Clear As Gin
I got to swing by the river today. Arriving around 2 p.m., time was extremely short having to be back at the prairie home by 3:30.
The river is as clear as gin in many areas. In the shallow areas it is transparent! When the river gets this clear we have to start re-examining our selections. Usually I go to smaller and more natural looking patterns.
Where I was on the river I saw trout keying on the midges, so I quickly grabbed my rod. With time being so short, here I was on the river trying to push 4X through a size 20 midge pattern. First of all, 4X is way too thick for that size of fly and secondly it's dog-gone hard to push that rope through a 20 eye. I would have saved time - by taking the time - to add some 6X.
Two midge patterns were lost at sea from strikes and me trying to set the hook too hard. One other midge was lost to the clutches of a cedar tree.
I really didn't do well at all today with only one bow coming to hand. The assaults by the trout were rather sporadic and one problem I had was not being able to get closer than thirty feet from where the limited activity was taking place.
So, be advised that the river in the campground area is clear as gin. I don't know how more clear it can possibly become.
1 comment:
Barry,
Fished the river on the 28-30th of last month. We walked the entire river. The pressure was enormous! Was somewhat disappointed since it seemed that the locals were all bait fishers and there was a very large presence of seemingly permanent campers. They basically destroyed any fly fishing that we went there for until we discovered the back side of the split in the river below the highway. Early morning or after about 3:30 when there was a hatch duration of till about 5. Had decent luck, but with the noise coming from the other side the fish were very spooked. Nice river you have there, but the rules of "one rod" were from what we saw were not enforced by the authorities, nor were the catch rules since we saw many that walked out in the am with the limit only to see the same in the afternoon with the same limit. Seems that they knew the stocker and authorities so they took advantage way beyond the rules. Met one other fly fisher there who had been there several times and he clued us in on where to do some actual fly fishing, and had the same complaints that I stated above. Blue River would be a great place to fish if the rules would be enforced. Then maybe on top a "no bait" time period. Met several fly fishers from Oklahoma and Texas that were fishing the wilderness area that were somewhat upset at the lack of decorum, noise, walking up to the area you were fishing and just casting over like we were invading their space. Beautiful place you have there, but rules should be enforced for all there to fish. Maybe we just went at the wrong time maybe? Ah well, we caught and released. Only kept 2 decent size rainbows. Had them for dinner when we got back. Off to the Guadalupe River on the 28-29 and the to LMFR for the "one fly" contest on 2/25. Thanks for all the information on Blue River!
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