Dog Days

It's that time of the year when the weeds are tough, the heat is tougher and the fishing sucks...RIGHT!

I love August. I do. I'm not gonna lie. There aren't that many people on the river and those that are pretty much stay up at the Dam for the most part and the few brave souls that do venture away have the river to themselves. I think my clients would agree that the fishing ain't too shabby either. The fish are healthy and happy and they're eating some big stupid bugs.

I can't say every day is an epic hopper day but there have been some good ones. Marina absolutely wrecked them the other day boating all on the hopper including this pig.

We strayed down low thinking the storm the night before would have cooled the water down enough to get a few good hours of dries. It stayed steady all day.

A couple days later I took Dick and Phillis to my usual hot spot and nymphed up a bunch including these hogs. Nice work Dick.

Yesterday was a group trip through MRO. I don't like when five boats have competitions for first, biggest and most fish because I think it gets away from what fishing is all about and it also puts pressure on the guides but I'm a big boy and I can handle it. I also realize it's their trip and they can do what they want. So I took my guys down to the lower canyon and the rest of the boats went up high. We did well. I had one of my guys, who had only fished once in his life, win the prize for the most and my other guy almost took the biggest. I don't normally count but since they were, I knew exactly where we were at. On a day that the average take was only a handful of fish, we put 22 in the net and probably missed another 20.

Today the hopper fishing down low wasn't all that good. We had about a dozen eats before lunch so we switched to the nymph rig and absolutely crushed them for a couple hours and then went back to throwing dries. We did land a few on the hopper but the biggest were sub-surface.

So here's the deal. For those who read this, I'm gonna give you another bone. Everyone is fishing up high so eventually those fish get tired of eating the beads. They also duck or head for cover when boats go by. After so many times of being jabbed in the mouth, wouldn't you?

Like I've said in previous postings, fish are looking for cooler water with more oxygen. They also have to eat. With low water and no bugs, naturally one would think the fishing sucks. The reality is, is with the low water the temperature might get warmer in the afternoon but it also gets cooler at night. Plus there are rapids and riffles that add oxygen to the water.

As for food, they still eat. They just have to find other food than tiny bugs, which actually makes the fishing easier. There are a ton of other things in the water to eat. You're all smart people. Figure it out.

Keep 'em where they live.

P.S. Think big and I'm not just talking about hoppers.