At the midway point of our 12 week season, we were excited to welcome back Henrik, Jonni, Mark, and John along with a few new faces, Dan, Andrew, and Charlie. The first morning we rigged up small flies with long leaders and lighter tips, as the river was getting to its lowest and clearest we’d seen all year. Once we got to the river, we encountered fairly heavy and consistent rain but the fish we active and several nice fish were landed. Over the next two days, the weather stabilized and the fishing was solid. Everyone seemed to be coming back to the dinner table with several fishing tales. On Tuesday, however, the rain we experienced on Saturday started to rise and stir up the river with weeds and debris from the bank. For the remainder of the week, the river continued to rise but with skillful angling and persistence, nice fish were still coming into the net.
A few highlights of the week included a 17 lb and 14 lb fish landed in the first session by our old friend Marc, followed up by a chromed-out 19 lb fish landed by Andrew on the first evening session alone! Jonni also landed a beautiful 18 and 16 lber on his first day. Our good Danish friends- Henrik and Dan also had consistent fishing throughout the week with several high-teen fish brought to hand. Dan had a great 19 and 16 lber while presenting the fly beautifully with wind and rain blowing right into his face. John had a fantastic session with two 16 lbers and the fish of the week with a beautiful 23 lber. Charlie finished his week on a high note deftly battling a thick 22 lb male trout to the net.
Due to changing water conditions, it’s difficult to describe what setups were the most productive but, we can briefly say that full sink lines on single-handed rod and intermediate Skagit heads on double-handed rods were, by far, the most used.
By the end of the week, the river started to drop and clear up slightly, so we are optimistic that next week we will see more stable fishing conditions.
Alejandro Martello. Villa Maria Lodge Head Guide.
