Tony Buzolich
09-21-2006, 09:29 PM
This is my first full week back on the Feather after being laid up for a bit and I want to say that things are a happing.
The lowflow has lots of salmon and quite a few are dark but the nice thing is there are new fish coming in on top of the older fish and these new guys are bright as chrome. The new fish look like steelhead when mixed in together.
Monday I had two older fellows (mid-70's) out who had only fly fished once before for trout in Montana last year and they really wanted to try salmon. Well, with a little casting lesson the day before they managed to successfully land two salmon the following day.
Tuesday, I had another two fellows who knew how to cast and what a difference that makes. These guys could cast, follow directions, and place their shots where I told them and they ended up with six fish, one pushing over thirty pounds.
Yesterday was a play day for myself and a couple of friends. We hit a couple of new spots that I don't go to very often and ended up with four really bright fish. The best fish of the day came at the end. One of the guys hadn't actually landed a fish though he hooked and played plenty. He really wanted one for a picture and the challenge was set. About noon we worked our way back toward our truck and I took him to a very small hole called Snakebush. Sure enough, it was full of salmon resting during the midday glare of the sun. Try as he may, they wouldn't eat his fly. I told him that quite often a small dark fly will work during the middle of the day when all else fails. We moved a short distance to another pool where there were resting salmon as well. He switched flies to something dark, made one cast, and promptly hooked a real MO. Immediately charging downstream, in to the backing, and popping off in a heartbeat with yards and yards of line out now tangled everywhere. I took his rod and gave him mine so that I could recover his line. As I walked down stream gathering the line I could more fresh fish. I yelled at him to use my rod and cast to the next hole. He did, and this time hooked and landed a beautiful chrome 12# hen using my 8 weight with a #6 Silver Hilton.
This last fish was perfect. Bright as dime, not too big (12#), and completely ate my small dark fly (Silver Hilton) with gusto.
Overall, a great day with a couple of friends, and a really good week for salmon too.
Time to get out there if you haven't already,
Tony
www.feather-river-fly.com
The lowflow has lots of salmon and quite a few are dark but the nice thing is there are new fish coming in on top of the older fish and these new guys are bright as chrome. The new fish look like steelhead when mixed in together.
Monday I had two older fellows (mid-70's) out who had only fly fished once before for trout in Montana last year and they really wanted to try salmon. Well, with a little casting lesson the day before they managed to successfully land two salmon the following day.
Tuesday, I had another two fellows who knew how to cast and what a difference that makes. These guys could cast, follow directions, and place their shots where I told them and they ended up with six fish, one pushing over thirty pounds.
Yesterday was a play day for myself and a couple of friends. We hit a couple of new spots that I don't go to very often and ended up with four really bright fish. The best fish of the day came at the end. One of the guys hadn't actually landed a fish though he hooked and played plenty. He really wanted one for a picture and the challenge was set. About noon we worked our way back toward our truck and I took him to a very small hole called Snakebush. Sure enough, it was full of salmon resting during the midday glare of the sun. Try as he may, they wouldn't eat his fly. I told him that quite often a small dark fly will work during the middle of the day when all else fails. We moved a short distance to another pool where there were resting salmon as well. He switched flies to something dark, made one cast, and promptly hooked a real MO. Immediately charging downstream, in to the backing, and popping off in a heartbeat with yards and yards of line out now tangled everywhere. I took his rod and gave him mine so that I could recover his line. As I walked down stream gathering the line I could more fresh fish. I yelled at him to use my rod and cast to the next hole. He did, and this time hooked and landed a beautiful chrome 12# hen using my 8 weight with a #6 Silver Hilton.
This last fish was perfect. Bright as dime, not too big (12#), and completely ate my small dark fly (Silver Hilton) with gusto.
Overall, a great day with a couple of friends, and a really good week for salmon too.
Time to get out there if you haven't already,
Tony
www.feather-river-fly.com