Funny How Fishing is Some Days ….

[Stagger_Lee]

Abt 3 weeks ago I hit the LL. Expecting a really challenging afternoon for me as the water was what seemed fairly low and it was pretty clear. Tough conditions for most experienced FFishermen so for us gents ….. even tougher. That day I started with my ties no luck and switched over to a PT and Bugger caught 4 in total (landing 2) and had a bunch of takes as well.

Yesterday I hit the same stream and thought the conditions looked good for me. Creek was high but very cloudy and the am sun was blocked by clouds (until abt 11AM-ish) …. Considering time b4 confidence was high and thought it would all come into place. 1st 2 hrs spent chucking my own ties. Not expecting much with them but gave it a shot. Many of u guys were right and the ones not finished correctly started to fall apart. The ones I ½ hitched stayed together (tho I lost some on rocks) …. no luck but I wasn’t that frustrated considering I wasn’t expecting much.

I thought the conditions were good for buggers …. I tried black, black with green sparkle, bead heads, no bead heads, different sizes etc, etc …. Not a bite. It was just one of those days where, considering the prior time and comparing conditions, I expected so much yet the creek and the fish humbled me. I know there will be many more days like yesterday but in the end the thing you must always walk away with is..

Just being out there alone for hours when u need to be .. soothing the soul from the everyday minutia of life ….. it can humble me each and every time.

 

[Swattie87]

I too took the skunk this weekend on two streams where I thought the conditions didn't support a skunking. Happens some times...snow melt dragging temps down, who knows. We'll get em' next time.

 

[Stagger_Lee]

Similar conditions Swattie?

Buggers are the call on high dirty H2O, no?

 

[Swattie87]

Yeah, that's what I was fishing too. The two I fished were smaller freestoners. They weren't ripping, but were flowing nicely with a tiny bit of color.

I hooked (and lost) one dead drifting the Bugger through a slow hole, but that was it.

 

[afishinado]

Stagger_Lee wrote:
Similar conditions Swattie?

Buggers are the call on high dirty H2O, no?

Yes....but........the fish are very lethargic in the cold water. Stripping buggers may not be what the fish want. Try dead drifting rather than using an aggressive retrieve.

This time of year you will often find most the fish in the slower and deep water. Concentrate on getting your fly down and dead drift or move it slowly. Low and slow....not always that easy.

Also, pay close attention to your line or indicator. Many times the fish hit flies very lightly in colder conditions. HTH.

 

[Stagger_Lee]

afish wrote:

Yes....but........the fish are very lethargic in the cold water. Stripping buggers may not be what the fish want. Try dead drifting rather than using an aggressive retrieve.

This time of year you will often find most the fish in the slower and deep water. Concentrate on getting you fly down and dead drift or move it slowly. Low and slow....not always that easy.

I must say .. as one of the more productive fly's I haven't fished them often at all ... I know there are threads on buggers here but ... dead drifting a bugger is basically fishing it like a nymph?

Afish wrote:

Also, pay close attention to your line or indicator. Many times the fish hit flies very lightly in colder conditions. HTH.

Hmmm .. maybe those very light indicator moves were hits. Now that I feel better ... per colder; it's been really cold but Sat and Sun def warmer. I thought that would be a net+ but I don't own a thermometer to gauge the temp ... wonder what the temp for the LL was this weekend.

 

[delta_dog]

Glad you had a good time Stag that's all that matters. Yes dead drifting a bugger IS just like fishing a nymph. Fishing during a snow melt is never easy. It reminds me of coming home from Hawaii for Christmas. Even people get lethargic with temp changes.

 

[Foxgap239]

I was up at camp this weekend and actually did pretty well for the conditions. Both small mountain streams and I got brooks and browns on both using a dry dropper rig. I actually got one brookie on the dry. That said, I should not have been out there by myself. 14 to 15 inches of snow covered the streams in quite a few places and I had no idea whether I was stepping on ground or water. Fell through twice but fortunately didn't get wet or hurt either time. After the second time, I took the hint and went back to camp. Weather was gorgeous but I'd advise anyone to be careful.

 

[pcray1231]

Fishing is more unpredictable in winter.

But generally it's all about water temp, and it's direction of change. If the water is warming = good. If water is cooling = bad.

Now, the counter-intuitive part. With a decent snow cover, a warm day means the water is getting COLDER!

Water comes from the springs at 50-55 degrees year round. Yeah, it cools from the air, but slowly. So if you have no snow melt, that water might be decently warm. Even at 40 degrees and cloudy, snow melt isn't that severe, and that 50 degree springwater hasn't cooled too much. = perfect.

But add rain. Or make it 45 or 50 and sunny, and you're melting snow, adding lots of 32 degree water to the stream. Water temp goes down. Fish shut off. I didn't fish this weekend but it doesn't surprise me that it wasn't very good in places where there was a lot of snow on the ground and especially warm temps. Up north, either you have less snow, or it did not get quite as warm.

 

[lv2nymph]

I was out on Saturday and the wind made it tough for me. I mean my leader had more moves than a belly dancer! Couldn't tell a hit from squat, but I kept movin on figuring it was good practice for strike detection in strong wind. Hooked and lost a dozen, I know it was from late hook sets. Really I felt lucky to just sting em. Finally I got one to hand about the time I was ready to pack it in. Still, it was great to be on the water. :-D

 

[Stagger_Lee]

And that is why Pcray is in engineering and I'm not! All I thought abt was two nice days on a limestone creek and the fish will be active, or more active cause the stream warmed up. Never once thought abt all that snow melt/run-off into the creek making it cold

l2nymph wrote:

Still, it was great to be on the water.

Always co-sign to that ..

 

[BrookieChaser]

The limestone creek I fished Saturday warmed 3* F from 0800-1700 despite the turbidity increasing through the course of the day due to runoff.

 

[osprey]

Stag.........you have a good attitude about it and it will happen as long as you continue the pursuit. Next time using the same rig , Buggers , i hope you tear em up!!!!!

 

[Six-Gun]

pcray1231 wrote:
Fishing is more unpredictable in winter.

But generally it's all about water temp, and it's direction of change. If the water is warming = good. If water is cooling = bad.

Now, the counter-intuitive part. With a decent snow cover, a warm day means the water is getting COLDER!

Water comes from the springs at 50-55 degrees year round. Yeah, it cools from the air, but slowly. So if you have no snow melt, that water might be decently warm. Even at 40 degrees and cloudy, snow melt isn't that severe, and that 50 degree springwater hasn't cooled too much. = perfect.

But add rain. Or make it 45 or 50 and sunny, and you're melting snow, adding lots of 32 degree water to the stream. Water temp goes down. Fish shut off. I didn't fish this weekend but it doesn't surprise me that it wasn't very good in places where there was a lot of snow on the ground and especially warm temps. Up north, either you have less snow, or it did not get quite as warm.

afishinado wrote:

Stagger_Lee wrote:
Similar conditions Swattie?

Buggers are the call on high dirty H2O, no?

Yes....but........the fish are very lethargic in the cold water. Stripping buggers may not be what the fish want. Try dead drifting rather than using an aggressive retrieve.

This time of year you will often find most the fish in the slower and deep water. Concentrate on getting your fly down and dead drift or move it slowly. Low and slow....not always that easy.

Also, pay close attention to your line or indicator. Many times the fish hit flies very lightly in colder conditions. HTH.

Boy, isn't this the truth! I never took a fishing trip during a snow melt until two weekends ago. The weather warmed up drastically and the anchor ice on the edges of the river was visibly receded by the end of the day, but the water temp never broke 39 degrees. Talk about tough fishing! I landed two fish all day and both appeared like nothing more than bottom snags to me when they hit the size 16 beadless hare's ear until I lifted the rod. That's how slow the fish were striking. This same river was producing 10+ browns per trip during the summer when water temps where in the high 50s.