Spring Rainbows

The weather forecast looked pretty bleak when we pulled out of our parking lot in Hyrum Utah. The temperature gage never topped 40 the entire drive and as we rigged up it was a firm reminder that winter hadn't quite let go of it's grip. The four of use stepped out into a run spread out enough to each cast and let our nymph rigs drift through. Steve quickly picked up a Whitefish that would rival a Utah state record (maybe not but it was huge). The weather seemed to get better as the afternoon hit and we started picking up fish more consistently. The weather remained decent for the remainder of the day and allowed us to stay longer than we anticipated. What was cool about this trip was how technical this stretch of water was. It's not a secret spot by any means and with all the angling pressure over the last month the Rainbows had seen just about every pattern. We really had to downsize our flies and keep them right at the bottom of the river. You could almost tell though when you got your drift right that a fish would pick up your fly. Our rigs were pretty simple; standard indicator rig with split shot ahead of our first fly, inline was our second fly. My flies were very small scuds in gray and in orange. I dont know that the color mattered but the depth and drift seemed to be the most critical. We had several nice rainbows come to the net after a great day of education and learning on the fly. It's always important to keep an open mind about flies and rigs, it could save you from having bad fish catching day (there are no bad days of fishing). Here's a few pictures of some rainbows that gave our reels a run.