March 20, 2017 – Fishing the Cold Snow Melt on a Mild Day - Ridley Creek FFO

At least 7 + 7, but probably closer to 15 inches.

It was just below freezing last night, but the air temperature was supposed to get close to 50 degrees, so I gave the morning some time to warm up and then took a short trip to Ridley Creek this afternoon.  Only one other guy was fishing right at the bridge when I arrived, and he left quickly thereafter, so I had the place to myself for about 3 hours.  The water was high and stained due to the quickly melting snow over the last couple of days.  Normally, in high water from rain, I could coax a few fish to chase a streamer, but this high water was gray, icy high water, so the streamer was shown no love on this sunny, mild day.

The snow was quickly melting away.

I did some exploring after sticking 3 fish on a walt’s worm in some pocket water, but the further I moved downstream, the muddier and colder the water got.   I tied on the streamer for my upstream walk, deciding to swing a muddler in the hole that gets loaded above the bridge, but a last minute decision to re-rig up with a heavy tungsten pheasant tail and a soft hackle dropper proved to be the right call.  Instead of swinging a streamer in the bridge hole, I returned to the pocket where I landed three fish earlier, and proceeded to catch 5 more in about a half hour.  If I got the right drift, right on the seam, one that got deep enough quickly enough, and moved slightly slower than the quick current, I hooked a fish.  A couple fought very well, too, despite the chilly water.  The biggest was roughly 15 inches, and they were all rainbows.  I was hoping to find some of the brookies or browns, as well, but I was happy to have some success in the tough conditions today.

Another healthy-sized rainbow.

When I got home, I had two new toys (well, one toy, and one necessity) waiting at the door from the UPS man: studded felt soles for my Korkers wading boots, just in time for the treacherous wading of early spring, and a new 10 foot 4 wt rod, which is just aching to get out on a big creek in the coming weeks.  I may break it in at the Tully later in the week if I can get the time.  I technically have two full time jobs until the end of the month, although I always seem to find a bit of time to fish, so who knows.

Had to go slow and low, but managed 8 fish, so a good, short trip.