Truckee, CA.

[bigfly]

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4502/37782808642_6bcfc9fb11_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ZyJLFd)20170927_093355[1] (https://flic.kr/p/ZyJLFd) by James Landis (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156195835@N04/), on Flickr

It was Fall......
Today is white all over.
It will melt fast, and be warm again this week.....but soon, it will be Winter for five+ months.......
I have a few days open if you want to tag a fish before then!

The woods are quieter everyday.
Most of the birds are gone, tourists too......
The bugs are still going in the evening.
A few PMDs, a bundle of Baetis......
A cadre of Caddis....both Oct. and large Amber, and some little Glossisoma.
Midges of course....
And a few Hoppers still hopping.
The snow will stifle them for a couple days, but they will be back again when it warms later this week.
You could fish dries, or a bobber, or swing like you are fishing Steelhead.......could get a mighty Brown as well.....
The water in the canyon is nice.......near town is smallish Winter flows.....

Cold enough to wear waders again.......

Treat'em nice

Jim

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Jim.....winter is near.

[bigfly]

Just trying to help.......and maybe convince fishers that going in the summer isn't the best time....October rocks.....

I do a lot of trips, but some stand out......the gentleman in the photo was recovering from Chemo....
Not much energy, and wasn't up on fly fishing, but he enjoyed his 1st day on the water.
I viewed the world through his eyes for a while, and realized again that time flows like water, I recommend wading right in.......

Jim

[ARichcrook]

Glad he got to go with you. Some wouldn't handle it the way i know you did.
See you soon.

Rich

[bigfly]

Thanks Rich......

There are those out there, that will round file this.....
But one thing I do well, is see patterns...
Over 48 years of being on the water, I have seen spiders "flying" in the on-set of winter.
The spiders are aloft......
Once experienced a spider hatch...on Paradise Lake....they were dragging on the surface and that was all the fish were looking at....didn't have one in my box.
Managed to catch a couple, wind-dapping a Griffiths gnat....
Saw a fish eat an ovipositing aquatic moth yesterday....not sold in stores....Try a big white Wolfe...

I had a brilliant, cloudy afternoon of casting Baetis dries to seriously rising fish. Gorging might be a better description. Sz 18-20 Burks silhouette dun.
Tied for the T.
Little blue-winged sailboats disappearing beneath the surface....they were sipped, slurpped, porpoused too, even a Shamu style breach....22"was my biggest, but had a big booger decline to stay and play.

Went back the next day of course.....
Nuclear blue skies instead, and found a ghost town.....
If you want to fish a dry primarily, fish the clouds..........
Otherwise, swing a soft hackle in riffles or swing a streamer...or dredge a nymph, maybe a hopper dropper (they're back...), or.........if you happen onto some sporadical Oct Caddis, try "splat Dapping" an adult...
Point being, go soon....no whining this winter....

Jim

[Odonata]

Over 48 years of being on the water, I have seen spiders "flying" in the on-set of winter.
The spiders are aloft......
Once experienced a spider hatch...on Paradise Lake....they were dragging on the surface and that was all the fish were looking at....didn't have one in my box.
Managed to catch a couple, wind-dapping a Griffiths gnat....
Saw a fish eat an ovipositing aquatic moth yesterday....not sold in stores....Try a big white Wolfe...


Yes ! I was up in the high country near southern Yosemite over the weekend, backpacking and fly fishing around 9000'. There were spiders aloft on gossamer white silken wind sails, and I wondered if that was what the fish in some of the lakes were keying in on, in addition to tiny midges. I caught a few fish with small griffith's gnats too (16 and 18 ).

[bigfly]

Yep....
Just before winter they crawl up a branch to the end....turn around and run out silk till it lifts them.
Many end up high in a snow drift.
Always wondered what a grey capped rosy finch ate at 14,000 ft....frozen spiders......flown in for them....

Jim

[Mr T]

Always wondered what a grey capped rosy finch ate at 14,000 ft....frozen spiders......flown in for them....


That's a great sentence. Seriously-

[cyama]

"I had a brilliant, cloudy afternoon of casting Baetis dries to seriously rising fish. Gorging might be a better description. Sz 18-20 Burks silhouette dun.
Tied for the T.
Little blue-winged sailboats disappearing beneath the surface....they were sipped, slurpped, porpoused too, even a Shamu style breach....22"was my biggest, but had a big booger decline to stay and play."

I have been watching micro BWOs rising on my local creek. They are super small bugs. Can you post a photo of your version of Burk's silhouette dun or is it one of those top secret flies? Looks like an olive parachute with a dun hackle wing. Cheers! Catching a 22" fish on a dry and hooking an even bigger fish in CA is awesome!! Sometimes I think when all the fish have been hammered on every conceivable nymph they will only eat well presented dry flies....

[bigfly]

Thanks T....

Cyama...
Burk's is sold by Umpqua feather merchants. should be a pic online. If you tye them, the Baetis here are a bit darker than most BWO's sold. An olive sharpy can cure that ......try Cutters pattern too, the bi-color parachute is good in off light especially ...
I fish nymphs most of the time....more than 80% of the time.
I change styles often, from short line "Merican" to Cezch style, to Truckee deep industrial nymphing.
But, when noses are showing, I fish a dry. Not into asking for a rise when none are apparent.......
It is a rare day when I blind-drift a dry.......
I hunt fish.......not hope for them.
Right now they sporadically rise....mid-morn, and again late afternoon. Not so much at dusk now.
Mudding the leader helps to get the job done. As does a perfect drift...........

I was wondering at how quiet the woods are, since most all the birds have left......but maybe that's what the spiders were waiting for.............

Edit 11-9-17

Didn't think enough changes have occurred to warrant a full report, and bump up yet.

The T is beautiful right now....
nice cool water, nice color, nice fish.
Very quiet as Fall closes it's final curtain on this year......
Bugs are lessening a bit everyday.....
Soon, it will be Baetis, and Midges, and that is all.
So before the Caddis, and other bugs disappear, better get after it.
Mid-morning and mid afternoon is best.
See you out there!
Treat'em nice.....

Jim