Deep Freezers, Waning Caddis, Arizona, and Wet Wading in April...

I got an E-mail from my friend Randy Berndt in Wisconsin to tell me of his weather woes; 6-8" of snow predicted.  As of this time last year Randy had landed over 70 trout in the Driftless Region.  His count in 2011--1 fish.  I feel sorry for Randy in his deep freeze but thought I'd spread a little sunshine his way.  Yesterday, with temps in the mid 70's, I donned the waders to fish my anticipatory spring break caddis hatch on the Little Red River in Arkansas.  Today (Tuesday, April 19) with temps expected and exceeding 85 degrees, I pulled into the Cow Shoals parking lot, slipped on the wading sandals and shorts and practically jogged down to the river.  Hard to believe the freedom that wet-wading provides without the cumbersome boots and waders...
The caddis hatch is on the wane, but I have managed to catch a few rising fish with an X-caddis and an Elk hair variant.  I dropped a #16 Red Ass soft hackle below it and got most of my fish on the Red Ass.  I was very fortunate this trip in that they weren't running any water from Greer's Ferry.  The water has been low and clear and the fish have been very cooperative.
Met an interesting guy on my way out from Swinging Bridge, Joe Miller from desertflyfishers.com.  Joe is from Conway, AR via Arizona and spends a lot of his time fishing the San Juan River as well as the Provo, Gibbon and other rivers out west.  The San Juan is on my "Rivers to Fish" list for the upcoming Tailwater Tribe Fly Fishing Tour II.  Joe is a real nice guy and I enjoyed sharing experiences with him as well as giving him a tip about dropping a #16 Red Ass off a #16 Purple Haze sowbug.  He showed me his San Juan fly box and it resembled a sewing kit full of tiny pins--tiny midges and Jong's Special's #22 and smaller.  Well, when in Rome...

Comments

  1. nagoApril 23, 2011 at 4:04 AM

    Hey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!


    Freezers

    ReplyDelete

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