Owyhee River

Managed to sneek away to the Owyhee with fellow business partner Justin Wells during the week. Not sure what I did to make the wife so satisfied but 4 days on the water out of 7 days must say something. Thanks Sweetheart!! Anyway it was a blue bird day with some moderately windy conditions. With that said it kept the fish down a little more than I expected. There were some fish working the the surface more towards the end of the day. Picked a couple off on midges right before we called it a day. The majority of the day was spent ripping meat through the water. All in all it fished well.

So it's been about a month since I have made it out to the Owyhee but I had a few friends go over recently and I thought I would pass along the info. Due to the nice weather we have been having the river is ice free. This is nice being that a month ago it was almost choked out. On sunny days you will want to look for fish up on midges. This will make up the majority of your top water action. We are knocking of the door of  skawala stones showing up. Most people will find success nymphing your standard set ups. Pheasant tails, caddis, haresears, and midge patterns.

Took a trip to the river with good friend Ryan Hoover to try and tighten up on a few browns. They fishing was pretty slow all in all. We came up on a handful of fish working the surface on midges. Problem is that the river is pretty choked up with ice. Most of the deeper water is froze over and the water that isn't is mainly the shallows and riffles which contain most of the redds. There is some fishable water but you have to search it out. We stuck with throwing streamers all day. Black leech patterns was our fair for the day.

I love winter. Not because I particularly like the cold. Because the vast majority of the people who fly fish don't like the cold. Or a least don't like to fish in it. Which takes me to the reason I love winter. The river is all yours, for the most part. I spent a day on the river a few days back and even though the conditions were horrible, cold and windy, the fish were happy. I fished a few of my favorite slow water sections ( I stay away from the shallows this time of the year with all the sex crazy male browns swimming around and grumpy new momma browns doing there thing).

Let's start with it spawning season for the browns. So if you don't know what redds are stay out of the riffles. If you do use commen sense and let the fish flirt.

Bwo's and midges are the surface game. Make sure you have a good selection of emergers, cripples, and adult patterns. You can nymph hairsears, pheasant tails, caddis, and zebra midges. Typically size 16-22.