Have been out a few times this spring with a lot of sucess. This has been my first chance to actually sit down and type a report since the first time I have got out.
The first time I had the chance to get out was March 20th when I hit Beaver Creek with a friend. We went back on the minimun mantience road. We got a late afternoon start and fished until dark with spinners. Slow retrieve was key in the cold water. In the 2 hours that we fished we landed 12 fish, the biggest being an 11 inch brown.
The second time I was able to get out was March 26th when I went to the North Branch, up from the second cement bridge. Headed out around noon and fished until mid afternoon. I threw some larger spinners with a faster retrieve due to the warmer water. The John Eggers Super Bow was the hot bait which caught a ton of fish. My buddy and I landed over 30 fish in the 4 hours we were out. The biggest fish was a very nice 20″ brown male that I caught right before we stopped.
The next day we went right back to the North brach to see if the great luck would continue. This time we headed down from the first cement bridge, and the luck did continue. With a 1:00 start the sun was high and the Silver Superbow was once again the hot bait. In the short 4 hours of fishing we had ourselves another 30+ fish day.
It wasn’t until April 3rd that I got another chance to hit the creeks. I spent the afternoon on the mainbranch right below the Southbranch entry. Once again it was the Superbow as the hot bait. My friend was also having good luck with a small chartruess Rapala. It was a very touchy day as the fish were biting in the sun, but as soon as the clouds came around you couldn’t buy a fish. We spent about 3 hours on the water and caught about 15 fish.
The next day was sunny, so I figured I would hit the Main Branch again to see if the fish would still be biting in the sun. We went down from the Beaver Creek entry and had very little success. The hot bait was the Black and silver Rapala. The numbers were down, but the size of the fish were nice. I landed a number of fish in the 12-15″ range. As a total we landed 13 fish in 5 hours, the smallest being 11 inches.
Finally I get to todays report. A buddy and I hit the Middle branch right behind Elba. The water was extremely clear but I was expecting worse. We got a very late start at 6:30 and fished until dark which was around 8:00. In the hour and a half we spent on the water we landed 20 fish, but the biggest was only 12 inches. Our luck came mostly out of the Rapids with spinners. We also had some luck on small Rapalas. The water is definately warming up and the fish a getting very aggresive, but we definately need some rain to dirty up the streams a little bit. Now with that said i encourage all of you trouters to get out and give it a shot. It is a prime time to land a catch and release bueaty.
Sorry I have yet to get the pictures developed, but they will be coming as soon as I get them done. Until then, good fishing -Jerry Jonsgaard