11/29/10 Swinging in 1800 CFS

Dad and I put our thinking caps on and layed out few plans for tomorrow that depended on how crowded some of the spots would be.

I thought we lucked out at the UFZ because there were only 3 cars parked, but when we got the paradise pool it looked liked a trout rodeo. We talked to a few guys and then decided to head elsewhere rather than add to the crowded stretch of stream.

We then went to an area that I thought would fish good in the high flow, but I was wrong. Basically we went on a wild goose hunt and got sweaty from a long walk. We hiked back out from where we were and decided to fish on the other side of the Pineville boat ramp since we had about an hour before heading to lunch.

I decided to change flies and try a Crazy Comet, which is basically a popsicle style fly with bead chain eyes. This one was purple in the rear half, black in the front with a lot of flash throughout.

It was a little tricky since the water was over the top of the grass tussets, and I didn't want to trip and take a dip. The casting was close to shore to cover the slower water which felt fishy, but the dangle was a little tough since the fly would swing into the grass and get hung up now and then.

Working my way down the little area we had to fish, I was able to get the fly to swing below the tussets into the slack water....BUMP....great another tusset. I raise the rod to try to free the fly, but the line comes alive and the rod starts to bounce a little. THERE'S ONE!! It comes to the surface and splashes and I see some gold and big head. Cool!! I think it's a nice brownie!!

The head shakes were nice and heavy and I could see him flash, but he stayed down deep, pulled hard but didn't really go to far. I'm sure the cold water had him on the sluggish side.



When I had him in the shallows I lead him to a little hole in the tussets where I could land him and keep him in 6" of water. Dad was taking a couple of pics during the fight so I asked him if he was ready, and we took a few quick pictures of the nice brown trout. He was colored up nice and had nice deep body and a small alligator head including a cool kype too!!





That was it for the morning on a cold day, but at least the sun was out and shining bright. We met up with our buddy Dave and his son Matt who were going to stay for a few days, then we all got lunch and geared up for the afternoon.

Dave and Matt went to the 2A bridge area while Dad and I headed to the mid river to find a safe area to fish. Dad and I got to nice area and saw a guy showing his friend a few spey casts. They saw us and decided to stop and say hello, then they were off to another spot because the flow was too fast for their liking.

As soon as the guys were up the trail I began to fish and on about the third cast I feel a tug on the end of the line right where the other guys were just standing. The hook came out early and that was the only action we had all afternoon. Hopefully the water wouldn't be raised overnight.

11/29/08 Compactor Spey & Freshwater Lobster?

We all started at the 2A Bridge area. Dad and I decided to head up to the Upper Compactor (north side) so I could show him some more good water to swing. Joe and Dave stayed down around the bridge.

Dad started off close to shore while I waded out on a rock reef so we could essentially cover a large swath of water without being too close to each other. As he worked his way downstream with a little prodding from me, I slid closer to shore and fished the water he just went through. We each played around with a few different flies and covered some of the water twice, but no takers.

Dad wanted to work the water a third time so I told him I was heading downstream to fish the tailout of the Compactor hole. Dave and Joe fished south side the Compactor while we were upstream, but they didn’t have any luck. I tied on a different fly which was one I used last year and this year, but still hadn’t hooked anything with it. I figured why not, just go for it. It was a size one Spey fly with red GP crest for a tail, rear body of orange floss, front body of black dubbing, black spey hackle with a purple throat, and strips of black goose for the Spey/Dee wings.



The sun was bright, felt great, and the fly looked good while swimming it at my feet. Worked some line out until I felt comfortable and started the spey dance…step, cast, swing, repeat. Got below a bunch of annoying tree branches and stripped out line to cover a little more water since the swing was smooth and at a nice speed. There was good tension in the line too. Made a few more casts and at the end of one of the swings, just before the straight down dangle, I felt a bump. I was able to overcome the urge to strike and let the loop go since I was muttering it to myself the entire time. The loop went out, line came tight and I lifted the rod towards my shore to set the hook. The fish came up and rolled a few times but I couldn’t tell if it was a brownie or a steelie so I kept a nice deep bend in the rod.

It didn’t make any runs and just shook its head as it sulked so I figured it was a brownie. Tired it out pretty quickly and saw it was a nice fat bellied female brown and the hook was right in the corner of the jaw. Just as I was about to land her, my Dad showed up and I asked him if he had a camera because this was the biggest brown I had ever landed (not huge for SR standards though). He said, “No.” I then picked her up out of the water to get a feel for her weight and size and noticed she was dropping eggs so I quickly popped out the barbless hook, revived her and let her go back to where she came from. Judging from my rod handle she was about 26” long and felt like a fat, egg laiden 7-8 lbs. Sweet!! That made my day and if anything else happened, it would be icing on the cake.

Dad and I were a little chilled so we decided walk downstream and fish the run at the old abutment above 2A Bridge, and then we could head in for lunch. I started at the fast water and Dad started just below me. He worked his way down through and hopped out just below the abutment on the north side to head back to the truck. I followed him and made a few more casts before heading to the truck.

When I started at the top of the run I had put on a Balmoral Dee fly with Argus wings to try a classic Dee fly for a change of pace. I was right at the upstream side of the old abutment and the fly was just starting to dangle when I felt a harder take. Let the loop go, set the hook and up came a small steelhead flying through the air. She pulled on the line pretty good but wasn’t big enough to take any drag. After a short battle she came to shore and I released all 18”-20” of her. It was pretty neat to get steelhead on a fly that was tied new from an 80+ year old pattern. All it missed was the silk gut eye……maybe next time.



Went back to the room for lunch and got the goodies out so we could all make sandwiches. Dad and I finished our bite to eat, but Joe and Dave never showed up. We figured they must have gotten into some fish so they skipped lunch. We were right!! When we got back to 2A Bridge Joe and Dave were where we left them, and said they hit a bunch of steel a little while after we left for lunch.

After parking, Dad decided to head up to the tailout of the Compactor Hole while I went back to where I was before lunch. Worked down through the run once with no luck and at about the same time I was walking back up, a few other fly fisherman showed up across the river. They fished around the abutment on the south side of the river dead drifting flies. One of the guys hooked up to a brownie rather quickly and was quite excited that he hooked something. His buddy hollered up to him and waded upstream to give a hand landing the fish. He reached behind his back and pulled out a net that was sized for wild brookies. There was a gentleman in a driftboat at the pullout next to me and we just looked at each other and laughed. Maybe half of the brownie fit in the net and it wasn’t even twenty inches long!! I guess the laugh was on me though because each of those guys hooked a few more browns and steelies as I worked down the run. It sure was fun to watch!!

Since I didn’t have any takers above the bridge I decided to head below the bridge and give it a try. Joe and Dave were across from me and hadn’t hooked much since we returned from lunch. That little pod they hit around noon must have slid upriver to the abutment which explains some of the hookups I saw.

I put on a new length of 12lb tippet and decided to try a crayfish tube fly I tied for this trip. Mostly made of hen pheasant feathers, I figured it would be something different the fish probably hadn’t seen. Plus, there is ton of crayfish in the river so they have most likely crossed paths with a few naturals on their migration upriver.



Worked my way into a nice little groove of casting out into the slower water. I had to make a few twitches and mends to keep the fly moving while holding the rod and line above the fast current right in front of me. As the line got about 55 degrees below me, the current near shore would “grab” the line, and it would finish with a nice even swing with barely any belly. Kept stepping down the run working water to get to a spot in the run where two different currents met and formed a nice little underwater funnel.

The first cast to fish this spot layed out nice and straight about 35 degrees downstream. Held the line off the water for a second or two and the current did the rest of the work without the need for any mending. The tension of the line was just right in my fingers and as the crayfish tube was working its magic, it got to the funnel and I felt a nice hard grab. I set the hook and released the line at the same time….whoops. The fish was on and I saw a nice silver side and bright white belly come up and roll, then the line and fly came shooting back towards me……man….that was cool….the crayfish worked. I will be trying that fly again tomorrow for sure.

Dad didn’t get into anything up above and worked the run below the 2A Bridge with no luck. Joe and Dave hooked into a couple brownies, but that was about it for the evening. It was around 4:00 so we all decided to head back to the room for a warm shower before heading out for dinner.

12/2/08 Cold Day

Since Joe and Dave were heading back up to the UFZ, Dad and I went back to the 2A Bridge area. Man it was cold!! I could see icicles on the branches of shrub brush that were near the river. The wind was blowing straight upstream which made casting a little more difficult on the north side of the river.

I started at the abutment on the north side and Dad headed up to the tailout of the Compactor Hole. Did I mention it was cold? I began fishing down through the run and there were two guys on the other side that were staying in the room next to us. I was keeping an eye on them and they were keeping an eye on me. It was like we were all hoping for one of us to hook something just to pick our spirits up a little.

I slowly worked my way downstream covering the water the best I could with sloppy, off shoulder casts, that the wind would grab and send flying upstream. Mending was a bit of a chore to straighten the line out, but the wind helped, sometimes too much. My guides were icing up a little so I would crack it off or dip the tip of the rod into the water to clean them out.

I was just above the abutment during one of the casts. I mended the line and let it swing all the way to shore and the fly was dangling below me. I was kind of in a trance because there was a small flock of male and female Cardinals that would come a few feet away from me and land on the vines attached to the old abutment. They were chirping away and I was trying to mimic them with short, quick whistles. One of the females came a little closer and it was like we were having a little conversation. The other Cardinals seemed rather relaxed as well and I forgot about the cold.

The line was still dangling below me and I had on a tube fly crayfish which must have been bobbing sided to side in the current. The Cardinals spooked and flew to the abutment over on the South side. I watched fly across the river and bump, bump……..whoa!! That’s a take!! Dropped the loop and set the hook and a small 15” Brownie came up to the surface. I brought him into shore as quick as I could, popped the hook out and set him free.

After that I kept working downstream and as I got below the abutment my Dad showed up and wasn’t sure where to go next. I told him to go below 2A Bridge and fish where I hooked that steely the other day. He said, “I thought you were going to head down there and fish?” I said, “I was, but I want to finish this run. Go down there and fish, there is one waiting there for you.” He smiled and made his way down below the bridge.

I kept fishing the run and watched my Dad as he waded into the water and began to fish. Maybe 10 minutes had passed and I was just finishing up the run when I look downstream and see my Dad hooked up to something. I was hoping it was a steelhead so I reeled in, got to shore, and literally ran across the parking area and crossed the road to get over to him. I was a little winded, but definitely a lot warmer and he landed a nice Brownie right as I arrived.



I whipped out my camera, wiped off the foggy lense, and took a few quick pics of the biggest brownie he ever landed. Not huge for Salmon River standards, but alot bigger than anything we fish for at home. I gave him my towel to dry off his hands and asked him what fly it took. He smiled and said, “The Swarn-a-Bugger!!” He also said it wasn’t a hard take, the line just got heavy and came tight in the slack water below the abutment.

He kept fishing below 2A Bridge and I decided to cross the bridge and fish above the abutment on the South side of the river. I hiked to where I wanted to start, which was the bottom tip of the island and began to strip out some line. I decided to change flies and put on a Brown Mahogan. I thought it might track a little deeper in the flow and I could slow it down a tad as well.

I began working my way downstream when I had a comfortable amount of line out. As I worked towards the abutment in the river, I started to angle towards shore so as not to spook anything in the soft water. The fly was swinging a little slow so I had to lead the line with my rod tip to keep it swinging at a nice even speed. My fly was about 6ft above the abutment and swinging towards shore when I felt a pull, but I set the hook instead of dropping the loop. DOH!! No fish on the other end.

I made a few more swings through the same area just in case the same fish came back or maybe another would move for it, but it didn’t happen. I kept working downstream and started making longer casts when I passed the downstream edge of the abutment. It was tough to get a nice swing since there was so much line beyond the abutment and the seam below it would put a wicked “S” curve in the line. To overcome this the cast had to be on more of a downstream angle and I took a few steps forward to better my position.

The fly was swinging much better and I could control it easier as well. I kept telling myself to drop the loop, drop the loop, drop the loop, etc….. I took a few more casts downstream to cover the rest of the tailout on the next to last cast, the line just stopped solid. The loop was dropped and I set the hook after the line came tight. Nothing happened at first, then I felt a big weight throb twice as it slowly started moving towards the center of the river and the hook came free. Hmm, I wonder what the heck that was?

I made a few more casts then went below the 2A Bridge to make a few casts before we went back to the room for an early lunch. I pulled out some line and made a few casts, then I was low holed so I reeled in and headed across the bridge to the parking lot.

When lunch was over Dad and I went back to Pineville to try our luck again since the past few days either he or I hooked a fish the last two times we were there. We fished hard all afternoon and went through the run a couple of times. We changed flies, tried slowing the fly, speeding it up, casting across stream, casting upstream, but it wasn’t to be.

We decided to head in a little early since it was pretty raw and we were both tired from trying to keep warm all day. Boy the Balvenie Scotch and cheese tasted good when we got back.

When Joe and Dave got back to the room they said it was a slow day for them as well and didn’t see many hookups in the LFZ. Hopefully this was the slow day of the week.