Owyhee River, OR
Pump House riffles; Karl's Bend; Regular Hole riffles
Outing Information
- Date
- 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" |
Weather
| Skies | Morning | 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 SlothWaypoints
No waypoints were saved with this outing.
Tides
No tide information was 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.
Comments
zstroud
Looks like it was slow again like the other night. Do you think it is the wind keeping the fish from taking insects off the surface?
cwtob
You have incredibly fast reflexes on viewing my logs. :) I had saved the log after entering in part of the info and was still entering in more fish data.
Yes, the wind is definitely a factor with fish feeding on the surface. LaFontaine did a study regarding the wind on the Big Hole River and found the following:
Calm days-- Duns=44% Emergent Nymphs=56%
Windy days-- Duns=27% Emergent Nymphs=73%
(see The Dry Fly - New Angles, page 2)