Swing not working

[hankaye]

skunkaroo, Howdy;

Weather has thrown Huge curve here ...snow pack below 8000' is now over 200% above 8000' something like 140% - 170%.
Warming trend for the next 4 - 6 days. One of the big dams is letting water out of the resev. to make room for the melt-off.
Brice Canyon Dam has been letting (extra), water out since Feb. Everyone is worried (tip-toeing around like), that they might have a
repete of 1983 when there were record flooding. Lost the whole town of Thisel (20 miles North of here).
Normaly only a creek runs thru there. My Lady freind was considering buying a house up there. Found it 1/2 mile down sream after the water
level went back down.

The river I showed everyone awhile back is going through fits and spurts. One day nice and then next day blown-out. Just never has a rod
or the time when I go past it and it's behaveing itself

hank

[skunkaroo]

Not to drag this thread too far afield, but the spring here has been just awful. It's been one wave after another of heavy rain hitting the coast. My local creek needs a day to clear after a moderate rain and two to three after a heavy rain. For most of April the average period between heavy rain was measured in hours, not days. I got to the river 2 days in April, but I've already managed two so far in May (plus an hour or so of fishing after lunch today ).

I did a comparison of the upstream pulled, upstream dead drift, dead drift across-and-down, swing and lift techniques today in another section of the river--and it was the only the lift that managed to produce. Interesting to see the fish keying on one presentation only. It was worth jotting down in the diary.

Aaron

[hankaye]

Skunkaroo, Howdy;

News just said the name of that dam that they are letting the water out of, Flaming Gorge. Some of the folks were saying that
what is normaly a 2 1/2 hour raft ride is now a 30 min. ride (hold on to yer hat!). They didn't give a folw rate or I'd a posted it.

hank

[John L]

After a 40F night it was clear and warming when I fished a little this morning. An occasional caddis flew off the river to the bank, but no fish rose, so I fished up ahead with a heavy little stonefly nymph on point, and a size 14 dark softhackle 3' up from that. Four fish, all on the deep nymph.

This afternoon I wanted to try a new caddis larva, so I put that on point in place of the little stonefly, and fished a different river section, again casting up and drifting back. More adult caddis about but again no rising. Nothing for a while, then snagged the nymph and while trying to pull it free a trout took the softhackle. After landing that fish I put a lesser weighed coarse dubbed size 14 dark nymph on point, and continued to fish up. Nothing on the drift, but three fish took one or the other fly on the lift at the end of the drift, all directly downstream from my rod tip. Got nothing swinging the flies across and down.

Another small sample but again it seems that at least now, with this Brachycentrus hatch, fish are fairly keyed on a rising fly that doesn't move laterally much.

[willowhead]

Really nice thread.........thankx everyone, and Welcome John L.
i have each of the books mentioned above, and highly recommend them all. Best of luck on-stream, and safe wading.

[willowhead]

"it don't mean a thing.......if it aint got that swing"........de bop do bop su wap te dop be bop do bop do wahhhhhhhhhh

[John L]

Here it is about a year later, April 13, 1012, and again I'm fishing my town water, the Arkansas River through Canon City, Colorado. The Grannon/ Brachycentrus caddis hatch is starting and, again, I can't buy a strike on the swing. I can catch an ocasional fish by dead drifting any of a number of caddis or stone fly immitations, but best catching by far is with a size 16 or sparely tied size 14 darkish greenish soft hackle/nymph, allowed to sink, then lifted. Also often I'll get a strike as I'm walking upstream while dragging the fly behind.

Maybe getting the fly to lift is some people's idea of swing. That works here now. But if the fly swings cross current I catch nothing ...... at this time of year here. Later in the summer and the fall here a cross current swing often works well.

Apparently Brachycentrus don't swim cross current under water or at the surface and, when fish are keyed on this hatch, my (cross current) swing is never going to work.

OK.

[DUBBN]

Welcome back John. I thought I had all the answers for you this time last year. Especially the part about the Swallows. It wasnt too long after answering your post last year that I went down to the East Portal in the Black Canyon. About mid morning here came the Swallows, and the fish rising (not chasing) to what I believe was a small BWO hatch. I really thought I was going to rake the fish in at that point. Nah, the "swing" didnt produce crud. Later in the Summer, and when the fish were aggresively chasing emergers out of the water, the Swing worked again.

This doesnt mean caddis arent important right now. They are. I still have to dead drift (nymph fish) with caddis patterns to get results. Two weeks ago I did well with a Cased caddis.

Hope the meager snowfall doesnt affect your fishing this Summer,

These are the flys I will use this Spring mimicking the Caddis
Cased caddis



Caddis Pupa




Soft Hackles





Good luck John.

[John L]

Fun reply, Dubbn. I never really checked out your swallows theory because I almost always fish just in the mornings.

Beautiful and helpful pics! You sure can tie flies and take pictures.

I'm such a minimalist that I've pretty much given up soft hackles and just rely on fuzzy "dubbn". My flies are not near so interesting and good looking as yours. Still, If I had a closeup capable camera I would do you the courtesy of showing that several of my favorite flies resemble yours anyway.

Tight lines!

[DUBBN]

Thank you John. I was about 17 and had a few years of fly fishing under my belt. I was at the sporting goods , and I over heard one old time fly fisher talking to another. I dont know if they were talking nymph, dry, wet, or streamer but the words are burnt in my brain. "If it's a half inch to an inch long, and Brown, the fish will eat it." It wasn't long after that I fell in love with Pheasant tails!