The river has started to bump up a little bit which will only really effect walk and wade access as it usually does for the Summer. For any of you who love fishing trout spey, this is a great time to bush-wack in to some hard-to-reach swing water and find some bigger fish. Especially with this water getting higher the fish will start to tuck in close to the bank a great opportunity to swing flies straight in to their face. If your trout spey can chuck bigger flies, then throw sculpzilla’s, Lil Kim’s, and bunny busters. For smaller stuff, wounded sculpins, buggers, and leeches will all fish great.
As far as dries, Chubby Chernobyl’s in golden, red, royal, purple, and peach have all been effective, along with Gypsy Kings, Rubberleg Stimulators, and CFO Chernobyl’s. It’s also good to keep a couple caddis and yellow sally’s for the evening, along with a Royal Wulff in case you see any drakes poppin off.
If you want to nymph, then throw a stonefly anywhere from a size 12 to a 6, with some sort of smaller beadhead below it. Anything that will imitate a caddis, PMD, or small stonefly has been the most effective. This could be anything from Pheasant Tails and Copper Johns, to Hare’s Ear’s and princes. Nymphing has been the most effective for the upper river where fish have really been pushed up in structure, but they’ll still come out for a big dry.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or call the shop.