Fished Rocky Ford Friday and Saturday with my wife Gail. Were
pleasantly surprised to see no other cars at either the north or middle
parking areas when we arrived Thursday evening, and that the water was
still at a moderate level, allowing good bank access to most of the
prime spots on both sides of the river.
Sight fishing conditions - the main draw at Rocky Ford for both of us -
were fairly decent Friday, with occassional moderate winds and mainly
clear skies allowing good visibility, at times 20-30' out into the stream.
Still, my lack of practice (my previous routine of 6-7 trips per year now
down to a trip every year or two) and 50 year old eyes definitely upping
the odds in the fish's favor. Managed 20+ fish on with only 5 to hand,
the majority of the lost fish pulling free after short runs or a couple of
head shakes or jumps. Most of the fish ran 17"-20" with an extremely
fat and active 23"er capping the day (did hook a couple of fish in the 24"-
25" range but was not able to land them). Gail also managed to land a
few in the same size range, but with a much better hooked to landed
ratio. Both of us fished primarily #16 Hares Ears (well weighted) finding
little interest in small scuds and larger Hares Ears. (Ditto, BTW, for
some small bead head Hares Ears. Great penetration and sink rate,
but the extra flash at the head seems to turn the fish off.)
Saturday was much slower, with nearly constant winds riffling the water
and cloud cover about 80% of the time. Managed two fish on my first
two casts and then slumped severely as the clouds and wind moved in,
landing only one more and loosing two before calling it a day at 6:30.
Slow day for Gail as well, with only a couple to hand and a couple more
lost.
Water quality conditions were surprisingly good, incidentally, with only
moderate algae and weed chunk blooms either Friday or Saturday
afternoons. Contrast this with conditions in years past where fishing
was essentially shut down each day by 1:00 or 3:00 PM by the dense
masses of brown and green algae and mats of macrophyte strands that
would float down from the upper stretch. Equally noteworthy though
was the almost complete lack of hatch activity, even in the lower pond
where nearly constant midday midge activity used to be a given.
Discussed both these observations with Terry Whitworth, an
entomologist from Tacoma, who fishes here essentially every weekend
in the spring (for you Rocky Ford regulars, he's the guy with the dog
who seems to have a fish on every time you see him) and he confirmed
that both the insect activity and algae blooms were way down this year.
Terry also noted that the fish seemed to be exceptionally well
conditioned this year; an observation he punctuated by immediately
catching and releasing a 22" fish that tipped his scales at 4.5 lbs!
Packed up and headed back Sunday, stopping by the Landmark Cafe in
Ephrata for a good old fashioned, stick to yer ribs (and arteries)
breakfast, before jumping into the Mother's Day I-90 traffic for the cruise
home.
-Wes
Wes Neuenschwander
Seattle, WA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
