With only a half day of avail time to hit the Grand, The Professor & I headed out the door at our usual 3Am yesterday. Anticipation was high, as water temps had come up to a whooping 50-52F. Hopefully allowing for some increased nymphing activity.
Slight problem however.. With last weekends Kayak races & the increased flow rate outta the Dam. It has left this past week as a recuperation period to allow for acceptable levels in the lake for the long weekend. Dropping down to under a 3cms flow rate & with a river that normally sees an average of 3.5-4.3cms through-out the year, this menas a change of tactics were in order.
Even with a change of basic presetations i.e. longer leaders, I had to go down to 7x tippet size in order to get a bite. While I did note some relatively active nymphing as opposed to previous outtings, it wasn't until later in the day, after the sun had warmed the water & just as time had run out for our jaunt.
I did mange four hook-ups to decent fish in the 18"-22" range, how-ever my run of late '06 Steelhead Mojo must be back, as I managed to lose all four to pulled/thrown hooks while under tension.... Figures... I'm hoping yesterday was a one-off & not a sign of the season to un-fold.
Hoping to get back mid-week for some Hendrickson dry-fly action (although I may have missed the bulk of it). The above pic was by a third-party friend, who tagged along with us. Great scenic sunrise shot of yours truely doing the "Steelhead Jig" (swing thru, move five feet down..) through a well known run...
