Blue River Fly Classic

Blue River Fly Classic
A One Pattern Fly Event

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Well Used Vacation Day

I didn't call in sick today but I did burn a day of my 2009 vacation time. I learned a good lesson during 2008 which leans to the old saying "use it or loose it". I lost a full week of vacation time because I simply couldn't find a way to get away from work to take the darn time off. My New Year's resolution though was to use all my vacation time this year and I am holding true to that resolution.

Shoving off from my prairie homestead about fifteen minutes before sun-up I was excited about the prospects of the day. Five minutes down the trail an early morning coyote darted in front of the prairie schooner and I had to back off the ponies to keep from running him down. Guess the coyote was finishing a night out or on an early morning breakfast task.

Pulling into Scotty's I hitched the ponies up long enough to get one of Scotty's breakfast sandwiches. Those puppies are good...fried egg, sausage and cheese on buttered Texas toast.

Arriving at the parking lot at the crossing I decided this was as good a place to start as any. It was still about thirty-five degrees but not bad...just enough to make your hands hurt.

I picked the honey hole above the crossing but after ten minutes I hadn't even received a bump so I went downstream to the flats. At the flats I managed one tiny bow and once I did I moved further downstream. My plan today was to fish the entire campground area.

I passed the riffles and went to where they plunge pool into the top end of Ted's Pool. Here I took my second bow and again it was time to move on.





Now I was headed for the bottom end of Ted's Pool just above Horseshoe Falls. If you like taking small trails you'll love where I was today. From the plunge pool of the riffles you can pick up some small trails that will take you to Horseshoe Falls. Taking these trails prove to be a neat and enjoyable experience but watch the briars - they're thick.

Once again at Ted's Pool it was bow after bow but I didn't want to sore-mouth too many of them. I stayed long enough to get my bow count up to nine and decided to go on dowstream eventually working my way down to Seventeen. At Horseshoe Falls I didn't get a bump and give it about ten minutes, plus I picked up some dang trash off the falls. The river seemed more littered today than usual.



At Horseshoe Falls there is water coming over the fringes but the entire middle of the falls which is the majority of this structure is barely wet. There are just trickles of water here and there.

I carried the trash I had in hand to the campsite at the bluff above Horseshoe and then decided to take a brisk walk back to the parking lot to get the Prairie Schooner. Along my hike I noticed some campsite improvements that Matt and crew have been working on. At campsite four I picked up the trail back to the river and once again found a big mess along the river bank.




Take a look at that big wad of fishing line that was simply tossed down on the bank. Discarded fishing line can become a death sentence to fowl, fish, and other aquatic creatures. Crap people...pick up your trash!

Personally, I think littering on Blue should carry a minimum $1000.00 fine. That stiff a fine should break people from sucking eggs and throwing their crap down on the bank or worse in the water. Maybe there should be a five cents surcharge on every container, package, or vessel of Power Bait, Salmon Eggs, or other baits. That nickel surcharge per container would be earmarked to the State to help cover their costs of their employees having to pick up other people's trash.





I drove down to Seventeen to fish it and there were a few bait fishers already there when I arrived. Sam's Rock looked inviting so I parked my butt there and watched the water for awhile. Seventeen look fairly void of fish but then I saw a trout splash the top of the water. I tried my best to ignore that splash and tossed a bugger. If there were numbers of trout at Seventeen they didn't want a bugger or nymphs. Thinking about that splash I decided what the heck and tied on a dry. The dry chosen was Ralph's Ole Gray and with the first cast Ole Gray found a bow. Three casts later Ole Gray found another but two bows would be it at Seventeen.

I left Seventeen and stopped at another spot that's never produced well for me but today was a different story. Finding a small honey hole I took five bows in short order.

Glory Hole was the next stop and Glory Hole was also good to me today offering up five bows.

I still hadn't fished Area 2 so upstream I went but upon getting there another angler had the spot I wanted to fish so I left it to him. I ended up the day with twenty-one bows which is an excellent day.




3 comments:

Harley said...

What was the size of that Ole Gray?

Hope you've been doing well, we need to meet up sometime and hit the C&R.

Cheers,

Harley

Barry said...

The one in question was size 22. Ralph ties them all the way to 32 but I can't even attempt to tie one on. There were some huge bugs on the water yesterday below the crossing and they were grey in color. Other bugs below the crossing were black. At Seventeen the bugs were much smaller and grey so that's why I chose Ole Gray. It's a poor man's Adams. Gray thread for body, grizzly for hackle one and one half turns, no wings. It's a killer Harley.

Harley said...

I got into some brown adult mayflies the other day, they were about size 16 in the adult stage so i fished size 18 Chocolate, and 16 brown WD40 emergers about 2 foot below an indicator with no weight at a dead drift and did well.