Dr. Sam Smart with a nice native brook trout taken with my Black Ant pattern

We fished the Wood River on Friday, the 7th and Monday, the 11th of this week and fond basically the same conditions. For one, the water level is still very low and the water temperature is a very good 62 degrees. With the water level being so low many fish are holding in deeper pools, but it is not uncommon to find a fish or two rising in thin faster moving water where food organisms are concentrated. The water is so clear that it is very easy for spotting fish. If you move slow and upstream , and do not disturb much water while wading or even batter still, try spotting from shore where possible I think you will be pleasantly surprised on just how many fish you will see. Everett and I started at 4:40pm this past Monday afternoon downstream from the Pines Access and fond fish rising spontaneously from pool to pool. Not many risers but enough to make it interesting and always enjoyable. Like always some pools holding more fish than others. Again we started fishing with ant and wasps patterns. The wasps on this day did draw interest but the take just was not happing. The trout would come up to the fly and nudge it just a little and not eat it. This was happening often. I told Everett that maybe the size of the fly was too big on this day. The wasps pattern was a size #12 maybe a size #14 or even a size #16 would have worked better. I again started with a size #14 ant. I tie my ant with black sparkle dubbing. This is dubbing that is black rabbit fur mixed with pieces of fine silver sparkle tinsel. You can buy it this way or mix your own. Even though I was catching fish on this ant the fish where feeding on smaller very small midge and small spinners. After a close look at the waters surface and film the color on the midge was a dark gray and the spinners had small bodies of  mahogany in color. I estimated the size of these organisms ranged from size #22’s (spinners) to #28’s (midges) 7x & 8x country! I also did see in the water’s film an occasional  chironoamid, in a size #20’. Between you and me I was not in the mood for playing this game, I’m happy casting  larger terrestrial patterns. Later that night at dark, oh, around 8:00pm, a few Light Cahills started emerging, size #14’s so I put on a size #16 PMD parachute dun. Took one nice brown and then we left. If one would like to stay a while after dark I’m sure some fish would cooperate and take light color duns in sizes #16 and #14’s.  

 On Friday a client and I started out at a stretch of the river just about ½ mile upstream from Frying Pan Pond upstream from the Barbourville Dam. This section of the river was very still concerning rising fish.  Sam and I fished this section for a good hour and Sam took one fish on my wasps pattern that did not show (rise) in a likely spot. I told Sam that we must leave and go to another spot on the river. We left this section to move upstream, but before we moved on we stopped for lunch right there on the river, beautiful. After having lunch two sandwiches and diet cokes we drove to blitzkrieg trail to fish a section of the river just downstream from the Pines Access.  Again the fish where rising to very small copious midges, gray in color and sizes #22 to #28. Sam used both black Ants, #14’s and my wasps, size #14 and #12’s and took some very nice fish and one very nice native Char (brook trout).

With rain that fell this past Tuesday the Wood River is up a good 4” to 5”, hopefully we will see more rain soon. This will make the fall season on our RI waters much more enjoyable and more importantly healthier conditions for the fish.