ADAPT AND SUCCEED, AND BE SURE TO MATCH THE HATCH!
The end of the runoff was mistakenly reported!
It’s skinny, real skinny, so get skinny! Take a few extra things off your boat, remove the cooler, take out the floors, and use other methods to lighten the load to allow you to extend the floating season. The fishing is fantastic, and getting out there will serve you well. I said it last week, and I’m saying it again: our days are numbered in getting rafts down the Eagle River for fly fishing, but the brave raft rowers will be rewarded.
The Eagle River is changing shape nearly every day. The full fast water sections are returning to their regular shapes and sizes, allowing for the wade angler to get back in on the action nearly everywhere. Where we were not too long ago, floating and fly fishing straight down the Eagle River, are now boulder fields deserving of the utmost respect for the courageous boat anglers now making every turn possible to avoid getting stuck. The long wadeable riffle runs, deeper pools, and back eddies and fish holding behind the barely submerged rocks are back in play. Most of the fish seem to be holding at the head of the runs.
Early mornings and late evening jaunts are getting streamer eats from both boat and shore. Tie on an olive sex dungeon or crystal minnow(Element fly name) and get it moving! Gone are the slow-stripping spring fish, and having returned are the meat-eating murder strikes(*), which are becoming more common.
This next recommendation may surprise you: go SMALL. Our guides have been having field days with size 20 PMD nymphs. The fish are eating them like mad. Of course you know what that means, dry flies. Again, go SMALL. #18-#20 parachute Adams and PMD dries will get it done on most days when you will inevitably come across pools of sipping trout, and the small bugs are what they’re looking for. We did see some larger quills or drakes out recently, but not a lot of them, so the fish aren’t keyed in on them yet. But they are keyed on the small PMDs, both nymphs and dries.
Adult golden stoneflies have been seen, but also not in big numbers. The hoppers are in the bushes and will soon be falling in the Eagle River, allowing for the very desirable fly fishing rig of the hopper-dropper!
HOT FLIES
- RS2 SIZE 18-20
- PARACHUTE ADAMS 16-20
- OLIVE PERDIGON 14-16
- OLIVE SEX DUNGEON MINI AND FULL SIZE
- ARTICULATED CRYSTAL BUGGER WITH OLIVE
- Murder Strike – When your streamer gets eaten, absolutely murdered, the moment it hits the water
Any questions, comments, or you’d like to share a pic of your recent success, send them our way! If we use your pic in a report, we will send you a 1/2 dozen of our flies as a thanks!
alexmbeck@yahoo.com
alex@hillsdiscountflies.netgen.work