Anyways, a bit of background. I'm 29, live in San Bernardino, Ca, and have been fly fishing from the age of 13. I also hunt, kayak, hike, offroad, and camp quite a bit.
Anyways, I headed up to the hills yesterday to see how the bite is on the local creeks. Planned on hitting a low elevation spot, but ended up heading up to about 6000 feet to avoid the heat. Flows and water temps are starting to even out finally. Good thing too, cause I fished dry flies exclusively yesterday. My Martin fly reel actually broke after 16 years of loyal service, but luckily I strip most of my fish in anyways, so i was able to finish out the day. Had a chance to try out some of my friend's hand tied flies. His Ritz cracker package-Wing caddis slays! I usually use a BFX EZ caddis for actual caddis imitation (who knows what a trout thinks an elk-hair caddis actually is, but god knows it's not a caddis fly, lol). But these flies outfish the BFX two to one. I was even able to spread the antennae and wings and use it as a cranefly imitation (TONS of craneflies up there yesterday). There were plenty of caddis in the air, a few on the water, but not too many fish rising (I assume because they were already full of craneflies, lol). Well, using his fly, and my "make your own hatch technique" I was able to get risers to commit all day long.
Interestingly enough, I only caught three rainbows all day. The rest were browns. And this is a creek that is predominately populated by rainbows. One of the rainbows even looked like a poacher shot it with a .22 or improper bowfishing gear! Terrible. Anyways, the productive flies for the day were his Ritz-wing caddis, a BFX Irresistable Adams, a Midge Adams, and the Parachute Cinnamon Ant. Anyways, caught about 20 fish throughout the day using my custom 4 1/2 foot 5 weight (the creek is too tight for long rods). Nothing huge, but they were all spooky and challenging nonetheless. Here're a few pics. I didn't get a pic of every single dink, but they all look the same anyway, he he. Enjoy...
Until next time, tight lines, and tight loops, he he.
-Skyler
