Fall Fishing Right on Schedule

With the Inter Mountain Fair under way here in the Fall River Valley it signals the start of the Fall Season, which means changes on the river. The fishing the last couple of weeks has been pretty good. The mornings are starting to get cooler leading to Indian summer afternoons. The bugs are getting smaller and have been coming off at various intervals during the day. Yes, the bugs are small #20 to #24. This means you really must pay attention as to what is on the water. Which makes it a must to be using 7x tippet, for the dry. Remember there are other bugs on the water other than PMD’s. That’s why I say look and see what is on the water.

The dry fly fishing has been good during different times of the day. Seeing that small of a fly at distances required not to spook the fish, is very difficult. Throw in the fact that the glare is always a factor and, not a good one. Hooking the fish on that small of a dry is not an easy task. Here are a couple tricks that will aid in seeing the small flies on the water.

Try to keep the sun at your back. With the sun in your face and the glare on the water finding the fly is next to impossible. Have the same type of fly tied using different materials and colors for the wings. Depending on the light, gray, bright sunny or cloudy. The color of the wing will make a difference as far as being able to see the fly silhouette. Elk hair, CDC and Antron are all good materials.

Make shorter drifts, letting small fly’s get to far out of your range of vision, rarely turns out good for the angler. If you must make a long drift, then cast it short in the lane you need to be in and feed it down. Get a visual on the fly and don’t take your eyes off it until the fish eats it.

The Callibaetis are coming off sporadically and when they do the fish have been eager to take them.
A lot of the weeds in the river have pulled out, something that happens this time of year, so the pods of fish will be smaller. This is something that happens this time of year. It does not mean that the fish are dying off, it means that the fish must spread out to find cover. This makes the pods smaller but more of them.

There is no good news for the Pit River. Unfortunately, the flows will be wacko due to maintenance of the power houses from September 1 through the end of October. I have moved all my Pit trips to other waters or have lost them all together. Cancellations have been heavy due to the fires so there are a lot of available dates open for September and October. Hope to hear from you tight lines.