- Onstream Arrival: ~11:15am Departure: ~3pm
- Arrival Air Temp: ~15degrees Departure: ~20
- Wind: ~10mph from the South
- 2:1 TB Stonefly to Midge Ratio at ~12:30pm
- #18 Orange Hot Spot Scud/#12 Hairball (Tan)
Of the four hours we were on stream well over half was spent trudging through thigh deep snow sinking close to your knees even with snowshoes. The 4-6inches of powder coating the under-snow made for a slow and challenging hike upstream for the day. We arrived and observed little trout activity but seeing a few midge in the snow I rigged a #18 Orange Hot Spot Scud. We chose maybe not the best stream to fish as the wind was coming from the south and we chose a north/south valley. Forced to deal with the wind we kept moving for the most part fishing each spot for a few minutes and moving on. The sun peeked through only a few times for brief moments making the day.
Close to 2pm I spent twenty glorious minutes fishing a #20 Wilted Spinach to a small pod of rising trout. Although I lost the only strong take I had it was a challenging approach and it felt good just to earn the strike. To fool the weary trout. As soon as the sun left it was back to hiking through thick woods in deep ass snow to see more of a stream I had never fished before. A good reason to fish it quickly, get a feel for it and take a few mental notes. 1st, lots of very shallow areas with rocky substrate. The afternoon was filled with nothing but Tiny Black Stoneflies crawling through the snow. This was the largest emergence of this insect I have witnessed. I took note of the shallow areas and tried to steer clear so as to keep from disturbing the deeper sections keeping frantic trout from agitating the feeding pods. 2nd, the rocks clearly said Caddis. 3rd, find any habitat improvement areas. I ended up swapping back to the #18 OHS Scud for the majority of the afternoon. I lost a few to snags and fished a couple deeper locations with a #12 Hairball (Tan) getting a strong strike from a brown as I basically jigged my fly through a deep run. The day ended with a long hike down and out of the woods. The sun, absent most of the day, kissed our shoulders as we exited.
