Coloring Up

Merry Christmas,
I was out this weekend and the fish are feeding.  The fishing on the river is putting up good numbers of fish in every size range.  I fished multiple ways all with good results.  I also believe you have to be versatile in your fly box after the water tops out.  Every morning I would try to start at the top of a riffle.  Throwing 7-9' nympghing rig with normally two #4 split shots 14"above my worm/scud/egg, 18"trailing another worm/scud/egg.  The best combo was a scud (orange) size 10-14 on top with a purple San Juan trailing.  As the water rises you should work your way up the riffle as the fish are moving up to get the newly uncovered food.  After the rise we moved onto calmer runs of water sometimes barely moving (bottom duck,upper 9 shore,8).  Here midges were working well along with streamer patterns.  With allot of  the bottom growth  washed away fishing the big patches of clodophora is ideal.  Dead drifting is key, along with no taper from pulsa to first midge as well. I tie 5' of 5x to my leader, were i put my square not is were i at attach my pinch on indicators leaving a tag so it has extra hold allowing it not to slid down with the icy conditions.  Using tungsten headed midges allows us to run no split shots!  I was using silver or gold heads with black or red zebra patterns with a size 16 on top and if the water was faster trailing it with a 16, if calmer we trailed with a   size 18 16"-18" down.  The bite is suttle so ease down on your sets and you will hook more fish.  Another drift in the slow water was dead drifting streamers.  Same set up as the midges and most of the time no trailers but we did trail scuds and have a few takers.  The best pattern was the simi seal leech with a red head no trailer.  These areas are in the sun most of the day which is nice.  Toward the end of the day we drifted banks that receive sun or still in it.  We stripped streamers from the bank with the 250 gran sink tips.  The fished were chasing the olive woolly bugger and hitting it on drop in between strips.  The best tip when doing this is try to imagein the fly being 4-12" from the bottom so you have to change your strips as the banks drop off.  All of the runs we did were in slow water so we also drifted the midging rig out of the boat. The last drift I had a streamer leading and a midger drifting and had 4 double ups in under 50 yards of water.  This stretch of water is hands down my favorite piece of water, if you know it have fun.  The REDS are appearing in some of the common locations.  I had a guy run three different glow bug patterns threw two reds and no luck.  We put a purple worm on and caught both. Fish are getting ready to spawn and coloring up.  I will be back out this week and keep you updated on the activity's.  Remember to dress warm and the Walk In is always open.
Kyle
For More Detaiils, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

December 2012 - wade/drift days

Hello all my fellow fishers out there,
The fishing is good this winter, we are really enjoying some great fishing and still decent winter weather. Most success has been with San Juan worms (#14 orange favorite), scuds (#12 ginger favorite), and the occasional Zebra midge (#16 lazer zebra midge favorite). I have also been starting to experiment with the egg patterns too with some success, as the spawn is just getting started at Lee's Ferry. 
In the morning as the water is rising (9,000 cfs to 16,000 cfs), the wade fishing is ideal, as worms and scuds become available in large numbers until the water tops out in the late morning to early afternoon. When the water is up usually after our lunch break then the drifting has been successful as well.
A special thanks to Sue, and Maurry for a great December trip.
Happy Holidays everyone,
Mick

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Worms

These pics are for last weeks blog.  Two separate fish both packed full of worms. You can see on the one there coming out of her gills!  The weather is cold and the fishing is hot.  We will be out again this weekend and keeping you posted. Thanks Ashton for capturing these pics something I have never seen before.

Kyle

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Walk in

Everything that could of went wrong did this morning.  I fished the walk in this morning from 8-11 today and  it was expensive.   I fished the top of the boulder field and the fish were there.  The water was still low so I started with a 7' nymphing rig two#4s a ginger scud and chocolate San Juan worm.  Second cast I had a double, two fish probably 10-11 inches put me in a fast current and my tippet snapped.  Two fish stuck together,two new flys down.  I thought the two were to much for the 5x, but turns out my tippet spent to much time in the sun.  I broke off the next three fish before I changed spools of tippet.  After that mess I continued to hook fish, fight them but never land one.  I changed everything from length, how I set, drag everything I could think of couldn't fix it same results.  Around 9:15 the water came up and didn't top out tell 10.  The fish moved up into a foot of water and sometimes less . I had the best fight on my way back to shore with a nice football in shallow water but lost it as well.  Scud and worm, double worms were the only flys I thru today and they were working. I intend to redeem myself going to change rods and dress thicker next week.  The walk in was empty and the fish seamed to be feeding.  Next time I will throw streamers as well at 11 the suns glare is unavoidable,making it impossible to see a indicator. Tell next week.
Kyle
For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

December 7, 2012

Hello fellow fishers,
 Fluctuating water flows have started a feeding frenzy!  Fish are improving in health and girth.  Fishing a standard  9' nymphing rig with  San Juan worms and scuds is were its at.  Gravel bars river wide are putting up great fish.  The water is on a fluctuation pattern with changes from 9,000cfs to 15,000cfs which is making fishing great.  This first week of December has constantly put up high numbers and better improving sizes.  The first fish was caught back in November he had length but skinny, all the rest are this weeks. With the 6,000 cfs change thru the day the fish are feeding and putting on solid weight, the population as a result is in great condition.  Special thanks to Bill Hayes, John and John,"Tight lines, and remember to keep that tip up."
Mick

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Post Flood

Aftermath from flood,
Took three guys up this Saturday that were new to Lees Ferry and had a great day.  We started the day at 4 mile,  my first demo drift never made it to show what a mend was before I was setting.  The fish at four mile were gourging themselves on worms.  Two or three we fish we caught had mouth fulls of live worm crawling out of there mouths and gills.  Never have I seen this and it was awesome fishing with a san jaun worm.  Fish were drawn to dark colors,chocolate,maroon,purple the lighter colors which I perfered, orange,flesh, light brown they didnt like.  I started the morning out with all three nymphing but thrown differnt flys, one scud w/egg, otter egg/worm, worm/midge.  Caught a few on the midge think we came onto the bar while a hatch happened, but once it was over they didnt want anything but a worm. With a higher flow for this month alot of fish were up shallow seraching for food which let us do some sight fishing which is always exciting. We did a double dry 16/20 in calm water on the sides of seams and eddies and had a few takes.  We also fished 14 and 8 both spots we landed fish.  Im excited to go drift from the boat and see if we can find some bigger fish. Hopefully I have a day out to my own to try this and keep you informed this week.  Im also headed to the walkin this morning so I will be sure to let you know how it goes.
Kyle M.C.O.

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

High water flow is coming to the end and water should start a steady flow.  We went up on the 21st and took a look and caught some fish.  I didn't have much time more a sight seeing trip but I caught three in a row with the olive wooly on the back of the dam island.  What only use to be a small stream thru the backside was now 10' deep and wide open.  Had another angler with a spinning rig throwing a  black marabou  and was able to land one.  The dam was the only place we tried, the fish were strong and bellys full two over 15 and one twelve the other about 8".  I did drop anchor in a few locations to check the bottom   Each time There were scuds and real stringy and strong cladophora,  not like in the past were it was clogged full of stringy weak green goo.  I hope to get more days on the water this coming week to keep you updated.  The Walk-In was completely gone so I will try to drop a line in there as well.  Here are some pics of the dam and a couple photos of the last trip that I hadn't posted yet.

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Just Get It in the Water

We don't have a walk-in report due to weather but upriver, the fishing has been great everywhere.  Midges were working more than the scuds today with the moon dialing back.  The Chop Special worked all day long.

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Low flows

We apologize for the month of September and not informing you on the new water flows and reports, we have a couple successful hunts to blame for the time gap.  The new water flows for the month of September through October have been and are continuing on a very small fluctuation from 8000-8150cfs.  Really has not had an effect on the bite. 

Fishing has been very good and great weather to match makes it hard to get off the water.  Main riffles throughout the river are loaded with fish.  Like in the past, fish are at your feet.  We are going through a full moon phase,  when this happens scuds happen.  I have been throwing a combination with a scud on top and a midge trailing.  Running a short leader then adding 5' of 5x to a weight of location,  another 8-12" of 5x to a scud.  Scud size and color have ranged from a size 18-12 I have been sticking with the 12.  Colors from pink,orange,gray,white all are working. From the scud add another 20" of 5/6x depending on your size of midge 5x-16 6x-18 zebra and reds are working.  The weight of location depends on depth and speed of flow,  we have been targeting this length of water at the tops of riffles were the fish are stacked up feeding. 

Sunshine is a key factor right now.  The sun offers you protection from the trouts' keen vision, in the shade if not presented correctly, fishing can slow. The size of the fish are all over, we have not seen just one range.  There are alot of fish together and you just have to keep at it.  Or sometimes you hit the right pod and they're all footballs.  I have not found a bar that is holding bigger or more fish, they are all equal in the sun.

Drifting has been successful over large flats.  Dry droppers, midging rigs or streamers all are producing fish.  In the shade we experimented with a dry set up.  A small stimulator, small dropper on shallow water came up with a few fish, and holding on the swing attracted a couple reaction takes.  The fish are hungry and now is a great time experiment.  Most of the time we started fishing from the shore the fish were so close.

The fish for now seem healthy not what we thought of a month of this flow pattern.  The midges are hatching,  and scuds are plentiful.  We will be sure to keep you informed on these next weeks on the size and river conditions.

There has been reports of good fish at the walk in I will hopefully going down this week to get a report for the weekend.  Here are Septembers pics,  Tell the walk in  enjoy these pics and thank you to the ones in them.
Kyle Klemme,

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Same tactics,healthy fish

Here are half of August pictures.  Thanks to all of our returning clientes Andy, Chris, Bill and Tom.  My buddy J and I had a great day playing in our backyard yesterday.  The numbers are over the top and the fish are very healthy. We are landing a variety of sizes to keep things interesting.  Till next time, keep griding it out and sorting through to find the big ones.  Kyle Klemme-Guide.

 \

Sorry for not showing the true size of this 18 inch beauty...biggest fish of his Lee's Ferry fishing career

.
\
For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

I get one for me every once and a while.

Fun afternoon, buggers from the boat, deep nymphing from the boat, all successful, late summer fishing is only gonna last until the first of September.
New water is supposed to be lower water, coming for fall will mean wading again.
The monsoon season has kept the normally blistering summer temps, fairly low and tolerable.
For any of the readers who are looking to get in a last minute summer fishing trip before the kids go back to school now is that time. Thanks again and as always "I wish you Tight Lines, and always remember to keep that tip up"

Mick Lovett

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

Thank you Shawn and Riely, see you on the next one! Another great trip.
Mick
For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

The Last of the Summer Fishing

Big thanks to Steve & Rick, another great trip, see you next year guys.
Mick


For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com

July gone along with the big bug.

Well monsoon season has hit the Cicadas and lowered the temperatures.  August brings us new flows of 17,000cfs-9,000 so just down some from last month.  I have not yet been with these waters but I believe it should play to our advantage.  Last time up river we threw deep nymphing rigs anywhere from 9-12' to the first fly  trailing another fly about 16-22".  AB was the norm weight for the faster water.  Good flys for the month were San Juan worms brighter colors rust, red, orange, in the clouds a dark chocolate worked well.  Scuds worked but they must be big.  Always in smoother seams our midging rig with a dead drift is bangin.  I have my favorite midges patterns I tie, but for the most part take a swoop with your hat in the next midge hatch and check what color they are.  Small black,red,purple zebras should be in your box.  If you like to throw streamers we suggest heavy sink tips and olive colored flys.  Streamers are a lot of action and a lot of work, generally paying off well with nice fish. I will have a Walk in report for you hopefully Thursday evening.  July was a good month so here are some pics of my last week.  Thanks Mike for landing this nice 19+ hen awesome job and timing.. She is the same fish in the net.
Thanks for checking up till next time keep that dead drift running.
Kyle Klemme- M.C.O.

Add caption

For More Details, Visit Home at http://www.LeesFerryFlyFishing.com