This is something I have not seen in many years. Over the past several days, flows have come up on the Rock to over the 80th percentile again. Usually this time of year we are running out of water, not watching it come up. All the rain recently has put some mud in the water, but it is still very fishable. From the looks of the forecast, we are going to be getting quite a bit more rain the next few days.
The appearance of Spruce Moths in the past week is the big news over here. The fish are keying in on these bigger bugs and they provide good dry fly fishing all day. They are sensitive to the rain, and it will be hard to find the moths when it is really coming down.
Caddis and PMDs are still coming off in pretty good numbers. The PMDs are getting smaller as the year goes on, think size 14 and 16. Terrestrials are of course a good bet this time of year. A fair number of folks have taken to strictly nymphing in the afternoons. This method, using princes, pheasant tails, stonefly nymphs, and other mayfly and caddis patterns, works very well, but I just can’t bring myself to fish nymphs when dries are coming off.
The Rock is crowded, but the people will be fewer in-between and the fishing will be better the higher up the canyon you go.
Tags: River - Rock Creek
