We fished the pan and had some early success before 50 mph gusts of wind tore up the water for most of the day
We sat in the car for over an hour mesmerized by white caps and sand tornadoes thrown across the river. But eventually we headed to the toilet bowl, since casting wasn't really an option anywhere else. We hooked a few fish on mysis patterns, and then a truck pulled up and opened the gate to the dam operating building, and the next thing we knew, the toilet bowl looked as if it had been flushed and very large fish appeared out of the depths and started lining up to crush mysis shrimp. The dam operator came out and said he had put the turbine back online (he did not raise the flows). He also told us that once a year when they shutdown the turbines, turn off the lights in the building, and look down, they can see submarine size fish who probably never leave the turbine room.
Well we hooked into a few very large fish and lost all of them on 4x as they dove deep into the bowl. including losing all of the mysis pattern that was working the best.
When we ran out of flies we sat back and watched as fish hit the surface and lined up in dozens, clearly conditioned to the turbine event.
7lb bow taken on a 26 thread midge
You did better than I did in the wind for sure!! I have been in that turbine room maybe 8 years ago.......I saw HOGS......he is right!! Keep up the good posts
ReplyDeleteLynn
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteLuckily we got into some of the bigger fish we saw before the wind became violent, and when the guy put the turbines back online the wind started to settle down. In the in between time fishing was very tough at best. We lost multiple fish due to the wind blowing our rods and giving slack in the line.