Green Below Fontenelle Friday October 12 & Saturday October 13, 2018

Date / Time: Friday October 12 4-6ish pm. Saturday October 13 9-6ish Location: Green Below Fontenelle. Friday fished couple bends up from Farson bridge big drop 15 minute walk in. Saturday fished Riff Raff in am, then Dodge long sidechannel pm. The Characters: KK, LK, Weather: Friday evening high 40s low 50s, mostly clear few clouds. Saturday front moving in, clear in am with high clouds eventually mostly cloudy. Breezy Water Temp: Guessing low 40s, feet didn’t get cold. Water Level: 950 cfs dam release Water Clarity/Quality: Clear with moss on drift, greenish tint. Off color lower Moon Phase: Between new and first quarter Hatches: Pseudo BWOs Best Flies: Olive brown eyed UV bugger, Playboy Bow from the deep water below the drop Fishing: Day 1: Drove up Friday afternoon with dad and checked the OCI (now Ciner) area, but storms in previous days had it quite off color so we didn’t fish. In retrospect, probably should have given it a shot to see. Headed up and went above Farson bridge to second pull out above big bend where Kokanee redds were up a 15 min walk in. Walked in and pounded it good on the streamer, no Kokes on the redd above the drop where they usually are. Saw one group out in deeper water and several others swim by but none on the redds. Worked through the water above the drop for nada and found that there was thick drifting moss making it difficult to fish the streamer. Worked through the drop for nada. 3 boats passed and steered clear on other side, then 4th dropped anchor right in pool in front of dad. I yelled and threw hands up and they said they didn’t see him. Lame since I was above and that was too close to me too. Fished through with diff stuff including trailing the egg eventually for nada. Eventually hooked a fish in deeper water and lost it, then hooked another one in same area maybe same fish in the deep water below the drop slow swinging it. It ate the brown olive UV bugger on the jig hook even though the egg was trailing.  According to phone, it was a few minutes after 6pm and the sun was now getting low. Worked through all the next riffle and drop into the deep pool which I have also seen Kokes in previously maybe had a grab, but didn’t stick anything and headed out.   Fishing: Day 2: Considering how much moss was down low first day, decided to go higher and fish riff raff since I never do it for brown trout spawn. Headed up the east side and checked some spots, just to see if moss was less but it was still in full effect. When we got to Riff Raff, nobody in it around 9ish. Started in at top of sidechannel and worked over everything with various streamers for basically nothing, maybe had one grab. Eventually after several passes down through the money deep spot, I put on the egg behind the jig bugger and hooked a good fish and lost it, don’t know what it ate. I broke the egg off shortly therafter and just stuck to the streamer and tried a few diff colors and patterns. I pounded the water all the way down to the confluence and then out through the main river drop and boulders. Conditions were prime, overcast with front moving in although breezy. I only hooked a couple of fish with a lot of work and the only ones I landed were small. Dad said he hooked one decent brown and a couple of small bows on the egg but not much. Ultimately stayed there for like 4 hours hoping to hook a pig but didn’t happen and should have moved on sooner. Around 2pm drove up and looked at dam and bunch of people. 4 boats visible, a couple of wade fishers so we headed down to dodge long river right sidechannel. Worked through the upper tailout above for nada, then headed into the channel. Worked all the spots through and ended up getting a few good grabs and eventually decent rainbow on the playboy in front of the rock outcropping deep pool. Worked through all the drops and spooked several pig browns off of a redd in one of the lower shallow transitions. I threw a cast near where they spooked and there was one still there that chased it down and inhaled it fully visible from my position on the high bank, super cool eat! Ended up landing that fish, good brown around 18-19. Worked further down through and got a decent cutty that hammered the fly and ripped. Eventually headed out after a long day of a lot of work for sporadic reward. Not what I had hoped, but good to get out with dad. The lower river is the place to focus on with the kokanee concentrating the fish, the moss just makes it so difficult.