I always like fishing a creek or river for the first time. There’s the challenge of figuring out what is the best section to fish and where the fish are hiding. Usually any of the bigger holes especially those in the bend of the river are a good place to start.
I’m a researcher and planner when it comes to venturing to a new place. With the internet it’s easy to find the most popular sections of water to fish. There are hatch charts that tell you which insects will be out so you can make sure you have the appropriate flies in your box. All of this can be taken care of before leaving the house.
The fun starts once you finally arrive to the new destination. I always get excited to fish and study a new hole. It’s important to be observant and look around to see what bugs are crawling on the rocks and if any fish are rising. If the fish are rising that takes part of the challenge out of where to cast but that doesn’t mean they will eat your fly unless you’ve matched the hatch.
With summer in full swing the majority of our mayflies have already hatched and the fish have switched their diet to terrestrials. Grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, ants and even bees are all on the menu if they’re on the water’s surface. There has been plenty of water with all of the flooding rain we experienced which has kept the rivers flowing at springtime levels.
After the devastating flood I wasn’t sure what the river would look like so this past weekend we went to find out. It was unbelievable! There were holes gone and completely filled in and brand new holes washed out. It was like fishing the river for the first time again.
The power of water is amazing as there were huge rocks and trees moved to new locations. The water still had an off color to it 3 weeks after the flood. We decided to streamer fish and cover as much of the river as we could. I told Tara we were on a reconnaissance mission if nothing else.
One stretch of the river that used to be a shallow riffle is a big long hole now. We didn’t see any fish in it but I’m sure they’re in there. As we worked our way up the river I threw to a new pocket near the bank and a real nice brown trout followed but didn’t take. That happens often when streamer fishing.
The next hole changed as the entire bank got washed away and the deepest part of it switched sides. I’m still not sure what is going to be the best way to fish it and it’s going to require a few trips to figure it out. After that we went down river and I liked what I saw.
There were 2 holes that had gotten filled in over the years but the flood blew them back out. I rolled a couple of nice rainbow trout in one of them and a little brown in the other. We continued on and I finally connected with a 12 inch rainbow.
The next hole was one of those long holes in the bend that always has fish in it. On my first cast the head of a rainbow came from the depths and went back down as fast as it came up. The hole seemed to be deeper but looked the same for the most part.
We fished for another hour or so and I caught a couple more in new sections of pocket water. It was good to see that the fish survived the flood. I bet that was one heck of an experience with all that water. The river got all the way to the top of the old railroad bridge. During normal flow the river is at least 30 feet below the bridge.
Overall I like the new river we found which is a place we’ve been fishing for over 12 years now. It’s crazy how the river changed and I’m looking forward to see how it’s going to fish. I’m hoping it’s going to be even better as there are more holes to throw in now. We’ll just have go fish and see what the future brings.
