Northfork of the White Fly Fishing Report | NFOW

Fishing high CFS with Streamers – Tough Day (4-14-2015)

I finally had the chance to go explore the NFOW. I wish I could have made it over in the fall, but it’s hard finding time when I have a full plate of life on my hands these days. Kids, kind of take some of that free time away, but that’s part of it and I wouldn’t want to miss the precious time I have with them.
I took the better half because she has never thrown streamers in this particular stretch of the river. Lisa grew up around this neck of the woods, but never took up fly fishing until she moved away.  I’ve also never fished this river with it being up this high. I was excited, but at the same time worried about how this river would fish. I know in the past I’ve had great luck fishing with the water up just a bit. I think springs can be great fishing when there’s a change in flow and get’s the trout active because they know that change might increase their chances for a meal. This river can get the best of you, but that’s one reason why I like it. It will challenge the very best angler and today that’s what it did.

The flow was a little over 900cfs. my first time fishing the river that high, but I’ve also had my best day fishing higher flows at 700 cfs. That makes the water a little stained and those browns like that over here. The problem though is the fish have more places to shift and move around making it tougher to find out where these trout hold in the different flows. The areas I’m used to seeing them hold in when fishing the river at it’s regular stage, they seem to not be holding fish this go around. That’s why it’s important to fish rivers on a regular basis so you stay with the “trend”.  The area I wanted to hit, I couldn’t because we couldn’t get the boat under the bridge so I could only fish Patrick down to Dawt Mill. This stretch, Blair to Patrick is in my opinion is the best stretch of water on this entire river for targeting browns trout with streamers. The other great area is the last run of shoals before you get to Dawt. I say this because I jump browns every time I fish it.
What was the best Streamer you ask?
I really like fishing patterns that have that crawdad color. Either ginger, or olive with orange  mixed in. Today the trout threw me for a loop. They didn’t want those colors like they have in the past. This could be for two reasons. Back five years ago when I was one of the first guides to fish streamers on this river, I could throw anything and they would eat it. Now I think there are more people fishing streamers and they are getting smarter coupled with more pressure. So today we had to do some color changes. When I do color changes I’m not necessarily trying to catch fish. I’m searching out fallows and if they hit it great, but if not I’m strictly trying to figure out the color. How I do this is by fishing two streamers in two different colors and space them about two feet apart. I like to throw black and yellow combos and olive and white combos and so on. You’ll see the fish swim to the one they want, or they swipe it letting you know which one they want to eat. Then I go to that color only and start covering ground. Today it was yellow, so we stuck to that the rest of the day. We had hits, but when you are learning this you will miss those hook ups and that’s just part of it. You can’t get better unless you keep doing it and that’s what I’m doing with Lisa.
Lisa is going to start guiding more with me in the future and I can’t wait because we are going to make a good team. It’s a process, but we have two more years before this can really happen. That will give me more time to keep working with her so she is ready all the way across the board. Anyways, I hope everybody is out fishing and getting ready for summer and I hope to see you on the river.
Couple of things to remember. Canoes will be in full swing around memorial day. Dawt Mill is trying to fix there boat ramp so it’s easier to use.  Current situation has you winching your boat without any water for your trailer to be backed up in. Sunburst has a better one just before Dawt Mill, but it’s hard to get  a hold of them in the off season as they seem to not answer the phone. Call a few days early so they have plenty of time to get back with you when you leave a message.

If you would like to know more about fly fishing the Northfork of the White throwing streamers you can send me a email directly to [email protected] if you are interested in booking a guide trip. Feel free to visit us on Facebook, If you really liked this article, +1 above – check us out at +flysandguides (Google+) or send us a tweet with a question or just to say hi. Check out the Fly of the Month!