A View from the Water

It is no secret that we are now in the dog days of summer - having fun with spooky trout, low water conditions and warm water temperatures.  When stream conditions get a little too risky for trout fishing, we are also putting a lot of effort into the bass and pike fishing.  

So what's going on with bike and bass fishing? The big news is that the fun, on the surface bite for the pike is on. It's a lot of fun watching a 30+ inch pike eating a surface fly bigger than your hand.  We are also finding really nice largemouth and smallmouth bass as bycatch when pike fishing (although I'm not sure it's fair to the species to consider them bycatch).  With warmer  temperatures, even when targeting species who thrive in these conditions, we are starting our days fairly early to take advantage of both cooler water and temperatures (this is as much for us anglers as it is for the fish). At the same time, we are trying to avoid the wind which often picks in the afternoons during the summer.

As for the trout fishing, in next couple of weeks, the trico hatch should be in full swing and I suspect we have a few bugs in the water as I write this update. But it takes some time for the trout to get dialed in and consistently feeding on this summer mayfly.  Depending on morning air temperatures, I will start somewhere between 6 and 7 AM. Most mornings, we will be done fishing the hatch by between 10:30AM and 11AM. We will often finish the morning up by throwing wooly buggers, small beetles and ants. If the breeze is up, often the wind will shake a few these bugs loose and extend the fishing opportunity into early afternoon. 

A couple other notes of interest. For those who are interested in fishing for salmon this fall, reports we are receiving from the lake fisherman is very encouraging. The boats are having very good, consistent salmon fishing. What this means for us is that we may be looking at potentially a good run of salmon this season.  Keep in mind that we still have a few dates available in our calendars but they will fill up quickly. I will be posting open dates on the website so stay tuned. One last final note: we are taking registrations for the spey casting clinic which takes place the last weekend of August in Pulaski. There is still slots available for both Saturday and Sunday and you can register using this form. 

Good fishing and good luck,
Jay