June 10, 2016

June 10, 2016

I regret not providing blog entries for the better part of two weeks. I have experienced some technical difficulties with my laptop’s ability to post entries on the Picabo Angler website, but the problem has been solved by a 14 year old. Truth be told, I also suffered from a bout of laziness, and some increasingly good fishing as of late. I pledge to be as diligent as I am able, which isn’t much.

The opening week of this trout season was pretty slow all over Silver Creek, including the Double R Ranch water. Then, we started to see more Blue Winged Olives and Pale Morning Duns on the Ranch, but the fish didn’t seem to be feeding at any significant level and the few trout that rose were pretty difficult to hook. Pretty typical for the beginning of the season, but there were a lot of disappointed anglers on Silver Creek because it was the only show in the area due to the off color character of the Big Wood and the great amount of water that the powers that be ran through the Big Lost for irrigation purposes. Consequently, the Brown Drake hatch brought hordes of anglers to the stretch of Silver Creek below Highway 20. The madness is over now but I haven’t heard any reports regarding fishing at Point of Rocks or The Willows.

Fishing is on the upswing on the Double R these days. The annual three week monster hatch of Callibaetia mayflies has just started on both sides of The Pond. It begins around 9:00 a.m. provided the wind has died down. I fished it yesterday and ran into fish rising to emerging Callibaetis, followed by duns and spinners. We even experienced “Trash Time” when there were spinners in the air but the bigger trout were cruising around sipping spent Callibaetis spinners and Baetis spinners. I floated the classic Callibaetis Hen Winged Spinner pattern in front of bulging fish landing 5 trout in 45 minutes, including an 18 inch Rainbow. This morning the fish were rising on schedule even though the air temperature was 10 degrees cooler. I suspect that this hatch will reign for attest anther 3 weeks on The Pond and that it will also begin to emerge on the field water. If you are fishing the Pond later in the morning, especially during Trash Time, keep a look out for BWO duns and spinners, about a size 20.

We could be in for some interesting but quieter evening fishing s well, out in the field water. The past several evening there has been an increasing number of rising fish in Beat 7 through 12. On the water I have seen a scattering of PMDs and BWO duns, Callibaetis spinners, White Miller Caddis and a variety of smaller caddis. So, don’t forebear from taking an evening “cigar float.” Last season I scored well during flights of the White Miller Caddis during the two hours preceding sunset, first by swimming my Pheasant Tail soft hackle, then by drifting my #14 Callibaetis Hatch Matcher.

Doug Andres, Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch