Bear River 4/5/07

[BrianID]

I had time to fish the Bear River yesterday afternoon for a few hours. Started fly fishing at Black Canyon. There were very few fish rising and the water was slightly off colored. I saw a handful of mayflies (?#16-#18?) flying around but didn't get a good look at any of them. There were a few caddis flies (about #16-#18) that a few fish seemed to key in on. There were also some midges and a fair number of small leeches under several rocks that I turned over. I'm stubborn and like to catch fish on the surface whenever I can so I fished dry flies. These planted fish were certainly looking for something on the surface but there wasn't enough of a hatch for them to consistently rise. I would have done much better if I had resorted to nymphing. I was able to catch most of the planted fish that I saw rise but it wasn't as good as I hoped it to be so I left after a few hours.
I put my fly rod back in its case and drove about a half hour downstream. I was able to get several fish on my spinning rod, including smallmouth. I was a little surprised to catch the smallmouth because the water was about 50 degrees. Normally I don't do very well for smallmouths until the water is closer to 60 degrees.

[signature]