I was up in Camp Sherman on Wednesday and fishing was excellent. BWO’s were coming off like crazy after 1pm and the fish were ON the bugs! Little purple hazes and Hackle stackers were working just fine on 5x tippet. We fished to rising trout for almost an hour be for the fish quit looking up and the bugs slowed down. The river is closed above Allingham and we fished most of the hatch just below the bridge there. There are lots of Bull trout in the river and we have had great reports coming into the shop as well as hooking a few ourselves. Nymphing eggs on heavy wire hooks with 1-2x leaders and tippet is a great bet this time of year. The streamer game is on with anything from dead drifted flesh flies to the classic whitefish patterns hooking fish. We focus on the big pools and tail-outs where these fish like to lay on the bottom waiting for anything that looks tasty and or half dead.
The white fish are on the spawn and will be podding up and dropping eggs for the next few weeks. Trout key into the eggs and will gather behind the white fish in wait for an easy meal to come floating by. Fish your eggs using a classic indicator rig behind a weighted october caddis pupa or golden stone nymph as those are year round staples for the trout.
The Kokanee are done spawning and most can be found washed up dead or caught in log jams half decomposed. Bull trout love these easy meals but tend to prefer live fish vs a fully dead carcass. Dead drifting or twitching dally lammas near the bottom is a good imitation and can be a deadly method when targeting those big fish. Weather you are going to target dry fly eating trout or the big mean bullies the “Met” will continue to be a very productive option for us all winter.
Suggested Dries: Purple Haze #18-22, Olive Haze #18-20, Hackle Stacker #18-22, Parachute BWO # 18-22, BWO Soft Hackle #18-22, Biot Soft Hackle #18-22, Griffith’s Gnat #18-22, Still Born Midge #18-22.
Suggested Nymphs: Glo Bug #14-18, Unreal egg #14-16, Two Bit Hooker #16-20, Zika Jig #16-18, Twisted may #16-18, Olive Hares Ear #18-20, Juju Baetis #18-22, Rainbow Warrior #18-22, Terminator Golden Stone #10-12, Trout Retriever Gold, Davies Neo Twenty Incher #10-12, Lead Eye Egg, Double Beaded Peacock Stone #8-12.