Looks like we are sliding into some crappy weather again, which is typical for this time of year. Ive been sneaking out for an hour or two everyday the past week and fishing has been good. Ive been doing a lot of streamer fishing lately. Winter is one of my favorite times of year to streamer fish. Low and slow. Intermediate sinking lines with heavy streamers seem to work the best. You can get your streamer where you want it without hooking the moss you would with a heavier sinking line. When I floated with Charlie the other day olive seemed to be the the most productive color. Other streamer colors were working but olive was what they were really after. Rusty trombones, and this yellow and olive circus peanut were our best streamer patterns. We maybe have another week or two of this streamer fishing. Some days it can be REALLY good, others it can be spotty but stick with it and you’ll get some good fish. Don’t just try to it for 15 mins then give up, commit to it and concentrate on slow deep water and keep your fly on the bottom!
Charlie with a good streamer eater!
Ive been swinging the reef a lot lately too. Swinging a 7 foot 5 IPS tip and getting my fly deep was the ticket. Outhouse has been swinging good, had a couple of days where fish were destroying my fly about a foot or so into the swing. Fish are fired up and hooking them on the swing is a blast because of how hard they are pulling. Ive just been using my single hand set up, a Scott A4 with a skagit head. I find using a single hander is best this time of year because of eyelets freezing up. You are stripping in some much line constantly after every cast and swing that having a longer two hander is a pain and harder to get the ice off when your wading waist deep. Whereas a single hander you can still get the ice off easily. A yellow and olive woolly bugger that I have found to be deadly swung or nymphed has been one of my go to’s lately. Its just a gold beadhead, with yellow chenille and olive schlappen. Other then that the gold/copper/silver Kreelex is always reliable and also some black Hot Boh spey’s.
Swinging Kreelexs has been great
Nymphing is good, running deep with a lot of weight and keeping your flies on the bottom is the goal here! Red san juans, purple and red reef worms, orange scuds, UV leeches especially the brown and natural, and midges have been the best for me. Mayhem midges and PAL midges are probably the best bugs Ive found lately but a couple of days it was all about that orange/rust colored scud (size 14-16). Nymphing a yellow and olive woolly bugger with a Yuk Bug behind it has been fun too. Now you aren’t going to catch every fish in the run with this rig but I love fishing it. Big sloppy mends, vertical jigs, and twitching this rig can give you some explosive violent takes. Having this rig drift through a run in this manner will work but Ive been trying to fish it in places that have current with a slow pool or eddy below/adjacent to them. Letting it drift into these slower areas and then jerking it around has given me some big angry fish lately. As i said it doesn’t catch the most fish but it has consistently given me a lot of good ones this past week.
Nymphing is good!
The road to the Mile has been a nightmare I know of a couple of cars stuck up there right now. I usually love it up there this time of year but as of now still can’t get up there. Ill ask around and see if any progress has been made clearing the road and keep ya posted!