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.