I fished the Lower Kinni last night from about 7:30 to 9:00. As soon as I got down to the river I noticed caddis in the air and rising fish, so after catching a couple on a caddis larva and zebra midge, I changed it up to an elk hair caddis. After fishing multiple runs, casting to many fish, and switching my fly to a parachute sulphur and then BWO, I could not get an eat on the surface. I ended up switching back to a nymph rig, this time an unweighted size 16 pheasant tail with a size 18 zebra midge. I quickly caught a smaller brown on this setup, and as I was working my way upstream into the main riffle, I made a couple casts into a spot I know gets deceptively deeper that most people wouldn’t think to fish. After two casts, my indicator plunged underwater and I felt the weight on a bigger fish below. After a short battle, I was able to get downstream of him and scooped him up. My biggest Kinni fish of the year!
Unfortunately I only had my GoPro along so I wasn’t able to get any really good photos. He measured right at 15 inches.
I ended up catching four or five more in that riffle before heading home to watch the second half of the Warriors-Rockets game. Not bad for just a short outing, but I was expecting to catch a couple on top. I talked to a friend that fishes the Kinni frequently and he said they’ve been really finicky for him as well recently. I imagine the increased pressure since the opener has gotten the fish a little more picky on top. Now would be a good time to try downsizing your flies, or just say screw it and nymph them out. It also helps to try spots outside of the main riffles that the average fisherman won’t hit, like where this bigger fish was holding.
