Deckers

Flows have been super low in Deckers recently (45cfs), causing the fish to stack up in deep holes, sometimes under the ice. The way you handle that is to get to wherever you’re going to fish early and bust all the ice up and get it moving down stream and out of your hole. Then chill for an hour or two waiting for the slush ice to melt and move out.

After things clear up you can start fishing, which will be hit or miss depending on the water temperature, fishing pressure, and time of day.

Keep an eye out for fish that are moving around and actively feeding. You can tell if they’re feeding by watching their mouths. If they are opening and closing their mouths then cast to them if not then don’t. Another strategy is to search out the deep dark holes where you can’t see the bottom. Fish a #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs with either a #20 Hare’s Ear or a Rainbow Warrior if the water is off color, and add a #20-#24 Miracle Midge as a third fly with a 4x-6x fluoro leader and hang on.

I’ll adjust my weight and indicator before I change flies, and you want to make sure that you’re flies are getting down. If you aren’t getting hung up at least once out of every 10 drifts then you need to either add more weight or set your indicator closer to you fly line.

Other flies to try are #20-24 Black Beauty, Zebra Midge, and Top Secret Midge along with egg patterns. I hammered fish with a 8mm orange trout bead followed by a #14 Tiemco 2488h that had been debarbed and had great luck, but you can substitute either yarn or Otter’s Egg Patterns as well.