We continue to get heavy rain causing severe flooding up and down the state. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone dealing with the damage from these catastrophic floods. While it will take a long time for these folks to recover, the watersheds will recover quicker as long as we get out of this weather pattern.
We have had to cancel and postpone many trips during this time, however some folks are willing to adjust, and trust us to find fishable water and even different species to make for a fun day.
Small and midsized mountain tributaries lower and clean up much quicker than the rivers they empty into. These are the areas we target for casting dry flies to native brook trout. The other option is ponds and lakes. These are a great places to get a casting lesson and hook up on some warm water species. Bass and panfish love to eat eat flies, and are generally in casting distance from a dock or shoreline.
We are excited about the second half of this fishing season. All this rain will carryover into the coming months allowing rivers to maintain an average flow during what could be a hot dry rest of the summer.
If are getting a chance to chase brookies, make sure you have some high floating dry flies. Brook trout are voracious surface feeder. A small brook trout has no problem coming off the bottom for a huge grasshopper pattern. The same can be said for warm water species. Pan fish eat many of the same flies that you use for trout. They’ll eat nymphs under an indicator and they love mini buggers jigged off the bottom.
Whatever you’re doing outdoors this coming week, stay safe.