the water has warmed

The weather has been excellent in the valley lately so i hit a local pond hoping for some warm water species on the fly. Only fished for 3 hours and ended up with 50+ bluegill  All very aggressive,hard fighting and most were very fat and quite large. I was also surprised with a half dozen crappie nice and a perch. I saw fish moving around in shallow water, eating damselfly nymphs and such. Most effective areas were shaded spots, coves and weed lines i would just cast the fly and use slow long strips or simply pull my rod towards my side and the fish would smash my fly. Fly of the day was a #12 possie  bugger,also caught 2 fish on a peacock soft hackle, They were not very willing to take dries But man it was a blast.  I want to say that The  Pictures do not do most of these fish justice..  They were a handful on my little 4wt it was bent in half with every fish! i got so bored with taking pictures so eventually i turned the camera,But here are a few decent ones and some of the smaller fish  this will keep me held over for the trout opener next saturday..atleast i hope

season ender?

friday and saturday marked the end of my season chasing lake dwelling cutthroat in the coast range. I went twice last week, once on friday with my friend noah out of kayaks and once on saturday with mmy friend brad out of the float tube. both were fun trips and  nobnody  was skunked either.  the first day noah caught 7 fish on bait and i caught 4, 1 on a soft hackle and 3 on dry flies. We even went up the mouth of the creek then shot down the current witch was a blast. Saturday we arrived early and fished a few hours before the civil war (ducks Vs beavers)   we both missed several fish throughout the trip but each managed a nice fish before leaving. ill put a picture up for now  to hold everyone over

14 inch dry fly cutthroat caught while casting to rising fish

some stillwater action




the reservoir

 



a landlocked coho salmon that fell for my micro sparkle leech

 



one of brads cutthroat he caught while gear fishing

  yesterday i came home from the lake, this time not frustrated and not skunked. It started out in the morning   at the gravel boat launch  and  it was the first time me and my buddy brad were going to float around the reservoir. I was using a float tube and him, a pontoon. We launched off   headed to the upper end of the reservoir and trolled alogn the way. i was trolling a heavily weighted black krystal bugger he used a different fly and his gear rod we trolled all the way there  only to have one bite .  we floated around i casting flies,him using his lures..for what seemed like  4 hours  without any hits action started heating up for brad. He caught and released several nice sized cutthroat  while i was still getting skunked, i started to get frustrated and decided to try something new. I tied on a thingamabobber strike indicator and set it a 7 ft.  then i tied on  a fly i came up with, a micro sparkle leech size  12. First cast within seconds i had a fish take my fly, i set the hook  and my line was tight...yes! i thought to ymself as the fish tugged and tried to escape.. i netted the fish  (approx 11 1/2 inches)  and realized it wasn't a trout, but a landlocked coho salmon  result of  outgoing offspring of trucked in adults from the creek that decided to call the reservoir their home and the creek above, their spawning grounds. Anyways, we got a picture  and i released the fish only to get a bite the very next cast, i had several bites that were  missed while brad was still catching a few on his spinning setup. after a while of taking a lunch break and re rigging with a smaller micro leech (size 14)  i casted to a rising fish and hooked up, this one slightly smaller then the other but still  put up a fight.  After that fish it died off  pretty quick and the time neared 3pm. we headed back to the ramp and called it a day, one without a skunk for me finally!  (i'm new to stillwater fly fishing)   it has a great day, now thta i partially have the fish figured out it hink i will have better luck saturday, but it's suppose to snow/rain up ther ein the hills so it will be tough!