With this amazing weather we have coming up, it might even be worth missing a hawks game to get out on the water. The sun will be out for a couple days and fish have been crushing dries, nymphs and streamers all day. Water has remained low and clear, so if you're a wade fisherman this is about as good as it gets! (although floating is still a great option)
Dry Flies
October Caddis have remained our go-to dry flies lately, and until we start seeing more blue winged olives it will stay that way. Any big dry with some orange in it in size 12-6 will work great. They fish great on a dead drift with a dropper, but give them a little twitch to have a better success rate. Crane flies are also still popping, just make sure you skate these bugs on the surface with a lot of movement!
- Terranasty - Size 6-12
- Gypsy King - Orange, Natural Golden - size 6-10
- Rubberlegged Stimulator - Size 8-12
- Crane fly - Yellow, Orange, Tan - Size 10-12
Nymphs
The fish haven't been super picky about the nymphs you throw, but they have been picky about how you present them. Fish them with 5x or 6x fluorocarbon beneath a dry, small indicator or yarn with no split shot. Try to get a longer drift though riffles, rather than short and quick heavy drifts.
- Quasimodo Pheasant Tail - Size 16-18
- TB Metallic - Size 12-18
- Dirty Jig - Olive, Tan - Size 12-18
- Dirty Hipster - Tan, Olive, Black, Golden - Size 8-14
Streamers
This is a really good time to be throwing streamers, if you haven't gotten in to it yet then now is the time to learn. Fish them with a sinking leader and swing them through riffles to cover a ton of water, or strip them through seams, eddies and structure. We've been fishing mostly smaller natural sculpin patterns such as muddlers in natural and orange, slumpbusters and sculpzillas, although the classic olive woolly bugger works great as well.
- Muddler Minnow - Size 6-12
- Muddler Minnow - Orange - Size 6-10
- Sculpzilla - Tan, Natural, Olive, Black, White - Size 4-8
If you're looking to book a guide trip, things are starting to fill up for the Fall so now is the time to get the dates you want! Give us call at (509)674-2144 if you want to book a trip, or have any other questions about fishing.