My Life and Travels
Today was the most amazing day of fishing. This is by far the most fish I have ever caught in one day.
Tied flies this evening I have used up all I had in my fly inventory.
Zebra Midge. Size 22, 20, 18 and 16
DRAFT more information needs to be added.
Went fishing after Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, fished 11:30 to 4:30. 33 to net and 200+ strikes.
They are hard to hook, just touch the fly before they spit it out. The strike indicator will just drop below the surface of the water or change directions. If quick enough you get a fish or feel the tug on the line. Then the challenge comes with getting them all the way to the net without them coming off. A lot of times the fish will come towards you so you have to strip line in like crazy or when the line goes slack the hook will come out of the fish’s mouth, it is fun.
Needless to say I had a lot more fish on then made it all the way to the net.
This is the size hooks I am using.
Picture of hooks and dime.
Morning
19 to the net, 6 more on, many strikes
Quit because of the wind, started blowing pretty good and I was starting to get blown over. Standing in cold water for three hours the legs don’t move as fast as they used too. If I have been in the same place for a while or just been inching along I often get my walking stick out before making any big moves. Having that third leg makes a big difference when walking on slippery rocks in moving water. By the way the river flow is twice the normal flow, last year it was at normal.
Did not fish after lunch, it was just too windy.
The weather overall has been really nice.
Slept in this morning and did not get to the river until after 10:00.
Got 9 fish, things have really slowed down.
In the afternoon I did some coach things:
Used the $9.99 Harbor Freight angle grinder plus $1.99 grinding wheel to get a lock off the solar panel. The locks I bought for this panel can get the combination changed really easy when the lock is open. This is the second time this has happened. The first time I figured out the new combination. This time I got new locks and a grinder to get the lock off the panel. We will be using the solar panel while at the Balloon Fiesta and I did not want to leave it out unsecured.
At 3:00 when I start to go fishing a large thunderstorm was building to the south. I decided to set and watch it come to us and it did, we have now had three storms blow though. The second one had at least 40 mph winds with it and was raising the large slide topper up a foot.
Went fishing early this morning, at the river 7:45. Slow fishing got 13 small fish
Afternoon went up the river to the BLM area on the “Quality Water” area. Got one fish and had a nice fish on for a while before it got off. All the drift boats were commenting about how slow it was today.
Here are a couple of river pictures.
Morning 10 fish using 5 wt 10 foot Orvis H3
Missed a lot of strikes
Afternoon 14 fish 3 wt 10 foot
We went into Farmington early this morning and we are now proud owns of a brand new generator carburetor. It has not been running very well when it first starts since we were in Montana this spring. A couple of times I was not sure it was going to start and stay running. After couple of minutes when it warmed up it would run fine. I changed the spark plugs while we were at the big house and it started right up and ran fine. Our first stop after leaving the big house was at Salmon Cove just off a Chinook Pass. It had trouble starting and ran rich and stumbled for several minutes just like in Montana. The problem has continued so we are going to the Cummins/Onan Service facility in Farmington. The service manager said they called Onan and Onan said to check the electric chock. The chock is supposed recover after 2 ½ minutes and ours was over 5 minutes also the altitude adjustment is not working. The chock Spring is not available by itself thus we have a new carburetor.
It was a challenge to get to Farmington. Last night’s thunderstorm left the two miles of dirt road from the state park to the main highway a bit iffy. We got up at 6:00 and I drive two blocks to just outside of the campground area to check out a flash flood area. It was still dark and all I could see was water and mud. I had decided I couldn’t tell how deep the water was and we would miss our appointment to check out the generator. Then a pickup came into the park and showed the water was not very deep. I drove the pickup the two miles out to the main road and the hills were not too slippery.
6 fish in the morning
5 fish in afternoon. Rain storm came through in the afternoon big time rain. I had stopped to put on my raincoat so I just fished through the rain, everybody else left, 5 people. I did get out of the river when I heard thunder. Never did see any lightning but called it a day anyway.
Fished after Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. 11:30 – 3:00
23 to the net many more strikes and a few more hooked and got off
Many in the 10 to 12 inch range and one 16 inch brown.
A 16 inch brown on a three weight rod takes a while to get to the net. On the third cast after the brown I caught a 10 inch rainbow, as I was reaching into the net to unhook this fish the knot on the hook gave out and came untied. I almost lost that big brown.
I have sure learned a lot about setting the hook while fly fishing. With this Euro Nymphing/Tight Line Nymphing you have a length colored line (sighter line) as part of the leader so you can better see your line. The sighter line is tied in the leader with blood knots with inch and a half to two inch tails. This makes it a little easier to see the colored line You cast up stream and let the nymph drift with the river flow. When the line makes any movement you wouldn’t expect to be part of the normal river flow you give a short hook set. The unexpected movement may have been a stick in the water or bumping the bottom of the river, OR it is amazing how many times it is a fish. On one drift the sighter line moved a couple of inches toward the middle of the river rather then flowing to the right down river, a quick rise of the rod tip about a foot of rise and the line instantly starts running off the reel out across the river, 16 inch brown on a three weight rod.
Morning fishing 17 to the net
1 – 12 inch
1 – 11 inch
2 – 10 inch
and the rest were 6 to 9 inches had bunch hit my fly but I was unable to hook them or they got off before I got them to the net.
Same as yesterday got a small fish on first cast nice fish on third cast.
Afternoon
1 – 12 inch
1 small one
10 strikes that I did not hook