Cutthroat Fishing 09

[mkonnert]

I'm curious if others have had the same experience I have had this year. I have found the cutthroat fishing to be much more difficult than in past years. In all my favourite spots, Livingstone, Oldman, etc. I have had far fewer fish and had to work harder for them. I'm by no means an expert (I get out 10 or 12 times a year if I'm lucky), but I could always count on gullible cutties taking a dry fly.

 

If anyone else has noticed this, what might the reasons be? Smarter fish (although could they learn that much in a year?), water conditions (no real runoff this year), other ideas?

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

[darrinhurst]

Although I'm no expert either, and that I've only been cutty fishing twice (once last year and once this year) I have no idea. lol

 

I do know that the fishing last year, I saw more cutties rising than I did this year. Last year it was a cloudy, cold day. This year it was a warm and sunny day. One of the nicest I've had on a river, but last year we found more risers on the Oldman than I did on the Liv this year.

 

My gut feeling would say water conditions. No real run off to speak of, but lots of rain to muddy the water. Over all, pretty hard to put my finger on it.

[Swede]

Thats a really good question Mark. I don't fish the southern waters, except the bow. But one of my fav's is the North Ram and it did seem a lot harder to fool the cuttys out there than I can remember. Plus the numbers and size are way down off the scale from what I am used to. But to be fair up till last year I hadn't fished Alberta waters for a good 12 years. I haven't had a lot of time to explore the ram to much and its totally changed with many new channels, most of the pools I fished are high and dry now. But some pools and runs are still the same and I could only get a few cuttys out of those spots. When in the past I could have stayed there and caught fish till my arm got sore. But without a doubt they sure seem harder to fool though.

[Taco]

Picky fish this yr but average size is bigger, even the fish in places with zero footprints are damn picky about what dries they're gonna go for and generally you get only one shot to get it right, that said been slaying some bigguns with soft hacks. Screwed up yr fer sure, caught a spawned out black boot cutty last week, tad late in the yr.

[trailhead]

I have noticed the same thing, my guess is that the water levels are higher and the temps are colder. The only place where it has been the same as in years past is the Castle. There the water levels are normal and the temps a bit cooler than what I have seen before.

[reevesr1]

Fished my favorite little stream yesterday with my son. This time of year it is usually full of cutties, among other things. We fished for 5 hrs or so, and did not see a single fish rise. 2 cutties caught. There is no chance on this body of water that this is due to fishing pressure. As is always the case, we were the only one's there.

 

Water level was reasonable for this time of year, and if anything clarity was better than normal. Temp was definately down from what i would expect. Waded wet, and it was pretty damn cold.

 

Still great to get out with my son, but I sure wish I could have got him on more fish. Strange.

[Swede]

What was the temp Rick? When I was out on the Ram in the morning it was about 48 F and by the afternoon it was up around 53 to 54 which you would think is about perfect.

[Conor]

I'd guess it was the snow pack this winter. The Castle range was the the closest to normal, and the Highwood etc were low. Someone mentioned that the Castle was the only one fishing normally.

 

Maybe snowpack and the way it melts effects bug life somehow? Has anybody seen a good hatch up there yet?

 

My gut says it is pressure, pressure, pressure, though.

[Giddster]

I don't know if it's a combination of fishing pressure, water conditions, food source, etc... I do know that I've had to work hard in those same streams using only small presentations but the fish I've been catching have been consistently bigger then those in previous years. The number of fish/day is probably the same though. I actually was wondering about the condition of the smaller cutties, as they haven't been as active or noticeable for me.

[trailhead]

I don't think it's pressure. The Castle has been fishing well, and the Highwood was fishing well until we got all this cold rain in August. Where I fish the Highwood it doesn't get much pressure, earlier in the summer I got a 16 inch cutt on my first cast on a stimmie. Then followed it up with 10 others of various sizes, all on the dry, in about 4 hours. Water temp was 14 C to start the day and ended up at 16 C in the afternoon. That was when everyone was crying about high temps and low water levels and the fish were all going to die etc. So I went back at the end of August water temp was 7 C to start and ended at 11 C. I had to go through my fly box and watch the sipping fish to figure what to use. Ended up with 3 fish for the whole 8 hours. Meanwhile we went to the Castle on a Sunday, in the middle of the random camping mess. Got a 14 inch cutt on my first cast on a stimmie, and got a newbie into his first fish on a flyrod, after he lost 3 others all in a row. At a piece of water covered in footprints with the usual mess of beer cans and cigarette packages. We fished for about one hour, because my wife and his mom wanted to head home. In my mind cold, high water = low insect hatch numbers = slower fish metabolism = lower catch rates.

[reevesr1]

What was the temp Rick? When I was out on the Ram in the morning it was about 48 F and by the afternoon it was up around 53 to 54 which you would think is about perfect.

Don't know, as I never remember to bring a thermometer. But after all the warm weather, and lowish water levels, I did not expect to say "damn, that's cold!"

 

Wish my answer was a bit more quantitative!

 

 

[BBBrownie]

Early July was amazing on the dry for me, then things got downright terrible from mid july until late august. In my mind, dry fly or occasional streamers are the only way I enjoy cutties, by last week I was begining to wonder if I should be changing my ways. Then yesterday happened and the dry action was amazing on my favorite little secret cutt stream. Fish taking asolutely everything that floated over them in the middle of a great BWO hatch, and a minor green drake hatch. Reaffirmed my faith in cutties!

[fishfreak]

I'm not a pro, but here are my thoughts:

 

Before the heavy July rain, I thought the cutty fishing was normal. The water temps were great (wet wading with no excruciating pain to the feet), bugs were hatching, and lots of fish to be had on the dry.

 

After the July rain, I found that fish were harder to come by. I'm blaming the higher water flows and lower temps for this, as it seemed that the fishing were rising a little later (when the water wasn't as cold, ie. my feet didn't feel like they were going to fall off). I waited until there was a good week of warm weather before I returned to the cutty streams and was rewarded with some decent fishing days, but not as much surface action. I would say I've only been catching about 50% of my fish on the dry (and the rest on the dropper), when usually it would be 60-80% on the dry.

 

I've found that rivers like the Liv have been getting a little tougher to fish on the dry since I've started fishing there in 2001. I remember in 2001/2002 sitting on a certain hole that held over 150 fish, and catching 50 fish between the 3 of us in a couple of hours. Over the last 8 years, the productivity of that hole has diminished as the fish have gotten bigger (and probably smarter). This year, I didn't get any in that pool, but landed a few nice ones in the faster water above it. My fish count has decreased, but the average fish size has increased. 16+ inchers were tough to find back then, but now I usually get some 18+ inchers (and sometimes 20+") in a typical day.

 

I used to get away with fishing a green drake most of the day in mid-July, catching 20-30 fish with the one fly. Now, I need to switch up my flies a lot more and go smaller. Also

 

Overall, I would say this has been a good year for cutty fishing for me, but not as many on the dry. Every year I'm working a little harder to catch them, but have been rewarded with bigger fish on the average over the 8 years I've been hitting the cutty streams.

 

Just my observations...

 

 

[cheeler]

I've only been out to the Liv a few times this year, and all after the heavy rains we had. The only dries I could take them on were no bigger than 16, as everything else passed over a pool full of fish without even a look. It probably has a bit to do with pressure, but I've also always seen a few fish feeding hard on the bottom, and nymphing has been successful. Could it be that during some of the major hatches it wasn't worth the effort to fight the cold/high water when the fish could feed much more easily on the food washed down? I'll be going out to the castle system the week of the 14th; I'll be sure to do more experimentation on streams that don't see as much traffic. Hopefully the october caddis get the fish interested in big dries by then.

[trailhead]

Hopefully the october caddis get the fish interested in big dries by then.

Shouldn't be a problem, unless the weather doesn't co-operate. Two weeks ago they were hammering size 12 stimmies.

[fishfreak]

This run of warm weather should have them looking up, especially this weekend. Too bad I'm out of town.

[adams]

Wow, glad to see this thread as I was starting to think it was just me:) I had the exact same experiences and observations last week on all the cutty streams. Had to work hard to get 10 - 12 fish/day and only a couple were on dries all week, rest all on nymphs (even in the middle of the day and evenings). Also noticed the water wasn't it's usual aqua/emerald green... was more of a grey/brown (except in the deepest holes) although it didn't appear to be high to me. Lots of prime spots appeared void of fish, and when I did find rising cutts, they would ignore anything large, and when they did take a look they never came back for a re-look.

 

First time I'd seen this behaviour in cutts.

 

Adams

[Pipestoneflyguy]

Up here in the park I have definately made some general non-scientific observations - I only have 10-12 days in the foothills (Rams etc etc) so I can't speak to that area but in the mountains, lee of the divide, this is what I have observed this season.

 

Moving Water - typical patterns in weather in my past 15 years here have generally moved in a loose cycle of a couple sunny days followed by a couple rainy days - I noticed the lack of any repetitive cycle this year (much like 2003, just not so sustained on the hot and sunny side) - I notice two effects as a result which have affected my surface action with cutties, 1) I am having a harder time predicting hatches and being at the right place at the right time, and 2) much more run-off days this year due to longer sunny cycles, especially in August. Evening fishing on the Bow between Lake Louise and the headwaters, which has traditionally been my staple afterwork excursion, has been downright poopy - (due to the river being the colour of poop) When the Bow, Pipestone and for that matter most of the east and west slope moving waters I fish in the area have been clear, the fishing has been average to better relative to the quantitiy of good clearwater surface days available. No observed change in cuttie behaviour that I noticed - morning fishing, when the water has been clear, has been normal. less days fishing the surface means less fish taken on the surface, haven't noticed anything more signifigant than that

 

On Alpine lakes - same problems with predicting hatches. In terms of behavior, on a number of small lakes I have seen a big drop in the late season cuttie strategy of rolling of flies - this has made the hook-ups easier so I'm not complaining but I couldn't guess why this is - certainly not a lack of pressure as I see growing evidence of more fishing at many of my usual alpine haunts.

[fisher26]

I'll probably be chastised for saying it, but increased fishing pressure on the Oldman/Livingstone is probably the culprit.

 

That being said fishing is variable and you could have just been unlucky this year...

(Although I've noticed the same thing)

[loviatt]

I echo the poop sentiment of the cuttie season this year - one thing that i didn't notice that i have seen in years past is the sporadic mid-summer stonefly adult. I saw lots at the start of july, then virtually none mid-summer. Most years past, i'd see a few stragglers mid-July and even into august. I don't think pressure from other anglers was a big player - we've all probably had times where an angler leaves a spot and we are in to fish soon after they're gone. I think a lot of the bug life got generally screwed up by the erratic summer weather (just a guess here, no objective evidence to back that one up). Fish are above all else, opportunists, and will eat whatever they can reliably get. just my $0.02

[reevesr1]

I'll probably be chastised for saying it, but increased fishing pressure on the Oldman/Livingstone is probably the culprit.

 

That being said fishing is variable and you could have just been unlucky this year...

(Although I've noticed the same thing)

The funny part is that my best cuttie fishing this year was on the Livingstone. my other trips have been on creeks much less frequented.

 

I certainly believe angling pressure has a part to play, but the drop in fishing and the variance in behavior this year has been dramatic. Fishing pressure has been on the rise for yrs. Why would it suddenly cause such a change? And why would the change be just as dramatic on waters with very little pressure?

 

Hope that doesnt sound like a flame, because it certainly want meant to be one.

[Pipestoneflyguy]

Hmmm leaves me wondering if the fish changing behaviour is the cause, or it the fisherman's inability to adapt causes the problem - kinda chicken vs the egg type deal eh.

 

I think Rick makes a great point re: pressure

[trailhead]

My take on it is water temp and levels. Really messed up this year for most of the summer. On the long weekend on the Crow I saw great big orange colored stones, not October caddis because I caught one, about an inch long dive bombing the water and laying eggs. But the fish weren't biting.

If anyone hits the Castle this weekend let us know how it goes.