I spent a couple of hours exploring Valley Creek last week with a small 7′ 0″ 4 wt rod. Valley Creek holds a lot of smaller brook trout, cutthroats, stocked rainbows, whitefish, and salmon smolts. The brookies were happy to take a #14 Royal Wulff. Whitefish and rainbows went crazy for small nymphs, and I picked up several on #16 pheasant tail nymphs. Here are a few photos from my afternoon.
Valley Creek – Perfect for a small bamboo rod.
A nice brookie that took a Royal Wulff.
Hatchery Rainbow
Chris sent me this great photo of his first rainbow on his new bamboo rod I built him (below). This photo was from the Ruby Valley in Montana. He sure looks like a happy angler, although he might need a little work on his “posing for pictures”. Thanks for sharing Chris.
A Great Rainbow on a New Bamboo Fly Rod.
I just finished a great new rod for a good friend and fellow angler whom I’ve known for several years. Chris and I have been in conversation about his first bamboo fly rod for quite some time, and this rod is his retirement gift to himself. After casting several of my rods, he chose an 8′ 0″ 5/6 wt progressive action rod from my Signature Series of rods. It has a wonderfully smooth action to it, and it’s a good all-around rod for a variety of fishing conditions. He and I will hit one of our local trout streams tomorrow to test drive the rod. Here is a quick look at what he’ll get getting:
My 8′ 0″ 5/6 wt Signature Series Bamboo Fly Rod
I got out my 10′ 6″ 5 wt Bamboo Switch Rod today and tried swinging some large wooley buggers through some of the heavy, deeper water downstream from town a ways. We’ve had some unusually hot weather for the past several days so I was thinking some of the larger cutthroats might have moved into the faster moving, more oxygenated water. I chose a weighted #4 Black Wooley Bugger with a gold cone-head. This proved to be a good choice and I was able to pick up a few nice cutties. Here is a sample of my day.
A #4 Black Wooley Bugger
A nice 16″ Cutthroat that couldn’t resist my wooley bugger on the swing.
Mary Ann was on the river guiding today so I went out on my own. I hit a favorite spot on the Salmon River, and had the hardest time finding any fish willing to look up for dry flies. The water looked good, and there were olive stoneflies, caddis, and golden stoneflies out on the water. But, I only managed a entice couple of 10″ rainbows to my dry flies. Whitefish were very happy to take nymphs, and I picked up 12 or 14 on stonefly nymphs and prince nymphs. After 4 hours of fishing I was just about to call it a day. But, instead, I worked upstream to deeper water, still trying the same dry flies that I had been trying earlier in the day. Surprisingly, from 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM when It was 98 degrees, I picked up 6 nice cutthroats on a #12 olive bodied Elk Hair Caddis and a #8 Yellow Crystal Stimulator. I’m not sure why I had this success late in the day, but I was certainly happy to finally find some cooperative Cutties! Here are a couple of photos for my day:
Slower, deeper water upstream by the rocks.
A nice cutthroat that took a yellow crystal stimulator.
I’ve been using this fly here in Central Idaho with great success. It seems to be a good imitation for adult golden stoneflies. I can’t take credit for the invention of this fly…I found something like this a fly shop here…I don’t remember which one or what the original version of this fly was called. But, I’ve modified it a little to match the smaller adult golden stoneflies that we’re seeing in late June. Mary Ann has been calling this pattern the Chubby Junior…even though it has no resemblance to a Chubby Chernobyl…the name sounds fine to me. Here is the recipe:
Hook: #8 2X long
Tail: Tan Calf Tail
Body: gold dubbing with 2mm tan foam on top
Wing: 12 strands of white crystal flash, with tan calf tail on top
Head/Thorax: 2mm tan foam
Leggs: Brown Rubber
Hackle: brown
Top View
Underside View