30 Fish in a Mile: North Fork Fly Fishing Report.

Fishing report for North Fork of The White. Jan 15-16 00 Ann Dropped Tom (Schrader, a good buddy) and myself off at 11am Saturday morning at Kelly Ford. AM temperature was mild and the high was 65 deg. for the afternoon.
First riffle we landed about 8 fish on #4 stone fly trailed w/ a #16 Prince nymph. I prefer to fish this rig in the riffles as well as seams. Tom and I have found that concentrating most of our time at the faster moving water tends to produce bigger fish, but at the same time a lower number of fish landed. However this weekend was altogether different due to the rise in temp.	Ryan at Kelly Ford with a brown.
In the first mile and a half we landed 30 fish between us. 25 bows and the remaining 5 were browns. On Saturday the biggest fish landed was a 17" bow that put up a great aerial show and was not at all happy about this big hook in her lower jaw. Tom and myself make sure that we handle the fish as little as possible so that we don’t damage the protective film that is so crucial for the survival of the fish.	Tom with a rainbow trout.
I continued to fish a 2 fly system and actually never even changed flies at all. Tom however had to, due to the fact that a very big brown broke his line. I would enlighten you with the fly he hooked this big fella on, but I have not yet found a bug or dead animal that would resemble Tom’s unique style of fly tying. We both agree that a perfect dead drift when nymphing is more relative then the actual cosmetics of the fly. Like I said earlier, fishing all seams throughout the Wild Trout Management Area (WTMA) stretch has proved to be very productive. Our day ended at Myron’s house due to the fact that we spent so much time in that little stretch of water catching fish. Myron had some guests that were staying in the fisherman’s room where we were going to stay, so Ann kindly moved us to a lodge called the Chalet. This place is for kings, and Tom and I are not. The Chalet can sleep an easy 10 people and have plenty of room to set up a fly tying shop. The Chalet has a glass door stove that warms this giant place up in a hurry. Oh, I forgot to mention that the wood is already cut by the workhorse himself, Myron. 30 fish in a mile and a half float, A castle to sleep in, an absolutely beautiful setting on a trout stream and the kindest hosts you could ever dream of. I am kicking myself to make sure that I am not dreaming. The real kicker is that we have one more day of fishing left. Sunday the 16 th. [Lower WTMA] This stretch of water is a little more complicated. The stretch I am referring to is below The Falls and above Blair Bridge. The riffle after The Falls generally produces a good number of fish, but I got shut out and Tom pulled out 2 fish no larger than 12". The rest of water has treated us exceptionally well today due to the front that moved in yesterday. It is 60 deg. w/ a slight overcast and the wind is out of the South.
Fishing the 2 fly system that I stated earlier is still a good choice in fly selection. I can’t stress enough to fish what patterns you are used to, or patterns you’re familiar with. This will improve your presentation and this is key for fly fishing.	A rainbow trout caught by Ryan.
In this section of water there are more riffles and a lot deeper holes so it is crucial to fish everything thorough. Today has been a day for brown Trout. I used a dead drift presentation just above a large boulder that Tom fished just minutes before me and landed 2, 16" browns, back to back. This irritated Tom.	Another "bow" caught by Tom.
One of the two browns had a bottom lip that did not meet up with his top lip. He seemed to be able to feed fine so I put him back. At the next set of rapids we both caught fish and both had big fish on but did not land them. I had a BIG bow on that jumped out of the water twice, her stripe was huge, so yep I decided to tell my story of the big one getting away. So this is were I have to end my report, but not my fascination with this intense trout stream.
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