Go Deep.

It’s starting to feel like spring might be stuck in 2^nd gear as it sputters out of the gate. May is feeling like April- it’s cold, rainy, and although run-off is over, and the snow pack is essentially gone, some sustained rains this week look like they are going to bump the river levels up for a bit.

Despite a cubic feet per second flow way over what would be considered “normal," a recent outing with the boys proved to be pretty productive. We dialed things in quickly using super-long leaders that consisted of a 4’ butt section connected to 10’ to 12’ of straight 4X fluorocarbon with an indicator and an ungentlemanly amount of split shot and tungsten putty dropped off the dropper (all is fair in love, war, and fly fishing). We even managed to streamer some nice fish early in the mornings on some big bunny fur concoctions, 250 grain sink-tips, and 7 weigths.


Large stone patterns up front with droppers ranging from Crystal Meth sucker spawn to pink San Juan Worms did just fine.  These rigs are a bit unruly to “cast”, but if you are dealing with high water, throwing this kind of junk is a very effective way to pitch a fly down into the strike zone. If you notice we landed most fish from the bow of the boat while netting them from the aft, a testament to just how long these leaders were.

We were good about keeping a camera handy and shoot a bunch of stills and even some video during the trip. Back at the fort I was trying to figure out what to do with all the video, so I threw it into a film editing program and put together a little montage to share with the ‘fellas to remember the trip. I posted it here for fun.

Hope you enjoy.

Tyler