Dry Fly Innovations

Wow!!  Can you spell butt kicking!  Well that was my experience on the Owyhee (8-12-2010).  I got to the river around 1:00 pm and fished until dark.  I tried big bugs, small bugs, and everything in between and all of them produced the same result.  There was very few fish at the hook.

There was a hatch of blue dun mayflies size 18 (dry fly fish Idaho) that came off around 2:00 pm; and I had the fish in front of me, but it was a small size run of fish.  After catching a half dozen fish—the largest one being 12-inches long, I decided to move on.  It was interesting because I never saw one large brownie feeding in that stretch of water.

I searched the river for hatches up river almost to the dam with no large concentration of fish working, so I fished riffles and holding water to lure a fish to the surface.  I’d pick up a fish occasionally, but again it was smaller fish.  I did land one large fish below the Ginger Bread House on a #20 Black Emperor Caddis (dry fly fish Idaho) and I lost another nice fish there.

There were a few large fish that did a courtesy porpoise at a Bullet Head Hopper (dry fly fish Idaho) and a large Black Gold (dry fly fish Idaho), but they false took and settled back to the bottom.  I tried other patterns over those fish, but none of them committed to the hook.

I finished the day at the river crossing a mile or so above the hot springs, and as the sun disappeared, a few large fish began surfacing to small caddis.  So naturally I changed back to the Black Emperor Caddis (dry fly fish Idaho) and immediately hooked a large, feisty brownie.  After a lengthy fight, I got him in the net, shot some photos and watched him slowly swim away.  I dried the fly and waited for another fish to peek his head up and right on cue another large fish surfaced tight against the far bank.  I positioned below him on a quarter angle and served the Black Emperor Caddis (dry fly fish Idaho).  Without hesitation he rose in slow motion and ate my bug.  Daylight was waning as I netted the fish, and as I was wading across the river to take a picture of him, I took a nose dive over a submerged boulder.  It was a bad one, totally submerged, water down the waders. To make things worse, when I fell forward, the fish slipped out of the net.  That put an end to my day’s fishing, because wet fly boxes have to be opened, drained, and the drying process must start immediately. In all I think I caught 12 fish all day and 9 of them were 12 inches long or less.  I only landed 3 quality fish.

***NOTE*** I saw a few Mahogany mayflies which means the fish will begin to key on that bug as we move into late August and September

Flies that caught fish

#18 Blue Dun Mayflies

#20 Black Emperor Caddis

#16 Blue Dun Stimulator

#16 Black Gold (AKA South Fork Killer!!)