On Thursday my clients, Steve and Eric, fished the lower Kinni.  Nymphing caught several fish late morning and into the evening.  Swinging a wet fly moved a few fish especially at the tail of a drift.  A few fish missed and caught on caddis throughout the day and into the evening.  The day ended with Eric catching a brown trout on the caddis.  One of my favorite times with clients is meal time.  Everyone sits back, enjoys the scenery and food, and chats as the water and other nature provide background music.  Birds chattering, grouse drumming, leaves rustling, and water gurgling.

Friday we fished the Rush.  Steve and Eric really enjoyed the view of the cliffs and water.  A little different look then the Kinni.  Fish were rising when we hit the water, we quickly narrowed it down to crane flies were the preferred choice.  Eric hooked up on a nice fish that charged into and under some rocks seemingly to use it as leverage to dislodge his fly.  The sun eventually tipped over the trees to peer directly into the water.  The fish sunk in as temps rose.  The water was still cool as we wet wadded very comfortably.  Another enjoyable day on the water.

Started the day teaching a “Getting Started Class” at Kinni Creek Lodge and Outfitters with fellow Guide and Instructor Andy Roth, Gray Goat Fly Fishing, to a great group of 14 beginners.  I always enjoy working with beginners and sometimes wish when I started around 20 years ago I would have been a student cutting down my learning curve by getting to ask questions and learn about the sport from two experienced instructors.  This was the first time I have ever taught with Andy and the man is a wonderful story teller, making connections to each person in the class and what brought them there that day.  A skill I hope to build upon in my own teaching.  I enjoy helping beginners start their journey in a sport that has brought much satisfaction and fulfillment to mine.  Between the two of us I am sure many questions were answered and some where now equipped to be dangerous.  I look forward to seeing these anglers on the water someday down the road.

After the fly shop at Kinni Creek had quieted down I set out to do some fishing of my own.  As I approached the lower Kinni I noticed an angler sitting in the grass upstream a bit.  He recognized me and I walked over to chat, it was a student from a “Getting Started Class” I taught a few weeks before our paths had crossed once again.  He was said he was having a good time, fishing was a little frustrating but in all it was a great day to be on the water.  I crossed the stream to kick out a flurry of caddis, reaching the other side I noticed a yellow stone sitting on a blade of grass.  It wasn’t long before I hooked a 10 inch brook trout on a tan bread & butter caddis.  Missed and caught a few more and the sun was beginning to duck behind the hillside. Caddis seemed to disappear and cream Mayflies were beginning to appear, I was able to grab two first not sure if it was a light henrickson or a pale evening dun and second catching a Kinni Sulphur.  In addition to the swarms of light colored midges were a smattering of crane flies.  I switched out my caddis to a dun caught a few, then the rising trout seemed less interested so I switched to a parachute to do the same.  Finally ending with a cripple as I could no longer see the fly, reacting to the sound of trout sipping or splashing bringing a few more to hand.  A great end to a wonderful day.  The water was slightly off color early in the day and cleared a bit as the day went on.  There still was a tint of cloudiness as the evening prevailed.  I look forward to the days ahead as some of the best dry fly fishing is here.  It can be a little maddening trying to guess which one of the five or so bugs coming off that they are keying on but that is the game of fly fishing.

I hope all the Moms out there had a Happy Mothers Day on Sunday!

Many thing in life are enjoyable but there is something magical about a client making the needed cast and the fish eagerly taking the bread & butter caddis you tied up the night before.  On this day that event was repeated time after time for me.  Today’s trip on the Whitewater system started about 11am after pulling in to find the parking area vacant.  We started walking and catching up on life since the last time we were on the water together.  The air is a crisp 40 degrees F and sunny with a spattering of clouds.

Arriving at the first riffle and run I noticed a few fish rise along with some mayflies.  Tied on an emerger which gets hit on the first cast.  A nice start to the day.  Within minutes the riffle is bubbling with rising trout.  Ralph methodically picked them off one by one bringing about 15 to hand in this one riffle.  I take notice of the little grey caddis crawling all over his waders.  The mayflies I saw before are a lot fewer and more and more caddis are hopping on the water surface.  Ralph continues to catch fish on the upright hair wing emerger but the fish are catching on.  We move to the next riffle to find more fish rising.  The emerger lands a couple fish but soon the fish are ignoring it.  I tie on a grey bread & butter caddis which Ralph presented to a few more cooperative fish.

We came upon a some timber, sunken logs, and rising trout.  Casting to trout rising in very tight places requires a great amount of confidence and precision. Ralph threaded the needle to a perfect drift to a swipes n miss by a nice brown trout.  He quickly cast in again the wind blew it a little off target and another fish swings and misses.  After making a few casts upriver of the structure the fish between the uprights and over the sunken log continue rising.  Ralph makes the cast and brings to hand a gorgeous 14 incher.  We continue fishing our way up river fishing dries mostly and nypmhing with a tungsten front fly and either a pheasant tail or airhead pheasant tail trailer.  Pheasant tail taking most fish size 14.  The sun seemed to be a big player on where fish were actively rising, with sunniest areas containing the most rising fish and bouncing caddis.

On the way back we decided to hit the upright spot one more time at about 7pm.  Ralph makes a few perfect drifts to no avail.  I insist there was a rise a little more to the right.  The fly hangs up on the branch and drops and disappears in a whooshing display of speed and power.  Pop.  The leader comes flying back as the fish powered under the sunken log as quickly as it appeared.  We were able to get a 14 incher out of there fairly easily this fish was no 14 incher, how big only our imagination can tell.  We will be back again.  Ralph, Thanks for the great day on the water it was a pleasure!

It was mid-week that I began putting the plan in motion.  Sunday was looking like an opportunity to get out for some trout fishing with some spectacular weather predictions.  I had an itch and it needed some desperate scratching.

Having tied up several nymph patterns over the last week or so.  I was excited to get them wet.  I started to experiment with glass beads.  I fashioned up a dozen or so inspired by Gray Goat Fly Fishing guide Andy Roth.  I also tied up a couple of my own variations of my own patterns.

I met up with a friend not so early around 7 am and we were on the water just after 9am.  We decided to hit the Whitewater area.  I wanted to scout an area before we went to some of my favorite water in the system.  The first place looked very desolate and sandy with not much for fishy looking water, we fished for a short time and come up with nothing.  We went back to the truck to head to our next search and deploy spot.  High up on a bank we found a pretty good grouping of trout.  The sun was not in our favor for fishing these fish.  We decided to give it a try from up high as scampering down the bank would spoke them for sure.  I stripped out my line made a few false casts and let it rip.  Just as my fly was going to make it to my desired location the last free line caught on the grass sending my fly right on top of the school of trout.  Bam they were done and screaming around.  I made a few more casts to see if I could get the right cast and drift if we made it back to this spot later.  We probably would go up and around in the evening  and fish with the sun in our face as it set in the West.

With that we ended our scouting and headed to some fishy water leaving behind the fewer fishy looking sections of the lower river.  We ate some homemade chicken noodle soup before heading out again.  I have become a big fan of the Stanley Food Containers, keeping food hot/warm for about 10 hours as we finished off the rest around 6pm as we were leaving and it was still warm.    We also enjoyed a beer and there is nothing like an ice-cold stream side beer.

I often tote two rods (3-wt. & 5-wt.) this time of year.  It is cumbersome at times but allows me to be ready to fish top-water at the drop of a hat.  We found our first pool and tailout with a good number of fish stacked up.  We both caught a couple fish between 6-9 inches.  We were working a couple of different rigs with scuds, midge pupa, copper johns, and other smallish flies.

As the day went on we encountered fish rising pretty consistently to midges and caught a few on some griffith’s gnats.  Fished a couple of the better spots on the way out with success.  We had fun searching the very clear waters for fish, with barely a breeze the water was like a glass aquarium nearly everywhere we went.

When leaving a stream for the day I relish the time spent and the moments of meeting nature’s occupants.  We saw several deer carcases and were mesmerized with some of the log jams from the floods several years ago.  The stream has changed, holes are gone but new ones were formed, and a new mental map was drawn.  The sun had set and the last of drop of beer had been savored just before the key turned to start our return home.