Aric and I fished the Rush from about noon to 4:00. The stream was still slightly stained from Thursday’s rains making for perfect fishing conditions. Aric started the outing off by quickly catching 6-8 fish within the first couple minutes. As I was tying on my nymph rig, I heard him yell that he had a big one on. I hustled downstream and netted his biggest fish to date!
I quickly plucked around ten fish from my first run of the day, with a few around 12-13 inches. I moved upstream to the next run and after only catching two or three fish in about ten minutes, I put another split shot on my leader. Within my first half-dozen casts, my indicator plunged underwater and I felt a strong tug. After a short fight, I had my biggest fish of the year in my net!
We worked our way upstream for a couple more runs, picking off a few fish in each, but nothing nearly as big as those two. We ended the day with about 35-40 fish between us. Aric was using a size 14 pink squirrel with a size 16 pheasant tail below, while I used a size 16 olive Euro pheasant tail with a size 18 standard Euro PT below. We both caught about equal fish on both flies.
I also went out on the Rush Friday night for a couple hours after work. The water visibility was only about a foot, so I fished a black leech streamer for the entire outing. I only caught two fish, but one was around 16-17 inches. I missed a handful more. I’ve tried to focus more on streamers this year and I’m definitely gaining more confidence every time. Catching some bigger fish is always fun too!
The stained water definitely made for some great fishing over the weekend!
