Threw caution to the flood water and heading into the canyons and a trib of the North Fork over the weekend. As expected the water level in the North fork was thundereding through the narrow flumes and pinch points making it extremely difficult to employ any particular style of fishing. Swinging streamers saw the flies speed and skate across the water surface, while upstream nymphing was nigh on impossible due to the speed of the flows. However, I persevered with upstream nymphing for three hours looking for slow-water and back eddies and was rewarded with two hard fishing, line taking, blue hue’d, speckled beauties. I missed that number again but I was delighted with the result. When a 13 inch fish decides it wants to run down stream with 2000cfs water behind in a narrow channel there is very little that is going to stop it and it made for a good scrap.

The next day I spent two and a half hours exploring and crashing thought the undergrowth of the mid sections of Shirttail creek a trib of the North fork. I wet waded in a pair of shorts and Crocs working upstream with a small size 18 bead head. I removed the barb to make it a little more sporting and less damaging to the fish, I managed about 20 fish to hand all around the 5-6 inch mark and had to have missed about four times that amount.  Due to the small and vegetated nature of the creek I didn’t use any of the working fly line and employed a ten foot leader when casting. In many cases the areas to be cast into were so tight, I had to load the road by holding the nymph in one hand and catapulting it like an elastic band into the required area. A nice little stream, however there is only enough water for one person to cover so it’s not a group outing creek. Additionally, if you do not know the lay of the land for the middle and upper section I would avoid it as it would be very easy to get lost and there are no paths, trails or landmarks.

Best Regards,

Denis