2/2/06 Report

I couldn’t resist the temptation to, ahem, take a sick day yesterday and head out to some area streams. I got on the water by 9:00, which in the winter months usually is plenty early. However, there were midges going by the time I arrived. I fished a scud pattern with a zebra midge trailer in the AM session. Fish were holding all over, so fishing a run thoroughly was important. I managed around 12 fish, a split between rainbows and browns. The scud probably outfished the midge slightly.

I drove a few miles to stop number two and had an absolutely awesome afternoon with around 20-25 fish coming to hand. The midges were going very well after the noon hour with fish starting to rise as well. I stuck with the scud and used a Simpleton Midge trailer in a #18-20. Again, the scud outfished the midge with both rainbows and browns coming to hand. The best fish of the day was a 17 inch brown holding in a fast run no wider than a car seat with many chunky holdover rainbows to boot. I also finished my day by sight fishing several browns with dries (Midge Emerger Dry). They weren’t anything too great, but it was fun to dry fly fish in February nonetheless.

Regards,
D.A.

Excellent report D.A.!
I’m extremely jealous .
Where were you, with out being too specific .
Preston, Chatfield, lanesboro?
Using the 3 wt or 5 wt?
Floating or sinking?
Indicators or instinct?
The water must be extremely clear?
I assume the hatch that you experienced was winter black midges, showing up in clouds and on the snow?
cheers

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Where were you, with out being too specific

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I was in Fillmore Co.

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Using the 3 wt or 5 wt?

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I fished a 7′ 4 weight cane rod in the AM and a 9′ medium action 3 weight in the PM.

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Floating or sinking?

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Floating lines always….sinking only when I am streamer fishing.

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Indicators or instinct?

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Both. I split time wusing both methods.

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The water must be extremely clear?
I assume the hatch that you experienced was winter black midges, showing up in clouds and on the snow?

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The water was very clear because we literally have no snow, so when temperatures were getting up close to 50 yesterday, there was no water stain. Yes, midges, and lots of them.

Personally, I think the water table is a little bit low right now, so I’m pleased that I am looking out the window at snowfall as I type .

D.A.

Sounds like one of “those days” that help you threw the winter months.
Great report.

Dave, You do a great job on this site and I respect your thoughts. However, last year I read a couple of times about you knocking the planting of rainbows. Now maybe this report of yours tells of some benefits of this. Just wondering about your thoughts on this. Thank you. JJ

I’m not a big fan of rainbows in general as most are stocked for the reason of harvest. Each stream has literally a limited amount of biomass, so when you start doubling and tripling the amount of mouths to feed, not enough is there to go around so to speak. They are fun to catch, just as all trout are, but my praise stops there.

If the rainbows are stocked as fingerlings and get a chance to grow in the wild, I think they are a little more wily than some of the ones I tagged on Thursday. I literally stood on top of them, muddied up the water, and made a drift not more than a rod length from me and caught several . Not very “wild” fish to say the least.

I guess what I’m trying to suggest is that these rainbows are good for marginal waters and areas that get routinely hammered by persons interested in taking a few fish home for the pan. The lower half of the Middle Branch or Main Branch are places that get both plenty of angler pressure and are areas where these rainbows have been stocked.

However, I wasn’t in the WW on Thursday .

D.A.