Fishing on the Duck River below Cortner Mill

Went down to the Duck at Cortner Mill and tried to fish at 420 cfs.  It was possible to wade but if you go above  your knees you are taking your life in your hands.  I did catch two small mouth on a chartreuse woolly bugger but I caught no trout.  If they stocked they either got washed down stream or they have already been caught out.

Fly Fishing on the Elk River around the bend 11/12/09

  Well I was surprised that they were not generating today.  I went hunting this morning and after letting a 4 pointer walk I decided to call it a day.  I noticed that they were not generating so I decided to go fishing.   I arrived at the dam at 1:30 pm.  There was 6 vehicles there.  Warren Patterson was there at the log fishing.  I think he said that he caught 6 fish there.

Denny Edwards was about 50 yards above where I wanted to fish.  So rather than crowd him I decided to  walk on down around the bend.  I started fishing right where the river starts necking back down.  I caught 5 fish right there and then caught the best of the day a nice 17" rainbow. That is a measured 17 inches by the way.

When I mention a size or a number they are either measured or placed on my counter.  They are not left to memory or a guess.  I put a dot of red fingernail polish  every inch on my rod above my grip which is exactly 7" long.  I also keep 4 counters with me so that I can keep up with the fish that I catch on each fly I use since I cant take my shoes off to help count my fish.

My final total was 34 fish.  I caught 21 on the kenny, 7 on the san juan worm, and 6 on the charteuse woolly bugger.

Most of the fish averaged between 10 and 12 inches.  Only two were browns.

I really only fished about half of the water that is around the bend.

Floating from Dam to Farris Creek 11/8/09

  Rhonda and I floated from Tim's Ford Dam to Farris Creek bridge.  We were interested to see if the river was clear after all the generation.  Most people who float know that the river was about 85% blocked above Vansant Bend.  The water has washed out the first blockage but the log that was submerged at 240 cfs is almost exposed and we did get stuck on it.  Fortunately, the water is shallow there and we could move the boat thru the water to the left of the logs and get thru.  That was the only problem we had except for the low water.  There were many areas that we dragged where we don't at 240 cfs.  Most of the "sea weed" has been washed away but there are still a few areas about one mile above Farris Creek Bridge.

The water is still pea green but it doesn't seem to be affecting the fish.  It does make the fishing harder because you can't see all the snags and trees in the water and I seem to loose more flies.  I do know the river and it makes it easier for me.

With the time change and the days being shorter it is really difficult to fish the entire 9 miles of the river.  It seemed that we did more floating than fishing but I did catch 27.  12 were browns and only one of the browns was larger than 12 inches.  I left my camera at home so no picture.  I caught 17 on the #10 chartreuse woolly bugger, 6 on the #14 trout candy, 2 on the #8 san juan worm above either the trout candy or the kenny, and 2 on the kenny.  I have been using the #12 trout candy but not having as much luck of late but the #15 kenny is working so well I decided to go down in size on the trout candy and that seemed to work much better.  The woolly bugger however was by far the best fly.

Rhonda caught only 6 fish.  She caught them on the chartreuse woolly bugger and trout candy #16.

Fishing at the Dam Nov 2

  The generation was from 6-8 this morning and then 12-4.  This left a window of about 2 1/2 hours to fish.  It takes about 1 hour for the water to go down at the dam after generation.  I got to the dam parking lot at about 9:15 am.  There were already 6 vehicles in the parking lot.  I raced down to the rock before anyone else could get there.
  I caught 32 fish.  Three were browns.  One of the browns was a beautiful 12" male which was really fat and happy.  I caught an 18 inch rainbow(measured!!).  I am always surprised how one fish can change a ordinary day into an amazing day.  I was really surprised to see the big rainbow still alive so close to the dam.  He was really colored with bright red  gills and pink stripes.
  I caught 7 on the san juan #8 with a bead, I caught 22 on the Kenny, 2 on the chartreuse woolly and one on the green eyed demon.
Look for pictures.

Finally Back on the Water Nov 1

Well, after a two week trip to Canada for my real job, and generation to the extreme, I got to go fishing.  I fished from 8:30 am till 4:30 pm.  And it was hard fishing.  The water was still up about 1 1/2 feet above the regular 240 cfs.  The water was also pea green.  Needless to say visibility was very poor.  The trout could not see the flies very well and I couldn't see the snags very well either.  I lost a lot of flies and runs that you could drift once in clear water took as many as 6 drifts to catch a fish.  I guess you almost had to bump them on the nose  to get their attention.  I did catch 23 fish.  7 on the #8 san juan worm with a bead, 11 on the Kenny, 2 on the chartreuse woolly, and 3 on the green eyed demon.