Current River Report

Date:  6/14 & 6/18-19

Time:  All day

Access:  Baptist and Parker

Water:  Still low, still clear

First a quick report from last Thursday.  I had the day off and hit up Baptist.  Not to sound like a broken record but it was low n' clear, we need rain and you know the rest.  On the trip downstream I used my usual mix of Euro-nymphing styles and the newest incarnation of my long leader.  Trout were caught, nothing too big nor in any amazing numbers but plenty to make a good day.  After wading way too far downstream I wasn't feeling too energetic for the return trip so I switched leaders and went the dry/dropper route.  I didn't fish too hard as I was mostly thinking about the cooler in my trunk but I did manage a handful heading upstream.  Most came on the biot nymph but a few did come up to take the klinkhammer.  Oddly all of the dry caught fish were browns.  Once back home I went and got my paycheck and to see the schedule.  Amazingly I had Monday and Tuesday off.  Back to back days off are disturbingly rare for me so I quickly decided I'd take advantage and head back to the river.

I decided to camp on a sandbar by Parker.  After setting up camp and cleaning up after whatever d-bags left the area covered in cans it was time to wet a line.  The first thing I noticed was how warm the water was.  It was still cool but not the usual trout stream cold.  Bad sign number one.  A few hundred yards upstream from camp I catch my first fish.  Unfortunately it's a little sunfish.  Bad sign number two.  It wasn't looking too good for trout.  I kept working upstream and did eventually catch a couple little browns, not to mention a dozen assorted pan-fish.  

Heading back to camp until the sun started to drop seemed like the thing to do.  A good chunk of the trout probably migrated upstream to cooler waters and those still around were sulking, waiting out the sun and heat.  After some camp chores, a little reading and some exploring downstream the sun finally started to set.  I rigged up the 6wt with my sink tip and a big nasty streamer and hit the area right downstream from camp.  The stretch was real deep and littered with huge boulders.  In other words it looked like a good place for a hog brown to hide.  No such luck.  

(I hope whoever tried to light this tree on fire wasn't sober)

I beat the sun up on day two and returned to the deep stretch below camp.  It went marginally better than the previous night as I did have a brown flash my fly.  I also caught a little smallmouth.  I decided it was time to catch some trout so upstream to Baptist I went.  

My streamer rod was rigged and ready but I wasn't in much of a zero or hero mood so I rigged up my trusty 10ft. 4wt and long nymph leader version 4.0.  I finally have this leader more or less dialed in.  The fish were pretty willing takers.  I imagine the glo-bug crowd would have done well on Tuesday as they seemed to prefer my more gaudy patterns.  In the deeper/faster water the a big #4 Vladi-worm was slaying them.  In the shallow water a jiggy pheasant tail with a florescent orange tag did the trick on point.  As usual lately my secret weapon was on dropper.  The rusty brown biot nymph with the fire orange hot spot.  This fly has been performing extremely well all year.

Fishing mirrored my trip from last Thursday.  I nymphed downstream then switched to dry/dropper on my way back up.  I even used the same klink/biot nymph combo.  The fish seemed more eager to rise than the week before so long as my fly landed really close to the bank and in the shade.  Most of the rises were the violent kind you often see with hoppers.  Action slowed down for a while when me and a spin fisherman got bunched up.  We were the only two people on the river so it wasn't too hard to put some good distance between the two of us which, no doubt, helped both of our fishing.  

It was a good trip.  If Monday would of been like Tuesday it would have been amazing.  It's no surprise that Parker is a little rough right now but once Fall comes around I'm going to have to head back to this access.  I'm not too familiar with the water but it looks like great streamer fishing.  One down side of the trip was the severe lack of insect activity.  There were trico's in the morning but no risers that I saw.  The little dry fishing I did get in has me ready for hopper season.  I could actually see the dry weather being a plus for terrestrial fishing.