Owyhee River, OR

Pump House riffles; Karl's Bend; Regular Hole riffles

comments (2)

Outing Information

Date: Saturday, May 19th, 2007
Start/End Time: 3:00pm to 8:30pm
Best Fishing Time: -
Rating: Good

Classification: Public
Water Temp: 46.0°F
Water Clarity: Murky - <1' visibility
Water Level: 250cfs
User: Jason Hansen

Pictures

Fish Caught

Brown Trout

Caught	Avg Size	Pattern	Optional Fields
1	16"	#14 Black California Leech	Notes: Karl's Bend
1	16"	#18 Pheasant Tail BH	Notes: Karl's Bend Dropper off EH Caddis
2	15"	#16 Black Disco Zebra Midgeling	Notes: Karl's Bend
4	16"	#16 Light Blue Disco Zebra Midgeling	Notable Fish: 19",18" Notes: Pump House riffles
2	16"	#18 Pheasant Tail BH	Notes: Pump House riffles
6	16"	#18 Black Disco Zebra Midgeling	Notable Fish: 2 @ 18" Notes: Regular Hole riffles
3	16"	#18 Pheasant Tail BH	Notes: Regular Hole riffles
19	15.89"

Total: 19 fish Top Patterns: Disco Zebra Midgeling (12) Pheasant Tail BH (6) California Leech (1)

Weather

Skies	Afternoon	Evening
Mostly Sunny	X	X
Mostly Cloudy		X
Precipitation
None	X	X
Wind
Light - 5 to 10 knots	X	X
Medium - 10 to 15 knots	X	X

Air Temp High/Low: 80.0°F / 70.0°F
Wind Direction: -
Weather Front: -
Barometer: -
Moon Phase: 14% Full (Waxing crescent)

Other Patterns Tried

No other pattern information for this outing.

Hatches

#18 Dark Olive Blue-Winged Olive Ephemeroptera Baetis
#16 Pale Morning Dun Ephemeroptera Ephemerella

Insect Seining

No seining information for this outing.

Fishing Partners

Karl Sloth

Waypoints

No waypoints were saved with this outing.

Notes

Overall, it was a very productive day for nymphing for trout. Karl and I stopped by his hole to start with and noticed several fish moving around in the water column but not necessarily rising. The wind was blowing pretty good the entire day, so despite there being quite a few insects on the water, the fish were reluctant to rise all the way to the surface. Instead, I believe they focused on the emerging nymphs and also upon the drowned adults and cripples.

The nymphing was somewhat slow at Karl's bend so we headed up to the Pump House riffles. Karl did pretty good there on zebra midgelings, landing 3 and he had another on. I did fine as well, landing 6 and I had a couple other fish on. Unfortunately I lost my forceps while crossing the river and the rest of the day was a bit of a struggle removing #18 flies from toothy mouths.

The surprise for me of the day was how well I did nymphing at the Regular hole riffles. I set Karl up in the prime spot across from the rock and he did land one. He left to take Bryce upsteam to a different hole so I slowly worked upstream to his spot and hooked fish after fish. I had fish #20 on several times but couldn't land it.

The results of the last hole remind me from LaFontaine's readings that typically mayflies and caddisflies, depending on species, will have high behavioral drift rates in the mornings and evenings as they move from area to area in search of food. I realize I would rather dry fly fish in the evenings on the Owyhee, but if the wind is blowing and fish aren't focused on the surface, I think nymphing could be extremely productive on a consistant basis.