I knew today’s forecast was calling for wind
slightly out of the north, but what I encounter on the tailrace today was boat sailing
wind. I almost left when I saw how windy it was through the gorge leading up to
the dam. I remembered making these windy trips here before. I did have the
water pretty much to myself, because there was only one other vehicle in the
parking lot when I arrived, so with that encouragement I stayed. Dries were out not only because of the wind, but
leaves as well, so I tied on size 12 bead head Prince Nymph dead drifting some
of the usual places I always fish at the mouth of the tailrace. I lost two
trout within the first 10 minutes here, mainly due to show reaction by me. The short
takes convinced me to change flies and go with a smaller nymph, and move on to
another area above me. I have found that when the fish are finicky the smaller
the pattern the better results.
This rainbow fell prey to a weighted size 16 bead head grey
scud dead drifting the fly through some fast water, that I have learned to fish
to my advantage. This would be the only trout taken for the morning on the nymph, numerous hits, but no results
I really like this fast water dead drifting a
bead head pattern. I never see anyone fishing this area, which is too my
advantage. I lost 3 trout in here before I finally connected with the scud
trout. I think I would have been a bit more successful if not for the tremendous
wind I had to contend with here practically on every cast.
As I left the fast water I
notice that there was some fairly calm water ahead of me on the west side of
the tailrace which was sheltered by trees that lined the bank. The closer
I got to the calm water the better it looked because I was noticing some
surface action. This told me that there might be a possibility of landing a trout
or two on top. So I tied on the Bomber
which is my go to dry fly when surface activity is present.
I was rewarded with this
rainbow using Allen’s Bomber, Small Stream Reflections, on a long drift. I had to make some long cast to
reach the surface trout on the other side of the tailrace; which would consist
of numerous fail cast because of sudden wind burst whipping down the gorge.
I will admit that today was quite a challenge considering the weather. I forgot to mention the temperature was in the low forties today with a cold front approaching bringing temperatures in the low twenties for the coming weekend.
As I was leaving and walking back
to the my truck I notice that most of the color from the leaves have gone for this year.
They will eventually cover the road by December---and we will be back to fall again sooner than we all think
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