The weather gave us somewhat of a break again this past week. Trout fishing on the river has never let up, still catching daily limits on a regular basis. The Corps is generating at 9 every morning shutting out some of our flyfishing action. If you have a chance to get out there from 6- to 8:45, the early bite has been zebra midges (black with silver wire and silver bead sizes 16, 18), root beer midges (size 18), also various colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot fluorescent pink, size 10), mop flies, and egg patterns.
After generation has started, a handful of our flyfishing gurus jump in the boats and drift with the flow pushing big streamers, and large wooly buggers. Most of these larger flies are made at home, brought to the river to be tested, and when they succeed the feeling of catching a fish on a fly that you created is like no other.
Walleye are hit and miss in the river, with shorts being caught for the most part. We have been trolling with any kind of rainbow-colored, shad, or gold natural crankbait. In about 9-10 ft. of water, bait running about 6-8 ft. deep, just trying to keep it off the bottom about 18 inches.
We were catching plenty of trout in between the walleye, about 5 to 1. So to me, the fun part is calling what type of fish you have on the hook. Pictured this week is my sweet husband, Rich Carlsen, bringing home the bacon. We had enough off this 22.5-inch walleye for the both of us to have dinner that night. Sounds like the fishing forecast for the river is for trout, trout, and more trout with a chance of walleye.
Beaver Lake reports are all over the place, good and bad. That is why it`s not a bad thing to read some reports before going out on your venture. Better chance to catch fish you are targeting that day. Unless you are that type of person that only fishes one way, one fish. I feel life is too short for that.
Striper and bass anglers should continue to beat the heat and get up early, and they should plan to use topwater baits like poppers and Zara Spooks in the creeks. Look for shad-surfacing action and follow that using a buzz bait or Whopper Plopper to cover water a lot of water. Once the topwater bite slows down, go take a nap and repeat in the evening, saving the last 45 minutes of the day for the topwater action.
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