Rush River

I fished the Rush tonight from about 7:30 to 9:15. There was very little surface activity when I arrived so I fished with a size 16 Frenchie with a size 18 black zebra midge below it. I ended up catching 8-10 fish, most of them around 8 inches. They did begin feeding on the surface a bit as it got darker on sulphurs, and I talked to another fisherman that had luck with sulphur dry flies.

All of the fish I caught were in shallow riffles under a foot deep. Most of the time it took a dozen or so drifts through a riffle before I could get a take, so make sure to stay patient when nymphing these spots.

Looking to learn how to fly fish or just learn more about the local streams? Let me host you on a guided outing! I’m offering 20% off rates if you schedule your trip before the end of June!

Aric and I fished the Rush from about 7:30 pm until just after dark. I started the night fishing a hopper dropper rig with a red hippie stomper and a Frenchie, and caught two small browns on it before switching to a Euro pheasant tail and zebra midge. Aric fished a pheasant tail with a zebra midge the entire outing before breaking off at dark. I ended up catching around a dozen total while Aric caught 8-10.

The evening started pretty slow until about 8:30 and the fishing continued to get better until I couldn’t see my indicator in the dark. The best fish of the evening was a chunky 12-incher that I didn’t have enough light to get a photo of. There was very little rising with minimal hatch activity outside a couple caddis and midges fluttering around.

We are definitely into summer patterns now. Focus on early in the morning or late in the evening. If you want to fish mid-day, find shaded areas for the best fishing. Also, the plastic hatch is in full swing on the Lower Kinni, so don’t expect to find much solitude between 9 am and 6 pm.

Looking to learn how to fly fish or just learn more about the local streams? Let me host you on a guided outing! I’m offering 20% off rates if you schedule your trip before the end of June!

Aric, my dad, and I fished the Rush this morning from about 8:00 to noon. The stream was a little high and had a slight stain — perfect fishing conditions. I fished a hippie stomper with a Frenchie nymph two feet below and caught around 20, with the biggest around 13″. I had my best success in shaded areas adjacent to deeper pools, especially as it got later in the day. I’d cast near the bank in slower water and just wait for the hippie to sink and set the hook; it reminded me of fishing for bluegills with a bobber. I did catch three or four on the hippie and had quite a few come to the surface to investigate. There was sporadic rising throughout the morning to caddis.

Aric and my dad fished with nymphs (pheasant tail with a zebra midge dropper) and caught about ten each in the riffles, with Aric’s biggest near 13″ as well.

If you’re interested in buying some hippie stompers as we approach terrestrial season, please contact me here or through Facebook!

Aric fished the Rush this evening from about 5:30 to 9:00. He nymphed the entire time with a size 18 pheasant tail and size 20 zebra midge. He had one of his best outings of the year with multiple fish over 15 inches and about 20 fish total. He said all the bigger fish took the pheasant tail. With the warmer weather, fishing has definitely been more productive early and late during the cooler periods of the day.

Aric and I fished the Rush this morning from about 7:45 to 10:30. We both had luck with pheasant tails and zebra midges, catching around a dozen fish each. Aric had the big fish of the day with one around 13″. Fish seemed to be holding mostly in shallow riffles at the heads of runs. The fishing seemed to slow down a bit as it got later in the morning. There was a decent hatch of what I believe were march browns, and fish were rising sporadically to them.

I introduced my cousin Angy and her boyfriend Reed to fly fishing on the Rush for a couple hours tonight. We began the outing nymphing, but after seeing a few rises I tied on Bread and Butter Caddis on one of the rods. Angy quickly caught a couple small browns.

Reed eventually got on the board with this nice brookie

Angy ended up catching five browns and one brookie on the caddis dry, while Reed was able to bring just that one to hand on a caddis larva. I was able to pick off seven myself, including one around 13″.

We saw a few caddis flying around and many sulphurs came off as it got later in the evening.

Aric fished by himself and caught 20 fish total, including several over 12″. He was nymphing with a pheasant tail and zebra midge. Here is one fish he caught when we ran into him.

With the weather cooling down a bit over the next couple days, we should have some great fishing this week!

We fished the Rush last night from about 5:00 to 9:00. Low and clear water along with a hot a sunny day made for slow fishing for the first couple hours. I was only able to pull two fish out of the first couple runs while Aric was still fishless. As the sun began to set the fishing started picking up. We ended up with around 15 fish between us, with almost all of them caught after 7:30. There was some rising later in the evening as well, and I was able to bring two to hand on a size 20 BWO Sparkle Dun after they refused my caddis. The rest of the fish were caught on pheasant tails and zebra midges. Most of the fish caught on nymphs were in riffles less than 18″ deep.

Looks like we’re going to get a good soaking this week, which should help the fishing conditions as we head into June.

My friend Eddie Rivard and I originally planned on exploring another area stream, but after realizing we wouldn’t be able to fish it all before dark, opted to hit a stretch on the Rush neither of us had fished. I fished with my trusted Euro Pheasant Tail and Zebra Midge rig, and on my second cast of the day, caught this nice 13″ brown.

Check out those spots!

We slowly made our way upstream and I picked off a couple fish in every run. Eddie was using streamers and caught this little guy on a conehead Muddler Minnow.

We didn’t leave ourselves quite enough time to fish the whole stretch, and only fished about half of it before dark. I ended up with around a dozen browns and one sucker. Eddie caught two browns himself. Not a bad evening!

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