Since I have the next week off it was time to get some fishing in. It had just rained about half an inch monday night which brought up stream levels considerably. Thats not always a bad thing however. There are some streams where the best thing for it is a good inch of rain to bring its levels up to the sweet spot.
I kept my eyes on the stream gauge and went out when it was hovering around 100CFS. It was still a bit dirtier then expected and I only had an hour to thoroughly fish. I had nothing by a few swipes on my slumpbuster i was swinging. I told myself I would come back out later in the evening when I had more time which would also allow the clarity to improve.
Unfortunately by the time I got back out the second shot of water brought the stream levels back up above 130CFS and it was pretty much blown out. This usually happens on this watershed and i call it the double dip. After that drop from the second dip you’re usually in for some good fishing. I decided to shoot over to a special regulation water and see what that was looking like at the reported 350CFS, which is about 3x more then its average flow.
As expected it was a mess, unfishable. I would have to wait until tomorrow to get back out. I knew the first stream would pretty much already be back down to normal levels as its clear fast and it would have all night to do so. It can be 150CFS and high mud at night on one day and be down to normal 40CFS and gin clear the next morning. Of course that was pretty much the case here as I went back out the next morning.
I arrived the next morning around 10AM and as expected the water was about normal flows at 45CFS with a slight tint. With the water also being a mere 34 degrees that tint was my only advantage. I started with stripping streamers and did actually get a couple swipes and landed one fish.
With the streamer bite going dead and the water clearing up i decided to do some nymphing on the way back to the car. I was able to pick up two more. probably should of been nymphing the entire time, but sometimes stubbornness wins.
I then decided to shoot over to fish the special regulations watershed with my remaining afternoon hours. Seeing the water was being reported at around 150CFS it should actually be fishable, albeit a bit high.
As expected the water levels were high but the clarity was good. At-least in the riffles and upstream of any tribs. It was pretty easy finding the schools of fish all congregated in the varies holding water. Getting them to eat however was a different story. They were all so shocked the majority wanted nothing to do with anything. It mostly probably had to do with going from a 60 degree water tank to a 30 degree stream. I was lucky enough however to land a handful, all in the mouth. No whether or not they willingly ate it, or my perfectly executed drifts basically forced it into their mouth ill never know. The best fish pushed over 20 inches as measured on my net.
