Dry Fly Innovations

Two and a half miles above Dagger Falls and about 12 miles down river from yesterday’s blog.

The day started exactly like the previous day—on about my third cast with a #12 Black Gold Hardback (dry fly fish Idaho), I hooked and landed a 13-inch cutty. Then exactly like the day before, I began catching numerous small rainbows. I worked through a great run of water for an hour without landing another quality fish. I moved up river to an awesome run of water, the best riffle I’d seen in two days. It was 100 yards long with a shallow riffle on the left gently sloping to a deep green riffle in the middle with a deep boulder edge on the right. It was the first place I’d seen in two days where you could work a small fly in great holding water.

I waded the river to the deep bouldered edge, tied on a piece of 5X tippet, and put on a #18 Emperor Caddis Black (dry fly fish Idaho). It looked perfect; it fished perfect, but the only problem was the fish didn’t think it was perfect. I caught small rainbows and one nice cutty all the way through the run in water that should have held big fish. I changed flies….same results. I skated flies…same results until I had fished the entire right side of this magnificent hole. At the top of the hole, I waded back across the river and walked the bank back to the bottom of the same hole. I was determined at that point that I was going to figure this river out.

There had to be a dry fly that would work, but the river offered zero clues. There were still no hatches to match and no fish at the surface, but I remembered a time fishing Kelly Creek for cutthroats where the conditions were the same. On that day I tied on a Beetle (dry fly fish Idaho) and it was the answer, so why not today on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River? I tied on a #14 Beetle (dry fly fish Idaho.)

There was a caramel colored cobblestone bottom on my side of the river with a gentle riffle that fell off to a deep green center of the river and it made a transition line through the entire run of water. There had to be a fish there—it was too perfect not to hold fish. I began working the beetle over the transition line. All of a sudden a big cutty rose in slow motion and ate my bug. I could see his red underbelly from 60 feet away. I hooked him and pulled him down river out of the hole. A few minutes later, he was laying in the shallow riffle at the bank. I gently removed the hook, revived him, and watched him slowly swim away.

I cautiously moved back into position casting quarter angle across the riffle and letting the fly float to the transition line caramel to green. Bang! Another nice cutty took the fly and I landed him. The angle was perfect to set a hook and they were seriously eating the fly. For a hundred yards of river, the scenario repeated itself time and time again. The fly would float gently along the surface from shallow to deep and yet another cutty would suddenly appear at the surface. I retied my knot a couple of times—they wore out my first beetle completely. It had tooth rips all over it, and the peacock hurl was shredded and sticking out the sides of the fly. I retied another fresh beetle and the fish immediately began mutilating it, too.

For two hours clear to the top of the hole, the fish smacked the beetle, and we had a reunion at the bank. I admired their beauty, they admitted that they didn’t like me, and we both went about our business.

Over the years, I have had this experience with cutthroats and beetles many times, but I’m a very slow learner. I throw our beautiful stimulators, caddis, and everything else, and the fish continue to refuse them. It finally dawns on me that cutties flat-out love beetles everywhere I have ever fished them. DO NOT ever underestimate the power of a beetle!!

Fishing Tip:  Here is a technique we recommend trying the next time you fish a beetle fly.  On a small high mountain stream fish the fly down stream and skate it across the riffles and holes. You’ll often catch the quality fish in a small stream working it that way.

Flies that caught fish:

Black Gold #12
Emperor Caddis – Black #18
Beetle #14