Temps were around 40 degrees with morning temps as low as 20 degrees. Ice in the guides were an issue until about noon.
Flows are stable, typical winter flows with fish concentrated in deeper runs and tail outs. Water is super clear and sight fishing is possible, but if you can see them, then they can see you.
Saturday:
10:00 AM, started fishing at the dam. 1st cast was at cable hole with only 1 fish that took a rainbow warrior. After a few more casts, I decided to move up stream to the bridge hole and and managed to hook another on the rainbow warrior. Another jump upstream to another hole yielded a strike on a new fly that I tied up to try, a pink condom worm. It's nice when your own ties catch fish!
At around noon, I decided to hoof it over to Valco. I got a tip from a co-worker about a spot that he likes and decided to give it a shot. Fishing here was super slow. I'm not sure if it was the crowds, or the recent cold snap and the 8 in. of snow, but the fish were put off. I moved up and down looking for familiar water that might hold fish and switched up my rig many times, but still nothing. I was about to write off Valco when I made my way back upstream and I noticed a few fish rising. The warmth had started a midge hatch and there were tons of the little black buggers in the air and on the water. I tied on a size 18 griffiths gnat and a bwo and got quite a few refusals and 2 takes that I couldn't set the hook on. Discouraged, I decided to switch to some midges and tied on a blue poison tung and a black thread midge. I ended up with this pig!
Feeling validated, and not wanting to be further dissapointed, I decided to call it a day and head home.
Sunday:
Being Christmas morning, I didn't get out onto the water until about 11:00, which was just fine by me since I was getting pretty annoyed with having to remove ice from my guides in the morning anyways! Another busy day on the water with lots of people out and again, with the added pressure or cold temps, fish just weren't in the mood. I decided to move away from the dam and fish at the water treatment plant. I was the 1st car in the lot, but many more people followed shortly...
Looking over the foot bridge, I didn't see any fishing hanging out in the usualy spots so I decided to hoof it down stream to the structures just above 4th street bridge. I decided to run a triple fly rig, which probably wasn't the best idea since the water here is shallower and I'm fishing riffles. I did spend a lot of time cleaning off flies and getting algae and crap off a size 18 and 20 fly is tough!
I did get rewarded with a few fish down here, but not the numbers I've been used to fishing down here the last few times. I guess it's a good day when your catching fish, and honestly on any other water I would be happy with a 8-10 fish day, but this isn't the Ark I know! It sure is frustrating when you think you have river figured out, and it changes on you! I know...that's fishing! It wouldn't be a challenge if it didn't change, and at least I know I'm doing "well" when I don't see other fisherman catching fish!
Busy river...
Monday:
A co-worker of mine, Dave, decided to come down and fish with me again! We spent last week in the office pouring over google maps looking for new areas knowing that this weekend was going to be a busy one. We saw some good looking water below 4st. so we went over there to check it out. It looked great! Unfortunately, all the good water was way too far out to wade and with little movement, it was tough to fish. No fish here for us, but if we had a float tube or yak, I'm sure we would have caught some fish. So the decision was made to find another spot that we dubbed "The Spillway". We parked at the top of a hill and precariously made our way down. It would have been better to be on skis since the snow was so deep! We finally made it down and when we looked over the wall, we saw a large pod of bows swimming around...I looked at Dave and the look on face was priceless. He was giddy like a little kid and we both were very excited. This was a great sign, but were they eating? Is the fishing going to be good enough to make it worth the climb up the hill back?
YES!
I set up in the right under the spillway and Dave set up downstream, we proceeded to catch fish on almost every cast. They were taking many flies, and my initial rig was a two bit hooker, followed by a beadhead barr's emerger. After the fish destroyed my barr's emerger, I tied on a blue midge braid midge and a blue poison tung below the two bit hooker. I caught fish on all 3.
We easily caught well over 20 fish each with frequent doubles. Most were small stockers, with an ocassional bigger fish pushing 17 in. I even managed a small brown, my 1st on the Ark this season. I wish I had more pics, but my phone died, and besides, I was too busy catching fish! We did see some other fisherman around the spot so it's no secret, but it wasn't as busy as some other spots and we basically had it to ourselves until another guy moved upstream closer to us.
It seems like the fishing overall is slowing down a bit. The usual spots are getting hammered pretty hard. I think the cold temps is pushing the fish to key in on midges, but I'm still confident that when you present something different, the fish will eat. They've moved off of the czech nymphs and egg patterns, but will still take a baetis and midges. The rainbow spawn is coming soon as well, so egg patterns will be coming back, and with the color on some of the fish, it looks like they are getting ready too!
Overall, a great Christmas weekend. Time well spent with the family, and time well spent fishing!
