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Owyhee River Report 8/21/2009
I got to the river about 4:00 pm in the afternoon, it was 100 degrees and there no fish at the surface anywhere. I drove the river looking for an isolated group of feeders but they were not there.
I finally settled in on a stretch of river below the Rock Garden and began working a few flys. It was about 6:00 and I began seeing a few small black caddis brewing on the water and right in unison a few small fish began to surface. I changed flies to our #20 CDC Black Biot Caddis and began to work the feeders. Bingo, I catch a small brownie and then another small brownie.
I looked to the inside bank about 40 feet ahead and a giant is sipping bugs almost on the bank just outside a moss patch. I zing a cast to him, but miss his feeding zone by a few inches, so I serve it again. He gently sips my fly, I set the hook and he exploded across the river, then turns and bolts straight down river on a big run. I am left in his wake while my mouth opens wondering when this fish will calm. He doesn't, I stop his run down water ahead of my fishing, but he darts back across the river into a line of downed willows and moss beds. I quickly wade to the middle of the river to get an angle to pull the fish out of the brush. It works and I begin bringing him up river. After a few more violent runs he's in the net. Wow!! He's a giant. I admire his beauty, compliment his fight and he disappears in the milk.
I turn and face the river again and it had come alive. I see fish feeding at the far bank, in hard current and close in against my side of the river. They begin to thrash and viciously attack the surface.
I turn to target mode; only focusing on the big boys and positioning myself to serve them. I see a lunker thrashing in hard current and put a cast over him. Nothing, I cast again and the fly lands incorrectly ahead of his feeding trough and quickly moves to his position. An enormous swirl erupts the surface, I set the hook and the war begins. He puts in me for couple of minutes, swims across the river and wraps me around a boulder. Snap the line breaks. He's free and I'm left with shredded tippet and a lost fly. I re-gear while the fish continue a smorgasbord all around me.
And so it went from 8:00 to black dark. I'd select a large brownie and serve him a fly. More times than not he was a taker and we'd enter into another classic tangle between a 5wt rod and an oversized fish. He won some and I won some, but by the time it was over both the fish and I know we had an experience. That last giant, golden fish in the last sliver of daylight will stay in my memory bank for a long time. As I stumbled up the steep bank to the car I could still hear fish ripping at the surface.
We have now added the Black CDC Biot Caddis to our fly store. We have fished this fly at all elevations for all species of fish will amazing results. It's a "Super Fly" our #1 producer of big fish this year. You should own this fly, and get ready for a fishing day like no other!!!
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