Monday, October 24, 2016

Long Shadows and a BWO Hatch that Made us Crazy


Jay and Karen had a day off and I am retired so it was a no brainer to head west and go cutthroat fly fishing! The rivers in the west country will close in a week until next mid June so we knew that we better get out there even though the conditions were not the best.

We drove out in a heavy fog and as we arrived the thermometer read -4C. That meant frozen guides on our fly rods. No matter, we were well prepared for the weather. 

Well the river was low and gin clear. You could see the cutthroats in tail outs and that meant they could see us too! Well we all caught some healthy looking west slope cutthroat.

As the sun edged over the mountains, a BWO hatch began and the cutthroat started to actively target them. I stripped off my nymphs and set up for casting with a size 18 bwo mayfly. It was classic, about 2C and there they were popping all around us. I caught a cutthroat almost immediately on a bwo dryfly and then, ... Well I spent the rest of the day getting snubbed by cutthroat with my size 18 bwo. It was head butted, swirled at. nosed and generally just plain refused. The water is so perfectly clear and I am sure that I needed 6x tippet. For cutts, yes, for cutthroats. Boy was I surprised.

Nevertheless, it was a beauty of a day even though it was chilly! The rivers close on Halloween on the Eastern Slopes' rivers.












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