Three days on the White River
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:35 pm
We got home this afternoon from a wonderful trip in Meeker visiting family and fishing the river. The river where we fished is mostly populated by whitefish, and it seems they are pushing the trout out. In fact, there's so many whitefish I can see why Colorado has no bag limit on them. The whitefish needs to be cleaned out a bit ( actually a lot ) so the trout can make a comeback. I caught about six rainbows, and close to 100 whitefish for the three days I fished.
The fly I was using was the fly I posted on Tying Wingless Flymphs, with the goose biot tail. The fish didn't seem to mind what kind of tail it had on, and it did really well. I used the fly for the three days we were there. My son was even happy to use that pattern too.
Here I am in action.
One of the whitefish. They were averaging between 15 to 20 inches. So thick dense heavy fish. They are powerful swimmers and when they got below us the advantage was theirs.
At the end of the first day I was using two flymphs, and I cast them up behind a big boulder in the middle of the river. I wasn't long when I saw a rainbow come completely out of the water. I set the hook hard and the line went tight and it sure was pulling and fighting with everything it had. I was impressed with it. Then when I was in position to grab the fish I noticed the rest of my tippet was tight and moving around as well. I quickly learned I had two fish, so that explained why the fight was so hard.
My nephew who fishes that river all the time is sold on Prince Nymphs. But when he saw that I was pretty much always fighting a fish he asked what I was using. I showed him the fly and gave him a few. He is sold on them now.
I know the goose biot tail isn't the normal thing, but I was just happy to see the fish didn't care. I'll probably tie some more with biot tails, but will also tie some up with a more common tailing material. But all in all, it was a great trip.
The fly I was using was the fly I posted on Tying Wingless Flymphs, with the goose biot tail. The fish didn't seem to mind what kind of tail it had on, and it did really well. I used the fly for the three days we were there. My son was even happy to use that pattern too.
Here I am in action.
One of the whitefish. They were averaging between 15 to 20 inches. So thick dense heavy fish. They are powerful swimmers and when they got below us the advantage was theirs.
At the end of the first day I was using two flymphs, and I cast them up behind a big boulder in the middle of the river. I wasn't long when I saw a rainbow come completely out of the water. I set the hook hard and the line went tight and it sure was pulling and fighting with everything it had. I was impressed with it. Then when I was in position to grab the fish I noticed the rest of my tippet was tight and moving around as well. I quickly learned I had two fish, so that explained why the fight was so hard.
My nephew who fishes that river all the time is sold on Prince Nymphs. But when he saw that I was pretty much always fighting a fish he asked what I was using. I showed him the fly and gave him a few. He is sold on them now.
I know the goose biot tail isn't the normal thing, but I was just happy to see the fish didn't care. I'll probably tie some more with biot tails, but will also tie some up with a more common tailing material. But all in all, it was a great trip.
