Cold Day

David with a nice brown one of many on the day.
Jack with a rainbow.

All Jack could say was BULL SH-T on David catching fish. Jack had a hard time landing fish today.

Floated Vallie Br. to Texas Creek today with a strong cold down stream WIND. No caddis today it was too cold. The river was 478cfs. , 100cfs more than yesterday. The fish were eating most of the day. Caught fish on golden stones and G.W. special.

The word of the day--WIND.

The Fish Spotter finally got a day off to go fishing with her master.
Her master still has the touch.

The Fish Spotter is smelling the air for another trout!!


The Fish Spotter was successful in locating this beautiful rainbow.

I hope the caddis' have sharp toe nails because the wind was HOWLING downstream today. Despite the wind, we did catch fish on a hopper/dropper and woolly buggers. We did see a few caddis breaking the sound barrier downriver.

First fish caught on a caddis for this season.

First fish taken on a caddis.








Norm used dries all day. Caught them on caddis' and hoppers.











Ray caught fish on G.W. Special and black/yellow hot wire prince and caddis'.

We floated down to Trading Post today. We got into the caddis' at Coaldale and caught them on single and double dries. The water was running at 405 cfs. The water was a bit discolored but the fish still hit the dries.

The fish were feeding today.

Jim and Mick had many layers of cloths on for the morning snow shower.
Today is the first day in a long time that we caught fish all day long consistently. The water was running 420 cfs and you could see the bottom of the river . They caught fish on golden stones, hare's ears, and flash back pheasant tails, and a G.W. special. There was a significant BWO hatch through town. Fish were raising all over.

Rainbows rule!!

Beautiful day--blue skies--clear water.
Ross with a big smile. He out fished Charlie today!!








Charlie with a brown and a rainbow.























Ross holding a rainbow.

We didn't catch many browns today.

This is a new streamer Charlie was debuting.

Towards the end of the day, the Charlie Boy Hoppers were in the "mating" season. They brought along 2 other nymphs for the ride.

The water clarity has improved daily. The river was running 452 cfs today. We caught fish on a hopper, a golden stone, caddis pupa, soft hackles, pheasant tails, and streamers. We caught way more rainbows today than browns.

Tough fishing but great goat cheese.

We had to gather in the willows to get out of the wind.
Today was all about culture. Goat cheese and fig jam and a bottle of expensive wine.

Today the downstream wind was the worst we have had all season. We did manage to catch a few fish on woolly buggers and a dry/dropper set up. There were many wade fisherman out lining the banks.

Cold and windy with hot coffee for lunch.

Chris working on his macrame project for the "State Fair". He says the wind helps a lot in project design. He is hoping that this is his last project!!
Brandon with a fat rainbow. It was hard for him to smile because his teeth were chattering.

This is the biggest brown Brandon caught for the day.

Chris caught the longest fish of the day, but not the fattest.

We floated from Johnson Village to Ruby Mountain. The water was quite clear today. Hopefully the colder temperature today will delay the run-off. We fished with a hopper/dropper all day, even in the wind.

Salida East to Vallie Bridge Float

Pete with a brown.
This is one of the few times I could get out of the boat and take a picture.

Another brown

Last fish and only rainbow of the day.

We started out with a dry/dropper rig. Landed 3 fish almost right away. Pete decided to fish with a black woolly bugger. He fished with that the rest of the day. He had many lookers and many strikes. He rodeo'd a bunch and landed all of the nice ones.

A dry/dropper day

Chris was in the back of the boat today, so he only got one picture taken.





















Here are some of John's fish. There were many.

Today was dry, dropper day. Used a rubber legged hopper on the top and a bead-head pheasant tail on the bottom. The fish were right on the bank today. Some of the clarity of the water is back. We floated from the Salida ramp to Howard. Badger Creek Rapid has definitely changed!!

Streamers, streamers, streamers

The flies for today.
Charlie with a nice brown.

Matt with a nice brown.

Two of the biggest fish of the day.

Both caught on streamers.

We floated from Johnson Village downstream. The clarity was much better than downstream by Salida. They started out with streamers and the fish were very aggressive. Both Charlie and Matt could put the fly right on the bank. It was very enjoyable to see so many fish caught today.

A sunny and bright day.

Check this out--it's one of my dirty water flies.
Pumped a stomach and was surprised to find a sow bug.

Here is Don with a nice brown and a rainbow. This is just two of the many he caught today.

We floated from 166 Bridge to Rincon. The water was clearer

today which improved the catching.

Rising water levels

Metallic Caddis Larva
Nice Brown

The water level for today's float was 356 cfs. It went up to above 420cfs by the end of the day. With this increase there was a discoloration during the day. We managed to catch on a brown stone fly and a metallic caddis larva. The Fish Spotter is back from her vacation, so things are looking up!!!!

Nice Day To Be On The River

Rick's cuttbow of the day

Rick with nice male rainbow

Dan with a nice brown

Dan's first fish of the day

We floated Salida to Rincon today. Not a cloud in the sky. Some downstream wind.
The fly for the day was a Yellow Stone Fly