The river is alive in the morning with lots of Caddis activity. Soft hackles and emergers have been working from Bunkerhill through Falls Rd. Sulphurs are just starting, a traditional sulphur wet paired with a soft hackle caddis should work fine.
Water temp is at 59 F, so we’re seeing some very active fish. Flow is at 73 CFS, so we have lots of riffles and flats to cover
for a few stream reports from other anglers this past week…
Message: Theaux, I’m the smiling face that greeted you the other morning, the long haired young guy who comes in the shop at least once a week. After I left the shop that morning I went to Masemore road bridge as I pulled into the lot only two cars awaited me which was a suprise. I geared up and before I got to the stream side I could already see rising fish and the caddis were abundant I fished from the bridge up steam to the first bend with the fallen tree. From 10:30 AM till 5:00 pm I landed over 25 fish and couldn’t even count how many I missed. Biggest of that day 17″ .All were caught on a light tan elk hair caddis. Body color didn’t seem to matter much . Nor did size. I had 4 other Anglers in that small stetch of water who were all catching fish all day. Thanks for all the advice you are more then willing to offer and look forward to seeing you this coming week. Lots of luck on the water. Sincerly PEA*****
and another:
hey guys, after stopping in yesterday, I am happy to report fine fishing above falls rd (and spoke with some other guys who had similar success). I managed 5 fish – all browns – in the 12-18″ range. The biggest fish, which taped out at just over an honest 18″ (marked on the rod), took a green weenie. I managed to hook and nearly land a carp at the plunge pool on the same fly. I guess I need to work on my finesse when it comes to 6X… The smaller fish took either a size 16 EH caddis (cinammon body, sparsely hackled) quite violently or hammered an olive-bodied tungsten bh wooly bugger on the swing moving up through the water column. I have a picture of a 15″ brown that pounded the bugger. I will send that as soon as I get it off the camera… Two guys I saw got a bunch of fish on caddis, including a chunky 15″ rainbow. Though the caddis were coming off in barely decent numbers, they were fairly large and the fish were keyed in on them in a big way! After about 2 hours, I headed over to Panther Branch and succeeded in landing a pair of bruiser brookies in the 4-5″ class on a zebra midge. They made me work really hard on that 4wt…but it was fun! One was particularly brilliantly colored and I was amazed at how greedily these fish take flies. Next time I’ll follow your advice and try to get them to eat a royal wulff. Thanks for all of your help over the past few years – it’s definitely paying off (though I’m sure a humbling trip is in my future). Marty
Note: We just received some great Sulphur Patterns-Tied by Mike Bachosky out of quills and snowshoe rabbit…Don’t leave the shop without them.