Fishing Report – June 16

What a difference a few days make. We went out on June 12 to fish during the warm summer evening from about 6-9 pm in anticipation of some top-water action. It had been a hot sunny day, but still there were not a lot of bugs on the water and the fishing was challenging.

My fishing partner and I targeted slow eddies due to the high water level and the flow rate of river from run-off. There were a few rainbows rising, but we couldn’t entice one to a dry fly. We managed to coax five rainbows between 16-20 inches to pheasant tail nymphs tied about three feet under a strike indicator. Most were hard fighting, but not quite the action I was expecting.

Fast forward to Sunday June 16, and the evening bite was more what I expected. We headed out between 6 and 9 p.m. on the stretch of water below Trail. We landed one on a nymph and indicator, and 12 on dry flies. We missed probably a half dozen more, but lots of action. Once they started hitting, it was non-stop. Caddis and Adams dry-fly patterns worked well. The water is warming, and the caddis hatch is starting to develop -expect more exciting top-water action in coming weeks.