I took advantage of another opportunity to hit the river again. We were
having a birthday bonfire for my mom and on the way I stopped by the river for a few hours. In recent trips there have been heavy sulfur hatches, but today not a mayfly was seen. So, the number of rising trout was also non-existant, and I needed to rethink my approach. I chose to head immediately to some previously productive slow runs and fish nymphs. After fishing hard for 30 minutes without a strike, I saw something that concerned me. While fishing one of the runs, I saw a whole school of carp swim past heading upstream. Taking from memory, I don't recall ever having much success with trout when carp were present. This made me change my tactic, so I tied on an olive slumpbuster and started stripping it through fast moving runs. I immediately started hooking into fish, but was having difficulty landing these fish with the added force of the current. About 2 hours into the morning and I was still fishless and started to get frustrated. I chose to rethink my approach and tied on a double nymph rig with a balloon indicator and fished deep moderately swift runs.
I instantly hooked into the chunky 16" bow seen at right. This fish with the assistance of the current and 7x tippet almost took me into my backing a couple of times before finally slipping him into the net. Only managed one more 12" bow before the wife radioed saying she was getting uncomfortable and ready to leave. In summation it was a much slower day compared to my other recent trips, but that one big bow made the day. Any trip between now and delivery day is just a bonus, and then after the baby comes it will give me time to replenish flies lost during these last few weeks.
having a birthday bonfire for my mom and on the way I stopped by the river for a few hours. In recent trips there have been heavy sulfur hatches, but today not a mayfly was seen. So, the number of rising trout was also non-existant, and I needed to rethink my approach. I chose to head immediately to some previously productive slow runs and fish nymphs. After fishing hard for 30 minutes without a strike, I saw something that concerned me. While fishing one of the runs, I saw a whole school of carp swim past heading upstream. Taking from memory, I don't recall ever having much success with trout when carp were present. This made me change my tactic, so I tied on an olive slumpbuster and started stripping it through fast moving runs. I immediately started hooking into fish, but was having difficulty landing these fish with the added force of the current. About 2 hours into the morning and I was still fishless and started to get frustrated. I chose to rethink my approach and tied on a double nymph rig with a balloon indicator and fished deep moderately swift runs. 
I instantly hooked into the chunky 16" bow seen at right. This fish with the assistance of the current and 7x tippet almost took me into my backing a couple of times before finally slipping him into the net. Only managed one more 12" bow before the wife radioed saying she was getting uncomfortable and ready to leave. In summation it was a much slower day compared to my other recent trips, but that one big bow made the day. Any trip between now and delivery day is just a bonus, and then after the baby comes it will give me time to replenish flies lost during these last few weeks.
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