Things are starting to get quite a bit colder on our side of the mountains, but fishing has remained awesome! With a small warm window in the middle of the afternoon, there is still the occasional fish coming to the surface for BWO’s, but overall nymphing has remained the most consistent. With that being said we feel it’s worth mentioning that there is no need to get out on the water early! Fishing really doesn’t start to pick up until about 10:30, so don’t worry about freezing your butt off at first light.
As far as flies go, keeping it small is the way to go. We’ve been doing best with a size 16 CDC Pheasant Tail Jig as our top fly, and a size 18 or 20 Pheasant Tail, Prince Nymph, Duracell, Assassin, or WD40 on the bottom.
With the water being as low as it is we like to really lighten things up with our setups. Tapering down to 4X for the top fly, and 5X for the bottom can really help you fool some of the pickier fish. Check out the Frog Hair Fluorocarbon in 4-6X for some really high quality tippet that makes a big difference for this time of year.
Stick to keeping you flies 3-4 feet below your indicator, and avoid ticking bottom. If you’re going to use split shot, then keep it small with a no. 4, or use a small amount of tungsten putty (Johnny’s favorite). It can also make a big difference using a smaller size indicator, or a yarn indicator to have a lighter presence on the surface. That being said, no indicator euro nymphing is a great option for this time of year.
If you prefer to avoid nymphing, then feel free to bust out that trout spey. November is a very underrated month for swinging a streamer on the Yak and can be deadly with a trout spey. Using a 10 foot fast sinking polyleader, a 3 foot leader of 1X or 2X fluorocarbon, and an olive, black, or white woolly bugger in size 10 or 8 is the way to go.
As usual, feel free to call the shop if you have any questions!