Metolius TR

I fished the upper river today, from 11:30 to around 4:00. The normal
bewildering mix of bugs common in the Spring. BWOs and quite a few
little yellow Mays. Three or four types of caddis, from #8-10 tans to
smaller greens, browns and rust/brick reds.

There were also large (#12?) mayflies with a thin dirty orange body I
couldn't ID that came out in bunches of a couple of dozen at a time every
10-15 minutes around mid-day. Also something like a small cranefly.

The mix was bewildering but beside the point. I saw only one fish rise
the whole day, a small sad halfhearted sort of rise. Worked it for a
while with both dries and emergers--nothing doing. Saved myself from a
skunking at the very end of the day only by giving up on dries and
nymphing below a chute that leads into a long deep pool. A very good
rainbow took a #16 bhpt hung from the bend of a tbh prince on the
second cast into the head of the pool. A tough, dogged fight.... runs
weren't long, but there were a number of them. No photo 'cause I'd
played it a bit longer than I wanted to, but it was 18-20"--somewhere
in there--chunky and deeply colored.

Pleasant day, especially after 2:00 or so, when the sun came out to stay.
55-60°, with only the odd gust of wind now and then. Saw two hawks I
couldn't ID--one gunning it down river, the other, larger, beating
slowly between the pines across the river--a pair of mergansers, lots of
robins and songbirds, geese, scads of small pale blue butterflies in their
mating dance, the streamside trees and bushes all green with budding out.

Sometimes this flyfishing business is all right....

JR

"JR" wrote

(snip)

Sometimes this flyfishing business is all right....

sometimes, reading about it is the same...

yfitons
wayno

On 5/12/05 3:20 AM, in article , "JR"
wrote:

snip
Sometimes this flyfishing business is all right....

As are the TRs. Sounds like a good day out. Thanks, JR!

Bill

"JR" wrote

I fished the upper river today, from 11:30 to around 4:00. The normal
bewildering mix of bugs common in the Spring. BWOs and quite a few
little yellow Mays. Three or four types of caddis, from #8-10 tans to
smaller greens, browns and rust/brick reds.



JR, I'm curious, were these bugs actually seen emerging, i.e. in/on the
water or just in the air and bushes?

I don't know much about fishing, but as a guy that spends 95% of his fishing
time specifically chasing hatches and rising fish I "think I know" that here
as elsewhere, Bushes often Lie ... i.e. bugs in the bush and the air (
lumped together I call these 'Bush Bugs' ) can be very misleading.

Such bugs do tell us what has hatched recently and give strong clues as to
what time of day/ water temp/ weather type we can expect them to hatch again
soon, but the more fertile the stream the LESS likely the fish are to take
dries 'all day.' They concentrate on the true hatch periods and get
plenty to eat then. At especially plentiful times, such as Spring, they can
concentrate on some hatches each day and let other less dense ones pass
entirely unattended. So, IME, if you see lots of Bush Bugs but not rising
fish on very fertile streams, those Bush Bugs are a strong clue as to what
NYMPH to choose, not dry fly, or even a clue to leave and come back at a
different time to have a much better chance at risers.



Disclaimer: You should be suspect of anything I say as I don't know ****
about fishing, and am from California g

Larry L wrote:

JR, I'm curious, were these bugs actually seen emerging, i.e. in/on the
water or just in the air and bushes?
snip

Good question. They were all either on the water or in the air over the
water. I don't look for bugs in the bushes/trees, except to photograph
them, and that only very rarely.

I know the large tan caddis had hatched in slower water in the shoreline
shallows and were just flying upstream past where I was fishing (very
close to the surface). None of the adult caddis (or only a very few of
the smallest ones) were on the water. For these, in addition to small
EHCs, I tried fishing soft hackles and LaFontaine sparkle pupas and
emergers..... zip.

The really frustrating ones were the BWOs and the yellow mays. Quite a
number of BWO duns were floating on the surface, but unlike during the
winter months, the fish ignored them entirely--no doubt too many
alternate items on the subsurface menu right now... The little yellow
mays (Cinygmula spp?) seemed to just pop out of the water: up to the
surface and then poof!, airborne. I'm sure I've seen them floating on the
water in previous years. Odd. How the heck do they dry their wings?
Fished some cdc emergers and some small nymphs using a Leisenring lift,
but with no luck.

From what a fellow in Sisters told me last night, it seems the craneflies
had hatched earlier in the day in the big deep slow eddies. Anybody have
a good cranefly cripple pattern?

The Metolius is a tough river any way you cut it. I've been skunked there
often. Its beauty and the chance for large fish are its attractions, not
numbers of fish. Even one, especially a good big-hearted fish like
yesterday's, gives great satisfaction.

Disclaimer: You should be suspect of anything I say as I don't know ****
about fishing, and am from California g

I keep telling you, we love all Californians who aren't planning to move
here :-). When are you going to come up to fish? If we combine your
ignorance with mine, the poor fish won't have a chance.... g

JR

"JR" wrote


The Metolius is a tough river any way you cut it. I've been skunked there
often. Its beauty and the chance for large fish are its attractions, not
numbers of fish. Even one, especially a good big-hearted fish like
yesterday's, gives great satisfaction.



I've heard about it being tough from several sources and that is the main
reason I have it on my list of 'maybe someday' places to visit. I DO like
to catch fish, but don't like it to come too easy. The sense of having
'solved the problem, at least today' is far more pleasant than the tug of
yet another fish.

It seems that most guys I talk to prefer to always be going to new places
and putting 'been there done that' notches on their rod handles. But when
life offered me more fishing time there was no doubt in my mind that I
wanted to find "adopted home waters" I would then learn as intimately as my
remaining time allows, instead of traveling to new places very much.

I've pretty much settled on a collection of 4 or 5 spring creek/ tailwaters
in Montahoming as my adopted home waters, but the Metolius is written up as
the type of place that could get added to the list. The problem is that if
the list gets too long, then the knowledge and intimacy with 'place' that
pleases me so much, will become impossible to attain in the time available.

Back to the thought that started me going.... tough fish .... my most
beloved place is the HFork from HLake to St. Anthony .... and like most
non-residents I tend to spend a lot of time at the Ranch, even though there
is a LOT of very good water elsewhere on the drainage. This section is
certainly 'down' from the glory days of the past, but still has good fish
counts compared to most streams.

But it's greatest asset, to me, is it's 'toughness' ... i.e. the difficulty
of catching fish, especially on the Ranch. Ranch regulars don't count or
try for smaller fish ( under about 14" or so, for this creek ) and it
takes real skill, luck, and determination to catch many of the 'real' fish
in a day.

In fact, most of us that love the place have stories of
spending days and days on a single 'big head' ... then getting broken off.

What McGuane says is the reason that each summer I meet a great many
"place collectors," moaning, in the parking lot after a poor showing,
about how overrated the Ranch is, and it's also the reason I love the place
enough that it is my "adopted home water" ..... different strokes G

---------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
"Fish and anglers have trained each other to an elegant near-standoff: the
Henry's Fork gives up each fish with grave reluctance. I don't know of
another stream where one is more likely to go home skunked after angling
with reasonable skill among feeding fish"
-Thomas McGuane-

"JR" wrote in message ...
I fished the upper river today, from 11:30 to around 4:00. The normal
bewildering mix of bugs common in the Spring. BWOs and quite a few
little yellow Mays. Three or four types of caddis, from #8-10 tans to
smaller greens, browns and rust/brick reds.

---snipped and it is a crime to do so---

As always, a top notch TR from you! Thanks! This fishery has always been
too challenging for me. I can see fish in the river by the hundreds but I
have only caught a few over the years. It is so beautiful I hat to come
back from time to time and take my punishment. I am glad to hear you had
success! One fish would make my day/week/month/year for damn sure...adding
in the benefits of just being on this water, as you so wonderfully
described,would make my punishment very pleasant indeed. Thanks again!

Chris

"JR" wrote in message ...
I fished the upper river today, from 11:30 to around 4:00.

(snip)

Saw two hawks I
couldn't ID--one gunning it down river, the other, larger, beating
slowly between the pines across the river--a pair of mergansers, lots of
robins and songbirds, geese, scads of small pale blue butterflies in their
mating dance, the streamside trees and bushes all green with budding out.
Sometimes this flyfishing business is all right....
JR

Hi JR,
Great detail to take me there. Great day in my humble opinion. Thanks.
BestWishes,
DaveMohnsen
Denver