Fall has always been one of my personal favorite seasons to fish the White river system. Daylight hours are shorter and that in turn gets the fish to feed more during that time.
As predicted with last months report, the Browns have been active during the day time periods, and particularly early and late. In fact the last hour of light and into the dark have seen not only some great surface activity from the Bows, but we have also seen many fine Browns come to the net as well.
Typically if you have the warmer evening, fishing will be at its best. Once the colder nights move in, you will see a slow down with this activity.
No question that the past few years have seen the decline of the trophy Bows in the system, meaning fish in the plus 20 inches mark. BSD certainly up to a few years ago held many fish in the 20 to 28 inches range, not so now.
Much of that is due to the incidence of the didymo which has reduced available food base, and to illegal fishing. It is a zone on the river l fish often and l know illegal fishing goes on there.
Not to mention the Osprey that is now resident there. In the past two days l have fished there and seen them remove 4 fish. Not that l begrudge the Osprey. They do have a place in the environment and they are fun to watch.
This past two days l fished there with clients and we saw in excess of 90 fish landed. Many of those Bows were 5 to 18 inches and a good few over the 20. So we are at least seeing some improvement there with the larger fish.
Some nice Brooks showing up as well as Cutthroats. Here again not as many of great size.
There are at present at BSD some good Browns. By majority they have not as yet moved to the dam zone prior to the spawn. There are a great many fish stacked up within the first 30 miles down stream from the dam. So you have a good chance within that zone for a trophy as they continue to move upstream.
Through the system in general there are stacks of Bows. Stocking levels are high also. So in some ways it's hard to get through the stockers for the better fish. That's the name of the game here.
Same with Norfork. Many smaller fish there, due to the stocking of the smaller Browns and Cutts through the season; but still the chance of a better than average fish.
Oxygen levels have been a problem on the Fork; so bear in mind that fish are stressed and you may find the action to be slow.
You might also consider a trip to the spring river. There are plenty of good fish here away from the hatchery outlet, which largely holds the stockers. Albeit the Spring is a very different system to the White river.
As of now, we are still seeing high temp days. That will maintain the invertebrate food forms to remain active. Once the water temps reduce, then many will become dormant throughout the system.
You can utilize a whole host of different fly patters during this time, various nymphs, wets, soft hackles streamers and dry.
I would like to offer some further advice for those of you that are having some slow days out there.
The relative angle of the sun at this time of the year can cause shadows on the river bed, both from your fly line and your leader/tippet. If fish see that shadow move to ward them on the substrate, they will likely move and refuse your fly.
The challenge here is if indicator fishing to try and maintain fly line and leader up stream, or across the indicator so fish won't become spooked by the shadow effect.
Secondly, avoid high visibility large indicators such as red and orange as they will attract fish. If they rise to the indicator, then the odds are they do not see your fly, particularly when we have low and clear water conditions. Go with white, or as l do use yarn of a neutral color, gray, olive brown etc. Yarn is overall way more sensitive to subtle takes and can be fine tuned to detect takes.
Lower water and bright blue skies go with longer sections of 5 or 6x tippet sections, at least for nymph, soft hackle and dry fly techniques.
Expected generations? Your guess is as good as mine. I never know at this time of the year.
Fishing.
Most surface activity is going to be related to midge and micro caddis, and possible some of the smaller mayflies such as BWO if we have the right conditions.
Overall, good numbers of fish to be expected fishing generic nymphs, GRHE, PTNS, Chironomids both pupa and emergers, scuds and sows, caddis larva, small dries if fish are surface feeding, lower water levels.
High water, increase size of flies to 14's and 12 regular hook sizes. In the case of high colored water, flies that show color, San Juans various, size and color, along with eggs, and flies of that nature.
Continue to work the shallow shorelines and shallow zones mid stream around good structure for trophy Browns as they continue the spawn run up stream. As a rule here, l will go with small flies when water levels are low. Large flies will often spook those fish big time. High water is a different story for larger streamers.
If they see you, the odds are they will become nervous and refuse to eat so avoid the fish's awareness of your presence.
Shad kill? As yet l have seen no evidence of any Shad through the dams, but you never know at this time of the year. It could happen. I have certainly seen some of the best Shad kills here during October and November periods in the past.
Tight lines guys.
Davy.
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