Kevin and Brady on the River

Brady and Kevin

Kevin called one afternoon and wanted to nymph fish with his son Brady. We found a break in generation and  I picked them up at their motel. We launched the drifter from the gravel bar and rowed downstream to less pressured water.  The guys were rigged up with the "Super Secret Nymph" with droppers tied on below. Kevin's first cast was a thing of beauty, for a couple different reasons. The first reason was simply because Kevin looked behind him then he started his backcast. Such a simple thing can be a big thing. The second was the way he shot the line and got an extra couple rod lengths of distance from the cast. Brady, was up next and took a look behind him, then let the cast rip. Brady hasn't fished quite as much as his Dad, but within a few minutes he was in the groove and gained twice the distance in the first hour, 

First Fish

Kevin struck first on the dropper and then came up with two more fish. We came into a stretch in the river that I found last year. We fished the stretch and Brady came back with two fish of his own. Then when he was stripping in he got a hit, but it was a short-strike. So Brady sent the fly back into the zone and the fish struck again. This time Brady came up with the rod and the line came tight. After a nice fish Brady had a good fish and caught up on the friendly-family competition.

Brady Hooked-Up

Brady With Some Rainbow Goodness

We continued on and we hit some sections of the river with a fish here and there. But, in some sections, it was "get a bucket and hose" cause these guys were on fire. Then things would calm down. As creeks dumped water into the river, the river would gain a little more color. The fishing slowed with every creek, but then the fish would start biting again and we would bring more fish to the net. After lunch Kevin got into a good run and pulled out a decent fish on the super secret nymph.

Kevin With Another Rainbow This Time at Lunch

Kevin's Brown

Results of Recent Rains

So the guys kept casting and fishing and picked up a few more fish. We caught a double and marked that off the list of things to do. We stopped in a section of the river with a lot of structure and fished dries to a feeding fish. The feeding was inconsistent, but we pulled out the year's first hopper anyway. Well, really the pattern is a mix of spent caddis and hopper. It was an interesting experiment even though it is a bit early in the year. So this day wound down and daylight was gone when we came to the take-out. Kevin and Brady were just a lot of fun to fish with and I am hopeful they learned the river well enough to make a trip or two back to fish from their own kayaks.  

***

The river levels are mostly up and a bit down with the generation schedule. Water is still filling the lakes and Spring is on the way. We are hoping the water levels will catch the Summer pool and that is when we will "hopefully" have some windows of fishing opportunity. Trips are scheduling so if anyone is thinking of booking, it might be a good idea to get a date reserved. Until then we are tying that Super Secret Nymph and a few other trick patterns that are already producing for anglers.

Fish Tails .........and Water Lines