I Thought I’d trya spot I have rarely fished because it just doesn’t produce much in the way of cutthroats or surface fishing. I was up close to Hardware Ranch between mile marker 20 and 21 (I hopped in where the grass hay fields are). I’ve talked to others who like the area, but it hasn’t been my thing. (see my next post for a longer discussion)

I fished from 9:15 AM – 11:45 AM. Not a single rise in 2 1/2 hours except at my fly. Some holes were on and most were off. I did land around 15 fish. I was disappointed because they were all browns. They were all in the 9"-12" range (mostly 9"-10").

The water color was a shade off. There were plenty of midges on the water and sporadic sightings of a very long-tailed, orange bodied mayfly (I really need to bone-up on my bugology).

I caught the first ten on a beetle pattern, my favorite attractor pattern when there are no rises (thanks Dan!). The last five were on my Splayed Salmonfly pattern (the fly formerly known as Foam Cross). I thought it would be interesting to see if the fish were still keying in on salmon flies. Funny thing, I don’t think the salmon flies hatch that far upstream (I don’t ever remember them that far up, nor did I see any exuviae).

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