June 8, 2011
Flow: 81
Water Temp: 61 Degrees
Clarity: Gin Clear
Weather: Clear
Runoff….What runoff?. Deckers is low, clear and fishing excellent. Now is the time to get to Deckers this spring. This is the best that it has fished for the past couple months. The fish are finally more active and we are seeing some stronger bug activity. Matt and I began in the lower river, near Nighthawk. We arrived early, around 7AM. As the temperature increases, the fish activity peaks in the morning. We saw plenty of bugs right as we pulled up, mostly midges. As the temperature rose, we began to see some stones, caddis and PMD’s. A very good thing to finally see.
We started the day with a San Juan worm and a small Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail. This was the ticket for the lower river. Most of the fish were on the Soft Hackle, but the browns loved the worm. As the day progressed we tried some streamers. The small rainbows were voraciously eating a black slumpbuster. At one time I had three small bows fighting over who would be the first to whack the slumpbuster. After we were bored of fishing streamers, we both switched to dries. Matt caught a few on a Amy’s Ant and I had some eats on the Puterbaugh caddis. It did not seem to really matter what we had on, the fishing was that good!
The river is really looking good again. The majority of the moss is gone, at least the really thick stuff. Matt and I had relatively few problems with moss. The river is low and extremely clear. This meant were were using small pinch on indicators with 5 and 6x tippet. As long as you kept you distance and made a good drift, the fish responded with an eat. As the day progressed, we moved up the river. The farther we went up, the more technical the fishing become. Near the town of Deckers, we were down to fishing #22 Black Beauties and they were loving them. This was what we caught the majority of the larger fish on.
The water temps are rising. This means that wet wading is finally comfortable, but it also means the fish become less active later in the day. The hoppers are also showing up. The banks were littered with them, and on warm days I am sure more will begin to show up. Even though it is June, don’t be afraid to tie on something big and chunky.
What you will need at Deckers:
#18-20 Soft Hackle Pheasant Tails
#10 Amy’s Ant
#10-18 San Juan Worm
#10 Rubberlegs
#16 Puterbaugh Caddis
#08-12 Slumpbuster
#16-18 Graphic Caddis
#20-22 Black Beauties
Small Pinch on Strike Indicators
5 and 6x Fluorocarbon Tippet
#04 and #1 Split Shot
Floatant
Go and Get Em!
-James