I fished the Soho again today. It was the worst day fore-casted weather wise, cold rain, it was perfect!
I wanted to try out the midge quill pearl pattern on some different water, so I headed out at 6:00am this morning.
The trip was pretty, white snow remnant's on the west slopes of the mountains. I arrived on the water at 8:30am and set up a red zebra midge size 18 and dropped the midge quill off the first fly around 10".
I was looking for water that had seams and structure. I wanted to see if the fish would move for this fly.The spot I picked was about 3ft deep, and had a slow run on one side of a boulder and a faster riffle on the other side.
It was overcast with drizzle, that chilled me to the bone, I left my raincoat in the car, figuring the rain would just evaporate.
I cast just upstream of the boulder on the slow side, and let the current pull the flies into the seam near the boulder, then the indicator got pulled under violently, I set the hook and the fight was on. I could see the fish roll and knew right away it was a rainbow. The water was very clear and I could see the rose stripe and deep rose cheeks on this fish. It jumped twice trying to shake the hook, but I held on and managed to bring it to the net.
The colors on this rainbow were just awesome, very deep and rich. The spots were dark against the deep green
back. It looked like this fish was in full spawn colors.
I fished the other side of the boulder and manged a couple more rainbows and browns, both colored up and pretty.
Around noon, a good bwo hatch was on during some heavy rain, I wanted to get my raincoat, but couldn't leave rising fish, so I pressed on and tied a size 18 bwo dry and had a blast catching browns and bows during the rain.
The rain let up, and my hands were numb, so I decided it was a good time to get the rain gear on, even though I was soaked. I moved down river to another spot that offered some faster runs and big riffles.
I fished the midge pattern in this water and had a blast, the fish were very aggressive on this fly. I tied up six and left with three. I ended the day when I could no longer see the indicator, and could not feel my hands.
When I got back to the car, it took 15 minutes of full blast heat to get the feeling back in my hands.
But I could not think of a better way to spend a rainy.
Here are some pic's of the day.
Nice fish Karl! Wish I could have gone. Work is KILLIN ME!
Beautiful fish's! And Phatt too. ;hb Fish like that will make you forget about the cold for a little while.
I may have to try and tie that midge up.
tough as nails --- and dumber than bricks -- and you suck!
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on December 04, 2008, 21:23:21 PM
tough as nails --- and dumber than bricks -- and you suck!
What he said
Good fish
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on December 04, 2008, 21:23:21 PM
tough as nails --- and smarter than Einstein -- and you suck!
Fixed
Nice cold rain report - I got chills reading it & Beautiful fishes - especially the bow (looks like it has a tic on the gill plate though..did you remove it? lol)
Midge quill pearl - sounds like something I just tied up: 'Annie's Midge Emerger' which has a pearl bead representing the emerging bubble...?
Beautiful fishes there Troutphisher! Got to love those overcast rainy days! Seem to be my most productive days. :j
Karl,
Nice report. Good deal on the variation too! Your gonna make me get to tyin' some more of dem Ju ju Bees!
On Charlie's site he also has a variation called the Ju ju beatis. Think I might combine your Bighorn and da Ju ju bee.....all kinds of possibilities.!
Ralph 0--0
Those are some real pretty fish. Do the bows spawn in the fall on the soho? I know some species are fall spawners.
9ft4wt-
It seems to me that more quality rainbows are in the river than before. They seem to be making a comeback. A lot of 15-18" bows and some very big ones too. Is that others impression?
That football bow is definetly a male. I enjoy your reports.
I did see bigger Bo's last weekend than in the past