Thanks For All The Questions, I'll Give You Some Answers In The Morning.

 

With two months, including most of the "big bug season" in the books, I thought it might be helpful to lend some perspective to the fishing season to date.

My log books, which span 34 years offer a pretty realistic picture of the variations in the fish population numbers and size, water flows and temperatures, as well as other conditions that have had an influence on the fishing.

The month of April has always been by far the toughest month to predict with cold runoff inhibiting insect hatches and low flows, (when the reservoirs aren't full), sometimes allowing for the sun to heat the water and cause the bugs to mature early. My April results consequently vary wildly with a low of one fish landed and a high of  one-hundred forty nine. This year's total catch of eighty- two fish would fall within the mid- range results. What was surprising to me was the size of the fish. Normally April and May produce the highest percentage of fish over 17 inches. This April there were only 13 of the fish caught that were over seventeen inches or just under 16%. I didn't do any calculations but after glancing at the April results for previous years the percentage would normally be around 40%. Why so low? Probably because of the lack of a good Hendrickson hatch. There just weren't enough bugs to get the big fish feeding on top. Most of the fish I caught in April ranged in size from 12 to 16 inches.

 May offers the full array of big bugs from Hendricksons to the drakes and is the month to be on the river if you want to catch big fish. As far as total numbers of fish go, the months of May, June, and July are, for me, about the same. The difference is in fish size. As soon as the big bugs disappear the big browns turn to more of a fish eating diet. My catch totals for May are consistently in the neighborhood of two-hundred fish. This year I landed 81, which was my lowest total since 1994. The good new is that with the improved hatches, the big fish came to the table. Over 51% of the browns and 43% of the rainbows were over 17 inches. 

What conclusions can be drawn from my ramblings? Judging by April's catch, there is a healthy population of three and four year old fish in the river. In May when the bug hatch was heavier, the big fish made it known that they are still around in good numbers. It will be interesting to see if there is a healthy population of yearlings this year as last falls drought could have made them vulnerable to predators. We won't know about this years hatch until next year but the low water kept the spawners out of most of the tribs and the two gully washers we have had as the fry were hatching probably ensures a very low survival rate. 

So far, if you are a wade fisherman, its been a frustrating year, but I believe that there is a healthy population of fish 12 inches and up throughout the river system. I've been in the river on eight or ten occasions this year when there were good bugs and the fish were up. I was truly amazed at how many fish were feeding. As an aside, when I am removing the  hook from a fishe's mouth, I have a habit of looking for other hook marks. Usually by this time of year many fish look like they've been chewing on ground glass. So far I haven't seen a fish that I could say for sure had more than two hook marks in its mouth. Judging by today's water levels that isn't going to change anytime soon.

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