Below is a tip from Toms Simms which I am posting to help you during this time of the year.  Even if you don’t tie flies you should check out the link to get  a look at how the fly looks.

Tom

I saw a number of small, dark stoneflies when I was on the property Wednesday. I’ve seen them many times before, but have never tried to imitate them. I caught one and estimated it as a size 18-20. The wings were a dark, dun color and the abdomen was also dun-colored with a lighter segmentation. The fly on the following link should do a good job of imitating the natural.

Video Source:
http://flytyer.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/little-black-stonefly/

Tom Simms

We have been blessed with six weeks of constant low flows at a time when the Browns are spawning, There have been numerous reports of large browns hitting on the Turk Tarantula. Brown’s on a dry Fly? It just doesn’t get much better than this. The last three days there has been constant flows around 450 CFS. For me this is the ideal flow for fishing. Great access, lots of great water and stability which makes fish happy and hungry. I hope you all have had a chance to get up to the club during this time. If not you need to get up there and do some fishing. Even a hour or two makes for a great day of fishing. There are so many great places to fish with these flows that it is downright hard to make a decision where to fish.

On another note, the new license conditions call for Oxbow Dam being primarily used to moderate the flows during the Oct through March time frame. This 500 CFS constant flow is what I am hoping we will have in the future. This will be a huge improvement to the river habitat , environment and to us anglers. Hopefully we can get PCWA & PG&E to start implementing this part of the new license ASAP.

Tom

I fished with my 12 year old son Clay today. We hiked down beyond the cathedral. There were both medium brown caddis and October caddis hatching from 4:30 pm on. And there were a lot of them. Best hatch I’ve seen at the club, of any type, since the march browns this spring — actually better.

Clay hooked a pretty good sized fish on an orange stimulator. After a nice arial and a couple of runs it stopped short about five feet from shore. I kept telling him to swing it over to me so I could net it. And he kept saying “I can’t!” Thinking he hooked a monster — and I could just barely see it beneath the surface, because it was obscured by the glare — I took a few steps toward it. That riled-up the fish and he wriggled off the hook. What happened was that the nymph that was tied about 4-5 feet behind the stim got snagged on a rock, and the fish couldn’t move except a little side-to-side.

The rest of the fish we caught took size 16 parachute BWOs.

Clay says he wants to fish more. Cosmo is a happy dad. I think he is going to get his own Tenkara rod too.

Can’t wait to hit the club again.

I was up at the club Tuesday & Wednesday with Pete Thompson, Ron Thomas and their guests to spend some time fishing and sharing a wonderful time at the club. Fishing is always fun, but spending a night at the club with friends is real special or priceless as they say in the commercial.  We fished between the lower Gray Eagle pool and the large pool above the Cathedral. The attached pic cover much of the area.

There is a deep pool below this pic that takes a turn and smashes into the Cathedral wall.   As we spread out I decided to fish the area in the middle where the side channel enters the main river.   There is a big flat rock about 15 feet out,  just below where the side channel enters,that I decide to climb and fish from to get a better view.   With the water low I was several feet out of the water and had a good view of the bottom.   I was fishing my standby Tarantula (see pic), with a BWO 16 below about 2 feet.

After a few casts upstream I decided to let the flies float into the far riffle which was about 12” to 18” deep, You can see the area in the river pic attached. It’s the lower white water area. As the flies entered the riffle I was expect a hit because it seemed like a good feeding area. On the third cast BANG!!! This large brown came up and really smacked the Tarantula. I knew I had him as there was no doubt that he grabbed that fly hard and it was buried deep into his tongue. He was strong, but I had plenty of room to play him. I tried a trick Bill Carnazzo had suggested which was to lower the rod to the water perpendicularly and start reeling. The fish came out of the fast water quite easily and I now had control of him. I waived the guys up at the lower Gray Eagle pool to come down as I wanted a pic. As they arrived the fish had tired and I was able to land him. The colors were beautiful. Pictures rarely do justice to a beautiful fish and the attached pic shared this trait. This fish made my day.

That evening the guys cooked up a great meal and we shared some fine wines and cigars. There is nothing like having a great steak and fine bottle of wine with friends after fishing the day. We sat around the campfire until midnight. As I said previously it was priceless.

With the flows down because of the annual maintenance period fishing has been nothing but spectacular. If you haven’t fished the low flows you need to get up there quick before they start up generating again. With all the extra water this year there may be a water sale to down south cities which would raise the flows considerably for a while. Hope to see you up at  the club.

After seeing a Tenkara rod up-close-and-personal last night at the club, I’m stoked to try it. The simplicity of the rod and flies is very intriguing. While a huge part of fly fishing for me is pulling off a perfect cast and the rush of seeing a fish smash your dry fly — or even better, watching the fish appear out of the depths to roll on your fly — I really do love the quiet intimate nature of short line fishing. I have to say that my fly fishing world has just been rocked.

Bob Townsend, Denny Freidig & I went up to the club to spend some time together.    We went up Wednesday and did some fishing below the campground and then BBQ’s some steaks for dinner.    On Thursday our wives came up to spend the evening.     What a great way to spend some times with friends.   There was no moon, so the stars we spectacular and the shooting stars were abundant.    Denny & I enjoyed talking and watching the shooting stars while Bob slept well into the night.   Around midnight we tried waking Bob , but he wouldn’t have it.   We headed for the cabins and left him snoring away.

If you have not seen the old Spencer Tracy movie ”The old Man and the Sea” it’s something you should do.   It’s a fabulous book by Hemmingway and made into a movie with Spencer Tracy.   If you have ever hooked into a fish that challenges every inch of your ability, it’s hard not to think of this classic.  Last night was my “The Old Man and the Sea” venture.

Bill Carnazzo & I went fishing last night downstream to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is a great place to start as it gets shade before much of the river due to the high walls. We saw some fish jumping in the pool below the Cathedral. Bill landed a few on a dry fly. I wasn’t having much luck nymphing.

We headed upstream to the large pool where we saw large fish rising. I threw out a large  Turk Tarantula Dry Fly #10  and saw a fish going for it, but backed away as the fly moved into the fast water.  A few casts later I I looked back to see where Bill was and he started yelling that a fish had engulfed my fly. He wasn’t just saying a fish took my fly, he was saying it attacked it. As I quickly set the hook I realized this was a huge fish.

He headed for the fast water and I thought I must stop him from getting into it as it spilled out of the pool. I stopped him but then suddenly it felt that the line had gotten stuck on the bottom. You know that feeling where you lift your rod and there is not the slightest bit of movement. I lifted several times and nothing. I thought he had gotten off and that I had snagged the bottom. I could see the line below the fast water and it was in a big arc which is not good. At that point I was about to give up and break off the fly when he started moving again. Now I started think of “ Old man and the Sea”. I was in a fight of a lifetime. If you have ever hooked a big steelhead you know what I was feeling.

As the fish made a “B” line towards the fast water my rod was bending to the limit. I tried changing the angle as that sometimes works in getting the fish to stop running. I didn’t want him getting in the fast water that was spilling out of the pool. Once in there I knew he would be gone. I worked him closer and he came completely out of the water about 10’ from where I was standing. My adrenalin started pumping as this brown was thick as a salmon and had a tail that must have been 6” wide.

Bill was scurrying over to me with his camera and saw him jump. The fish took off toward the fast water pouring out of the pool. My rod was bent over to the point of breaking as I tried to keep him from going over the edge. I thought about letting him go over and then chasing him down stream, but that was just asking too much. I saw the river runs through where Brad Pitt floats down the river with a fish on and I am just too old to give that a try. In my younger years perhaps. As I looked at my rod and I knew I was in deep trouble as it looked like it was about to break. Then when it looked like my rod had reached it maximum the line snapped as the fish broke off the fly. I would have loved to have landed this fish as it was definitely a trophy fish. Not that I would have kept it , but I certainly would have taken several of pics.

In the movie Spencer Tracy lands his monster fish.     In this case the fish got away. I don’t feel bad about losing this fish. He put up a great fight and I enjoyed every second of the fight. You don’t always have to win to gain a great deal of pleasure in life.

Tom

Apparently some famous rock-star has made it into a fassion to wear hackle feathers in your hair. So, as if genetic hackles weren’t already too expensive, now they’ve become a hot commodity. I can’t find any anywhere. Anyone have a secret source they wouldn’t mind sharing?

Every year rivers change and when there is a wet year like this past winter rivers can change dramatically.    While up at the club I decided to take a hike down to the Cathedral to check out the trail that Bob Schardt cleared a while back.    I used one of the club boats to get across the lake and around the point and tied up by the path used to get downstream. Please be sure to tie the boat securely as we have lost boats downstream that were not tied securely.

The trail was clear even with the heavy growth we have had this year.     To start with the Gray Eagle side channel has opened up at the top to allow for a greater flow. Fishing both the top and bottom of the side channel should be very good.     There were fish rising in shallow water near the entrance of the side channel.  There were also fish rising farther out by the main channel.  I did not get a chance to get to the main channel where the two deep Gray Eagle pools exist. The rope is still there and lets you know where to cross and also is a marker to get to the Gray Eagle pools.

I then hiked down to the Cathedral and was shocked at how the river has changed. The large pool above now has a wide mouth which creates a wider stream from the pool to the Cathedral Wall. Sorry, I did not bring my camera. There is a side channel that was created on the north side of the river that flows back in just before the wall. The river does not crash into the wall as it has these last few years. It make a gentler turn to the left where it runs along the wall. There are new protected areas along the wall which should hold fish. There is a big eddy that has to hold large fish, but will be a challenge to fish. I hope to try my Switch rod there so I can keep the line off the fast water while fishing the eddy. Below the Cathedral the river has widened and I am hoping it will allow us to wade across and fish downstream.

I will let you know when I will be making my next trip downstream which I intend to do some serious wading to explore access. I hope some of you that are adventurous will be able to join me

Tom

Tom just sent an email out about heading up to HBP this evening and requested additional fishing reports…Here’s mine from last weekend.  I fished Friday & Saturday, July 22nd & 23rd.  The activity picked up nicely both days in the evening on the lake.  I fished all dry’s both evenings and landed quite a few…15+ fish on Friday and 10+ fish on Saturday with 6:30 to 7:30PM being the most productive hour.  I used Parachute Adams, Olive Elk Hair Caddis, Red Humpy, Royal Wolfe, BWO…all worked well.  The fish would go after my fly within the first few casts of putting it on and I would cast into the heavy foam.  Once I landed the fish and continued they would be on to me, so I changed the fly.  Once I put on a new fly they went after it.  I’ve always had good luck when I change fly’s often.  I landed a few 17″+ rainbow’s…real niiice!!!  I had some good activity in the section of the river just below the lake as well.  The river flows out of the lake then bends left into slower deeper water.  We cleared this section out about 2 years ago so there are no branches to get snagged underneath the water when you’re stripping back in.  I rigged up a Prince Nymph bead-head with a Hairs Ear trailer with an indicator at about 10 ft up.  I parked myself in waste deep water about 25 yards down from the bend and worked the slow moving water.  As I worked the drift, I had a couple of nice hits and finally landed a nice 16 inch fat bow.  It was a great time at the club and I met a number of new members as well!!!

Fish on!  BS