A friend and I went out to the Lower Stan last Thursday. It was after the storm passed on Wed and I wasn't too excited to be fishing in rising air pressure, but any day fishing beats working, right?
It was my first time that close to the dam and I have to say I was stymied at times. A lot of the water close to the Goodwin dam parking area looked pretty good, but neither my friend nor I could get a grab there. My friend said he saw 3 14" fish sulking near the bottom of a pool and couldn't get them to chase anything.
After a few hours of this I went upstream and found the big pool that Mr. Otter says everyone fishes. It was beautiful water with the caveat that the best part is out of casting reach since there are a lot of trees around. Did a few casts into the frog water from the bank where I assume the fly fisherman go since there were footprints everywhere. Got nothing and my discouraged friend took off. If you could get a float tube in there, I think it's money in the bank!
At this point I decided to go commando and work my way up near the dam which is dangerous at my age, having to climb slippery rocks and weave through poison oak. However, once that was accomplished I found plenty of fish in several riffles and started hooking up. The bigger fish went straight for the trees and basically could not be stopped with #20 hooks. Straightened 3 out and only managed to land 4 decent fish in the 11-13" range. Got a lot of grabs for the number of hookups and got a lot of hookups for the number of fish to hand.
Saw no significant hatches and every fish was taken on midge patterns. My conclusion is this is a tough fishery that must be learned - any advice would be appreciated.
I was up there last Saturday morning and experienced similar results. About a month earlier I fished the same areas ( from the dam downstream a bit) and had 40 or more hook ups with at least 20 fish to the net. the flows that day were arounf 300 cfs which is ideal on the lower Stan. However, this past Saturday, the flows were around 175cfs which I think is a little skinny for the fish's comfort. Actually anywhere between 300 and about 600 cfs can be great. During the month between those outings the flows were up well over 1,000 cfs and may have influenced many of the fish that had resided in the uppemost part of the tailwater to move downstream. I think another factor is that earlier in the year they hadn't seen as many artificials and the fishermen who toss them. I've found the Stan to be like that though. One week I'll knock 'em dead and the next week I'll go back with the flows and weather almost identical to the week prior and struggle to get a few hook ups. You never know. Tight lines!, Viking
Thanks for the info, Viking. What you say makes sense if I understand you right. With the flows fluctuating so much, the fish have got to be ready to relocate fast. Also, at this point they have all probably been hooked and are very tentative about biting suspicious food. I also think the weather contributed to the casual feeding.
The thing that puzzled me the most is that one riffle would hold maybe 10-15 fish and just 50 feet up an even better looking riffle would seem absolutely barren. My experience is that typically good looking riffles that close together usually both have populations of fish or both none at all. It was feast or complete famine.
