Little Yellow Stoneflies

Last Wednesday was a perfectly cloudy day except for the wind. Geremy had joined me on this trip to the Weber. Making our way to the river we noticed the water was quite high and off color. This would make the fishing difficult. I have noticed that right after the water level fluctuates; the fish go off the feed. They are trying to get re-oriented, finding new places to protect themselves from the current and hide. Never the less we gave it our best. We started out with caddis imitations since that is what worked great last week. Within a half hour we landed our first fish, a huge white fish. With the high water there was a lot of debris. I got snagged on the bottom in the deep fast water and lost my entire terminal tackle. Oh well, this gave me a chance to re-rig with something to match the high, murky water, a San Juan Worm and a large pink scud. I caught a white fish on the pink scud and hooked a large brown that got off right after a spectacular jump.

While the fishing was slow, Geremy mentioned that one of the workers at Sportsman’s Warehouse said that yellow stoneflies were working well on the Weber. I remembered seeing these stoneflies last spring but that the insects mostly went unnoticed because of the run off. We excitedly tied on some yellow stonefly nymphs. Sure enough, two casts later we landed our first Brown. Great call Geremy! After this, I tied on a second yellow stone fly. In the next hour we landed several more whitefish. Another large brown was lost as it jumped right after hookup.

Crossing the Weber River is usually easy. During runoff however, it takes a bit more balance. You have to pick your spots carefully. During the runoff is when chest high waders come in particularly handy. During the summer hip waters or waist high waters are more comfortable because of the heat. During the winter chest high waders are nice for the warmth. During runoff, chest high waders are needed because of the depth of water.