Members from NRITU and many families enjoyed the day and learned a lot at the F F Classes held on The Blackstone River next to the Kelly House

Hi everybody, we had a very successful day of fun, fly tying, fly casting, knot tying and more at the first annual NRITU Fly Fishing Workshop sponsored by DEM's Fish and Wildlife Aquatic Ed Program.

We had a very nice turnout over 35 people had signed up for the program. A special thanks to all of the volunteers and to DEM for making this a great day. See you next year!

Best always, Ed             www.edlombardoflyfish.com  

Top left, Geno Rappa with a nice sideliner and Tom Perry just upstream from bridge.

Hi everybody,we fished the narrow River both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday night the tide changed at oh, about 5:20pm to outgoing and that is when the fish started eating our flies, we took fish in the 12” to 22” in class. The water is a lot cooler now and a lot of bait is in the river; we could see juvenile bunker, size 11/2 “to 2” long and a few skipjacks as well. We took a good number of these sideliners and then at dark the shad started showing, and that’s always a lot of fun. The shad where mostly small with a few fish in the 20” class.

 Last night the tide started changing to outgoing at about 6:30pm and it was an altogether different scenario, the water in the system just didn’t want to get moving, no fast moving current, and no rips at all. We did in fact manager to take a few nice bass but no where near the numbers as the night before. On Tuesday the height of the tide was a 3.6’ reading and last night it was 3.4’ just a little different from Tuesday night. But anyway all in all it was still a great night, a few fish, no wind, great friends and a beautiful sunset, what more can one ask for. The flies, all pink, brown over pink, over white, and shrimp patterns, both in sizes, 1/0 & 2/0. For the shad much smaller hooks, flies tided on 4’s and 6’s yellow and white with some flash. We where using intermediate fly lines. The water is clear and not many weeds even on and outgoing tide.

 

My best and tight loops, Ed     www.edlombardoflyfish.com               

Hi everybody, we have fished the Narrow River now some four times since coming back from out West and the it has been not dissapointing! Last night we started at around 5:15PM until, oh, about 9:00PM. We started at Sprauge Bridge and ended up at Middlebridge. The tide changed at around 5:45Pm and the fish where there, from 12" to 22" but all very fat fish. We got into the shad at Middlebridge. White and Pink, all Pink,  highties and shrimp patterns worked best.

My best and tight loops, Ed         www.edlombardoflyfish.com      

Bill Trinque,  at left , and Bob Santos on the Henry's Fork in Last Chance Idaho



The Madison River just outside of West Yellowstone and The beautiful Slough Creek in Yellowstone Nat'l Park



Bill Trinque with a nice cut from Soda Butte Creek and Bob Santos with a nice brown from the Bighorn

 

Dr. Nick Califano with a Bighorn Brown and Bow! 



Art Hanson, Tom Perry, and Dock at the afterbay dam.



Tom and Art on the Madison River just above Quake Lake, Montana.



Great meals from Deb & JJ at The Bighorn Lodge



Bill and Bob on The Fork

Hi everybody, again just a great trip out west this year! All of us had a wonderful time, lots of fun, lots of fish, and a good time with great friends! The Henry's Fork did not fish well this year again so we fished the Madison and did very well. Soda Butte fished very good like always and Slough Creek did not. And The Bighorn is always just the best! 

Announcement : On the 21st. of this month we will be holding a fly fishing class on the Blackstone River. This program is being sponsorded by The Northern Chapter of TU and RIDEM/Fish and Wildlife. This program is free and will start at 9:00am to 3:00pm Saturday. For more information and to registration call 1-401-789-0281. For details look for Tom Meade's notice in Sundays paper.         

We fished the Narrow River yesterday morning, and started oh, around 7:15AM. Very little boat traffic at that time and no people as well. The tide was still outgoing and moving pretty fast at that, just enough pull against the line and flies. Bob, Toby, Tom and I fished hard looking for fish in all of the most likely places and we could only manage to take a few stripers and a few flat fish as well. We decided to try middle bridge because the water was still outgoing and no fish, a fisherman on the bridge did tell us that a few shad where taken earlier and that he had seen a very large striper from the bridge. We left the river and headed for Salt Pond just south of the Snug Harbor Marina. Again we all fished hard and at this location the water started moving out just what we wanted and for the next two hours or so, no fish, not one just a few bumps.  We left and had a great lunch and beat the rush hour home being on the road at 2:45 PM.      

 

This is prime time for the Hex hatch; Fourth of July marks the start of the peak time for this giant invertebrate, and with all this heat and more importantly humidity this hatch should be very copious indeed. Remember to fish the spinner most of the time!

 

Best always, Ed            www.edlombardoflyfish.com         

Hi everybody, we fished the Wood River last night and as usual not much going on until 9:00pm. We started at 7:30pm and tried to encourage a fish to come up and take our offering of one of our Hex patterns; even though the hatch was a good hour away or so, some times trout will come up for one of these imitations now that the fish have seen these Hex naturals for nine days now. It didn’t work only a few pan fish would try and take the large dry fly. At 8:55pm the river came alive with both rising fish and good numbers of Hex emerging. Three out of four of us had good numbers of rising fish to cast to, and then later I ask Bob to move down closer to me so that he would have a few fish to try for. Both duns and spinners where on the water and the trout fed on them for a good 40 minutes or so. I tried a different spinner imitation last night, tail of white calf tail, body of yellow antron yarn, and out spent wings of elk hair, it worked very well and floated after catching and releasing fish. Remember to have a good light with either a green or red filter. This year I have only seen a few fish take emerging Hexagenia nymphs, not that many showy splashy rise forms.

 

Best always, Ed          www.edlombardoflyfish.com                 

Upstream of Sprague Bridge near old house.

Hi everybody, last night Geno Rapa, Tom Perry, and I fished the narrow River. We started at 5:30PM at Sprague Bridge and took a few small stripers while the tide had started coming in. We found the water temperature to be somewhat warm, so we moved down river close to the mouth. At 7:00PM the water started coming in faster and a lot cooler, oh, I would say at least 15 degrees cooler. Again just a few fish where taken not very productive! At 8:00PM we moved back to Sprague Bridge knowing that the water would be much cooler now and again just a few small sideliners. But there is some good news coming out of last night and that is the shade showed up for the first time this season. That's right the shade are in, not many but we did in fact take a half dozen or so and now they should be in for the rest of the season!   

Best always, Ed             www.edlombardoflyfish.com          

Top left, Hex nymph, note two tusks for borrowing into soft mud and silt. Bottom left Hex spinner. Top right Jim D'Ambra with a nice Wood River Bow.

 Hi again, we fished the Wood River last night and where not disappointed! Richard Pearce and I started at 7:00pm and fished from “The Pan” to upstream for a good ¼ mile or so. At this time we did see a few fish rise and only noticed a small amount of midge, no mayflies at all. We fished larger flies (size #16 sulfur emerger and a gray soft hackle dry) trying to get them to come up but to no success. I did manager to get one fish to come up to a BWO just before dark, but did not hook up. At 8:45pm we started seeing the Hex duns flying in the air and some floating on the surface of the water.  This year this hatch (Hex) is late maybe because of the recent cool nights we have been seeing, it usually starts around June 14^th or 15^th. At 9:00pm both spinners and duns where on the water in very goods numbers and fish where coming up to both stages very aggressively, we took rainbows and browns. I like using the spinner imitation during the entire hatch, fish did not refuse our offer. For my dun imitation I like using a white or orange Wulff pattern, tied very sparse. This is the only time of the year that I use a loop to loop connection for my leader system. This allows me to switch over to a much heavier leader fast and easy especially during low light conditions. I just remove my longer tapered leader (via loop to loop) from the 2’ butt section, and put on a 6’ or 7’ piece of 8 or 10 lb. test of monofilament, straight no taper. This not only keeps the tippet from curling and looking like a slinky because of casting such a large fly that catches more air, but when greased with fly floatant it helps to keep the fly high and dry much longer. After releasing a fish I always squeeze my fly in a piece of shamy or paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible and then treat it again with floatant. Oh, remember to a have a good light, one with a red or green lens filter.

 

My best always, Ed        www.edlombardoflyfish.com                 

Arine Waters on The Wood River

Hi again, Bob Santos, Toby Miller and I fished the Wood River again last night and did OK not as well as the night before. The Hatch started around 8:50PM and the number of bugs (Hex's) where not as prolific and the fish did not stay up for very long. The few fish that we did in fact manage to get took both spinner and dun imitations.  I believe I did see a few gray drakes, oh, a size #10 just before the Hex emergence.    

Best always and tight loops, Ed             www.edlombardoflyfish.com

Hi everybody good to be back, last night we fished the narrow River during the incoming tide. The water is much cooler and clearer now than it was this passed Saturday. Also last night for the first time this season juvenile sand ells where showing, this bait fish was small, oh, about 1/1/2” in length. Also very abundant where schools of larger mummy chubs, about 2” to 4” in length. We took a few fish, small schoolies until the change of the tide which turned around 6:45pm. At that time we decided to move downstream closer to the mouth of the river where the water was moving much faster (out going). From 7:00pm to 8:45pm we took a few larger fish and missed the same number. The best flies for me where my hot pink high tie and shrimp pattern. The boat traffic was not too bad last night. By the way at one point when the wind died down I told Geno and Jim that the river looked a lot like the Henry’s Fork of The Snake River in Idaho! 

  

  Best always, and tight loops, Ed             www.edlombardoflyfish.com