First I need to clarify what I mean by a new season. NV fishing licenses run march 1 through the last day of February. This is my first trip on my new license, not 2009. The few trips I have made this year have all been winter fishing trips more about solitude and freezing my ass off, then about catching fish.
Today was a beautiful pre-spring day. Temps on the EW were in the mid-60’s, slightly overcast, little to no wind, and a flows that have been steady for several days. The reports trickling in from friends fishing the EW have all been good. The downside was that every angler much have been suffering from the fishing jones as there were cars and fishermen at every corner – it was pretty crowded for this section of the river. I could only guess at how crowded the Miracle Mile section would be if the ranch was this pressured.
I drove past the first 3 likely parking spots as they were all stuffed with cars. I decided to drive down to Red Wash and was the second car there…rats! No matter. I suited up and headed toward the fence that demarks the special regs from the put and take sections. I will admit that I almost never fish this section, always going in the opposite direction (as does everyone else when they start at Red Wash) and I am happy to say that I discovered some new water that will get more attention from me this spring and fall. In fact, one of my found spots produced the only two fish that I caught the entire day.
Yup…you read that right…only two fish. And I had such high expectations because I have been hearing about “20 fish days” and “fish on every other cast” stories all week. I tried a handful of flies, but the one that got the job done was an olive streamer that I call the green goblin. Pretty sure that is not this fly’s official name, but it’s what I call it. It is an evil fly that has caught some of my biggest fish.
I did fish all the way up river to my usual favorite spots. I only saw one of the three people that were in the other car, so we were all spaced out pretty well. Back at the parking area, the other crew was getting ready to split, but the word from them was that they had a tough day as well with a total of 4 fish netted between 3 angles.
Make no bones about it though, it is time to start fishing and I will start hitting the water with some frequency before spring runoff starts.