river , not much hatching and very few on the fin despite the beautiful weather . Tired of waiting for bugs and decided to do some exploring on a lesser stream :) ... decent nymphing but still none of the top water fishing I was itching for so ended up hunting morels . I can tell you the caddis are over down river and the March Browns were nothing like the last few trips but they should still have some time left . Just an off day ... April 25th , Still just a bit high and with a bit of color and not a lot hatching mid-river (Bergoo area) today . With the forecast calling for 80's at Webster the next 2 days it seems like a good time to take in a little "in town" action . See you on the river !
April 22nd , Cold and raining , no Grannom ! Doesn't sound like the makings of a good trip but it was :) .... Steady nymphing all day with a couple different soft hackles leading the way and even several fish on top despite only weak Bwo hatches going on . Great wet day spent with some really nice people ! April 20th , Well the Grannom are full bore now on the C&R , incredible as always . Needless to say this made for fantastic soft hackle fishing . They were flat out whacking them :) !! Could not have come at a better time as it was my client's inaugural fly fishing experience . We may well have another Elk"o" holic on our hands ! The phone took a swim (yet again) and is in a bag of rice at the moment but hopefully it will work it's magic one more time as I have some pics I'dd love to share with you in the morning ...
April 19th , Finally ! Big hatch of March Browns in beautiful downtown Webster Springs today had the butter (and a few bows) on the fin . The "Downtown Browns" are back !! Nothing better then dry fly action in town .The March Browns are such an awesome hatch on the lower river . I love it :) ! April 18th , Another fantastic Spring Break day spent on the Lady with the family :) ! I It was a day full of kids , caddis , rainbows and March Browns ! My kind of day . The Grannom hatch is still picking up density daily so a pair of soft hackles is a pretty decent opening rig :) ... See you on the river !
April 17th , The rain didn't screw things up thankfully ... Small level bounce . Not a lot of bug activity this evening other the swarms of caddis and fair numbers of March Brown spinners down by Bergoo . Headed up to the C&R to take a peak and there were very few Grannom and no spinners at the Trestle at dark tonight . I would suggest loading up on soft hackles the rest of the week . Just sayin ... See you on the river !
April 15th , Sometimes you just gotta lay the rod down and look around ... Quill Gordon and March Brown spinners in quantity , grannom all over the place , trout rising and just a fantastic sunset to boot . Good evening spent sitting on the Trestle :) ! April 14th , Softhackle season is upon us :) ! The Grannom Caddis are picking up steam down river (heavy at Parcoal this morning) and started to trickle off yesterday on the C&R . This when coupled with the Quill Gordons (which have been coming off for weeks) makes for great softhackle fishing !
There were also decent numbers of March Brown spinners at Webster this evening (so they are also picking up steam) and they brought a few fish up for the 1st time in a while . Hatch season is finally upon us and I for one am more then ready for it . See you on the river ! April 13th , Some times if you can hang in when the going gets tough good things happen :) ! It started off ok today moving 4 or 5 with a couple long releases in the 1st hour and I was thinking it was going to be another fairly easy day at the office . It slowed a bit so I decided to head up river a mile or so for awhile which turned out to be a mistake as it went from fairly productive to brutally tough and stayed there for several hours ... Headed back down river and started where we left off that morning . Nothing . Pushed on up a couple hundred yards and Quill Gordons started to hatch :) . Tied on a new softhackle that Codie came up with for the QG's and it was on :) !!! Thanks for your patience Alex and I am glad the Lady gave it up for you . The seemingly dead river came to life in a hurry . Pretty good 9th inning action :) ! Oh and the Grannom have started :)) .... April 12th , Fun trip :) ! We got into them early and fairly often today , all nymphing . Gary did great for his 1st attempt at "bobberless" nymphing , took right to it ! I know I sound like a broken record but good fishing + great company makes for a excellent day every time ... Not a lot of hatch activity just a couple dozen Quill Gordons , a handful of #18 Bwo's and a couple Blue Quills but once again they were active underneath . Water temp 52* . See you on the river !
April 11th , The much needed drop in levels continues . Even the lower river is starting to look wadeable without risking your life ;) ... the leaves are finally starting to pop out in Webster so I am thinking Spring , REAL Spring , may make it here yet . See you on the river !
April 10th , A little downtown action early , then a little C&R section action tonight . Lots of spinners this evening but they did not get on the water by dark and only saw 1 fish rise twice :( ... Did however see 2 March Browns at Webster today . Great hatch on the lower river . I see some "Downtown Brown" action in the not too distant future :) . April 9th , Good 2 hours today despite the river still being up a bit and on the cold side ! Got to see a couple friends both of the human and the spotted finned varieties and the weather was amazing . Lots of Quill Gordons hatching and some #18 bwo's as well but never saw a fish rise . As usual they were active underneath though :) ...
April 7th , The "dries" are back to green though still rockin and the springs are brown . Couple more days ...
April 6th , Well she came up but as of 2pm at Webster she was still very fishable . I have a feeling though that all the water had not come through yet as it poured here on Point Mountain last night . I was in fact shocked that the Lady wasn't blood red and rockin . We have an inch or 2 of snow at the moment as well which when combined with the high winds and water levels are making this look like a good weekend to hit the vise and get some serious tying done . You may wish to do the same ;) ... April 5th , Fished a new blue line today , very small stream , fairly close to home that I have heard a few people say good things about over the years . Those few people were correct :) ! Tons of fish with a lot of good to really good brookies . By far our best brookie trip this year so far and only fished about 1/2 mile or so of it . Loaded !! The river on the other hand is better today , definitely quite fishable but still on the tough to wade side especially down river ... April 4th , No shortage of water today , tough wading to say the least but we did manage to pick up some fish along the edges . Yet another big level bounce after yet another downpour last night . Every time she starts to settle in we seem to get hit again :( ... Hard to believe a month or so ago I was worried we would run out of water with the river so low and no snowpack . I found myself wishing for rain . Be careful what you wish for I guess... Anyways there were a few Quill Gordons and a few Hendricksons coming off but no rising fish in the high flows . See you on the river !
April 3rd , Still quite a bit of water but she is definitely rounding steadily into shape . Nice green milky color :) ! I sure hope she lays down by the weekend as I would love to get into some top water Quill Gordon action ...
April 2nd , Well she has dropped and cleared considerably but still a big river today so we ended up brookie fishing instead . We will be back on the river tomorrow .... April 1st , Blown out !
March 31st ,If you were planning to head this way tomorrow know that the "dries" are high and brown . Shark chasing water albeit on the cold side but not going to be good for much else tomorrow :( . Shame too because she was beautiful today . Oh well gives me an excuse to go hit a favorite blue line for brookies and browns and unless you want to pitch big streamers tomorrow I suggest you do the same :) ... March 30th , Well it was slower today , not bad , but you had to work for them for sure ... Sunny with a cold fairly stout wind and just a few Bwo's hatching . A #18 Possum nymph was (as it so often is ) a pretty good fly to have in the box as every fish we caught preferred it over a lot of different things we tried . Good couple hours spent with my lady on the Lady :) ! March 29th , Another good day on the Lady . Plenty of "bugs" , hooked a bunch of fish , neither of us took a swim and we had the river to ourselves :) . Real hard to complain ... #18 bwo's , #12 Quill Gordons and #12 Brown Stones all on the water today in good numbers but once again never saw a rise . The river is still up and a bit on the cold side but she is definitely starting to wake up .Picked up more fish in shallow fast water then we have been which is a good sign .
March 27th ,Most excellant trip today ! Ed was brand new to nymphing but took to it immediately and we were into them early and often , bent rods "o"plenty :)...The river was beautiful with some green milky color and she came up considerably overnight which definitely had the fish on the feed . Good fishing + great company = a winner of a day ! Good times .
March 24th , Well I would love to tell you that the Quill Gordons were blanket heavy and that the river boiled but ... saw exactly 4 Quill Gordons and 1 fish came up once . It was however decent nymphing with a #24 p-tail emerger being far and away the best thing I could find today . All in all fishing was somewhere between ok and good ...
March 23rd , Fished beautiful downtown Webster Springs today . Forgot to take the phone so no pictures and honestly while the fishing was pretty good lifting a pair of soft hackles , the fish weren't picture worthy anyhow ... None the less the Lady is back to beauitiful , the fish were co-operative and the day was warm . Good times in town :) ! A side benefit of fishing in town is that aterwards you can stop by the Main Street Cafe and grab one of the states best burgers ... See you on the river !
March 21st , Definitely should have chased them downtown today (the river was beautiful at Webster) but as well as she has fished in the C&R section the last 4 days and with the bugs really coming on up there I decided to head up instead ... The farther we went up , the heavier the flows so ended up just taking some pictures and watching bugs for awhile (which is one of my favorite things to do anyways ) Good day :) ! March 20th , Another good trip in the cold melt water . The hatches are really picking up steam with good numbers of Quill Gordons joining the #18 Bwo's today . Bugs all over the river but no rising fish . They were fairly active underneath though :) ...
March 18th , Good trip today even with the river full of snowmelt , rising and taking on color as the day went the Lady served up the good stuff . Several beautiful slabs of Elk River Butter and of course plenty of good rainbows . Just real good nymphing all afternoon . Good day with some great people !
March 17th , Massive #18 Bwo hatch in the cold and snow showers today from 1:30 - 3:30 ! Only a couple fish came up but the nymphing was consistant . There were a few Quill Gordons on the cold water as well . All rainbows for me , had a buddy stick a couple slabs of butter though . Good not quite spring yet afternoon ... See you on the river !
March 16th , No change . Still beautiful , still quite cold but that should start to change over the next several days . We are so close to the good stuff now you can taste it . We just need to string a few warm days together to get things underway . Yes we now have a minor melt situation to go through this weekend but after that .... March 14th , The river is beautiful but .... IT is frigid and windy to boot . Good time to catch up on your tying while dreaming of spring ! March , 11th , Stunningly beautiful but bitter cold today ... Guess this is the price we pay for all the warm january and February days . Oh well Spring is coming :) ! march 8th , Up a bit and light green milky . pretty darned good shape considering the rain we had .... Seeing more and more #12 brown stones down river . Everything still seems just a little early . A lot will depend on whether or not we get the snow they are calling for . If we mis it look for this trend to continue . See you on the river !
March 7th , Wet cold one today but we picked up fish nymphing with a possum nymph trailing a black soft hackle . No visible hatch activity and nothing rising . March 5th , Spent the afternoon with the family just wandering around the river watching and taking pictures . Hundreds of stoneflies fluttering downriver with the majority being #16 and black but also some of the #12 brown stones early . The river is beautiful and you can feel Spring coming a little more every day . Should be a pretty decent week on Wv's finest ! March 3rd , The river is dropping and is back to very fishable again . Below is what she looked like at Cherry Falls and what it looked like here on top of the mounatin a few minutes later .... Hard to complain about the recent storms as it was way too early for her to be as low as she was . See you on the river !
February 28th , 1st good hatch of #18 bwo's this season today about 6 miles down river . Good to see the little sailboats again in quantity :) ....
February 26th , Today started out at 19* and breezy but the fishing was steady for the 1st 1/2 of the day with an #18 Possum nymph producing early and often . Not a lot hatching again today but also picked up a few on #20 black softhackles while the stones were out and about . All rainbows today . Bit on the cold side but a very enjoyable guide trip :) . As it returns to warmer this week expect the hatch activity to pick back up . See you on the river !
February 25th , Started out with rain , fairly heavy at times , then turned much colder with moderate - heavy winds , settled down for maybe 1/2 hour ( a few started to rise ) , then another squall only this time it was sleet , a wall of it :( ... We (my clients actually) caught a few nymphing and hooked a few others on a fluttering stone dry and a black soft hackle suspended off it and fished lower in the column with the latter producing the majority of the takes . Really tough conditions but the Lady served up some action for us . Hard to complain about the precipitation , we need it . See you on the river ! February 22nd , Did Slaty Fork early , just a couple little browns and saw a few good fish . Very low and gin clear . really got a good look at all the structural changes . A few black stones , a few black caddis and a couple 22 bwos were all I saw . Went down river for a few hours , near Bergoo in the afternoon . Lots of #18 bwo's on the water but no surface activity . Picked up a couple rainbows nymphing with a p-tail trailing a softhackle . River looks good on the lower end . February 21st , Well I was hoping for big hatches and snouts "o"plenty ... Instead she served up a few bugs , a few snouts and reasonable nymphing . Still as always a good day :) . Fish were caught and it was spring-like . Hard to complain ... February 19th , Finally have confirmation on the larger mayflys that have started to trickle off . They are Quill Gordons insanely early :) ! We will get some quality river time in tomorrow and hopefully have some good things to share tomorrow night .
February 19th , Low and clear . Nymphed well today with a little surface activity mid-day . Not a lot of hatch activity in fact the weakest day this week but they were whacking an #18 possum nymph . Nothing subtle about the takes either .... February 17th , Ok The 1st trip of the year is in the books ... Decent 1/2 day , hooked 10 (including 2 on top) , introduced my client to basic nymphing (he took to it well ) and saw not only stones but 3 different mayflies as well including a few that appeared to be Quill Gordons though just a hair small at about a #14 . Wasn't able to catch them so can't say for sure but have no idea what else they could have been ... crazy early . Saw some #18 bwo's and #22 bwos with the 22s being heavier . So good to see rising fish . All in all it was a very enjoyable start to the season ! With the forecast calling for quite warm and the "bugs" already getting heavier this should/could be an interesting several days coming up .... February 16th , Sat and watched awhile this afternoon , too cold . #16 stones picking up steam now with quite a few of the tiny stones still around . The river looks great just need the forecast to hold true for the weekend and next week . Fingers crossed should be fun :) !
February 13th , Cold , windy day but the river is still in decent shape ., Just a few #22 black stones out and about . Should continue to get better and better as the week goes . February 12th , Taking on some "color" but overall still pretty darned decent shape considering ...
February 10th , As of 4pm the river was still in good shape . She has come up a bit but clarity is very good . Should be a pretty decent weekend on Wv's finest ! February 8th , Smokin good nymphing action on the river today . A lot of fish in the 15" - 18" range with a couple bigger and a ton smaller . Not a lot of hatch activity with just a few black stones and black caddis out and about and we never saw a fish rise but put the lead to them and it was on :) . Great afternoon and we had the river to ourselves . February 7th , Well a strange thing happened on the way to the river ... we got down by Monterville and the Jeep inexplicably veered left onto Turkey Bone Road ! Despite my best efforts I couldn't turn it around so we wound up here . Water a little off color from the snowmelt and the best we could manage were a few of these little guys . Slow going , but a great way to spend a couple hours :)
February 6th , I would love to be able to tell you it was on fire but ... Definitely on the slow side down river , only moved a few . On the positive side of things the #16 stones were the heaviest so far this year . It's coming :) ...
February 3rd , 20's and windy on the river, brutal . Ended up just walking along looking at (and taking pictures of ) bugs . More black caddis then stones today with a few black midges in the mix as well . The river has dropped more and she is approaching perfect levels . Hopefully the forecast warmer temps materialize . If so game on :) ! February 2nd , The river is beautiful , finally dropping down to semi-normal winter levels . I look for this to be a decent weekend to fish . Break out the black softhackles :) !!
January 27th , Still no change other then that it is obviously a bit colder here this week :) ... I will admit to hoping it stays cold long enough for the "Dries" to lock up which will of course leave nothing but the springs flowing and raise water temps ... January 25th , No change . Still plenty of water , still mild temps and still some stone flies out and about .
january 22nd , Loving this "not even winter" in January thing ! Unseasonably warm , #18 , 20 and 22 black stones hatching , no snow and a few fish on the fin . Yep growing on me in a hurry :) . Great afternoon with Codie & the kids ! January 19th , Slow one today . Fished about an hour and 1/2 and we moved only 2 fish . Just a few #22 black stones out and about . Flows look like late March , lots of water .... Makes for challanging wading ! Still good to get out and throw the line a little . See you on the river !
January 17th , More rain & another level bounce . She is still fishable with pretty decent clarity but wading will prove interesting especially in lower sections of the river . This stretch of very warm , zero snowpack weather almost begs a fellow to speculate about an early start to "big bug" season this year ... Of course February could turn bitter which would set things back but if this weather were to hold ... :) ! January 15th , Well the old girl is looking better then yesterday . The "Dries" are green milky with only the springs blowing brown . It has been a very strange winter so far .... January 15th and there isn't a hint of snow here while the Dries , which should be frozen tight , are anything but dry ... January 14th , BLOWN OUT :( !! Big level bounce and she is chocolate milk ...
January 12th , Greatly increased flow today after the rain last evening and the last of the snow going off . It made for tough wading and slow fishing though we did move a few nymphing . Took the phone for a swim ... Hmm... not waterproof after all ... Oh well it was still good to get out and throw today and we had the high milky water to ourselves :) . See you on the river ! Got the phone dried out overnight . Here are the 2 pics we got before it took the swim ... January 11th , Well sometimes you guess wrong :( ... I was so sure today the river would be rockin with snowmelt that it made it easy to do what I needed to be doing which was filling a couple fly orders . Given that we lost about 8"s of snow in about 30 hours and it was raining I was fairly certain of the situation so you can imagine my surprise when I got a look at her this evening on my way to the post office . Absolutely beautiful and 50* air temps ! Oh well there will be another day ...
January 8th , It's about 1* here on top this morning so maybe 6 or 7* on the river . This will tighten it up and there looks to be a day or 2 window ready to open early this coming week with decent temps . After that window it looks like very warm (for January) and some rain which will load her back up with melt water . Tuesday looks like the best bet for reasonable fishing .
January 6th , The river has dropped a bit but so has about 8" of snow . I expect the colder weather to "tighten" things up a bit hich will help the fishing :) . See you on the river !
January 4th , The river is up and rocking ... January 3rd , Welcome back and welcome to 2017 on the river :) ! We spent the last 2 weeks just enjoying the holiday's with the family (kids off school) but are ready to get back to it . Here is the situation on the Lady .... Flows are higher then normal for this time of year due to a series of rain/mild weather events . This coupled with a couple of cold snowy days has left us with a melt water situation ... What is normal are the hatches of tiny winter stones , black midges and a few Bwo's . December 27th , Spent a few hours today on a local small stream chasing brookies . Not a lot to say other then that they were willing :) ... December 21st , As you can see she is back to beautiful though there is still quite a bit of water . Big improvement and just in time for some end of the year magic :) ... December 20th early , I will run down and take a look later . She should be settling back down after the recent monsoon ... Hopefully this settling will continue the rest of the week . If so , with the forecasted much milder temperatures we should have a nice window begin to open here at the end of the year :) ! Stay tuned .
December 16th , 8* at 11:00 this morning :( ... Did not even seriously consider fishing today . I can tell you the river is still ice free even way down at Webster Springs and beautiful . Warmer temps will be along and I will be back on the water ! See you on the river ! December 12th , Just sat and watched today . There were a few fish working but not enough that I felt compelled to get suited up . I just wasn't feeling it ... However it was a good day to sit in the rain , look at stoneflys and watch a few fish sip ! Most enjoyable . December 11th , What you see below is still the case ... Not much other then levels and there effect on sipping fish changes this time of year .
December 8th part 2 , Very cold and windy with a few black stones out and about and a couple of fish rising . As you can see below the river is back in pretty decent shape and as it continues to drop expect the top water fishing to pick up again . See you on the river , dress warm !
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December 8th , Heading out shortly to see if the stonefly hatch is bringing them up :) . I will update later ... the river has been in flux for a few days but hopefully has settled back to stable .
December 2nd , Big level bounce ! No shortage of water out there now . Considering how much rain we received she looks pretty good actually .
December 2nd , Big level bounce ! No shortage of water out there now . Considering how much rain we received she looks pretty good actually .
November 30th , level bounce today ! Still looking good and very wadeable . This of course may change if we continue to get rain ....
November 29th , Still low & clear with a mixture of Bwo's , black midges and Tiny winter stones hatching . Good surface activity on a few sections with just an occasional rise on others . See you on the river !
November 29th , Still low & clear with a mixture of Bwo's , black midges and Tiny winter stones hatching . Good surface activity on a few sections with just an occasional rise on others . See you on the river !
November 25th , Another great Bwo hatch and another good rise of fish . The tiny winter stones are getting heavy as well :) ... See you ont he river !
November 16th , Big Bwo hatch on a cold November day had them on the fin for a couple hours this afternoon . Along with the Bwo's , if you look closely , you will notice the 1st of the tiny winter stones at the end of my finger :) ! Not only were there plenty of fish up , a couple were very nice fish . Good times !!
November 16th , Big Bwo hatch on a cold November day had them on the fin for a couple hours this afternoon . Along with the Bwo's , if you look closely , you will notice the 1st of the tiny winter stones at the end of my finger :) ! Not only were there plenty of fish up , a couple were very nice fish . Good times !!
November 14th , Still beautiful , bwo's still hatching and still good nymphing with good - very good top water action mid-day . Typical Elk fall fishing ...
November 5th , Well the river is settling back down again after a day of higher murky flows and as expected there was top water action to be had thanks to the ever present Bwo hatches :) . Plenty of peace & quiet to be had as well which is normally the case this time of year . Should be a great week on the Lady . See you on the river !
November 5th , Well the river is settling back down again after a day of higher murky flows and as expected there was top water action to be had thanks to the ever present Bwo hatches :) . Plenty of peace & quiet to be had as well which is normally the case this time of year . Should be a great week on the Lady . See you on the river !
November 2nd , Lights out tiny fly fishing this afternoon ! Bwo's hatched from noon - 6 pm , never heavy but plenty to keep the fish on the fin :) . Had an excellent angler that comes here each year for the midge fishing for a client today and we flat out smoked them putting his 5' , "0" weight , bamboo to the test again and again . Good times . See you on the river !
October 30th , Good 1/2 day trip today even with all the wind and leaves to contend with . I love introducing people to the tiny flies ! Steady bwo hatches again today as expected ... 8x & #28-#30 bwo's were the ticket as they so often are here . Enjoyable day !
October 28th , The river is beautiful , Bwo hatches are moderate and there is no shortage of sipping fish ! The Lady is a small fly lovers paradise right now which is of course usually the case :) ... I would expect this trend to continue . Time to break out the 2 wts , 8x and tiny patterns and head for the Lady . See you on the river !
October 30th , Good 1/2 day trip today even with all the wind and leaves to contend with . I love introducing people to the tiny flies ! Steady bwo hatches again today as expected ... 8x & #28-#30 bwo's were the ticket as they so often are here . Enjoyable day !
October 28th , The river is beautiful , Bwo hatches are moderate and there is no shortage of sipping fish ! The Lady is a small fly lovers paradise right now which is of course usually the case :) ... I would expect this trend to continue . Time to break out the 2 wts , 8x and tiny patterns and head for the Lady . See you on the river !
October 26th , Fished with my buddy RJ for the 1st time in awhile . Good tiny fly evening with a variety of smaller Bwo's 22-28 hatching and the fish up on the fin . Best rig of the evening , for me , was a #28 olive Usual trailing a #28 baetis spinner . You had to keep after them but if you were able to short cast and keep covering them (with a pretty decent drift) almost all of them would eventually take it .
The river is in great shape , with good flows and clarity and hatches , though not heavy by any means , are enough to keep some fish up and feeding . Between the tiny fly top water action and nymphing the deeper runs there are several productive "games" available :) . See you on the river !
October 23rd , Good trip :) ! We got into them immediately and often with a 21 &1/2 " bow to finish the day . Would have liked to gotten a look at the one we hooked at the Angle Hole . Took off like a freight train ! Fish 1 , us 0 .... You'll have this ...
The river is beautiful with great flows and a bit of color and the leaf load is surprisingly light . Going to be a good week on the Lady !
The river is in great shape , with good flows and clarity and hatches , though not heavy by any means , are enough to keep some fish up and feeding . Between the tiny fly top water action and nymphing the deeper runs there are several productive "games" available :) . See you on the river !
October 23rd , Good trip :) ! We got into them immediately and often with a 21 &1/2 " bow to finish the day . Would have liked to gotten a look at the one we hooked at the Angle Hole . Took off like a freight train ! Fish 1 , us 0 .... You'll have this ...
The river is beautiful with great flows and a bit of color and the leaf load is surprisingly light . Going to be a good week on the Lady !
October 21st , Getting some more much needed rain . As of 1 pm the river was still beautiful with just a small bump in flows so far but I expect more will be coming . This should set us up well for the season though there will be heavy leaf loads to deal with at times . Expect the browns to begin their yearly spawning ritual anytime now !
October 19th , No change from the below other then that there are quite a few leaves working their way through the system which of course complicates things ....
October 17th , Low and clear again . Sight fishing opportunities abound . Between the spectacular colors on the mountains and the beauty of the browns this time of year it's hard to go wrong ...
October 19th , No change from the below other then that there are quite a few leaves working their way through the system which of course complicates things ....
October 17th , Low and clear again . Sight fishing opportunities abound . Between the spectacular colors on the mountains and the beauty of the browns this time of year it's hard to go wrong ...
October 12th & 13th , Spent the 12th " down river" . Finally cool enough that I am comfortable fishing for the browns I have been watching the last 6 weeks or so when the flows were extremely low . Picked up a lot of fish with a few real nice ones in the mix , all on a dry dropper rig .
The 13th saw us introducing 4 guys from Pa to the river . Very enjoyable day spent lining up some different stretches of water and different "games" for them for the remainder of their trip and catching plenty of little guys , a number of 15" - 17" guys and hooking 1 behemoth of a brown (20"+ ) that won the battle as they often do ...
The river is low but nothing like it was a couple weeks ago . Actually she is in VERY fishable condition and fishing fairly well .
October 10th , Yufer (the next generation) & Breitmeier back on the Elk round 2 :) ... Great day spent on the Lady with the old man's son Scott . While netting a nice brown for him I couldn't help but think that Yufer & butter go together like peanut butter & jelly . You think of one , you think of the other ;) ...
The river has dropped and is clearing nicely . Should be in fantastic shape mid-week !
The river has dropped and is clearing nicely . Should be in fantastic shape mid-week !
October 9th , With the river blown out we headed for the road less traveled . Good decision !
October 8th , Good start with the river up a bit a brown from the confluence of the river and Valley Fork down stream . We stuck some good rainbows on garbage patterns . The dries came down around 1:45 and they came down hard and brown . The river is completely blown out .... Stay tuned !
October7th , Reasonable day between the too easy little fish (yep that's a double below , one of several ) and the extremely tough bigger ones ... Weak hatch day with just a few Paraleps coming off . Flows are on the low side again with just a bit of color . Fun Autumn day on the Lady !
October7th , Reasonable day between the too easy little fish (yep that's a double below , one of several ) and the extremely tough bigger ones ... Weak hatch day with just a few Paraleps coming off . Flows are on the low side again with just a bit of color . Fun Autumn day on the Lady !
October 6th , Spent the afternoon guiding on one of my favorite little streams . Absolute beauty + absolute solitude = a winner of a day :) ! Back to the river for tomorrow's trip ...
October 2nd , Well she is dropping and starting to clear . We might be a couple days away from beautiful but she is very fishable now ! I can't tell you how good it is to have good flows again ...
September 30th , Finally !!!! WE HAVE WATER and plenty of it !! Yes she is brown at the moment but in my mind a few days of brown water are a pretty decent trade off to get good flows again . Game on :) .
September 28th , The rain helped a little bit . We need more .... Hopefully the next 2 days will take care of that :) !
September 22nd , No change , still very low and clear so expect to have to really work for them :) ....
September 20th , Much tougher fishing down river today but picked up some decent fish in the low water and saw a few beasts :) ! #24 bwo's were hatching spoadically but very little top water activity ...
September 30th , Finally !!!! WE HAVE WATER and plenty of it !! Yes she is brown at the moment but in my mind a few days of brown water are a pretty decent trade off to get good flows again . Game on :) .
September 28th , The rain helped a little bit . We need more .... Hopefully the next 2 days will take care of that :) !
September 22nd , No change , still very low and clear so expect to have to really work for them :) ....
September 20th , Much tougher fishing down river today but picked up some decent fish in the low water and saw a few beasts :) ! #24 bwo's were hatching spoadically but very little top water activity ...
September 19th , Good guide trip today in the extremely low water ! Mixture of tiny fly top water and sight fishing garbage patterns . the brown male bottom right was taken on a #32 olive usual and 10x tippet :) . We badly need more rain but she is still cold and giving up some good ones . See you on the river !
September 17th , No rain , no change ...
September 16th , Still no rain :( ... If you are heading this way expect a challenge . She is fishable though .
September 12th , When I tell you it's low now rest assured I mean exactly that . If you don't enjoy fishing tiny flies and/or sight fishing you need to consider another destination until we get rain ... Now on the other hand if you do enjoy the above challenges this is a great time to get to know the river better ! There are things you can learn wandering around now that will serve you well when the flows come back up and in the meantime you can beat the heat by standing waist deep in the 63* water while battling some of the big fish . See you on the river !
September 10th , The river is now extremely low but still cold (62.8* ) and still giving up some great fish . This was yet another good day at the office featuring more low water , more tough fish and more good ones in the net :) ...
September 16th , Still no rain :( ... If you are heading this way expect a challenge . She is fishable though .
September 12th , When I tell you it's low now rest assured I mean exactly that . If you don't enjoy fishing tiny flies and/or sight fishing you need to consider another destination until we get rain ... Now on the other hand if you do enjoy the above challenges this is a great time to get to know the river better ! There are things you can learn wandering around now that will serve you well when the flows come back up and in the meantime you can beat the heat by standing waist deep in the 63* water while battling some of the big fish . See you on the river !
September 10th , The river is now extremely low but still cold (62.8* ) and still giving up some great fish . This was yet another good day at the office featuring more low water , more tough fish and more good ones in the net :) ...
September 8th , Good guide trip today in the low flows . She is now entering the very low stage but as you can see below there are still some great fish to be caught . To me this is the time of year you test yourself to see where you are ... EVERYONE is a fly fisherman in May with the Sulphurs full on . Late summer seperates the men from the boys ;) .... See you on the river !
September 6th & 7th , We are finally getting a bit of rain ! Not much so far but supposedly more is on the way . In the meantime expect typical late summer , low water fishing which means bring plenty of tiny flies and terrestrial patterns and exploit the paraleps hatch when nymphing :) ...
September 4th , The river is getting really low now . Good time to practice your sight fishing as you can see everything clearly . Now is the time and these are the right conditions to chase the big ones ! There is something addictive about spotting big fish and then getting them to take a "pattern" that they just shouldn't ;) ....
September 3rd , Spent about an hour watching a brown rise "down river" after hiking this afternoon . It is amazingly relaxing just watching fish sip .... The Lady is still gin clear with the trout pulled up into the faster water especially down river . With the cool temperatures we have had the last 2 nights the trout down stream are starting to get more active again during daylight hours .
September 2nd , Still dropping so expect the trout to be really on their game ...
September 1 , Low and gin clear . Great midge fishing and a fantastic opportunity to sight fish for the big fish . On the mayfly front Iso's , Paraleps and little Bwo's are all hatching .
August 30th , The river is finally clear ! i was honestly beginning to think we would just have to live with some "color" in the water until the leaves came off . Thankfully I was wrong . Should make for great sight fishing ...
September 4th , The river is getting really low now . Good time to practice your sight fishing as you can see everything clearly . Now is the time and these are the right conditions to chase the big ones ! There is something addictive about spotting big fish and then getting them to take a "pattern" that they just shouldn't ;) ....
September 3rd , Spent about an hour watching a brown rise "down river" after hiking this afternoon . It is amazingly relaxing just watching fish sip .... The Lady is still gin clear with the trout pulled up into the faster water especially down river . With the cool temperatures we have had the last 2 nights the trout down stream are starting to get more active again during daylight hours .
September 2nd , Still dropping so expect the trout to be really on their game ...
September 1 , Low and gin clear . Great midge fishing and a fantastic opportunity to sight fish for the big fish . On the mayfly front Iso's , Paraleps and little Bwo's are all hatching .
August 30th , The river is finally clear ! i was honestly beginning to think we would just have to live with some "color" in the water until the leaves came off . Thankfully I was wrong . Should make for great sight fishing ...
August 29th , Fantastic flows with a bit of color after yesterday's storms . We have really had a great August ! This is going to be one heck of a week on the Lady . See you on the river !
August 26th , More tiny fly action . Excellent tough Elk River fishing today :) ! Great flows for August & plenty of sipping fish . #28 Baetis were a good place to start today . Rising fish all day , hard to beat it ... I am noticing the Iso's seem to be getting heavier now , shucks all over the place so you would be well served to add them to your box !
August 26th , More tiny fly action . Excellent tough Elk River fishing today :) ! Great flows for August & plenty of sipping fish . #28 Baetis were a good place to start today . Rising fish all day , hard to beat it ... I am noticing the Iso's seem to be getting heavier now , shucks all over the place so you would be well served to add them to your box !
August 25th , Still great levels and we have received more rain :) . It would be hard to ask for more in August ... See you on the river !
August 23rd , An enjoyable day spent successfully introducing another new fly fisher to the river ! Fantastic flows for August and all sorts of different games to be played ....
August 23rd , An enjoyable day spent successfully introducing another new fly fisher to the river ! Fantastic flows for August and all sorts of different games to be played ....
August 21st , Guided a former Elk River regular that moved away 6 years ago and his dad today . Despite pouring rain and cool temps she welcomed him home :) ... Fun morning !
August 20th , Another day , another enjoyable August guide trip :) . Even after all these years I can still honestly say it ... I love my job !!
August 18th , Well the string of great tiny fly guide trips came to an end tonight but the string of great guide trips continues on :) ... Big level bounce from last nights rain and as you can see she was brown milky tonight . She was also absolutely smokin !!! Nice change of pace from the 8x fishing ...
August 17th , Today was yet another in a good string of great low water tiny fly guide trips . Got into a number of real good ones and one exceptional bow . When he sends me the picture I will share it with you all . Truly a great fish on a #28 :) . It does my heart good to see that there are so many people taking an interest again in the fantastic midge (and tiny mayfly) fishing here ! These 3 patterns , in #30 , were the ticket today .
August 16th , Good day spent guiding . Real good tough Elk River August fishing . Yep 8x and tiny flies :) ! Decent level bounce and still just a touch of color . They came up all day ...
August 15th , Rain !! Pretty good shower today and the thunder is rolling again as I type this . It will be interesting to see if we get a little bounce out of this ....
August 14th , Still no change , still typical August Elk . Bring your "A" game :) ...
August 12th , Good tough fishing this evening , real Elk River stuff ! Lots of refusals , lots of 5' inspection drifts and several fish I just couldn't touch despite my best efforts . I love the Lady best when she is like this ...
Water temp 63.4 , air temps too hot , flows still pretty good for August and still just a hint of color . Fair numbers of #28 Bwo's , some Paraleps and of course both black and primrose midges with the trout seeming to favor the latter . Should be a great weekend !
August 15th , Rain !! Pretty good shower today and the thunder is rolling again as I type this . It will be interesting to see if we get a little bounce out of this ....
August 14th , Still no change , still typical August Elk . Bring your "A" game :) ...
August 12th , Good tough fishing this evening , real Elk River stuff ! Lots of refusals , lots of 5' inspection drifts and several fish I just couldn't touch despite my best efforts . I love the Lady best when she is like this ...
Water temp 63.4 , air temps too hot , flows still pretty good for August and still just a hint of color . Fair numbers of #28 Bwo's , some Paraleps and of course both black and primrose midges with the trout seeming to favor the latter . Should be a great weekend !
August 11th , No change , smokin good again today :) ! Rising fish all day and great nymphing to boot . We moved a lot of great fish ... If you are waiting on whatever to make a trip to the Lady you are screwing up big time ! just sayin ....
August 4th , Real good hour and 1/2 this afternoon . I've said it many times but it still holds true ...nothing better then a big fish on a tiny fly :) ! Got into lots of little guys , several really nice fish and one day maker .
August 3rd , Good guide trip today , mid-day , though the Bwo hatch was really just getting started as we had to quit :( ... Still they were willing to take the emerger (and occasionally the dry) pre hatch . No real change in either level or clarity which is to say she is still beautiful after the rain last night .
August 2nd , Nothing to report tonight other then rain ... Spinner fall cancelled by the wet stuff but of course we will have even better flows as a result . Guess it won't kill me to miss a night :( ....
August 1st , Plenty of bugs , plenty of fish and 62* water temps make for a great way to spend and August evening :) . Lots of tiny Bwo's , Iso's and Paraleps spinners
August 2nd , Nothing to report tonight other then rain ... Spinner fall cancelled by the wet stuff but of course we will have even better flows as a result . Guess it won't kill me to miss a night :( ....
August 1st , Plenty of bugs , plenty of fish and 62* water temps make for a great way to spend and August evening :) . Lots of tiny Bwo's , Iso's and Paraleps spinners
July 31st , Fooled around on the upper river today . Not much hatching but a dry and dropper rig in the faster runs was productive though the willing were on the small side . Probably should have stayed down below the springs today but a little low water Slaty fishing is good for you , it teaches patience :) .....
July 30th , Still some "color" but the bwo's are hatching and the fish are rising :) ! A #24 V-wing olive was a good choice as it so often is this time of year . Starting to see a few tiny winged ants up on top so I would be sure to have a few in the box . It's coming ....
July 29th , Got a bit of a level bounce actually surprised it wasn't a much larger one ! We needed the rain and received it :) . Should be a great weekend of micro fly magic ...
July 27th , No change . This is alright by me because it is great small fly fishing right now . Between the tiny flies and sight fishing for the big fish things are perfect in my mind :) ...
July 26th , Just sat and watched them rise today while bs'ing with a buddy . I can't tell you how good it is to see rising fish in quantity after everything the river has been through this year . This is without a doubt my favorite time/conditions on the river each year . I love sight fishing and fishing tiny flies to rising fish in low flows . In my mind it gets no better !
July 25th , More great tiny fly , top water action tonight ! Huge rise of fish to a mixed hatch of tiny Bwo's and black midges . Nothing better then being surrounded by so many rising fish it's hard to decide where to start ... Definitely the best rise of fish this summer so far ! A #28 V-wing Olive with an emerger trailed off the back was a pretty good rig tonight :) ...
July 30th , Still some "color" but the bwo's are hatching and the fish are rising :) ! A #24 V-wing olive was a good choice as it so often is this time of year . Starting to see a few tiny winged ants up on top so I would be sure to have a few in the box . It's coming ....
July 29th , Got a bit of a level bounce actually surprised it wasn't a much larger one ! We needed the rain and received it :) . Should be a great weekend of micro fly magic ...
July 27th , No change . This is alright by me because it is great small fly fishing right now . Between the tiny flies and sight fishing for the big fish things are perfect in my mind :) ...
July 26th , Just sat and watched them rise today while bs'ing with a buddy . I can't tell you how good it is to see rising fish in quantity after everything the river has been through this year . This is without a doubt my favorite time/conditions on the river each year . I love sight fishing and fishing tiny flies to rising fish in low flows . In my mind it gets no better !
July 25th , More great tiny fly , top water action tonight ! Huge rise of fish to a mixed hatch of tiny Bwo's and black midges . Nothing better then being surrounded by so many rising fish it's hard to decide where to start ... Definitely the best rise of fish this summer so far ! A #28 V-wing Olive with an emerger trailed off the back was a pretty good rig tonight :) ...
July 23rd , The river is never better then when she is low , clear and full of sipping fish :) ! It was lights out for hours . All fish (and this is just a small sample ) were caught on #28 and smaller flies . If a person had a notion to do so they could have , with the right pattern , really ran the score up today . This is the good stuff , 2wts , tiny flies and pods of sipping fish !
Air temps today were 90+ with water temp at the Angle Hole hitting 64.3 by 2pm .
Air temps today were 90+ with water temp at the Angle Hole hitting 64.3 by 2pm .
July 22 , Headed down to the Webster water for a couple hours . Real pleased with the number of good fish we found . No midge magic needed here just a big Usual and a beadhead .
July 20th , Great tiny fly fishing again . Hit the Angle Hole and it was on all afternoon . Even caught 2 of the golden curses on #32's which was a 1st for me . Strange seeing them in the upper river ....
July 19th ,What a great evening . Finally normalcy returns to the river , Humpy Chuckers beware ;) .... Fished with my daughter tonight expecting to be throwing whatever at all too eager fish but with the river down we were in for a surprise . Started at the new pool where a few were up early and tied on #16 cdc Olive . Good throw , good drift , no drag here he comes and .... refusal !! Repeated the procedure with 5 or 6 more fish with exactly the same result .... Change tippet to 8x , tie on a #32 olive usual repeat procedure again and .... fish on :) !Best part of the evening though was watching Jordyn catch a nice brown on the tiny fly , her 1st on a #32 . Pretty proud pop :) !
July 20th , Great tiny fly fishing again . Hit the Angle Hole and it was on all afternoon . Even caught 2 of the golden curses on #32's which was a 1st for me . Strange seeing them in the upper river ....
July 19th ,What a great evening . Finally normalcy returns to the river , Humpy Chuckers beware ;) .... Fished with my daughter tonight expecting to be throwing whatever at all too eager fish but with the river down we were in for a surprise . Started at the new pool where a few were up early and tied on #16 cdc Olive . Good throw , good drift , no drag here he comes and .... refusal !! Repeated the procedure with 5 or 6 more fish with exactly the same result .... Change tippet to 8x , tie on a #32 olive usual repeat procedure again and .... fish on :) !Best part of the evening though was watching Jordyn catch a nice brown on the tiny fly , her 1st on a #32 . Pretty proud pop :) !
July 18th , Not as good today but there was a fishable mayfly hatch for the 1st time since the flood . Decent hatch of #24 Bwos this afternoon with fair numbers of little bows up on the fin . Pleasant change of pace and hopefully just the 1st taste of things to come this summer !
July 17th , Getting down to summer flows finally and still a touch of color . Hopefully will be a good top water week . Starting to see a few Light Cahills and a couple Paraleps . It begins again ....
July 15th , Nothing out of the ordinary this evening . In fact it was completely ordinary meaning plenty of fish , some decent fish and some rising fish . Codie caught what appeared to be another koi which again (perhaps unfortunately) has become completely ordinary ...
July 15th , Nothing out of the ordinary this evening . In fact it was completely ordinary meaning plenty of fish , some decent fish and some rising fish . Codie caught what appeared to be another koi which again (perhaps unfortunately) has become completely ordinary ...
July 14th , Bit of a level bounce today , still in great shape . It was good today but definitely not as good as yesterday . Starting to see a few little Bwo's . Hopefully she will snap out of the no mayfly post flood syndrome soon as I am completely ready for some top water , match the hatch fishing . In the meantime a black ant continues to be to top water fly of choice . See you on the river !
July 13th , More fantastic nymphing today . Had a trip out and we smoked em . The new Elk rocks !! It has been a very enjoyable several weeks exploring and guiding on the changed river . Honestly I have been enjoying it so much that even the occasional flood ravaged goldie can't ruin the day for me ;) ... This is the best the Elk has fished this season . Seriously :) .
July 13th , More fantastic nymphing today . Had a trip out and we smoked em . The new Elk rocks !! It has been a very enjoyable several weeks exploring and guiding on the changed river . Honestly I have been enjoying it so much that even the occasional flood ravaged goldie can't ruin the day for me ;) ... This is the best the Elk has fished this season . Seriously :) .
July 11th , Checked out another section of the "new" Elk today . The changes were not as dramatic as upstream but there were some good changes :) .... Excellent nymphing today , just a ton of fish with a 1/2 dozen in the 18"- 22" range . The river is normal for summer , clear and they are feeding opportunistically . Still light on hatches with the exception of the ever present black midges . See you on the river !
July 9th , Spent a great afternoon introducing a new fly fisher to the sport and the river ! Reasonable success nymphing early and great dry and a dropper fishing later . Just a real enjoyable day full of wet wading , bows , browns and good company !
July 9th , Spent a great afternoon introducing a new fly fisher to the sport and the river ! Reasonable success nymphing early and great dry and a dropper fishing later . Just a real enjoyable day full of wet wading , bows , browns and good company !
July 8th , The river is beautiful ! Finally back to green , should be a great weekend ...
July 6th , The river is back to watery brown and is fishing well underneath with a few fish rising sporadically . We hit them with soft hackles today and they were very co-operative :) ... I expect the top water fishing to pick up again over the next few days .
July 5th , She is brown today but not real high . should be back to rockin in a day or 2 and in the meantime it's good shark chasing water and the good fish have been active :) ....
July 3rd , Smokin good again both on top and underneath with the latter producing , of course most of the better fish . Still not alot of hatch activity but they are rising to what's there :) ...
July 2nd ,Absolutely lights out dry fly action tonight ! Very modest spinner fall but while they never set up and chopped it was a long steady rise of fish and if you covered them with a decent drift they took . Rinse and repeat ... Several in the 15" - 18" range but the vast majority were between 8" & 12"s . No matter ... we had the river to ourselves with dozens of fish up and the right fly . Almost felt guilty ;) ...
July 1st , Not a lot of bug activity other then black midges but there were a few iso spinners and some cream variants coming off along with Yellow Sallies and there were rising fish . Nice mixture of browns and bows with Codie landing the best of each . I did however land the only goldie of the evening which in my mind has always been a step or 2 below a carp ... Nonetheless they are here now post flood , lots of them , so I decided to let bygones be bygones and welcomed it to the river :) .
July 3rd , Smokin good again both on top and underneath with the latter producing , of course most of the better fish . Still not alot of hatch activity but they are rising to what's there :) ...
July 2nd ,Absolutely lights out dry fly action tonight ! Very modest spinner fall but while they never set up and chopped it was a long steady rise of fish and if you covered them with a decent drift they took . Rinse and repeat ... Several in the 15" - 18" range but the vast majority were between 8" & 12"s . No matter ... we had the river to ourselves with dozens of fish up and the right fly . Almost felt guilty ;) ...
July 1st , Not a lot of bug activity other then black midges but there were a few iso spinners and some cream variants coming off along with Yellow Sallies and there were rising fish . Nice mixture of browns and bows with Codie landing the best of each . I did however land the only goldie of the evening which in my mind has always been a step or 2 below a carp ... Nonetheless they are here now post flood , lots of them , so I decided to let bygones be bygones and welcomed it to the river :) .
June 29th , Another great day spent on "the new Elk" . Lights out nymphing again , almost too easy ... The fish are really on the feed after the flood and with all the new structure . We picked up a lot of depth in several sections which has been needed for years ! Finished the day by taking the kids to the black pond where they helped liberate some of the refugees and return them to the river . Fun day .
June 28th , Lights out action this afternoon . The Lady was on fire !! Absolutely smokin . She is a brand new river with brand new holes and runs and there were fish feeding in everyone of them . Some of them were very good fish indeed :) ... See you on the river !
June 27th , Still brown milky , really no improvement in that respect but she is very fishable . Today's potential big storm missed us apparently so I expect conditions to continue to improve as the week rolls along . Call it a gut feeling but I truly believe it will be lights out when she finally settles down & in . See you on the river !
June 26th , Levels are back to wadeable though she is still brown milky . The river is definitely fishable . Major structural changes some of which look very interesting to say the least . Gonna be fun figuring things back out :) .
June 25th , Checked on some camps down river for some buddies . All were ok today unlike a few farther down yesterday . The road downriver is open again though still rough . We ran into some trout rising in an almost landlocked little trough and spent about an hour catching them and shuttling a couple dozen of them back into the river . There are trout in some pretty strange places right now ... It has been a sad , scary couple of days and even though it seemed an odd thing to do I felt better after fishing . I am not sure why but that has been the case since my earliest memories . The spotted fish just possess the ability to take your head to a better place . Catching a few doesn't make life's troubles go away but it sure as heck can put you in a better frame of mind to deal with them . See you on the river !
June 26th , Levels are back to wadeable though she is still brown milky . The river is definitely fishable . Major structural changes some of which look very interesting to say the least . Gonna be fun figuring things back out :) .
June 25th , Checked on some camps down river for some buddies . All were ok today unlike a few farther down yesterday . The road downriver is open again though still rough . We ran into some trout rising in an almost landlocked little trough and spent about an hour catching them and shuttling a couple dozen of them back into the river . There are trout in some pretty strange places right now ... It has been a sad , scary couple of days and even though it seemed an odd thing to do I felt better after fishing . I am not sure why but that has been the case since my earliest memories . The spotted fish just possess the ability to take your head to a better place . Catching a few doesn't make life's troubles go away but it sure as heck can put you in a better frame of mind to deal with them . See you on the river !
June 24th , Sad day on the Lady :( . Bergoo was devastated by the water . Record water levels ...
June 23rd , As you can see it is a major flood ! This was a couple hours ago and it was still rising . We will have a brand new river full of fish when this goes down . Should be a great summer :) . See you on the river !
June 23rd , We have received 3-4"s of rain in the upper Elk basin today . I expect major flooding . THE RIVER IS 100% , COMPLETELY , BLOWN OUT . I will try and get a few pictures this evening .
June 22nd , Well she is brown , not really high but definitely brown ... Good streamer water rounding into reasonable condition by other definitions (non-shark chasing) by tomorrow and should be smokin by the weekend if we don't get slammed again ....
June 21st , 9:50 am , It poured here on Point Mountyain early this morning . Sharps Knob got .92"s so expect a rise and perhaps some "color" . We will be heading down to take a look later and will let you know what we find . Good to get the rain even if it does cause momentary issues ...
June 20th , Ended up just sitting on the Trestle watching this evening and talking with a couple friends while doing so . The river was low and clear with fair hatch activity and fish rising . Both Golden Drakes and the little #22 not really a Sulphur were hatching along with minute cream midges . Interesting to me that the same fish head for the same spots when they get serious about feeding and if another fish is in that spot a struggle takes place .
June 19th , Another great evening on the Lady ! Big mixed spinner fall , big rise of fish and plenty of butter in the mix ... A #22 cream bunny spinner was a good thing to have in the box tonight . If you are not fishing the river you are screwing up ... big time :) !
June 22nd , Well she is brown , not really high but definitely brown ... Good streamer water rounding into reasonable condition by other definitions (non-shark chasing) by tomorrow and should be smokin by the weekend if we don't get slammed again ....
June 21st , 9:50 am , It poured here on Point Mountyain early this morning . Sharps Knob got .92"s so expect a rise and perhaps some "color" . We will be heading down to take a look later and will let you know what we find . Good to get the rain even if it does cause momentary issues ...
June 20th , Ended up just sitting on the Trestle watching this evening and talking with a couple friends while doing so . The river was low and clear with fair hatch activity and fish rising . Both Golden Drakes and the little #22 not really a Sulphur were hatching along with minute cream midges . Interesting to me that the same fish head for the same spots when they get serious about feeding and if another fish is in that spot a struggle takes place .
June 19th , Another great evening on the Lady ! Big mixed spinner fall , big rise of fish and plenty of butter in the mix ... A #22 cream bunny spinner was a good thing to have in the box tonight . If you are not fishing the river you are screwing up ... big time :) !
June 18th , Caught all 3 species today . As you can see it is still a bit murky but cleared as the day went . Decent nymphing during the afternoon and she rocked at dark with a mixed spinner fall with baetis , Iso's and Sulphurs in the mix . Big rise of fish , lots of butter :) . See you on the river !
June 17th , . Had a father & son just getting started that decided they were up to taking on the murky water . They were right :) ! Decent evening nymphing with a little dry fly action right at dark . Good to see the river back up , could have done without the brown part though .... It should be good tomorrow and smokin by Sunday !
June 17th , 10:00 am , Well we got the rain we have been needing :) .... Below is a picture of the river at Cherry Falls a few minutes ago . Might want to leave the 2wt at the house for a couple days ... Should however be good fishing down river (all the way through actually ) next week and it is obviously shark chasing water today . From a #30 bead emerger to 6" streamers the weather this year has seemed determined to keep you guessing what tomorrow will bring . See you on the river !
June 16th , Only fished about an hour today , trying out some new tiny patterns . 2 were ok but 1 flat out rocked them ! 1st 3 casts produced an 18" bow , a 15" brown and a 13" bow on the #30 as yet un-named little fly . may be on to smething :) ! We got some much needed rain this evening .
June 15th , The Lady flat out rocked all day today and finished things up with the best rise of fish of the year at dark . The key to everything today was you had better be fishing small stuff . We destroyed them all afternoon on a #30 black midge pupae (triple digits ) and at dark there was an enormous hatch of #32 cream midges . If you had the tiny flies it was lights out top of the column action if you didn't it was casting practice . The divide was that severe . Great start to the 2nd season . See you on the river !
June 12th , Good top water action again though they proved to be shall we say a little more "interesting" on a couple of the big pools . no pics as my better half took an unscheduled swim with her phone :) ... See you on the river !
June 10th , Great evening on the lower river . All 3 species on dries :) . as always down river , we fished alone !
June 15th , The Lady flat out rocked all day today and finished things up with the best rise of fish of the year at dark . The key to everything today was you had better be fishing small stuff . We destroyed them all afternoon on a #30 black midge pupae (triple digits ) and at dark there was an enormous hatch of #32 cream midges . If you had the tiny flies it was lights out top of the column action if you didn't it was casting practice . The divide was that severe . Great start to the 2nd season . See you on the river !
June 12th , Good top water action again though they proved to be shall we say a little more "interesting" on a couple of the big pools . no pics as my better half took an unscheduled swim with her phone :) ... See you on the river !
June 10th , Great evening on the lower river . All 3 species on dries :) . as always down river , we fished alone !
June 9th , Another great Webster County evening ! Fished alone , huge mixed hatch and a big rise of nice fish with all but one being of the brown spotted variety :) . Nothing fancy just a V-wing Sulphur with a Gray Fox spinner trailed off the back . Throw flies , catch fishy :) . Codie hooked a brown in the low 20"s class tonight but came up just a bit short of putting him in the net . It was pretty much lights out dry fly action all evening . Gotta love the land of Webster !!
June 7th , Guided on a brookie stream then took in the spinner fall on the Lady . IT WAS ROCKIN TONIGHT !! Thing was we were down river in Webster County again :) ... She has dropped and cleared , back to her usual beautiful self . Great night .
June 6th part 2 , Well had to run back down the mountain and check out the evening river situation . Glad we did :) ! Massive mixed hatch and spinner fall that had the Webster Butter rising in the murky water . Got a couple pics then it was just too dark for the phone . Fun finish to a great day !
June 6th part 2 , Well had to run back down the mountain and check out the evening river situation . Glad we did :) ! Massive mixed hatch and spinner fall that had the Webster Butter rising in the murky water . Got a couple pics then it was just too dark for the phone . Fun finish to a great day !
June 6th , Codie & I spent the day on one of our favorite tiny streams today . The hike is brutal so we don't do it too often but today , as usual it was worth the hike :) ...
May run down and take a look at the Lady this evening / try and catch a spinner fall . I will update if we do :) ...
May run down and take a look at the Lady this evening / try and catch a spinner fall . I will update if we do :) ...
June 5th , The Lady is up and watery brown She should round into reasonable shape in a day or so . We needed the water ! In the meantime you can always break out the streamers and go shark chasing or do some trib exploring :) ... See you on the river !
June 4th , Huge storm minutes before we started and a weak hatch evening to boot but the river fished well this evening regardless of these circumstances ... Thankfully we got some much needed rain though I could have done without the hail :( . I have gotten spoiled with the hatches down river the last couple weeks ... I will be taking a look around later of course to see if the storm caused any mischief up river .
June 3rd , More Webster County butter . It was 2 hours of lights out brown trout action with a bow and a brookie thrown in for good measure . Fished alone but we weren't lonely given we had plenty of brown spotted friends to keep us company ;) ... Another couple great mid-day hours in the land of the Webster :) !
June 2nd , Well the fog finally happened last night and things were looking good for tonight but it just wasn't in the cards for me to partake :( ... Spent the day guiding on a brookie stream with the trip wrapping up early so they could get back to the Lady which left me looking at fishing the fall downriver again . Unfortunately something came up just as we were stringing up the rods and it was back up the mountain instead of the planned butter fest .... Oh well there is always tomorrow ! I would be sure to have plenty of Sulphur spinners , Gray Fox spinners , tiny baetis spinners and Coffin Flies .
June 1st , Great start to the 2nd 1/2 of prime time ! Continued my re-discovery of the rest of the river today and as has proven to be the case every time I head down into what is (all too often) looked down on as the lessor regions , the river I fell in love with a couple decades ago is still there :) ... I should have my behind kicked for allowing myself to be boxed in by falling into the Disneyland rut !!! My advice to all of you is to get out and explore the water you drive by on your way to the Trestle . I think you will be glad you did :) ... We fished 2 sections today , one 6miles & the other 16 miles below the C&R . We were never closer . Great river !
May 31st , Another great trip ! Covered alot of water today from Disneyland - 4 miles down in the general regs section where we fished alone :) . Caught all 3 species today . It was lights out in the upper C&R with a dry and micro dropper proving to be all we needed . Not a lot of hatch activity anywhere we went until around 8 when the Sulphurs began pouring off and the Coffin Flies coming back . Suffice to say it lit up pretty good :) ....
May 30th , Great day topped off with a monumental Coffin Fly fall down river in the general regs water , the Lady was on fire today :) . Throw fly , catch fishy fishing . It often pays to check out some of the water thought to be less productive ...
May 29th , Big Sulphur hatch , good Gray Fox fall and a Coffin Fly Chaser . Not a bad combination :) ! It wasn't a spectacular rise but it was steady all evening with most fish keying on the hatching Sulphurs . Things are still not up to normal Elk River standards but it is getting better every day . Finished the evening with a measured 20 & 1/2 " bow . Good times :) !
May 28th , Great Green Drake hatch and they were crushing the emerger :) ! We were into fish immediately and often . This should be a great evening as well . The river is beautiful and the fish are looking up . See you on the river !
UPDATE 9:58pm .. IT ROCKED TONIGHT !!!!!! Huge Coffin Fly fall and the Lady was giving up the good butter :))
May 27th , Weak hatch again , this time on the upper end of the Elk C&R . I had it pegged for a huge (though probably late) spinner fall evening until the T-storm hit and the air temps dropped 20* in 10 minutes ... oh well she fished ok with a decent Sulphur hatch the last 1/2 hour to top things off .
May 26th , Weak hatch day with the exception of the Green Drakes which were heavy on the section we fished today . Solid nymphing all day with a little dry fly action here and there . There was a huge Coffin Fly fall setting up but they did not get on the water by dark :( . None the less great day !
UPDATE 9:58pm .. IT ROCKED TONIGHT !!!!!! Huge Coffin Fly fall and the Lady was giving up the good butter :))
May 27th , Weak hatch again , this time on the upper end of the Elk C&R . I had it pegged for a huge (though probably late) spinner fall evening until the T-storm hit and the air temps dropped 20* in 10 minutes ... oh well she fished ok with a decent Sulphur hatch the last 1/2 hour to top things off .
May 26th , Weak hatch day with the exception of the Green Drakes which were heavy on the section we fished today . Solid nymphing all day with a little dry fly action here and there . There was a huge Coffin Fly fall setting up but they did not get on the water by dark :( . None the less great day !
May 25th , :) ! Need I say more ?
May 24th , Wrapped up a 3 day trip this morning and as you can see the Lady is back in reasonable shape finally ! Everything is hatching now (as it should be) look for the river to explode as she continues to drop and clear .
May 24th , Wrapped up a 3 day trip this morning and as you can see the Lady is back in reasonable shape finally ! Everything is hatching now (as it should be) look for the river to explode as she continues to drop and clear .
May 23rd , Still a ton of water but the Lady is clearing and the Sulphurs were pouring off the river this evening ! No spinner fall but the hatch was great . You just had to sort through the high flows and find little pieces of good fishable water . Fortunately we found a piece or two .
As it warms this week i anticipate fog setting in , red fog :) ....
May 22nd , Sorry for missing a few it's been hectic . Anyways ... This was the 2nd day of high water courtesy of a couple T-storms . The upper river has cleared to green milky by this evening while the springs on the lower end are brown . A lot of water on both ends . Big hatch day with some top water action to be has . Gray Fox , #14 & #16 Sulphurs , Iso's , Green Drakes and 4 different baetis on the water today . Still no Red Fog :( ..... Hopefully the warmer temps will bring the magic with them . See you on the river !
May 19th , On a roll with another very good hatch day :) . The river as you can see is stunningly beautiful right now with great flows ! No fog yet but a big Gray Fox fall this evening on the stretch we fished . See you on the river !
As it warms this week i anticipate fog setting in , red fog :) ....
May 22nd , Sorry for missing a few it's been hectic . Anyways ... This was the 2nd day of high water courtesy of a couple T-storms . The upper river has cleared to green milky by this evening while the springs on the lower end are brown . A lot of water on both ends . Big hatch day with some top water action to be has . Gray Fox , #14 & #16 Sulphurs , Iso's , Green Drakes and 4 different baetis on the water today . Still no Red Fog :( ..... Hopefully the warmer temps will bring the magic with them . See you on the river !
May 19th , On a roll with another very good hatch day :) . The river as you can see is stunningly beautiful right now with great flows ! No fog yet but a big Gray Fox fall this evening on the stretch we fished . See you on the river !
May 18th , Rinse & repeat !! This was an almost identical day to yesterday , absolutely smokin , all day , dry fly action . No spinner fall in the cold this evening but that was a small price to pay to have good wild fish on the fin all day long . Bug lover's paradise today . See you on the river !
May 17th , Another huge hatch day in the cold drizzle :) ! Sulphurs , Gray Fox , Iso's , Green Drakes & , 4 different baetis were all heavy with rising fish all day . no spinner fall at dusk with the spinners comming back during the afternoon sporadically . Moved a lot of quality browns and some really good wild bows as well . Great day .
May 16th , Big bug day !! By 3pm all of the following were on the water in quantity ....Gray Fox , Hendricksons , #14 Sulphurs , #16 Sulphurs , Light Cahills and #24 & #28 Bwo's . there were also 3 Green Drakes (I have one I brought home but am just too tiered to fool with pictures . Great nymphing early and dry fly action all afternoon . Bwo spinners came back early (5:30) and there was a reasonable Gray Fox fall tonight as well . Fun day spent guiding a couple guys with the fish on the fin :) .
May 14th , Massive mixed hatch , huge rise , and lights out dry fly brown trout action at the Springs tonight ! No , not that springs , Webster Springs :) . The "Downtown Browns " strike again !!The 41* air temps kept the duns on the river and the butter was teeing off on them . We had just went to town to pick up a few things and I thought might as well throw a rod in just in case . Wise decision ;) ....
Best to hand was only about 15" but missed a beast and Codie added a dry fly smallie to the evening tally . Cold , fun evening .
May 17th , Another huge hatch day in the cold drizzle :) ! Sulphurs , Gray Fox , Iso's , Green Drakes & , 4 different baetis were all heavy with rising fish all day . no spinner fall at dusk with the spinners comming back during the afternoon sporadically . Moved a lot of quality browns and some really good wild bows as well . Great day .
May 16th , Big bug day !! By 3pm all of the following were on the water in quantity ....Gray Fox , Hendricksons , #14 Sulphurs , #16 Sulphurs , Light Cahills and #24 & #28 Bwo's . there were also 3 Green Drakes (I have one I brought home but am just too tiered to fool with pictures . Great nymphing early and dry fly action all afternoon . Bwo spinners came back early (5:30) and there was a reasonable Gray Fox fall tonight as well . Fun day spent guiding a couple guys with the fish on the fin :) .
May 14th , Massive mixed hatch , huge rise , and lights out dry fly brown trout action at the Springs tonight ! No , not that springs , Webster Springs :) . The "Downtown Browns " strike again !!The 41* air temps kept the duns on the river and the butter was teeing off on them . We had just went to town to pick up a few things and I thought might as well throw a rod in just in case . Wise decision ;) ....
Best to hand was only about 15" but missed a beast and Codie added a dry fly smallie to the evening tally . Cold , fun evening .
May 13th , Spent the day on a trib with a client so about the only thing I can tell you today is the river was beautiful and the Sulphurs are trickling off . The trib fished well giving up plenty of browns and brookies with the best being around 11"s and there was a bit of everything hatching on it .
May 12th , It was lights out today :) ! Absolutely rocked them on a Possum nymph & tiny emerger tandem . Nothing big with the best around 18" or so but tons of "good" fish . Only major hatch encountered was a moderate density #28 Bwo hatch which explained the tiny emerger's success . Only saw one rising trout , all the action was underneath .
Might run down and check out the spinner fall but have a lot of flies to get tied so hard to say ;) ....
May 12th , It was lights out today :) ! Absolutely rocked them on a Possum nymph & tiny emerger tandem . Nothing big with the best around 18" or so but tons of "good" fish . Only major hatch encountered was a moderate density #28 Bwo hatch which explained the tiny emerger's success . Only saw one rising trout , all the action was underneath .
Might run down and check out the spinner fall but have a lot of flies to get tied so hard to say ;) ....
May 11th , Nothing much better then chasing a big trout , losing to him a couple times , then finally beating him :) ! Better yet when you catch him on a fly you invented , on the rod that has been like an extra arm for a couple decades .
Not much bug activity today and the nymphing while steady wasn't spectacular by any means . I quit after the big one , didn't figure I'dd top it today . See you on the river !
Not much bug activity today and the nymphing while steady wasn't spectacular by any means . I quit after the big one , didn't figure I'dd top it today . See you on the river !
May 10th , Heading out shortly to another "down river" location to check on the progress of the Lady's most famous hatch :) . I will put up an update afterwards ...
Wound up just driving , stopping and watching a bit then moving upriver and repeating . The Sulphurs were on at Joe Bottom though Yellow stones outnumbered them 10 to 1 . Saw no sign of them farther upriver . We stopped by the Trestle just before dark . No Sulphurs , no rising fish . Good night with the kids bug watching !
May 9th . Great evening spent catching "Downtown Browns" in the middle of Webster Springs :) ! Huge Gray Fox hatch with the Sulphurs almost as good . There is just something cool about dry fly fishing in the middle of town . I can't help it , I like it !! One of the best things about this crazy year of change has been re-discovering the rest of the river . It is easy to think of the Elk as just the 7 miles of the 2 C&R sections (shoot some think of it as 1 hole of water ... ) but to do so is to forget just how great the fishing can be even 17 miles down and the hatches come earlier down stream . See you on the river !
Wound up just driving , stopping and watching a bit then moving upriver and repeating . The Sulphurs were on at Joe Bottom though Yellow stones outnumbered them 10 to 1 . Saw no sign of them farther upriver . We stopped by the Trestle just before dark . No Sulphurs , no rising fish . Good night with the kids bug watching !
May 9th . Great evening spent catching "Downtown Browns" in the middle of Webster Springs :) ! Huge Gray Fox hatch with the Sulphurs almost as good . There is just something cool about dry fly fishing in the middle of town . I can't help it , I like it !! One of the best things about this crazy year of change has been re-discovering the rest of the river . It is easy to think of the Elk as just the 7 miles of the 2 C&R sections (shoot some think of it as 1 hole of water ... ) but to do so is to forget just how great the fishing can be even 17 miles down and the hatches come earlier down stream . See you on the river !
May 8th , Ok almost back :) !
May 7th , Better but still a ton of water . Hit a trib today and played around with the little guys again ....
May 6th , I will be going down to take a look later but judging by the gauge (double the cfs since yesterday and rising) it doesn't look good for anything other then extreme shark chasing or some trib fishing this weekend ....
This is what she looked like around 2 pm today . As you can see by comparing it to the pics below (next set down ) from yesterday there was another big jump in volume . The good news is it is falling rapidly (down from 4500+cfs - 3700cfs at Webster ) . Should be a good Slaty Fork big butter day tomorrow .....
May 7th , Better but still a ton of water . Hit a trib today and played around with the little guys again ....
May 6th , I will be going down to take a look later but judging by the gauge (double the cfs since yesterday and rising) it doesn't look good for anything other then extreme shark chasing or some trib fishing this weekend ....
This is what she looked like around 2 pm today . As you can see by comparing it to the pics below (next set down ) from yesterday there was another big jump in volume . The good news is it is falling rapidly (down from 4500+cfs - 3700cfs at Webster ) . Should be a good Slaty Fork big butter day tomorrow .....
May 5th , Well the good news is there were March Browns hatching at the Trestle this afternoon so they are here on schedule :) . The bad news is the Lady is again on the rise , turning brown and it is still raining . Did I mention the high was 43* today ? Typical March weather ! Not quite what you want to see during May :( .
I have a feeling that shark chasing with the big stuff will be your best bet for the next couple days .
I have a feeling that shark chasing with the big stuff will be your best bet for the next couple days .
May 3rd , As you can see conditions have improved considerably . There is still a lot of water but the color has returned to green :) ! If we can avoid another drenching it should be game on again for the match the hatch game shortly ....
May 2nd , She was a little better today but still brown milky and still a lot of water and we have had more rain ....
May 1st , Completely blown out , trashed :( .... Good time to do some more brookie chasing .
May 1st , Completely blown out , trashed :( .... Good time to do some more brookie chasing .
April 29th , Still quite a bit of water and brown milky . Good streamer water but not much match the hatch fishing to be had . Took my people to a trib I hadn't hit in quite a while , fun day with lots of brookies in the 7-10" range and a 10" wild brown to boot . Flows were perfect on the little stream :) .
The river improved quite a bit today and should be reasonable , albeit a bit high for the weekend . See you on the river !
April 28th , She was almost back with the dries green and the springs brown milky but approx 3pm the dries turned to chocolate milk :( ... They must have gotten slammed upriver ...
April 27th , 1"+ of rain last night . Think I'll give her another day ...
April 25th , Flat out smokin today , all day ! Guided the son of the guy that mentored me so I really wanted things to be right and the Lady delivered the goods . The little #24 emerger rocked them again today producing approx 50 solid hookups . Couple that with some late afternoon midge fishing , a fishable spinner fall and some great company and you have the makings of an absolute winner .
The river improved quite a bit today and should be reasonable , albeit a bit high for the weekend . See you on the river !
April 28th , She was almost back with the dries green and the springs brown milky but approx 3pm the dries turned to chocolate milk :( ... They must have gotten slammed upriver ...
April 27th , 1"+ of rain last night . Think I'll give her another day ...
April 25th , Flat out smokin today , all day ! Guided the son of the guy that mentored me so I really wanted things to be right and the Lady delivered the goods . The little #24 emerger rocked them again today producing approx 50 solid hookups . Couple that with some late afternoon midge fishing , a fishable spinner fall and some great company and you have the makings of an absolute winner .
April 24th , Spent the afternoon chasing brookies on a local stream . Just needed the change of pace after a very good but hectic 10 day stretch on the river ! Brookie fishing is good for whatever may ail you :) ! Back to the river tomorrow .
April 23rd , Tough afternoon on the Lady in the cold . Moved a dozen or so in the cold windy conditions but it was a big let down from the previous 6 or 7 days . Still some Grannom and a decent hatch of #24 bwo's mid-afternoon .
April 22nd , A couple decent hours fishing dries today :) . Lots of spent caddis on the water , a few Quill Gordons and a couple washes of #18 Bwo's . Mostly smaller fish though Codie got into a good brown and a huge bow , with the fish winning both contests :( .Grannom are still heavy , hopefully get a couple more days out of them . Good day !
April 22nd , A couple decent hours fishing dries today :) . Lots of spent caddis on the water , a few Quill Gordons and a couple washes of #18 Bwo's . Mostly smaller fish though Codie got into a good brown and a huge bow , with the fish winning both contests :( .Grannom are still heavy , hopefully get a couple more days out of them . Good day !
April 21st , Another good one on the Lady :). Headed downstream rather then slug it out with the crowds in Disneyland ... Grannom and #18 bwo's had several fish up . Keith hooked and got a couple minutes ride time out of a beast of a bow (mid-20's ) that eventually jumped & threw the hook . There were some real nice fish on the fin today . The Grannom are surely heading down the backside of their annual event with the March Browns waiting in the wings . Wow what a week this has been . See you on the river !
April 20th , Another great trip :) ! The river is beautiful , Grannom are still on and the stretch water is beginning to be very productive . Had some friends blow them up on the soft hackle grannom but we went back to the #24 P-tail emerger well yet again and yet again it opened a can on the river :) . That little booger has now accounted for close to triple digit hook-ups in the last 3 trips . The possum nyph was a fairly distant 2nd but did give us several in the 16" - 17" range . If there was a downside it would have to be they were all rainbows today . Yep we were butterless :( .... It has been outstanding nymphing this week . See you on the river !
April 18th , Rinse & repeat :) !! The Lady was smokin hot today , lights out nymphing with a great sipping fish /tiny fly chaser . Wow what a day .... :) . A couple from today :)
April 18th , Rinse & repeat :) !! The Lady was smokin hot today , lights out nymphing with a great sipping fish /tiny fly chaser . Wow what a day .... :) . A couple from today :)
April 17th , Flat out rocked them today :) !! The river is beautiful , the Grannom are on with 4 different mayflies as well and the fish are on the feed . A #24 P-tail emerger was a pretty good thing to have in the box today ;) .... We are finally through the latest melt cycle and the Old Girl is coming to life again . Life is good !
April 16th , Slow start but great finish today . Hit the lower end 1st and it was tough going . The river has dropped and is beautiful again but the hatches were spotty at best with the Quill Gordons down to a trickle . Moved to the upper end and hit them with the possum nymph and a cheater pattern or 2 and it was on :) .... All nice chunky bows . Tired of this game and went looking for some snouts ... found them ! 1st rising fish in 3 or 4 days . Went with a #24 V-wing olive with the emerger trailed off the back and it was on again :) . Most fish took the emerger but a couple took the dry .
The Grannom were trickling this morning and moderately heavy tonight . I would expect them to explode tomorrow :) .... Break out the soft hackles !!
April 14th , On the slow side today . Still quite a bit of water , interesting crossing her to put it mildly . Fair - good Blue Quill & Quill Gordon hatch activity but never saw a rise and had to work for the ones we caught on soft hackles . Bouncing back a bit slower then expected but when I think of what she looked like 2 days ago I can't complain ! Water temps did hit 50* at 4:00 . Honestly I felt it should have been a little busier underneath .
April 13th , Much better clarity today though still up a bit . Water temp , 2:00 at Webster was 51.2* with March Browns all over the water and a few Grannom Caddis out and about , the 1st I've seen this year ! Only a few fish feeding sporadically on top but I suspect that will start to change as the river continues to drop and warm .
April 12th , Big river today ... Peak of the runoff from the April ambush .
April 11th , March Browns at Webster Springs today !! Found approx 1/2 dozen along the river at 1:00 . Water temp 47 at Baker's Island , 1pm and 47.2* at Rose Run at 2:00 . The snow is gone down low with a little bit still to go on the mountain tops . Both C&R tribs (Valley Fork & Hickory Lick Run) were running high and brown this afternoon with the river milky but all in all in good shape considering things . Heavy Quill Gordon and Blue Quill hatch activity down river with just a few coming off at the Trestle . Water temps should rise quickly if the forecast holds true ....
The Grannom were trickling this morning and moderately heavy tonight . I would expect them to explode tomorrow :) .... Break out the soft hackles !!
April 14th , On the slow side today . Still quite a bit of water , interesting crossing her to put it mildly . Fair - good Blue Quill & Quill Gordon hatch activity but never saw a rise and had to work for the ones we caught on soft hackles . Bouncing back a bit slower then expected but when I think of what she looked like 2 days ago I can't complain ! Water temps did hit 50* at 4:00 . Honestly I felt it should have been a little busier underneath .
April 13th , Much better clarity today though still up a bit . Water temp , 2:00 at Webster was 51.2* with March Browns all over the water and a few Grannom Caddis out and about , the 1st I've seen this year ! Only a few fish feeding sporadically on top but I suspect that will start to change as the river continues to drop and warm .
April 12th , Big river today ... Peak of the runoff from the April ambush .
April 11th , March Browns at Webster Springs today !! Found approx 1/2 dozen along the river at 1:00 . Water temp 47 at Baker's Island , 1pm and 47.2* at Rose Run at 2:00 . The snow is gone down low with a little bit still to go on the mountain tops . Both C&R tribs (Valley Fork & Hickory Lick Run) were running high and brown this afternoon with the river milky but all in all in good shape considering things . Heavy Quill Gordon and Blue Quill hatch activity down river with just a few coming off at the Trestle . Water temps should rise quickly if the forecast holds true ....
April 10th , Another big hatch day but very slow fishing (fished an hour only caught a couple bows) and no rising fish . She has dropped a little but water temps have also fallen 7 degrees to 44 hence the slower fishing . Might have been better / good up near the springs don't know as I went down to where the bugs have been better . be interesting to see how quickly things warm back up this week . See you on the river !
April 8th , Well the streak of huge hatch days continues ! There were #18 bwo's by the thousands , with hundreds of Quill Gordons mixed in and some blue Quills as well . Unfortunately there was no rising butter fest today , that streak ends at 4 days :( .... The river tripled in volume overnight . The eddies were coated with mayflies but I saw not a single snout . Waste of good bugs ...
On the plus side this is the best Quill Gordon hatch we have had in years . I know it has been cold but you have really been missing some great big bug action . My guess is that as soon as the levels drop a bit the snout fest will resume . See you on the river !
April 7th , Ok I learned 2 things today ....
1. The Quill Gordons did indeed come off heavy a 4th straight day in the cold .
2. If you have a stretch of river that has been red hot and would like to check out another stretch DO NOT stop just to take a look at the "hot" water ! If you do and find a dozen of these rising you ain't gonna make it to the other section :) .....
April 8th , Well the streak of huge hatch days continues ! There were #18 bwo's by the thousands , with hundreds of Quill Gordons mixed in and some blue Quills as well . Unfortunately there was no rising butter fest today , that streak ends at 4 days :( .... The river tripled in volume overnight . The eddies were coated with mayflies but I saw not a single snout . Waste of good bugs ...
On the plus side this is the best Quill Gordon hatch we have had in years . I know it has been cold but you have really been missing some great big bug action . My guess is that as soon as the levels drop a bit the snout fest will resume . See you on the river !
April 7th , Ok I learned 2 things today ....
1. The Quill Gordons did indeed come off heavy a 4th straight day in the cold .
2. If you have a stretch of river that has been red hot and would like to check out another stretch DO NOT stop just to take a look at the "hot" water ! If you do and find a dozen of these rising you ain't gonna make it to the other section :) .....
April 6th , Late out of the gate this afternoon but the "bringers of butter" aka Quill Gordons finally made it making it 3 days in a row of great cold day top of the column fishing . Codie cashed it in immediately with several nice slabs of ERB on top while I was busy playing soft hackle tag with the small wild bows in the fast water . One of the great things about the Elk is that every time you lift the rod , even on a day you are mostly catching little guys , you have to be ready to rock . The fish in the 1st 3 pictures in the 2nd row , hooked after a string of the little parr marked guys , dragged me about 50 yards down river in a hurry before the hook pulled loose . Good times !
April 5th , Almost didn't run off the mountain today what with snow in the yard and ice on the trees but I was glad we did ... Got to the river around 2:30 and found a massive Blue Quill hatch underway with hundreds of Quill Gordons floating downriver as well ! Water temp was 51* , flows have bounce up a little and she is beautiful . Had a couple take the dun but they wailed a Blue Quill emerger . No big ones today with the majority from 10 - 14"s but all beautiful fish :) . It was a very interesting hour and 1/2 . See you on the river !
PS: We fished alone :) ....
PS: We fished alone :) ....
April 4th, Good trip on the lower end of the stretch . The Quill Gordons started to trickle off around 11 and by noon the hatch was fairly heavy joined by #18 bwo's as well . Fair numbers of rising fish but predictably while we hit a few on the dry the soft hackle out fished it by a very wide margin with Sean's Mustard Green coming in 2nd . Definitely paid to put the lead to them today . Caught some nice fish with several 16" - 17" browns landed , some 15" class bows and a number of beautiful smaller wild bows in the mix . There was one BIg brown (20" + ) rising sporadically but we couldn't touch him . Oh well maybe tomorrow ! A couple from today before the phone/camera went dead :) ...
April 3rd , Below are a couple fish from yesterday's lower Slaty Trip . The upper river is low for April , gin clear and the cold snap has dropped the water temps back into the 48-49* range from the low 50's a few days earlier . This of course made for shall we say challenging conditions , especially early in the day with a mixture of rain , snow and sleet bouncing off us to start the trip . Slow going until 2 pm when the hatches got underway . There were blankets of Quill Gordons , Blue Quills and Bwos on the water ! Only saw a few fish rise , a couple times each which is not unusual for the upper river even with a huge hatch ...
A soft hackle Quill Gordon with brother Weir's Mustard Green trailed off the back started to slowly turn the tide in our favor . A small brown followed by a break off of a good fish and a miss or 2 got the action started . All the action came in the deep fast runs which with the river down were limited . The 3rd drift at the head of the Table Hole was met with a vicious take and the fight was on ! Got my 1st glimpse of the fish and saw it was BIG . He managed to bring it around again a couple minutes later and I was shocked to see it was a HUGE rainbow which unlike the big browns are a bit of a rarity on Slaty and to call them a handful would be an understatement . This fish was no exception to that rule and laid waste to us another couple minutes later . Great fish fight though and good to see a beast of a bow .
Picked up several smaller bows then dropped to the Cliff Pool where we hit the 18" male on the left below then closed things out with the male bow on the right by which time the wind was howling and the snow was starting again . By the time we hit the top of Point Mountain it was a white out and I awoke to 2-3"s this morning which is rapidly melting as I type . . Great day of tough wild trout fishing , covered 3 miles of river and saw no one :) .Good way to spend a Sat in April . See you on the river !
A soft hackle Quill Gordon with brother Weir's Mustard Green trailed off the back started to slowly turn the tide in our favor . A small brown followed by a break off of a good fish and a miss or 2 got the action started . All the action came in the deep fast runs which with the river down were limited . The 3rd drift at the head of the Table Hole was met with a vicious take and the fight was on ! Got my 1st glimpse of the fish and saw it was BIG . He managed to bring it around again a couple minutes later and I was shocked to see it was a HUGE rainbow which unlike the big browns are a bit of a rarity on Slaty and to call them a handful would be an understatement . This fish was no exception to that rule and laid waste to us another couple minutes later . Great fish fight though and good to see a beast of a bow .
Picked up several smaller bows then dropped to the Cliff Pool where we hit the 18" male on the left below then closed things out with the male bow on the right by which time the wind was howling and the snow was starting again . By the time we hit the top of Point Mountain it was a white out and I awoke to 2-3"s this morning which is rapidly melting as I type . . Great day of tough wild trout fishing , covered 3 miles of river and saw no one :) .Good way to spend a Sat in April . See you on the river !
- April 1st , Good way to start the month ! Headed down river a couple miles and ran into 53* water temps , a huge Quill Gordon hatch and rising fish . Quill Gordon Usual up , QG soft hackle down , game on :) !! It is amazing what a difference a couple degrees make . see you on the river !
March 31st , The Lady is low for this time of year and quite clear . This of course means that she should finally warm up a couple degrees . Got a 49* yesterday at the top of the stretch . Didn't take the temp today at Webster but it is definitely warmer . Should be a good weekend on the river though I do anticipate heavy traffic as well . See you on the river !
March 29th , Good big fish day ! What the afternoon lacked in numbers it made up for in spades with several 5-6 lb class fish , a couple 2-3 lb fish and 2 that just tore me up .... Lots of bug activity with Blue Quills being heaviest & bwo's and Quill Gordons out and about as well . The Possum nymph did all the damage again today . Gotta love that fly even if it is ugly :) !!
March 29th , Good big fish day ! What the afternoon lacked in numbers it made up for in spades with several 5-6 lb class fish , a couple 2-3 lb fish and 2 that just tore me up .... Lots of bug activity with Blue Quills being heaviest & bwo's and Quill Gordons out and about as well . The Possum nymph did all the damage again today . Gotta love that fly even if it is ugly :) !!
March 28th , No change , still beautiful .
March 27th , Spent the day on small water chasing small fish . Water temps were a couple degrees warmer then the river with a 52* reading around 3:00 . Good day with the family spent enjoying nature . Tomorrow it's back to the river !
March 27th , Spent the day on small water chasing small fish . Water temps were a couple degrees warmer then the river with a 52* reading around 3:00 . Good day with the family spent enjoying nature . Tomorrow it's back to the river !
March 26th , Wasn't able to slip out until 7 this evening . Arrived at the Trestle to find it empty , looked down river and there were thousands of spinners , both Quill Gordons & Blue Quills in the air ... Life seemed good ! Tied on one of each , lit up a smoke and just soaked in the surroundings confidant that the soup of snouts was on the way :) . Woulda , shoulda , coulda , nada :( ...... A cool breezed blew up river and boom the spinners and my dreams of Snout Soup were gone ...
I felt ripped off for approx 30 seconds or so then took a good look around and thought "where would I rather be standing , rising fish or not" ? The answer of course was nowhere :) . Lit up a smoke and watched darkness bathe the Lady . Life was indeed good . See you on the river !
March 24th , Rocked them today ! It was 3 1/2 hours of throw fly , catch fishy , rinse and repeat :) . They simply destroyed the #24 P-tail emerger . it was unholy .... all good fish with the vast majority 17- 20" class bows with Codie hitting a pair of 16" browns to go with her bows . Great match the hatch fishing !
I felt ripped off for approx 30 seconds or so then took a good look around and thought "where would I rather be standing , rising fish or not" ? The answer of course was nowhere :) . Lit up a smoke and watched darkness bathe the Lady . Life was indeed good . See you on the river !
March 24th , Rocked them today ! It was 3 1/2 hours of throw fly , catch fishy , rinse and repeat :) . They simply destroyed the #24 P-tail emerger . it was unholy .... all good fish with the vast majority 17- 20" class bows with Codie hitting a pair of 16" browns to go with her bows . Great match the hatch fishing !
March 23rd , Had a buddy stop by and pick up some flies this morning then take off for the river . We followed an hour or so later and walking out on the Trestle found him fighting the good bow in the pics below . The Possum nymph strikes again ! Headed on down to the very bottom of the C&R and fished up to little falls . Good Blue Quill hatch with quite a few Quill Gordons coming off as well . Once again it was the Possum nymph that did most of the business with a couple taking the QG soft hackle as well .Simply beautiful out there today and we had the lower end to ourselves :) . Almost forgot I got a water temp reading of 49.2 at 3pm at little falls today . Warmest she has been so far this season :) ....
March 22nd , Fished about an hour & 1/2 starting around 2:00 . Good hatch of both #22 & #24 bwo's underway when I arrived . Picked up several fish on a #22 p-tail emerger in the film . Approx 30 minutes in the #18 Bwo's started with a few Blue Quills and a couple of Quill Gordons also out and about ! The top water action just didn't really amount to a lot though there were a few rising . However turning around , facing downstream and swinging a QG soft hackle turned out to be a pretty decent choice ....
Water temps are down about 2* (46.3 was 48.2 the 18th) . It will eventually pass the 50* and with 5 different mayflies started it's gonna be fun :) . See you on the river !
March 20th , No change other then a temp drop from the cold snap and minor snow melt . Hopefully the warmer weather mid-week will kick things off right ...
March 18th , The river dropped a bit overnight which made for much easier wading today . Decent nymphing early with a possum nymph turning some good bows , some top water action thanks to a sparse hatch of #22 Bwo's(they were eating the emerger ) around 1:30 - 2:30 and finally a few Quill Gordons coming off around 3:30 which made for some soft hackle fishing to finish with . Nothing big but several 16" - 17" bows and got popped of by a couple others that turned and ran with the current .... Water temps were 46* at the Valley Run around noon and topped of at 48.2* at the Angle Hole around 3:30 so we are real close to that magic 50* mark now !
You should have the 3 below in the box right now , just sayin ...... :)
Water temps are down about 2* (46.3 was 48.2 the 18th) . It will eventually pass the 50* and with 5 different mayflies started it's gonna be fun :) . See you on the river !
March 20th , No change other then a temp drop from the cold snap and minor snow melt . Hopefully the warmer weather mid-week will kick things off right ...
March 18th , The river dropped a bit overnight which made for much easier wading today . Decent nymphing early with a possum nymph turning some good bows , some top water action thanks to a sparse hatch of #22 Bwo's(they were eating the emerger ) around 1:30 - 2:30 and finally a few Quill Gordons coming off around 3:30 which made for some soft hackle fishing to finish with . Nothing big but several 16" - 17" bows and got popped of by a couple others that turned and ran with the current .... Water temps were 46* at the Valley Run around noon and topped of at 48.2* at the Angle Hole around 3:30 so we are real close to that magic 50* mark now !
You should have the 3 below in the box right now , just sayin ...... :)
March 17th , Lot of water still but as Codie proved today fishing well with the right nymph ! She felt that with the quill Gordons starting they ought to be keying on the big nymph . They were ... Only saw a couple of the duns , a couple of the #18 bwo's and despite thousands of fluttering black stones I never saw a fish rise . It will remain to be seen what the coming predicted cold snap does to things be at the moment all is well on the Lady .
March 14th , Interesting day spent "fishing without the rods" aka just knocking around watching ... As you can see she is stunningly beautiful right now with lots of stick caddis , black stones and little black caddis , some Bwo's and though we just couldn't seem to catch one several Quill Gordons down by the Engine Hole . Things are starting to "green up" just a little and there is color besides white by the side of the road . There was even a complimentary flock of turkeys on a side road we like . Great day !
March 13th , Had to man the fort again but here is what my customers observed ... Black Stones everywhere but produced only very sporadic rises P-tails were as always quite productive and the general concensus is the Lady was "on" for a 3rd straight day :) ! Raining now . I will get out for awhile tomorrow and let you know what I find . see you on the river !
March 11th , Great one today but you had to fish the Elk , like the Elk :) ! Most of the fish (and there were plenty ) were taken on a tiny -possum nymph dropped off the back of a #22 v-wing olive , both on 8x . as soon as I quit trying to force feed them stone flies (and I wasted an hour trying ) on 6x it was on . Beautiful bows with the majority between 14 and 17"s and one slab of rainbow lightening that I would love to say was 20" but might have been just a bit short . Got 3 good jumps out of her . The 22 and 24 bwo's were not heavy but they were steady and they definitely had the fish looking for them , leaving the much larger stones alone to flutter downstream unmolested . She is definitely waking up . No pics today the camera crew (my wife) volunteered to hold down the fort and let me silde out and do some research . I owe her one :) ....
March 10th , Just sat and watched the river today . As you see she was beautiful ! Not much coming off just a few #16 black stones and the occasional #18 Bwo . She warming slow but sure . I look for good things to happen this weekend . see you on the river !
March 11th , Great one today but you had to fish the Elk , like the Elk :) ! Most of the fish (and there were plenty ) were taken on a tiny -possum nymph dropped off the back of a #22 v-wing olive , both on 8x . as soon as I quit trying to force feed them stone flies (and I wasted an hour trying ) on 6x it was on . Beautiful bows with the majority between 14 and 17"s and one slab of rainbow lightening that I would love to say was 20" but might have been just a bit short . Got 3 good jumps out of her . The 22 and 24 bwo's were not heavy but they were steady and they definitely had the fish looking for them , leaving the much larger stones alone to flutter downstream unmolested . She is definitely waking up . No pics today the camera crew (my wife) volunteered to hold down the fort and let me silde out and do some research . I owe her one :) ....
March 10th , Just sat and watched the river today . As you see she was beautiful ! Not much coming off just a few #16 black stones and the occasional #18 Bwo . She warming slow but sure . I look for good things to happen this weekend . see you on the river !
March 9th , Very similar to yesterday minus the 4 Quill Gordons ;) . Picked up some nice (15" - 17" ) bows and a beautiful wild brown , all deep in the gut of the runs . Fair stonefly activity 16's , 18's and 22's along with good numbers of #24 Bwo's and a few of the 18's . Very little happening on top though , maybe saw 4 or 5 each rise once . Nope if you wanted to do any business today you had to be on the bottom . Flows are great and the river is beautiful . It was a great day to be alive and fishing the Lady !
March 8th , What a beautiful day !! Tougher fishing then yesterday , you had to work for them , not that there is anything wrong with that . No where near the number of "bugs" that we ran into yesterday but (and it's a pretty cool but) we did see 4 Quill Gordons down at the Engine Hole . Way early and hard to understand just shaking off a melt but there they were ....
The black soft hackle is still producing some good fish and proved to be the "best" fly today . Really , really nice out there this afternoon !
March 8th , What a beautiful day !! Tougher fishing then yesterday , you had to work for them , not that there is anything wrong with that . No where near the number of "bugs" that we ran into yesterday but (and it's a pretty cool but) we did see 4 Quill Gordons down at the Engine Hole . Way early and hard to understand just shaking off a melt but there they were ....
The black soft hackle is still producing some good fish and proved to be the "best" fly today . Really , really nice out there this afternoon !
March 7th , Well the 1st day of the promised warm spell turned out to be fun . Big hatch of black stones with fair numbers of both #18 and #22 Bwo's mixed in had the trout up with the Bwo's bringing most of the action for us . Nothing big but there are worse things then 14-16" rainbows on dry flies late winter ;) ..... I expect both the hatches and the rises to get heavier over the next few days as the temps continue to rise . See you on the river !
March 4th . Still quite a bit of melt water in the system so concentrate your efforts on the spring side of the river from the Angle Hole up river . They stack like cord wood in the warmer water . Might want to try the base of the moss falls with a scud& ptail tandem . Just sayin ....
March 1st , Lot of melt water in the river today so ended up spot fishing a couple tribs instead . On the river there were good #'s of #16 black stones riding the waves . On the tribs good dry and a dropper fishing with a CDC stone up and a bh softhackle down . Good numbers of small browns on one and mostly little wild bows on another . Fun day .
March 1st , Lot of melt water in the river today so ended up spot fishing a couple tribs instead . On the river there were good #'s of #16 black stones riding the waves . On the tribs good dry and a dropper fishing with a CDC stone up and a bh softhackle down . Good numbers of small browns on one and mostly little wild bows on another . Fun day .
February 29th , Should have fished today but didn't ... Missed a good one . Oh well will make up for it tomorrow and will let you know what I find :) ...
February 25th , The river is on the rise and taking on color . Up a foot or 2 from yesterday so far . We are of course receiving another round of the white stuff after having finally made it completely through yet another melt cycle . It was good to see grass for a couple days again :( .... COME ON SPRING !!!!!!
February 24th , As you can see there is still a lot of water but the Lady is beautiful ! It would be tough wading down river .... Still #16 , 18 & 22 Black Stones out and about . No sign yet of the #18 Bwo's but it won't be much longer :) .
February 25th , The river is on the rise and taking on color . Up a foot or 2 from yesterday so far . We are of course receiving another round of the white stuff after having finally made it completely through yet another melt cycle . It was good to see grass for a couple days again :( .... COME ON SPRING !!!!!!
February 24th , As you can see there is still a lot of water but the Lady is beautiful ! It would be tough wading down river .... Still #16 , 18 & 22 Black Stones out and about . No sign yet of the #18 Bwo's but it won't be much longer :) .
February 22nd , Went down to take a look around today .Better but still alot of water (read snowmelt) working it's way through the system . Fishable ? Yep . What I had in mind ? Nope .....
February 21st , It has been pouring rain all morning and the last 5" of snow is gone so .... good day to tie flies :) !
February 19th , The Lady is finally back to beautiful again ! Slow melt today so tomorrow should be good for at least the 1st 1/2 of the day . I would be sure to have plenty of #16 & #18 black stones and soft hackles .....
February 21st , It has been pouring rain all morning and the last 5" of snow is gone so .... good day to tie flies :) !
February 19th , The Lady is finally back to beautiful again ! Slow melt today so tomorrow should be good for at least the 1st 1/2 of the day . I would be sure to have plenty of #16 & #18 black stones and soft hackles .....
February 16th , Well the melt and expected high waters came early ... The river is completely blown out , ripping high , brown and clogged with ice chunks .
February 15th , 5" of heavy snow over night (like we needed more) turning to sleet / rain right now . Roads have been plowed but are still a mess :( ... Sounds like we have a big melt coming next week . I will be beyond glad to escape from this cycle ....
February 13th , Brutal cold and windy with 5" of new snow on the ground . My advice would be to put a log on the fire and tie some Quill Gordon wets while keeping a vision of April firmly in your mind :) ... That's exactly what I plan on doing , it's freaking cold !!!
February 11th , As it turned out there is considerably less snow down low and with the cold the river is dropping and beautiful . Now if and when we get a day in the upper 20's - low 30's should be smokin :) ! Probably not too shabby today but at 10*( here at the house) I'm just not feeling it ...
February 10th , Approximately 14" of fresh snow on the ground here on top . Access/parking will be a problem down river for a day or so . This coupled with the predicted frigid weather make it a good time to hit the vise and tie a few for when it moderates .
February 8th , Simply beautiful again but it is wailing the snow down .... Should be a few pretty decent days coming up with the return to winter .
February 5th , Better for sure but still running fairly hard and of course cold due to the melt . There is fishing to be had along the edges .... The small streams are beautiful right now and snow free :) ! See you on the river !
February 15th , 5" of heavy snow over night (like we needed more) turning to sleet / rain right now . Roads have been plowed but are still a mess :( ... Sounds like we have a big melt coming next week . I will be beyond glad to escape from this cycle ....
February 13th , Brutal cold and windy with 5" of new snow on the ground . My advice would be to put a log on the fire and tie some Quill Gordon wets while keeping a vision of April firmly in your mind :) ... That's exactly what I plan on doing , it's freaking cold !!!
February 11th , As it turned out there is considerably less snow down low and with the cold the river is dropping and beautiful . Now if and when we get a day in the upper 20's - low 30's should be smokin :) ! Probably not too shabby today but at 10*( here at the house) I'm just not feeling it ...
February 10th , Approximately 14" of fresh snow on the ground here on top . Access/parking will be a problem down river for a day or so . This coupled with the predicted frigid weather make it a good time to hit the vise and tie a few for when it moderates .
February 8th , Simply beautiful again but it is wailing the snow down .... Should be a few pretty decent days coming up with the return to winter .
February 5th , Better for sure but still running fairly hard and of course cold due to the melt . There is fishing to be had along the edges .... The small streams are beautiful right now and snow free :) ! See you on the river !
February 2nd , Well the melt has put the fishing on hold for a couple days with the ice cold water providing a perfect excuse to hit the vise hard . Now if she looked just like this in May or June .... :) !
January 31st , Fished a couple hours today with my buddy Craig Miller of Serenity Now Outfitters and his faithful trout dog River . The Lady was on the rise taking on more melt water as the afternoon moved along . Weak hatch of both #22 and #16 black stones with the #22's being heavier . Heavier is a relative term as neither even approached heavy ..... Saw a few fish sip but only a couple . However they were willing to take an 18 black softhackle underneath . I only hooked 7 but one was a beautiful #18 male brown at the Yufer Hole . Really nice wild fish . The other 6 were all bows . Kinda slow fishing but great to hang with Craig for awhile and insanely warm for the end of January . Good time !
January 28th , As you can see below the Lady has great flows , good clarity and the #16 black stones have started early . The bad news is you will find parking a challenge down river and be wading substantial snow to access her waters . This is a small price to pay though for fishing an empty river ;) !
January 28th , As you can see below the Lady has great flows , good clarity and the #16 black stones have started early . The bad news is you will find parking a challenge down river and be wading substantial snow to access her waters . This is a small price to pay though for fishing an empty river ;) !
January 27th , Froze back up last night which will of course help hold things in check . So far so good !
January 26th , Big melt underway :( ... We have lost approximately 15" of snow here in the last 36 hours . Light rain falling . Probably was a decent early day but had to wait on a business call so did not get to run down and find out . It will be interesting to see how the river reacts over the next couple days ! If the melt isn't too overpowering and levels stay reasonable should be a couple "good" days on tap . My best guess is this will not be the case . Stay tuned ....
January 21st , If you can fish today .... do so ! If not .... well it may be awhile .... They are calling for up to 3' of snow here starting tomorrow . Going to get interesting ! Today however the sun is shining , the river is beautiful and the black stones should be heavy . See you on the river ! elkfisher
January 19th , Bitter cold (-2*) , with several inches of snow . This should lock the dries up which will set up normal winter conditions (springs only ) As soon as it warms enough for this old man to fish I will update you on the progress of the hatch . This should make things even better !
January 15th , She still looks just like the picture . Dries are still flowing , stones are still hatching . I would still love to see it stay cold long enough to lock the Dries up tight which of course would leave nothing but the springs , which will actually raise the river temps :) .
January 11th , Between the snow , biting cold and yesterday's downours I decided to spend the day at the vise tying more black stones ....
January 8th , Some pretty good showers coupled with the melting snow today should unfortunately have an adverse effect on the Lady . I will post a pic or 2 this evening but my gut feeling is it will slow things down considerably ... Might be a good couple days to hit the vise and dream of Spring coming up !
Update 5pm : As you can see so far so good . Still a little skeptical .... 4-5" os snow melted off today .
January 7th , Pretty well blew them up today ! Fished with a buddy and it was on from the 1st cast , which produced a 20" bow . 2nd cast a miss , 3rd a 16"er , 4th a 13" er , etc... Nothing fancy just a plain old P-tail . Frank Sawyers wonder nymph :) . We did take a break long enough to exploit a good black midge hatch at the Angle Hole . Not a ton of fish up but enough to keep it interesting . Then it was back to nymphing and back to catching bigger fish . If there was a downside to the day it was that we only caught 1 brown between us :( . Oh well there are worse things then beating up rainbows on an empty river !
January 6th , Heading out tomorrow for a bit . Hopefully will have something interesting to report :) ...
January 3rd , Fished downriver a bit today . Weak hatch day , with only a couple up on the fin, but we managed to turn a few on a #22 black softhackle . My 2016 season started with a perfect finned , beautiful 14" bow at the Meadow Hole . Saw a couple dozen #24 black stones and 3 #22 bwo's . That was it for the bug activity . Still had a great day :) ! See you on the river ...
January 2nd , The river is beautiful !! The colder temps should drop the flows and after the water temperature stabilizes things should settle in to normal Elk River winter fishing . With the holidays over we are planning to be back on the water more often/daily .
December 28th , Didn't fish just took a look . The old girl is back in fairly decent shape now , if only the gale force winds would cease .... I think I am ready for some cold , still , sunny , days with the river down and the fish up :) !
December 25th , Well the river is completely blown out and it is still pouring .... This could get interesting and not in a good way :( ....
December 24th , Big flows with some color and it poured again this morning .... Should be an ok streamer day with some stonefly action along the banks . It has definitely been a very strange December with the 60* temps . Hopefully the river will drop before the temperature does ...
December 15th , Beautiful river , good hatches and rising fish . In other words no change ! This is a good thing :) .....
December 10th , Another great afternoon spent on an empty river with a big hatch and snouts "o" plenty :) !! There were stones everywhere . We went with a CDC stone up and a tiny black softhackle down and never had to change a thing . Most of the takes were on the dry but there were just enough takes on the softhackle that I felt compelled to leave it there . Fantastic weather and river conditions ! Should be an awesome couple days coming up . Hard to believe it's December .... See you on the river ! elkfisher
January 26th , Big melt underway :( ... We have lost approximately 15" of snow here in the last 36 hours . Light rain falling . Probably was a decent early day but had to wait on a business call so did not get to run down and find out . It will be interesting to see how the river reacts over the next couple days ! If the melt isn't too overpowering and levels stay reasonable should be a couple "good" days on tap . My best guess is this will not be the case . Stay tuned ....
January 21st , If you can fish today .... do so ! If not .... well it may be awhile .... They are calling for up to 3' of snow here starting tomorrow . Going to get interesting ! Today however the sun is shining , the river is beautiful and the black stones should be heavy . See you on the river ! elkfisher
January 19th , Bitter cold (-2*) , with several inches of snow . This should lock the dries up which will set up normal winter conditions (springs only ) As soon as it warms enough for this old man to fish I will update you on the progress of the hatch . This should make things even better !
January 15th , She still looks just like the picture . Dries are still flowing , stones are still hatching . I would still love to see it stay cold long enough to lock the Dries up tight which of course would leave nothing but the springs , which will actually raise the river temps :) .
January 11th , Between the snow , biting cold and yesterday's downours I decided to spend the day at the vise tying more black stones ....
January 8th , Some pretty good showers coupled with the melting snow today should unfortunately have an adverse effect on the Lady . I will post a pic or 2 this evening but my gut feeling is it will slow things down considerably ... Might be a good couple days to hit the vise and dream of Spring coming up !
Update 5pm : As you can see so far so good . Still a little skeptical .... 4-5" os snow melted off today .
January 7th , Pretty well blew them up today ! Fished with a buddy and it was on from the 1st cast , which produced a 20" bow . 2nd cast a miss , 3rd a 16"er , 4th a 13" er , etc... Nothing fancy just a plain old P-tail . Frank Sawyers wonder nymph :) . We did take a break long enough to exploit a good black midge hatch at the Angle Hole . Not a ton of fish up but enough to keep it interesting . Then it was back to nymphing and back to catching bigger fish . If there was a downside to the day it was that we only caught 1 brown between us :( . Oh well there are worse things then beating up rainbows on an empty river !
January 6th , Heading out tomorrow for a bit . Hopefully will have something interesting to report :) ...
January 3rd , Fished downriver a bit today . Weak hatch day , with only a couple up on the fin, but we managed to turn a few on a #22 black softhackle . My 2016 season started with a perfect finned , beautiful 14" bow at the Meadow Hole . Saw a couple dozen #24 black stones and 3 #22 bwo's . That was it for the bug activity . Still had a great day :) ! See you on the river ...
January 2nd , The river is beautiful !! The colder temps should drop the flows and after the water temperature stabilizes things should settle in to normal Elk River winter fishing . With the holidays over we are planning to be back on the water more often/daily .
December 28th , Didn't fish just took a look . The old girl is back in fairly decent shape now , if only the gale force winds would cease .... I think I am ready for some cold , still , sunny , days with the river down and the fish up :) !
December 25th , Well the river is completely blown out and it is still pouring .... This could get interesting and not in a good way :( ....
December 24th , Big flows with some color and it poured again this morning .... Should be an ok streamer day with some stonefly action along the banks . It has definitely been a very strange December with the 60* temps . Hopefully the river will drop before the temperature does ...
December 15th , Beautiful river , good hatches and rising fish . In other words no change ! This is a good thing :) .....
December 10th , Another great afternoon spent on an empty river with a big hatch and snouts "o" plenty :) !! There were stones everywhere . We went with a CDC stone up and a tiny black softhackle down and never had to change a thing . Most of the takes were on the dry but there were just enough takes on the softhackle that I felt compelled to leave it there . Fantastic weather and river conditions ! Should be an awesome couple days coming up . Hard to believe it's December .... See you on the river ! elkfisher
December 8th , Black Stones , Bwo's and rising trout on a deserted December river makes for a pretty decent day :) .....
December 4th , Pretty decent streamer/big fly water but going to be a few days until she settles down completely . In the meantime I suggest fishing the edges and keeping an eye on the eddies in the big pools , some snouts to be had there .....
November 25th , The river is beautiful with fishable hatches of both #24 Bwo's and #28 and smaller black midges . I also look for the tiny winter stones to start anytime now . Small and black with some small and olive in the box as well will serve you well for the next couple months .....
November 16th , Lights out today !! Big , steasdyt hatchj of #24 Bwo's had the river rocking and I happened to have some in the box :) .... Best fish was a little over 20" with a dozen or so others 15-18"s . Definitely preferred the emerger over the dun .
November 12th , Great day doing what we love to do , which is spend some quality time together on the river ! Not much hatching and it was quite windy but caught some great fish underneath . Saw 1 other fisherman .
November 25th , The river is beautiful with fishable hatches of both #24 Bwo's and #28 and smaller black midges . I also look for the tiny winter stones to start anytime now . Small and black with some small and olive in the box as well will serve you well for the next couple months .....
November 16th , Lights out today !! Big , steasdyt hatchj of #24 Bwo's had the river rocking and I happened to have some in the box :) .... Best fish was a little over 20" with a dozen or so others 15-18"s . Definitely preferred the emerger over the dun .
November 12th , Great day doing what we love to do , which is spend some quality time together on the river ! Not much hatching and it was quite windy but caught some great fish underneath . Saw 1 other fisherman .
November 6th , Good couple of hours on the river today even though it was very windy . Sparse #24 Bwo hatch and some #28 black midges out and about as well . We took fish on both :) ....
November 3rd , Short sleeve shirt and rising trout , big rising trout , in November . That's a combination that is hard to beat . I headed out with the Trestle in mind , really been having a good time there lately but pulled in to find a friend rigging up with the same in mind so it was off to the Angle Hole instead . It was lights out for hours ! Steady hatch of tiny Bwo's with just a ton opf fish up whacking them and not a soul in sight . The new emerger continued to produce well accounting for maybe 70% of the takes . When it slowed did a little pocket water dry and a softhackle dropper fishing and it was almost as good albeit the trout were smaller . Just an awesome day !
November 1st , Owls & Olives ! Great couple hours spent on the Lady with the Bwo's hatching , the river beautiful and the trout rising . The Lady even threw in a random daylight owl :) ! All bows today from 11 - 16"s with 90% coming on the emeger traled and xinked . What a great way to start November !
November 1st , Owls & Olives ! Great couple hours spent on the Lady with the Bwo's hatching , the river beautiful and the trout rising . The Lady even threw in a random daylight owl :) ! All bows today from 11 - 16"s with 90% coming on the emeger traled and xinked . What a great way to start November !
October 29th , Brown river today . The springs are belching mud . Should translate into a good week next week though ! We needed the water .
October 26th & 27th , 2 very different days from a weather perspective but 2 very similar fishing days from a fishing one ! All day sipping fish at the Trestle both days with a steady low density hatch of tiny Bwo's and mico midges . turned out to be more fish taking the midges preferring them over the much larger Baetis duns . Fished with an old friend taking turns using a 6' 0wt bamboo rod that he built an absolute gem of a tiny fly rod and perfectly matched to the task at hand . The fish , a mixture of browns and bows , ranged from 7 - 17"s or so with one that may have been larger hooked but not landed . The river is very low again but it is raining as I type this so hopefully it will pop up again over the next few days . See you on the river !
October 25th , Reasonable day , not on fire but not too bad :) .... Sparse hatch of #22 Bwo's underway when I got there at 1pm with a few trout , mostly rainbows rising sporadically . You had to stay after them , covering them maybe a dozen times or more to get a response and you had better not miss them when they took or they would ignore your offerings after that . An emerger dropped off a dry about 18" s with a #9 split shot to get it down just a bit deeper was the most successful thing I found and it was still not as productive as I hoped it would be producing only about 10 trout or so in an hour and a half of fishing . Had a couple take the nymph as well but the emerger was definitely the better pattern today . The river was beautiful and there were several other anglers out and about . Just thought the hatch would be better ....
October 21st , Great afternoon on the river with the wife and I taking turns beating up rainbows :) ... Perfect fall day and we had the whole river to ourselves ! Just a few #22 Bwo's coming off but the trout were definitely keyed on them and an emerger suspended off the back of the dun was the ticket . Here are a few pics from the adventure . Thinking of going brookie fishing tomorrow . Stay tuned ;) ....
October 26th & 27th , 2 very different days from a weather perspective but 2 very similar fishing days from a fishing one ! All day sipping fish at the Trestle both days with a steady low density hatch of tiny Bwo's and mico midges . turned out to be more fish taking the midges preferring them over the much larger Baetis duns . Fished with an old friend taking turns using a 6' 0wt bamboo rod that he built an absolute gem of a tiny fly rod and perfectly matched to the task at hand . The fish , a mixture of browns and bows , ranged from 7 - 17"s or so with one that may have been larger hooked but not landed . The river is very low again but it is raining as I type this so hopefully it will pop up again over the next few days . See you on the river !
October 25th , Reasonable day , not on fire but not too bad :) .... Sparse hatch of #22 Bwo's underway when I got there at 1pm with a few trout , mostly rainbows rising sporadically . You had to stay after them , covering them maybe a dozen times or more to get a response and you had better not miss them when they took or they would ignore your offerings after that . An emerger dropped off a dry about 18" s with a #9 split shot to get it down just a bit deeper was the most successful thing I found and it was still not as productive as I hoped it would be producing only about 10 trout or so in an hour and a half of fishing . Had a couple take the nymph as well but the emerger was definitely the better pattern today . The river was beautiful and there were several other anglers out and about . Just thought the hatch would be better ....
October 21st , Great afternoon on the river with the wife and I taking turns beating up rainbows :) ... Perfect fall day and we had the whole river to ourselves ! Just a few #22 Bwo's coming off but the trout were definitely keyed on them and an emerger suspended off the back of the dun was the ticket . Here are a few pics from the adventure . Thinking of going brookie fishing tomorrow . Stay tuned ;) ....
October 20th , No changes other then a little less flow . Real good sight fishing conditions .
October 15th , Flows have dropped off a bit but still looking good . No changes in hatches . Starting to see a little spawning activity . Remember to keep an eye out for and avoid stepping in the redds !
October 10th , The Lady looks the way she should ! Good flows & great clarity . Fishable hatches of both #22 Bwo's and #18 Paraleps were coming off the river late morning into early afternoon with rising fish all the way to Broken Bow (as far down as I went ) . Helped TU stock fingerling browns today . Always good to welcome the new kids to the river :) ! Should be a good couple of days on the river .
September 28th , More rain today ! Hopefully we get even more later this week so 1st the brookies and then the browns have decent flows for their annual ritual .... Stay tuned :) ....
September 23rd , Great afternoon & evening spent fishing pocket water with a couple old friends ! Caught bows up to 18"s and a couple smaller browns . Water is still low and gin clear . #18 Paraleps hatching along with a handfull of #24 Bwo's and scores of tiny (#40?) white midges . Fun day !
September 16th , Wow the water sure did not last long .... The main spring has again stopped flowing leaving the lower 2 . Still quite normal for this time of year but I was enjoying the increased flows . Back to sight fishing I guess .
September 14th , The river is beautiful ! So good to see water again . The Aurtumn Sedges are getting quite heavy and there are still paraleps and Bwo hatches as well . Gonna be a good week !
September 10th , Finally got some rain last night and a little more today . Flows are good for the moment with a bit of color . If we can back it up with a couple more rains , game on ...
September7th , Very low , very clear . We need rain ...... Still some decent fishing to be had but I find myself mostly watching right now . There is a lot to be learned by walking the river at "low tide" .
October 15th , Flows have dropped off a bit but still looking good . No changes in hatches . Starting to see a little spawning activity . Remember to keep an eye out for and avoid stepping in the redds !
October 10th , The Lady looks the way she should ! Good flows & great clarity . Fishable hatches of both #22 Bwo's and #18 Paraleps were coming off the river late morning into early afternoon with rising fish all the way to Broken Bow (as far down as I went ) . Helped TU stock fingerling browns today . Always good to welcome the new kids to the river :) ! Should be a good couple of days on the river .
September 28th , More rain today ! Hopefully we get even more later this week so 1st the brookies and then the browns have decent flows for their annual ritual .... Stay tuned :) ....
September 23rd , Great afternoon & evening spent fishing pocket water with a couple old friends ! Caught bows up to 18"s and a couple smaller browns . Water is still low and gin clear . #18 Paraleps hatching along with a handfull of #24 Bwo's and scores of tiny (#40?) white midges . Fun day !
September 16th , Wow the water sure did not last long .... The main spring has again stopped flowing leaving the lower 2 . Still quite normal for this time of year but I was enjoying the increased flows . Back to sight fishing I guess .
September 14th , The river is beautiful ! So good to see water again . The Aurtumn Sedges are getting quite heavy and there are still paraleps and Bwo hatches as well . Gonna be a good week !
September 10th , Finally got some rain last night and a little more today . Flows are good for the moment with a bit of color . If we can back it up with a couple more rains , game on ...
September7th , Very low , very clear . We need rain ...... Still some decent fishing to be had but I find myself mostly watching right now . There is a lot to be learned by walking the river at "low tide" .
August 31st , Very low now , as you can see below . The trout were however on the fin this evening thanks to a flying ant event . Darn shame there wasn't more water but at least , as always the little bit we have is cold :) .
August 26th , No change . Very easy to get at the big guys via sight fishing right now .... It makes for a good day because you can meet the river on her terms ( which can be demanding in this low water ) and then if those terms prove to be too tough break out the "smiggle flies" as the old man used to call them and open a can on the river :) ! Now you might be thinking why if you can would you not just start with the sure thing ? I suppose you could but what would you learn by doing so ;) ! In my humble opinion it is better to have a go at the tough fishing 1st then fall back to those "flies" that are almost an automatic only if necessary . I will be posting a blog entry and an article on sight fishing in the "How Do I Do That " section shortly which will let you adjust your degree of difficulty as you see fit ... See you on the river !
August 24th , low , clear and still very fishable :) ! No change and you really shouldn't expect one for some time (not that this is a bad thing ) . Still good pocket water fishing , good sight fishing and good to very good tiny fly fishing . In other words typical late August on the Elk ! Take a look , not too shabby for the end of August ....
August 20th , We had another rain this morning . Fairly decent showers . How much of a bounce we get we will have to wait until tomorrow to see ... If we can string a few more of these together the small streams will be back on line :) .
August 18th , Small level bounce from the rain . Still low of course which is normal for August :) . There are multiple good games to be played right now with big dry and a dropper , pocket water right at the top of the list closely followed by tiny fly , light tippet , sipping fish in the film fishing . In other words .... no change :) . See you on the river ! elkfisher
August 14th , Went up lower Slaty . VERY LOW !! The pool at the rail bridge , .9 miles up , is dry . There is flow from the bend above it upstream . Picked up a few small bows in the little bit of faster water that is left ....
On the lower end -The main Spring of the Elk is no longer flowing so expect good sight fishing conditions with some sipping and pocket water /little fish fishing mixed in . Do not be intimidated by the low water :) ! Now is the time to get at the big fish . See you on the river ! elkfisher
On the lower end -The main Spring of the Elk is no longer flowing so expect good sight fishing conditions with some sipping and pocket water /little fish fishing mixed in . Do not be intimidated by the low water :) ! Now is the time to get at the big fish . See you on the river ! elkfisher
August 13th , No real change . Still low , still sipping . The paraleps hatch is full bore now so have plenty of #18 p-tails with you . Other then that it is still "t" season so take advantage of that ! Will try and take the camera crew along tomorrow and get some pics .
August 8th , low , Clear & Sipping !
August 5th , Brookies & blackberries !
August 4th Engine Hole Area, Had to work a little for them this evening but it was worth the effort :) . All rainbows and all in fast water but the average size was better then the pocket water adventures lately ..,.. Only one little guiy with all the rest in the 13 - 15" range , beautiful perfect finned fish ! Only real bug activity was a huge swarm of Paraleps spinners over the river by 8:15 . Clarity is outstanding and still decent flows for August .
Think we will go brookie fishing tomorrow !
Think we will go brookie fishing tomorrow !
August 2nd , Back to the middle today ! Terrestrials and Usuals both produed well all afternoon .Not a lot of hatch activity mid-day but the trout were very co-operative . The brown in the picture to the left was the best fish of the day and yep he was as big as he looks ; ) .... The next one down was about 15" and was hooked in a little pocket the size of a wash tub . The majority of the fish though were in the 7 -11" range .
We did see a few Iso's , a few Bwo's and a couple of Light Cahills and I am certain if we had stayed the last hour and a half the bug situation would have improved . As you can see the Lady is stunningly beautiful right ! Really good to go into August with the river in this condition . I will admit I am hoping we get a big storm though because I am getting the itch to hit Slaty with the river rippin ...
July 31st , Think I'll let the videos tell the tale tonight :) ...
July 29th , Surgical strike :) ...
Got a late start this evening leaving the mountain around 7:15 , and reaching the Trestle about 7:30 . Rigged and ran so to speak ! 5 casts , 5 fish to start the evening and no one but my crew on the river within sight , life was good ... It remained that way until dark ! #24 bwo with an ant trailed off the back . Tiny + terrestrial = success all evening . The river was beautiful , she is finally completely clear . Flows are normal for summer and of course nice and cold :) . Finished up at the Trestle at dark and even the normally picky fish there were very co-operative . It was just smokin good tonight ! Almost forgot to mention that there were Iso spinners tonight in the mix .... |
July 27th , Little Falls then the Trestle
Started out this afternoon at Little Falls on the lower end of the stretch . Slow but managed to bring several little guys to hand nymphing in the 1/2 hour before the monsoon hit . Little Falls is holding good water but the bedrock above is getting quite thin .
Post downpour we drove up to the Trestle to take a look ... Paraleps spinners everywhere , a few Bwo's hatching and some fish up and sipping ... game on ! Most of the browns sipping were of the 8 - 11" variety but did manage to pick up an 18" male on the flats above the Trestle . Beautiful fish , real Elk River butter :) ! He took a #28 rust usual on 8x . The later it got the more active the trout got . Not a huge rise but a good one and the fish were their normal picky Trestle trout selves ;) . You gotta love em .
Started out this afternoon at Little Falls on the lower end of the stretch . Slow but managed to bring several little guys to hand nymphing in the 1/2 hour before the monsoon hit . Little Falls is holding good water but the bedrock above is getting quite thin .
Post downpour we drove up to the Trestle to take a look ... Paraleps spinners everywhere , a few Bwo's hatching and some fish up and sipping ... game on ! Most of the browns sipping were of the 8 - 11" variety but did manage to pick up an 18" male on the flats above the Trestle . Beautiful fish , real Elk River butter :) ! He took a #28 rust usual on 8x . The later it got the more active the trout got . Not a huge rise but a good one and the fish were their normal picky Trestle trout selves ;) . You gotta love em .
You should start keeping in mind the Paraleps ! They tend to hatch after dark in low water and the spinner fall is a waste of time but the river is full of mature #18 nymphs . Obviously the trout are taking advantage of them and you should be too :) ! Also worth keeping in mind is that with the river down the fish are re-locating . The "money runs " have changed ....
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