Summer Heat, July 28,29, 2012

I have been on several rivers in the past couple of days. Summer temperatures have arrived along with full sunshine which makes things challenging. I fished a river with brown trout in it and caught several fish on grasshoppers. They weren't large but catching them is always special as there is not a lot of brown trout water around here. Here are some pictures.

I have also been fishing a local tailwater river as the water temperature is cold and there has been hatch activity. I caught some large rainbows, cutthroats and cuttbows (hybrids) on pmd dries and emergers. Most of the fish seen were selectively feeding on emergers. I sight casted with a size 18 emerger resembling a pheasant tail nymph in body color with gold ribbing, a rust/orange zelon tail, and puff of brown cdc for emerging wing (clipped). The fish responded to it. Those that were sipping occasionally were hooked on a size 16 pmd, tied parachute style with either white or black polypro post/wing for visibility depending on the lighting. A black wing shows up great on a large, broad rivers when the surface due to light conditions looks metal grey. I learnt this fishing the Missouri river in Montana and also read about it in a great book called: Small Fly Adventures in the West, by Neale Streeks. It is the best small fly angling book I've read.
The tailwater angling was challenging, technical fishing: sight casting small flies to some large fish showing themselves in full sun..lots of fun, and no split shot! Here are some tailwater trout photos.

tailwater cutthroat