Beardsley Afterbay

[Lee Haskin]

It has been a year since I fished the Beardsley Afterbay, on the Stan, and normally, there is great dry fly action (at least for the last 25 years!).
However, this weekend, it appeared that there has been a BIG change in that fishery.
Virtually no rising fish, morning and evening, in spite of the typical hatches.
Usually, there are a dozen, or more float tubers trolling up nice browns and and bow; but not this time.
0 fishermen.....on a Saturday in July? Something is up.

Can anyone fill me in on this fishery?

Did they simply stop planting fish?

BTW: I caught 2 nice fish, about 16", on a small damsel nymph, and both were cutthroats!
Where did they come from?
It was like I had never fished this place before.

I thought I would check with this board, to see if there were any answers out there, before calling DF&G.

Thanks for your help.

Lee

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Maybe check with Bob Nakagawa at Sierra Anglers Fly Shop in Modesto, California?

http://sierraanglers.com/

[JasonB]

Went there about a month and a half ago, fishing was ok. Nothing fantastic, but we were there in a fairly hot spell and the hatches were a bit inconsistent so we didn't have huge expectations. Caught a few nice sized fish and lost a few more, all on nymphs and streamers. Saw very little surface action other than right at dusk. It was my first time there, so nothing to compare against fwiw...
JB

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I just called Bob......

He said the last time he was there he saw about 10 otters so he thinks that might be part of the problem.

He does not think they plant that afterbay.

I wonder what the surface temp is now with this heat?


.

[Lee Haskin]

Hey Bill,

The water temps were very cold, as usual, with flows coming right out of the bottom of the dam.
I didn't see any otters, this time, but I have seen them on previous trips. Interesting.
Thanks for checking, Bill.
I'm even more confused about the presence of cutts.

Actually, carp fishing is taking up most of my summer down time.
So many places to explore, and so many huge carp to feed.

Hope you are enjoying retirement, Bill!!

Cheers,
Lee

[Cruzin4Metalheads]

Hi Lee,

I've been fishing there for about 20 years for the most part and I can confirm what bill said. About 6-7 years ago I saw my first otter in the afterbay, and fishing has been diminishing slowly over the last few years. I have yet to go this year, but last year I saw about a dozen otters working the water right below the dam. It's a shame, a thirty to forty fish day used to be the norm or more, now a good day is a handful. There should not be any cutties in there, never caught one. perhaps some came over the spillway from somewhere above, though i doubt it. It's too bad, there used to be some monsters in there! Also, i believe cadfw changed the regs, it's no longer a trophy section, but i think it still needs to be barbless.

The worst part about it, is my pops went down into the lower river about a month ago and saw three otters through the river too. Too bad. Only a little while before that gets hammered by them too.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[Lee Haskin]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the feedback. Like you I have fished the afterbay for many years, and although the dry fly fishing dropped off a bit last year, the fishing was still quite good, for both bows and browns. I typically fish the bank feeding browns, with a dry fly, and I did see several of these fish last weekend, but that was all.
The otters have been around for a number of years, but the drop off this year is dramatic. I talked to several guys that fished the river, below the afterbay, and although they saw several big trout, only caught a handful of 6-8" fish. Nothing like it was a few years back.
Sad to see this awesome fishery in this condition.

Yes, I can confirm that there are cutthroats in there. There was group of about 6 of them that followed me in my tube, picking off nymphs that I kicked up off the weeds. They were very close to me, and easy to identify. I caught two of them. These fish were deep, heavy fish, spotted on the back half of the body, no rainbow coloring,and 2 light orange slashes on the throat.
Jeremy, if you, or anyone, are able to fish the afterbay, your feedback would be most appreciated!

Cheers,
Lee

[TroutNoDoubt]

I was just searching the site because I was going to ask the very same question. I fished Beardsley Afterbay today and had no bumps. Saw one fish swimming and a few risers. And I fished it hard. I indicaor nymphed the inlet stream beow the power house, I tried several buggers on an intermediate line, and I tried casting dries that have worked in the past.

Damn shame. Used to be a good fishery. Otters also cleaned out Rucker lake (near Fuller and Bowman lakes off HWY 20) of all the stunted LM bass. Used to be a kick to float tube that lake and catch 50 bass in an afternoon. Heard soemwhere that otters eat half their body weight daily. NOt sure if that correct, but iff true, trhe drop in fish at the Afterbay makes sense.

Last year I did OK; 2-4 fish/outing. Saw a lot of risers in AM and PM, buy they were very picky and focused on midge hatches.