Landing Rainbow in Logjams

I finally made it back to the Sipsey Tuesday to connect with the new stockers that were released in the tailrace a couple of weeks ago. I was met this morning with a slight mist and cooler temperatures in the high 40’s, which is a drastic contrast from the hot humid weather I face here in the summer.

As I was suiting up I was wondering if I should wait to tie on a fly before seeing if there was any type of hatch occurring. I do love to land trout here on top and lately that hasn’t been the case; but that little voice kept telling me to suit up, tie up and fish the nymph. My last outing here had me fishing high water and today was supposed to be different with no generating and the guys at the dam held true to their word, generators off all day.

I begin casting today at a set of logjams that span 30 to 40 yards in fairly deep water up the gorge. The water was super clear making it easy to see my prey with my polarized glasses. This area is not fished heavy, simply because most like to fish in shallower water here. This area has depths of 5 to 6 ft. The trout like to use the logs as cover and dart out and nail a fly pattern as it passes over.

Dead drifting nymphs over the logjams and letting it drop produced this dark colored rainbow.

A deep cut on the gill plate of this trout tells me that there is more than trout swimming in this tailrace.

What a great way to enjoy a lunch break sitting on one of the many large boulders that line the waters edge.

 This rainbow ended a successful trip coming from the waters shown in the video. I filmed the tailrace footage with my camera.  I wish I had been using my video camera for this particular rainbow; lots of air jumps. No way was this trout going to let me whole it for the picture, but it did manage to stay still longer enough for me to get this water image shot before it swim away to freedom. I landed a number of trout today, but what really frustrated me was losing so many fish on this trip. I guess it may be time to change from my 3 weight and go with my 4 weight on my next trip.  

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