Green Below Fontenelle July 25-26, 2015

Date / Time: Saturday July 25 day through Sunday, July 12, late morning Location: Green Below Fontenelle. Dodge Bottoms & Weeping Rock CG area The Characters: KK solo Weather: Sunny, some clouds. Temps in low 80s, cool nights in 40s Water Temp: Guessing low 60s Water Level: Around 1400 cfs Water Clarity/Quality: Crystal Moon Phase: Between first quarter and full Hatches: Tricos, PMDs, Caddis, Sallies Best Flies: Rusty Spinner, PMD emerger, KK Caddis Fishing: Water had come back up after going down to 1100 after they decided the rain was keeping flows higher. It was super good, but not as on fire as two weeks previous. Drove up solo Saturday morning left at 6 after sleeping 30 minutes longer than I wanted. Took the pram again since I was solo and wanted to do some lower water. Decided to head to dodge and find a spot I could put in toward the lower end and take out at dodge. People were in sidechannel which is what I had in mind so found a spot on the bluff above the big slow water area above the long channel where an old closed road went down. It was about 3/4 of a mile above takeout or so. Right after I put the boat in, looked upriver and fish were going off in the small eddy 30 feet upstream. Some pig rainbows and few other browns I think. There were thick mats of tricos on the water when I started, but the fish were rising like they were eating something else. They would race and chomp one thing and then not rise for a minute letting billions of tricos pass. There were sporadic spinners on the water and occasional caddis and occasional PMD. Started with rusty but they weren’t into it. Cycled through things and ultimately stuck two on pmd floating nymph and pmd cdc emerger, didn’t see either eat but figure they were eating the pmds that were starting to come off. Eventually left those feeding and went up into the big slow pool. There were a couple rising mid river that I have tried fishing from the bank in the past with deep difficult muddy wade. The pram was ideal as I just slid up and anchored just outside of them. One or two drifts with trusty rusty and stuck a fat 18” ripper bow. Moved up to the riffle drop and they were chowing on the edge in there. There were quite a few sallies by then, and they didn’t seem to want rusty so I switched to the sally. Stuck a couple on that, one brown that I lost and another one that I think I also lost. Threw the shiny body pmd nymph dropper for a minute just to see if they would eat it since I hadn’t fished it much yet and got a good bow right away. Eventually crossed and worked some risers up the sidechannel but they were sporadic and moving, still got one eat but moved down. Stuck another midriver on the way down and continued on. There were risers down the right bank, but no pigs and I wanted to move on. Found a couple good fish on the bottom right eddy of the lower riffle where I put in and waded to them and stuck a giant that broke off right after I hooked it with a weird roll. Worked another one and missed it and moved down. Found a cutty sipping in the big flat and got out and stuck and landed that one. Boat showed up by then so I started to move toward the ramp. Found a couple more cutties sipping in the tiny sidechannel above the cliff on river right and stuck both, one big one that became fouled during the fight. Took the boat out after that and headed upriver. It was about 3pm when I put back on in the weeping rock flat. I decided to fish down a bit, hopscotch walk the shuttle and have dinner in a couple hours to fish hard until dark. There was a breeze, but not too bad. Rowed to the far bank and there were still PMDs sporadically floating through, found a pig sipping, stuck it and lost it after a minute or so. Worked down and don’t think I saw any others rising there. Got to weeping cliffs and sure enough fish were up in the eddies on the edges. Worked down and stuck a couple out of each pod on the trusty rusty including a killer battle bow that I had to pull anchor on. They were going good in a couple spots here on PMDs and sporadic caddis and other stuff. A boat showed up behind me and was fishing them, so decided to pull over and eat a can of chili at the truck while I waited. After dinner, shuttled my truck down to the island opposite car body and Zach’s buddy TJ was there with another guy Shane. They shuttled me back which was sweet and I waited for that boat that was moving slowly to go down. They were fishing the risers, but fishermen were total hacks looked like maybe a guide trip. Eventually jumped back out and worked a few sporadic risers in the rocks river left, but they were sporadic and picky. Think I got one eat, but mostly nada and they were sporadic enough that I moved on. In retrospect thinking they may have been on caddis emergers, but don’t know. Found a couple sipping tight top left of the drop and worked them. One was a pig and I cycled through various patterns, visibility being tough with the glare off the white rocks. Eventually went to the smaller #18 KK caddis and got one to eat that and missed it, but it didn’t look like it felt it, got it to eat again and stuck it. Fish went ballistic and ripped out. After epic battle back and forth chasing it etc. in the pram eventually landed it and it was just over 20 with ridiculous girth, killer fish! By then light was getting lower and caddis were descending. Had good glare angle into setting sun on the flat and could see fish starting to work the caddis. Slid in and stuck a pig and landed it on the caddis. These fish ate the caddis readily. There were some big fish porpoising. Also some big caddis mating and landing on the water stuck, so switched to the bigger size 16 x caddis black wing I had tied just for this. Stuck a couple more on that, moved down and stuck another pig on the bank. Fished until I couldn’t see and slid down into camp around 10:15 I think. Awesome day!