August 3RD Double R Fishing Report

Monday, August 4, 2014:

ROUGH WEEKEND . . . . . 

Your Stream Keeper had a rough weekend on The Creek.

I haven’t been fishing on Saturdays this season because Members seemed to be avoiding many drifts in the field water due to the low water conditions and I didn’t want to take up one of the precious fishable Beats.  This Saturday I changed my habits because the creek level has come up substantially and because I hadn’t fished in a week due to car trouble.  I launched at the gazebo bridge rather early thinking that the overcast sky and cool morning temperature would portend a great Baetis hatch.  I wore just a tee shirt since I was confident that the sun would break through and that there would be no rain.  Wrong!  I got soaked to the bone.  The trout rose even during the rain and I was looking forward to some great fishing once the rain stopped.  But, I started to feel the onset of hypothermia.  I made a bee line for the takeout behind my trailer, shed my waders and changed into some warm dry clothing.  I should have just stayed in my trailer or gone down to the Picabo Store for breakfast.  Instead, I walked out to the creek and saw trout rising everywhere to Blue Winged Olives.  Darn!

On Sunday morning I took a Guest out to fish Beats 4 through 1.  The wind slacked off early and a warm sun appeared.  There were a few Trico and a few Baetis, but the fish were tough.  For a while the trout liked Mick Halvorsen’s “Duck Butt Dun” in a BWO shade and I liked it as well because I could see its CDC post a mile away in the glare of the sun.  Eventually, the trout just “nosed” the Duck Butt Dun so I switched to a small BWO Sparkle Dun tied by my Guest, Tom Lampl.  The trout liked it but by that time I was off my game due to accumulated frustration.  When the trout changed their preference to Callibaetis I tried to tie on a commercially tied gray Hackle Stacker but the fly was so poorly tied that I could not thread a reasonably sized tippet through the eye so I gave up and went with my own Callibaetis Hatch Matcher.  By then the rising fish had retired for the morning so I gave up and went home to lick my wounds.  Another delightful morning on The Creek!

I did notice a bunch of Damsels on hovering over the water.  My sense is that the Damsel hatch is about to become a big factor on the Ranch water.  It will probably coincide with the demise of the Trico.

Doug Andres

Stream Keeper