Hillboy
Member
Fished the catch and release stretch last week for 4 days, Apr 5-8. Caught the skunk on days one and two. Tried everything in the box, drifted high and low, single, double and triple bugs...nada. I saw a few fish caught. Everyone seemed to be using the same nymph combos....RS-2, plain and flashback, black beauties, midges all in 20-24. I was getting perfect drag free drifts, but no takers. Luckily I didn't see a whole lot of other takers around me or I would have been depressed. The wind blew with rain, sleet and snow. It wasn't all that cold, so not too bad to fish in. A hatch came out in the afternoon on both days. I kind of threw an emerger out there a few times, but no takers. I mostly fished by the bridge. Flows were right around 100 cfs.
Day three more of the same weather, more of the same with the nymph rig. I was fishing further upstream in the C&R area, and in the middle of the rain/snow squall fish really started rising. I was using a little parachute Adams as an indicator because that little brown emerger was almost impossible to see (bought it from Patrick at 3 Rivers...not sure what it is called). The light changed and I could see a pretty good stretch of water where the fish were rising, so I clipped off the Adams and threw out the emerger by itself. Had to use a big sweeping flip cast to try to get the fly to land without drag. It was a real pain in the wind and rain, but maybe every 4-5 casts would land just right and bang! Fish on. Not sure how many I caught in about a 2 hour window....maybe 8 or 9. And one was the biggest rainbow I've ever taken on a dry fly. I don't carry a tape, and have no way of saying for sure. But a really good fish on the Taylor C&R is over 25". Took me a long time to land it on 6x. Great day.
Went back for day 4 and it was kind of scattered clouds, sunshine and wind. Not much worked. Again, nothing on nymphs. I don't know what I am doing wrong there. I fish Deckers and Cheesman canyon a lot, and do really well. And I think those waters get at least as much pressure. Couldn't figure it out. But, the hatch came off again after noon, and the ermerger worked it's magic. Nothing really big, but some really decent fish. Then it got really cold, so I went to the bar and watched the end of the Masters. All in all a good 4 days. If you have the time, now is a good time to hit that great tailwater.
Good luck!
Day three more of the same weather, more of the same with the nymph rig. I was fishing further upstream in the C&R area, and in the middle of the rain/snow squall fish really started rising. I was using a little parachute Adams as an indicator because that little brown emerger was almost impossible to see (bought it from Patrick at 3 Rivers...not sure what it is called). The light changed and I could see a pretty good stretch of water where the fish were rising, so I clipped off the Adams and threw out the emerger by itself. Had to use a big sweeping flip cast to try to get the fly to land without drag. It was a real pain in the wind and rain, but maybe every 4-5 casts would land just right and bang! Fish on. Not sure how many I caught in about a 2 hour window....maybe 8 or 9. And one was the biggest rainbow I've ever taken on a dry fly. I don't carry a tape, and have no way of saying for sure. But a really good fish on the Taylor C&R is over 25". Took me a long time to land it on 6x. Great day.
Went back for day 4 and it was kind of scattered clouds, sunshine and wind. Not much worked. Again, nothing on nymphs. I don't know what I am doing wrong there. I fish Deckers and Cheesman canyon a lot, and do really well. And I think those waters get at least as much pressure. Couldn't figure it out. But, the hatch came off again after noon, and the ermerger worked it's magic. Nothing really big, but some really decent fish. Then it got really cold, so I went to the bar and watched the end of the Masters. All in all a good 4 days. If you have the time, now is a good time to hit that great tailwater.
Good luck!
