02/15/12 East Walker River, CA

02/15/12
East Walker River
Flows 20 cfs
10:00 - 4:00

After a tough day on the Truckee, I decided to spend the time and head to a hot spot.

The East Walker is a tailwater out of Bridgeport in CA. Having fished many tailwaters in CO, I figured I would have better luck.

The drive down was a mess! Heavenly eventually reported 12 inches of snow for the day, and the blowing snow and wind made it a difficult drive down. A trip that should have taken an hour and a half ended up taking over 3 hours. I left at 7:00 AM wanting to be the 1st on the water, knowing that the weather would keep most people off the water, but I was rewarded with the river all to myself!

From the reports at the local fly shops and the hype on the internet, I figured there would be at least a few people there, but nobody showed up until about 3:00 and even that guy didn't stick around long.





This is a "cute" tailwater, the dam is small and the out flow is through a big culvert that creates a big pool that locals call the "Big Hole". Flows were super low, so sight fishing was the name of the game for most of the day.

"Big Hole"







A lot of stocker sized fish, and fish with fins rubbed to a nub from the concrete raceways at the hatchery, but there were a few "wild" fish, or at least holdovers who have lost their hatchery characteristics.



The river is hyped as a place to catch a monster fish, but unfortunately, I didn't see any. Most were between 12-17 in. I fished between big hole and just down past the gauging station, so there might be some big guys further downstream, but I was having fun perfecting my drift and watching the fish flash on my flies was a kick in the pants.





I even managed a sucker!


As the sun was getting low in the sky, I figured it was time to see if I could find any big brownies. I tied on a size 4 slumpbuster and managed to coax a few browns. With the water being low and clear, it was cool watching them shoot out and chase the streamer.







Again, no big guys, but it was fun slinging streamers. 2 of the browns came out of "Big Hole", and a few from the undercut banks. I even had quite a few bows give chase and strike, but they would just bite the tail and not commit.

Flies for the day were midges. Small and black were key for me. I tried some reds and creams but they weren't interested.

Size 20 tungsten zebra midges, glass bead head midges, juju midges, and WD40's were all good flies. Keep the colors dark. I tried to bust the hatch with some crazy colors and patterns, but they would just move out of the way of the drift. Kinda of cool to watch. I started the day with a 5x leader, in anticipation for big fish, but quickly moved down to 6x and 6x fluro tippet since these fish have seen it all.

A great day overall, definitely a confidence builder compared to my day on the Truckee. Fishing new places is fun, but you have to make sure your expectations are in line!!!

I'll be back in the Tahoe area again in April. I hope to get on the Little Truckee and I might fish the Big Truckee again...the skawalla watch will be going off and I'm hooked on fishing stoneflies!

02/14/12 Truckee River at Mustang

02/14/12
Truckee River
Air Temp 56
Water Flow 390 CFS
1:30 - 3:30 PM

My trip to Lake Tahoe afforded me a few hours to get on the river! I stopped by a shop and was surprised to hear that the Little Truckee was snowed in. Access by foot only as the road has too much snow to drive past Boca. I didn't have much time and since I had to head to the airport anyways I decided to give the Truckee a try east of Reno at Mustang.

The river is flowing low for this time of year, but for me it looked perfect. Water was clear and you could easily pick out good runs and holes to try. But that doesn't mean that the fishing was easy.

I rigged up at the truck with a size 10 golden stonefly and a size 16 bead head flashback pheasant tail. No weight since the stonefly had a tungsten bead.

My first couple of casts into promising looking water yielded nothing...I contemplated changing my flies but I was told at the fly shop in Tahoe that golden stones are the standard, year round since they have a 3 year cycle and all stages and sizes were in the water. I haven't fished stonefly patterns very much so I had little confidence in it. However, the Truckee doesn't fish like your typical winter tailwater.

After moving around a bit, I found a line of riffles beneath some overhanging brush. I cast upstream and at the dead center of my drift I had a vicious hit! This felt like a huge fish! But after a few head shakes, he was off...

I tried again, moving upstream and again another hit! This time the fish took off upstream and wrapped me up around a log breaking me off immediately. Dang these fish are smart!

I re-rigged again and let the water rest. I finally found a honey hole, but I was running out of time! I had to get back to North Shore for work but I didn't want a skunk hanging over me for the day.

I cast again moving back downstream, following my indicator, looking for any sign of a bite. I watched it stop, and was just about to give it a tug thinking it was snagged when the indicator shot upstream!

Another fish on and man she was a beauty. After a couple runs and some acrobatics, I finally landed the fish with my hand. (I thought it was a good idea to leave my net at home to save space.)



I couldn't measure her, but she was a nice sized fish. Bigger than most on the Ark in Pueblo with tons of energy. She took the golden stone and it felt great to end the day without a skunk!

As I drove to the North Shore, I contemplated my experience on the Truckee. A river that's got a reputation as a tough river, and I managed to have a decent day. 3 fish on, and 1 landed isn't a bad day when I only had a few hours to fish.

I guess I'm too used to fishing "easy" waters, and the Truckee really humbled me. But I'm looking forward to April, when I'll be back again!

02/05/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

02/05/12
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Forecasted high for the day: 37 degrees
Flows: Normal 65 CFS

With hesitation, I went back to Pueblo on Sunday. Although the decision was easy, since we were watching the Super Bowl with the in-laws, I wasn't really looking forward to fishing if it was going to be a tough day like it was last week.

After some research, I found out that they had bumped the flows about 20 CFS last weekend. That, combined with the nice weather and heavy fishing pressure, the fishing was definitely off.

After checking flows for this weekend, it looked like flows were back down and I was hoping the cooler weather would keep some of the fair weather fisherman off the water.

I started fishing at the spillway since I know there is fish there. Nothing too big, but I didn't want to have a skunk hanging over me.

Right away, I started catching fish on a tungsten zebra midge, flashwing prince, and a midge braid midge.





Nice healthy stockers, with the biggest around 14 in.

I was the 1st person on the water at 9, but not long after the bait fisherman starting showing up, so I decided to head out of the area and see if bigger fish were biting at Valco.

Before I left, I did notice a guy and his 2 kids "fishing" next to the bridge. They looked like they were snagging for kokes with the big heavy rods and they way they were jerking them. I approached them and asked how the fishing was. Immediately, he was defensive and said, "Good. Fishing is good, we're using tube jigs and we're fishing for suckers." Obviously a trash fish, but still...snagging is illegal.

They quickly left after I fidgeted with my phone for a little bit. I was looking for the operation game thief number but I couldn't find the right one. In any case, they left quickly knowing that I had busted them snagging.

So on to Valco...

As I pulled into the lot, there were already 8 cars there. I assumed that my favorite spots would be taken, but luckily, nobody was down by the 3 rocks! I switched up my rig with a barr's emerger in grey and a zebra midge with a chartreuse wrap.



Immediately I hook into a bunch of fish! For some reason, I was losing just as many as I was landing. Nothing too big, but bigger than fish at the spillway.





A few skinnier guys too...probably because the bigger guys were being taken by the bait fisherman. Another fly fishing guy told me he just saw some bait fisherman load their cooler with a fish that had to be at least 20 in, and super fat. Oh well...

Anyways...I ended up picking up quite a few more fish. A surprise since the fishing at Valco is good, but today they really seemed to like the zebra midge with the chartreuse wrap. So, after losing my last zebra midge to a nice fish that ran me down stream and snapped me off, I decided to explore a little more and I made my way over to the dam.

I re-rigged with a flashwing prince, a red hot midge and blue poison tung. I started at cable hole with a fish that took the red hot.



After catching 2 more fish, I decided to explore downstream past the foot bridge where I eventually made my way to the hatchery output. The water was coming out pretty good and there was a nice pool just off of the river that the output created that held a few fish. All small frys with an occassional 12 -14 incher. No pictures since we've all seen those! It looks like a nice spot, and I was told by the guys at The Drift Fly Shop that some big boys hang out around there. I didn't find any that day, but I'll definitely be back to explore there a little more. It looked like lots of good water, but with kick off time nearing, it was time to get off the water and watch some football!

Overall another great day on the Ark. Unfortunately work will prevent me from hitting the Ark for the next 2 weekends, but I will be traveling to Lake Tahoe, so I hope to come back with a good fishing report for the Little Truckee!