January 1, 2003 Lower Stanislaus

Time: 9:30 – 3:00pm
Weather: Sunny and cold
Water Temps: 46
Water Level: 370 cfs
Water Conditions: Clear.
Insects Observed: Midges- Grey Olive, small BWO mayflies (size 20)- Hours fished: ~5.5
# of fish caught: ~20 (don’t remember really)
Method: short line nymphing,

Set Up: 8’1” Sage LL 4wt. Fished with Cortland deep nymphing level line. 4ft Braided leader with ~3ft 5x Florocarbon to first fly, 12” of 6x to second.

Narrative:

Another New Year. I fished the Stan later than usual, didn’t get there until about 9am. The river was crowded with easily a dozen cars along the road as I drove up. Already dressed I headed to the rock pile. I knew it would be occupied but my main interest this trip was to start my field study.

I’ve decided this year to keep meticulous notes on my fishing and this includes a detailed look at the flies that live in the Stan. My plan is to fish the Stan every two or 3 weeks and take note of flies, water temps, hatch times, etc..

Fishing was good considering the crowds and I was able to find some water to myself. The section from the cable hole to the burping rock looked like a Steelhead or Salmon run, with anglers every 20 or 30 feet up the bank.

I made 4 seine samples. One at the rock pile (1), one between dead man’s run and the cable hole (2), one at the cable hole (3) and one in the run below the big pool (4). My findings were as follows:

Water temps ranged from 46 at the dam in the morning to 48 at the big pool in the afternoon. The prevalent insects at sites 1-3 were size 18 midge pupa. These midges were larger than I expected and the predominant feature was that they seemed to have gills at the posterior region. Next in line at sites 2 and 3 were beatis nymphs, size 20 –22. The dominant features of these were there dark wing pads. These were taken in early afternoon and the dark wings signify that they were preparing to hatch. Their bodies where a lightish shade of yellow/olive; this was overshadowed by the wing pads. A few large caddis, size 12, were also found.

Caddis was the most prevalent insect at site 4. Hydophsyche to be exact, from size 16 to 12. Most of my fish in this section were taken on size 12 Czech Nymphs. I’ve tied up some experimental flies to match these and will give them a try the weekend of the 18th.

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