South Fork Report W/Pics

[flyfishingfool]

After leaving Springfield, I arrived at Heise aroung 5:30 PM to fish one of my favorite areas over there. I haven't been there for a while because I have been so busy ice fishing but I had a blast today. It was a little slow at first but then I hooked into my first fish and it was pretty fast action until it was two dark to see. I ended up catching 12 fish total, all browns. They were everywhere from 8" up to 14" or so and all fought VERY hard. I got broke off by one that I dunno how big it was. I never got to see it. I thought one of the 10" was at least 16"-17" by the way it fought. I caught all of them on the wooly bugger/hares ear setup I like to use. It was really a great way to end the day. I even had a big moose sneak up behind me and give me a bit of a scare. I may not have seen it if the people on the other side of the river hadn't hollered at me. Again, sorry the pictures are not compressed.
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[flygoddess]

THANKS! I love that area. Some killer BROWN in there!
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[dustponds10]

Wow, I have been fishing the last two days and all that I could seem to pull out was some white fish. So if i am seeing it right just a regular bead head hare's ear and a conehead black bugger. Dang, I wish I could get into some trout. It is getting kind of old catching whitefish. are you fishing deep and pulling through the runs or what are you doing?
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[flyfishingfool]

I use both conehead and the normal round bead head. Personally I have always liked fishing coneheads better though. I think they have a little bit better action when you strip them. I would look for bobbing heads in the calm water, so i was fishing pretty close to the surface and the water I was fishing in couldn't have been any deeper than 8' or 9'. Not too deep at all. If I saw a fish rise I would cast about 5-10 feet from where it was, in front of where I thought it would swim, depending on how far I had to cast. Then I would strip the bugger real short and hard, wait half a second or a full second, then strip short and hard again. I find this usually will trigger good strikes. Almost every fish I caught was a fish that I saw rise, with the exception of 3 or 4. When I fish calm water above a big hole, usually in a channel, I tend to catch a lot more trout than whitefish. Those whitefish really love hugging those riffles and will steal you nymphs every time. I have been changing my tactics a little to try and stay away from them. Hopefully this can help you out a little bit. Those trout are a lot of fun to catch.
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[dustponds10]

Ok sounds great. Thank you for the great advice. I am going to start tying right now so I can be ready for tomarrow and Tuesday. you are just casting bead head buggers and cone headed with a hare's ear is that right?
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[X2FSH]

Thanks for the report and the pics...browns are all I seem to be catching in that area anymore...be nice to lay into some rainbows every now and again!
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