Time: 12:45PM – 3:00PM

Location: Across from Lodgepole Campground and then upstream

Fish Landed: 3

Taylor River 08/08/2014 Photo Album

Facing an early departure on Saturday morning for Seatac Airport, and with the daunting chore of packing for a week in Olympic National Park ahead of me, I did not want to depart from the Taylor River any later than 3PM. Danny and I quickly downed our lunches back at Lottis Creek Campground, took down the tent, and packed everything in the car. We were now anxious to return to the Taylor River for some action similar to that experienced on Thursday.

I drove to the same pullout used on Thursday, and we once again agreed to cross to the north side of the river, but unlike the previous day, we made a left turn and followed the river downstream through the woods to a point directly across from the Lodgepole Campground and parking lot. On Friday we crossed the river where the four fishermen blocked our path on Thursday, and this proved to actually be more challenging than the upstream route.

Big clouds raced across the sky, and this condition combined with a strong wind to create a cool environment for fishing. I began with a Chernobyl ant, beadhead hares ear, and salvation nymph since the nymphs produced for me the previous day. Unfortunately Friday was a different day, and I went quite awhile without any action. Since the Chernobyl was not generating any interest, I decided to exchange it for an equally ignored top fly, the yellow Charlie Boy hopper. The Charlie Boy offered the advantage of being more visible and buoyant. I also added length to my droppers as a concession to the higher flows below the dam in an effort to achieve deeper drifts.

I continued fishing without success after these adjustments until I observed one lonely green drake fluttering up from the surface of the water. Since the dry/dropper strategy was not working, I clipped off the three flies and tied on a parachute green drake. Finally at the tail of a huge hole below a large boulder that created a massive drift log dam I managed to induce a small brown to inhale the big green drake. An afternoon skunking was prevented.

The top and middle of the huge deep pool failed to generate any interest despite quite a bit of casting so I moved on to a miniature version of the large pool. A smaller boulder jutted out from the bank and created a pool and trapped drift sticks between the bank and the boulder. Just above the stick dam a very nice riffle of intermediate depth flowed over a rocky bottom. The riffle was approximately twenty feet wide, and I began drifting the parachute green drake over this area starting with the shallow water on the left and gradually sprayed casts to the right. As the large dry fly drifted down the center of the riffle, a feisty fourteen inch brown rose and confidently sipped in the fake morsel. I fought the fish carefully to keep it out of the stick dam and eventually netted and photographed my best fish of the afternoon and day.

Nice Brown Trout Took Green Drake in Afternoon

My spirits soared as I felt confident that I had found the key to success on the lower Taylor on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately my enthusiasm was misplaced. As I played leapfrog with Danny, I began generating refusals to the green drake and started an endless series of fly changes in hopes of discovering the magic potion that would improve my fishing success. I began with a green drake comparadun, and that produced refusals similar to the parachute. Perhaps the shape was correct, but the fly was too large? Next I knotted a gray comparadun to my tippet, and it was completely ignored.

It was quite windy and some tiny blue winged olives began to tumble rapidly across the surface, but I elected to return to the Charlie Boy hopper, hares ear and salvation in hopes of replicating my success of the previous day. Alas it was a different day with different conditions, and 3PM quickly appeared on my watch. I probably should have tried a RS2 or soft hackle emerger when I spotted the wind blown BWO’s, but hindsight is always 20/20. I’ve experienced similar conditions on the Taylor River tailwater where I was unable to catch fish during decent hatches, but then enjoyed hot action after the emergence ended. The difference on Friday was that we needed to depart before this scenario could play out.

Danny Shows Flies Recovered from a Tree Branch

Fortunately Thursday was a solid day and the upper Taylor produced two hours of fun, so the frustration of Friday afternoon will fade in my memory banks. The campground was excellent, the scenery was a sensual delight, and Danny experienced new water. I was off to Olympic National Park and the adventures it might cast my way.