Low Water and Few Salmon

2018 has been a tricky year for trout fishing around here. In the spring, when the fish were feeding on migrating salmon fry, we had good rain and great fishing. This summer though has been a different story. We have had an unusually dry summer meaning little water in the creeks. If you couple low water with a sunny day, you run into a problem when you want to go catch a fish.

Small nymphs and dries, light leaders, and light footsteps were the ticket to landing resident cutthroat. I got pretty good at the slingshot cast to get up under the cut banks where the fish were hiding. Normally I try to find deep holes where the fish will be holding. This was not the case this summer. First of all, with the low water there really weren't any deep holes to speak of. Second of all these fish didn't want to be out in the open. Low water means clear water and these fish weren't interested in being seen. They were holding tight to any kind of cover they could find. One day I was walking in about 6 inches of water looking across from me under a cut bank. When all of a sudden out comes about a 13 inch cuttie from under a small log in this real shallow water. It was hard to pattern these trout and I really just felt lucky whenever I would connect.

The reward of surviving these summer conditions was supposed to be when the salmon returned this fall. All summer I kept telling myself that it would get better about mid August. I had visions of the great fishing I had last fall with multiple days of over 20 fish over 14 inches. Well mid August rolled around and the salmon weren't really here. The run was minuscule and again we had a lack of rain. Now I am not saying I haven't caught any fish this fall, but it has been a struggle. Since the salmon were late and few in numbers, there aren't many eggs being dropped so bead fishing has been slow. There are no decomposing fish so flesh flies are out. The fish don't seem to really be cued in to any one thing, making it difficult to decide what to throw. However, beads have still been my go to lately and I can still find a couple fish when I go out.

This year has been a learning experience with the conditions I have been fishing. I am still having fun and catching a couple fish so I will keep going out until the rivers freeze up the winter.