Gearing up and getting ready to launch the boat. In attendance- Steve Grider, Chris Downing, Chris Giles, Ryan Frisch, Cole Eldracher, Jon Koeng (Cutty) and Jordan Mine.
Rigs looking good. Had a hopper dropper and a bounce rig.
At the put in below the damn.
We had only floated for about 20 minutes when we came across this beach. Horse shoes ensued.
A look up stream.
Had some lite rain...
And some lightning...
Second fish.
Had some roughed up lips...
I tried and tried the hopper dropper but there were no bugs anywhere. The wind was so fierce it was tough for any hatch to go off... The second I started fishing nymphs we were into a bunch of fish.
Jordan taking it all in.
Grider helped me net this one.
Another one with mouth issues.
Frisch getting some lovin...
All grins.
We stopped at this awesome shelf and hooked a bunch of fish.
Grider fighting a nice Brown.
Almost in.
Cutty watching the action.
Brought to hand.
Really nice fish.
We camped at Red Creek and Cole's tent went flying up the hillside because of the wind (we all got some pretty good laughs)... So I bagged my tent up and decided to sleep under the stars.
Looking down river.
Getting dinner going.
They dropped the water in the middle of the night. So much that our boat was completely high and dry in the morning.
We also tried throwing a mouse around mid night. It was a good first try and we had a good time trying to make the mouse look like a swimmer...
In the morning I walked 100 yards up stream and fished a nice run. Ended up catching at least a dozen fish in here.
This was the biggest one of the morning. Great fight.
I thought the ratio was 60-40 Rainbows to Browns. Even caught a few Whitties in the B section.
Floating is a great way to see this country. Very impressed with all three sections but I caught most of my fish in the B section.
Sweet boat and plenty of sunshine on the second day. A couple wrestling matches broke out with some people flying in the water. When asked why Ryan attacked Cole he simply stated "he was looking at me funny..."
Cole spotted a shinny reel on the bottom of the river. Grider went back up and hunted it down. It was attached to a mangled rod and the reel was a sweet Lamson! Great find...
Can't wait to go back. I only hooked one Rainbow on the C section and you could tell the fish were not as plentiful down there. There was a nice caddis hatch late in the day but we were all pretty beat from the sun.
I lost a huge fish in the A section. I hooked him right before a long rapid and I couldn't get him to come down stream with us. Way into my backing he finally snapped me off. I knew he was a monster by the way he was taking line... I will get him next time I guess.
Thanks,
Chris Giles
