As The Cool Air Settles In...



Fall is my favorite time to fish.  It feels like it just started and yet we have our first snow coming?  What's up with that?  Gone are the summer days of fishing elbow to elbow.  Now is the time to find your prime fishing places and enjoy.  Another reason to fish in the fall is to take advantage of wading in lower water and clearer streams... Gone are the cloudy waters and high currents that are caused by dam releases... And fall and winter allows you to find the fish pretty easy, as they like to huddle in the deeper pools.  Yes, there are a lot of advantages of fall fishing and finding more productive water.

When it comes to choosing the best fly in the box, fall fishing is usually all about blue-wing olive mayflies, streamers and egg patterns. Hey, that is what I was fishing last week!  How about that...  And the flies now get smaller.  Out come the magnifiers... haha.  Now we are talking about sizes 18-24 in pheasant tails, RS2s, barr emergers, sparkleduns, CDC comparaduns and zebra midges.  Of course, now that we have the lower and clearer water, the tippet also gets lighter with the smaller flies.  5x, 6x... maybe even a 7x for those guys in Pennsylvania on the Valley Creek.  = )  But, my fish adjust to 5x for the River Damsel's eyes...

Ahhh...the crisp, cool mornings also bring the big boys out...waiting for the angler with those extra large streamers to entertain with.  I tried my hand with some streamers a few months ago.  Although I didn't net the one that was lost, it sure was fun to see him jump out of the water before spitting out my fly.  Yes, these are the days of the  hyper-aggressive brown trout.  And short strikes and even misses are so much fun!  Sio, you see, fall fishing can go from one extreme to the other.  Light tippet for the tiniest of flies to heavy tippet of 1x and 2x for the streamers.  You have your choice... It doesn't get better than that!

Yes, as the fall seems to be coming to a close in a few weeks and colder weather approaches...we toss our lines out to hungry trout amidst the splendor of the yellow aspens.  I relish in the fishing opportunities that are out there.  The brown trout spawners are doing there thing off to the sides.  But, there is plenty of action in the river away from that activity.  Lol.  Let's here it for the egg patterns that brighten up anyone's fly box.  Pink, yellow, orange, chartreuse...you've got your pick.  The fishing is incredible right now which can only mean one thing:  It must be FORE!!  I mean FALL...

(Yes, this ball went flying over my head last time out!)