Winter in the Canyon - 2/16/2011

I had an opportunity to get out last Wednesday for some much needed mental rehabilitation and many of the states rivers are frozen over, so it was back to Cheesman.  As a general rule I prefer freestones over tailwaters, but that is more of a winter treat than the norm.  Here is a pic from this last week of the Blue.

Ice augers and rivers don't sound like a good combination to me.  The canyon on the other hand is always ice free.

It was a beautiful day with the sun shinning bright and the wind blowing a consistent cold winter breeze.  The wind did make sight fishing more difficult throughout the day, but if you could find feeding fish life was good.  Most of the fish I saw during the day were either underneath rocks or bunched up in small pockets where it is difficult to get a decent cast to them.  However, I did manage to find the occasional fish in the riffles.  With the warm weather I expected to find more active fish than I did.

Here is a nice brown I picked up in the riffles.

I wonder if it moved into the riffles to feed on the few BWO's that hatched during the height of the day.  These were the first BWO's I've seen on this stretch in a couple of months and there was even a nose or two peaking through the surface to feed on adults.  Calling this a hatch is a long stretch at best as there were very few bugs in the air including midges.

Here is a nice rainbow I picked up out of a deep, slow pocket with several conflicting currents making for a tough drift without lots of drag.

Overall it was a great day on the water.  I got to fish most of my favorite spots on the river and even pricked a few lips along the way.

Flies:  #20 olive BWO nymph, #16 Pheasant body Evil Weevil
Flows:  ~ 100 cfs
Weather:  low 60's and windy.  Felt more like the high 40's until the wind stopped.