June 21, 2011
Flow: 100
Water Temp: 56 Degrees
Clarity: Gin Clear
Weather: Clear & Sunny

I had the day off yesterday and my good friend Travis and I made it up to Deckers for the afternoon.  Even though other parts of the state are experience runoff like conditions and high water, there is no runoff to speak of in Deckers! The water is perfect at 100cfs and gin clear.  Sight fishing will still come into play earlier in the day, but as the water warms up the fish move into faster water.

We started the day just above Nighthawk a few miles south of the Pine Creek Rd turnoff.  Both of us had a lot of success with #8 Pat’s Rubberlegs, #16 Graphic Caddis, #14 Tungstone, and #16 CDC Stones.  After we moved a few fish, I decided to work a #8 Golden Foamulator.  After pounding the banks for 10 minutes or so, I decided to skate the fly across some of the soft water.  As soon as I ripped the fly across the soft water, a fish decided to eat. After missing the first time, he finally ate it on the next twitch.  It’s pretty fun to be fishing size 8 foam dry flies in Deckers!  I worked it a while longer, but we decided it was time to move upstream. Give the foam dries a shot, you never know what will happen!

We moved upstream and parked at Sugar Creek for a few hours later in the afternoon.  Nymphing with Graphic Caddis, Diving Caddis, Deep Six Caddis, and Mercer’s Micro Golden Stone all seemed to be the ticket.  A few fish were taken sight fishing, but the majority were taken nymphing the deeper, faster water.  One thing I can say for certain is that the fish that we did hook got hot fast!  The fish are healthy and definitely looking for a bigger meal.  Put away your winter midge box and grab an assortment of stones and caddis for the lower river.

At the end of the day, we moved downstream to the Nighthawk area.  Although we didn’t see many fish, we managed to hook a few.  Nymphing a #8 Rubberlegs trailed by a Graphic Caddis seemed to be the ticket…again.  Because the water in Deckers is so low right now, the water is warming up fast.  This means that the fish wont be hanging in soft water at the end of the day when the water has warmed up near 60 degrees.  Take a shorter, heavier nymph rig and look for water that has a dark bottom with good structure and is about 3-4′ deep.  Another thing that I can say is that I seemed to miss a lot of hook sets with a larger indicator.  I have started to use Pinch On indicators, yarn, and small size Thingamabobbers when fishing in low water.  Give it a shot.