Hello all! I fished the south fork of the Stanislaus river below tulloch lake on Friday. The flows were up ( about 575cfs ) , which is fishable but ideal conditions are 300 cfs and lower. Caught one beautiful wild 14"er on a March Brown Nymph # 16. Earlier in the day I was stripping in a black marabou streamer and daydreaming. When I could feel the line about to change to leader at the rod tip, I looked down and right behind the fly about 5 feet from my feet was a huge rainbow ( I'm guessing 25-26" ). It had never hit the fly, just "escorted" it back and took off. The flows are now up over 1,000 cfs and quite unfishable. When the flows come back down and the fish and insects get into their respective grooves, there will be some excellent angling opportunities to be had! Tight lines all! Viking
FFJ, You're right. I hooked one last year not far from the spot I was fishing recently, and it was the strongest fish I've encountered on the Stan. I was throwing a two fly rig with a # 18 caddis worm above a # 22 baetis nymph. I never saw the fish's length, but I was able to see how deep he was for a second and from his back to his belly " mid-fish " he looked to be about 10 " deep. He/she played tug of war for about 20 seconds and freight trained it down stream, popping the 5x flouro. There are definitely some bruisers in that stream during the early season! Tight lines, Viking
