Weather: Warm, some rain
Water: Good, slightly off-color, 62-72 degrees
Hatches: bunches & bunches
Time: 10am-10pm
Comments: The cold spring weather gave way to 70 degree weather and the fish and bugs responded almost instantly.
Thursday--fished below 20 day rapids. A few odd bugs but nothing really happening. We had some luck with attractor dry flies and sulphur duns, but the action was pretty slow.
Friday--floated from Burnt Point to the Irrigation Hole. Tons of insect activity (Sulphurs, Hendricksons, Gray Drakes, Grannom caddis, Little Sister Sedges, and Craneflies--not even bothering with anything less than a size 14!), but very little surface action. The water was very clear, so maybe the fish had just finished feeding on nymphs?
Saturday--some heavy rain in the morning, so the water was a little off-color (normal is tea color, this was tea with the grounds left in!). Floated from Lily to Hollister. Found some Salmon Fly shucks on the rocks, so I prospected with a Brooks Stone. Took two nice trout in a run in the St. Clair Rapids. Later on, there was a nice, steady hatch of Sulphurs in the Burnt Point Rapids. There was steady feeding right in the pocket water, and I was able to catch fish consistently with a sparkle dun.
Sunday--floated from the Hwy 64 bridge to the Garfield Rapids. Fishing was again slow, although there was a heavy hatch of Brown Drakes below 20 day rapids. Good numbers and sizes of fish were rising, but I was caught without a decent brown drake imitation, so I had limited luck.
Outlook--the brown drakes should become the dominant hatch on the river within the next week. There are also lots of Grannom caddis, Golden Stone, and Great Brown Stonefly nymphs in the river, and these will continue to keep the trout well fed. The water temperature was up to a peak of 72 degrees Sunday, so temperature could become a problem on very hot days.
Jeff Grossman grossmaj@milwaukee.tec.wi ---------------------------------------------------------------------------