Time: 11:30AM – 2:30PM
Location: Below Taylor Reservoir
Taylor River 07/27/2021 Photo Album
I quit fishing on Spring Creek at 10:30AM, and this enabled me to arrive at the Taylor River pullout above Lodgepole Campground by 11:20AM. I drove the ten miles from Spring Creek and stopped at the Harmel Resort store to purchase a ten pound bag of ice.
My Sage One five weight was rigged from Monday’s action, so I crossed the river at the same spot as Monday and then hiked down the north side of the river, until I was across from and above the paved parking lot across from Lodgepole. My Sage One five weight remained assembled from Monday with a tan pool toy hopper, iron sally, and bright green caddis pupa. I tested this threesome for thirty minutes with only a hopper refusal to show for my efforts. I began to regret my decision to leave Spring Creek.
Prime Pool
Green Drake Snacker
At noon I arrived at a tantalizing pool at the upper end of a large rock moraine, and the air above the river came alive with a smorgasbord of insects. There were caddis, yellow sallies, pale morning duns, and a green drake or two. The pale morning duns seemed most prevalent, and I saw a few aggressive rises, so I replaced the bright green caddis with a pale morning dun juju emerger. It was soundly ignored. Perhaps the trout were chowing down on subsurface nymphs? A salvation nymph replaced the juju emerger, and it was treated with similar disdain. I spotted two rises along the well defined center current seam, so I removed the dry/dropper and presented a solitary size 16 light gray comparadun. This fly provided one temporary hookup, but the take seemed tentative.
Scene of Multiple Hatches
As I pondered my next move, the river came alive with green drakes. They appeared to be size 14, and they were nearly as abundant as the PMD’s. I abandoned the comparadun and knotted a size 14 parachute green drake to my line. This solved the puzzle, as two gorgeous brown trout in the fourteen to fifteen inch range inhaled the western green drake imitation. There was nothing tentative about the eats from the pool dwellers. I persisted with the parachute green drake, until the hackle began to slip up the wing post, and I replaced it with another fresh version.
Looking Back at Crossing Point
I vacated the quality pool and began working my way upstream, but the green drake hatch began to wane. I felt like my parachute was riding low in the surface film, and perhaps the fish were tuned into something with a large upright wing which created the illusion of motion. I swapped the parachute for a comparadun, and this fly duped a few trout, before I broke it of on a decent fish that dove under a rock or stick. I persisted with the green drake approach, until I quit at 2:30PM. The last thirty minutes were quite slow, and I ended with a peacock hippie stomper and purple haze. One small brown nipped the haze to put me at ten on Tuesday on the Taylor River.
Other that the first two fish from the moraine pool, all the remainder were relatively small browns in the seven to eleven inch range. I decided to return to Spring Creek in an attempt to recapture the magic of the morning session.
Fish Landed: 10