Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Sipping Trout Below the Dam at Smith Lake

I have been waiting for two weeks to get to fish the tailrace below the dam at Smith Lake. The constant flow below the dam has been off for much of the month. The engineers at the dam are installing a new pump system that will produce a constant flow 24/7 instead of the off and on again flow that has been occurring for the past 6 months. My son, son-in-law and I all made a short trip to the tailrace Saturday evening and found the engineers had solve the problem and the water was moving perfect for some mountain like trout stream fishing. The water temperature was around 55 and there was not much of a rise. We landed one each for the afternoon, using the size 18 dry gnat and a 22 midge. The trout were feeding at the surface, but it was not the aggressive takes one would see this time of year. It was more like a sipping motion. I have seen this before and have never been able to figure out how and what to use to get the take, when this is happening. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the trout and not be able to get any takes. We tried a number of patterns but none seen to produce on a consistent basics. True we all landed one trout each, but it seems in this particular case the trout know when the pattern is fake and the action is over. I do know that fish turn on and off as far as feeding cycles is concerned so I guess this was one of those off cycles. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope everyone has a save and hearty Thanksgiving. 
  
Nice bow on the 3 wt. This trout had some width to it. After the picture it swim off to fight another day
My son off in the distance right after he landed his trout for the evening
This little guy was helping us get our gear together, of course he let us know it was not fair he didn't get to go.

10 comments:

  1. Ooooh, a chunky one. Glad you beat the skunk.

    Mark

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  2. Mark
    I have been there and got shunked, so at least this time I felt good about all of us landing something. thanks for the comment

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  3. That situation can be a tough nut to crack Bill. When I see trout rising like that, I usually go to a #20 Griffith's gnat or #20 rusty spinner. Sometimes you can get them to eat a zebra midge dropped under a dry fly.

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  4. Sure a nice one, Bill! You earned it. Tough fishing those small flies.

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  5. Great way to spend the day before Thanksgiving , on the water with family. Kind of puts in perspective just a couple of the things that we should all be thankful for....Jeff

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  6. Mel
    I am going to have to get better seeing those little flies. thanks for the comment

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  7. Ty
    I will give those flies a shot. I was going to use the dropper off one of the dries I was fishing but we ran out of daylight. The norm at this place is the smaller you can get the better chance you have landing a quality fish. Thanks for the comment

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  8. Jeff
    I seldom get to fish with my son and son-in-law together---makes for a great trip. thanks for the comment

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  9. Hey Bill, Happy Thanksgiving. That is some beautiful water so I'm glad they got the flow worked out. That chunky bow would have made my day.

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  10. Cofisher
    I must admit that bow was one of the better trout I have landed this past month. I will take one anyday over nothing. Have a great Thanksgiving

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