Pierce County Archives - Page 2 of 2

Aric and I again explored a new stretch of water in Pierce County from about 11:30 to 5:30. I let Aric fish the first couple runs, and he started us off with this nice 12″ brown.

Soon we began pulling a few browns out of every riffle, fishing with a size 16 Euro pheasant tail and size 18 black zebra midge. Aric caught this dark-colored brown in a riffle just a foot deep.

Many of the fish we caught were about this size, between 11-13 inches.

We ended up with around 40 fish to hand between the two of us, the biggest being about a 14.5-15″ brown I caught, but slipped out of my hands before we were able to get a good picture. Fish were also taking the size 16 scud and size 18 WD-40 we threw as well. We saw BWOs and midges in the air, as well as the occasional stonefly, but very few rises throughout the afternoon. Rocks were covered in cased caddis, baetis nymphs, midges, and a few stoneflies.

Aric had a nice brown break him off in one of the last riffles of the day. We will be back.

Today was also a filming day. Check back soon for a new video!

If you haven’t yet, give our Facebook page a ‘like’ so you’ll always know when we have a new fishing report!

I decided to explore a new stretch of a stream I rarely fish today and was greatly rewarded. It is one of the less popular streams in the area so I’m choosing not to name it here.

I hit the stream at 11:30 and was greeted with clear skies and crystal clear water. The first couple runs were unsuccessful as I focused on the deeper pools where I could see fish congregating. These fish were uninterested in my flies, so I started focusing on the shallower riffles. Soon I was catching fish after fish, with one of the first being this 15-inch beauty.

Shallow riffles like this were productive all day.

I fished almost the entire day using a Euro pheasant tail nymph with a zebra midge, with probably 75% of the fish coming on the pheasant tail. This particular pheasant tail is going in the On The Rise Hall of Fame, as it caught around 30 fish before I finally put it out of its misery and tied on a fresh one.

A torn up Euro pheasant tail. — A torn up Euro pheasant tail nymph after being in the mouth of dozens of trout.

I lost track counting fish at around 25, and I wasn’t even half way done at that time. I probably caught 50+ fish — easily my best ever — with 20-25 of them over 12″. I went through a funk for a few runs where I was losing a bunch of good fish. If not for that I probably would have 10-12 more.