This river is on fire right now. Anyone whose fished the Q since our recent rain event I'm sure has seen as stellar action as I have. I fished it yesterday evening until dark. I can't say it enough, 100 CFS is the perfect flow for this river, especially for the spot I frequent (if you've read this in the past you know where that is). I hit all the usual pools, runs, and riffles and ALL of them had fish. Rainbows and Browns 12-16 inches. The setup of the day was a Chartreuse-headed wooly bugger with a caddis pupa trailer slightly weighted. Fish were hitting both flies, the caddis usually on the drift and the bugger on the swing. The beastly brown pictured above smashed the pupa on a swing - he came out from underneath the tree you see in the water in the picture below. Speaking of, the rain changed this river, not as much as Sandy and Irene did, but you can see the new piles of sticks/brush downstream of where I fished. Anyways, I fished from "the wall" to "the pump." Caught fish all the way down - easily 20 fish. I even got a double - a 6" brookie took the caddis pupa on the drift and just before I set the hook, a 12" rainbow hit the bugger. The brookie came off at my feet before I netted them. I ended the night with an elk hair caddis on the 3-weight. Caught 5 more on the dry, all rainbows. Caddis were everywhere and there were some light yellow mayflies coming off as well.
-NC
Taking your advice, headed down to the Quinnie yesterday - great wading in the 60-something water with the 90+ air temps. Saw one other (fly) fisherman in the stretch from 190 down - the worm dunkers were nowhere to be seen. Was slow until I figured out that they wanted a pheasant tail and were taking it on the swing. About a dozen fish to hand and as many lost - one of the "long distance release" was a huge holdover bow must have gone 18-20". Got 3 wild brookies, but the prize of the day was a 10" stream-born wild brown. A great day out, and with the lack of pressure from the hook and cook crowd the fish should continue to spread out and acclimate.
ReplyDeletewow i havent seen a wild brown outta the quinnie in awhile, congrats sounds like a gem. ive been having luck with the olive bugger on the swing
ReplyDeleteMike, great to hear! Don't be too sure that the monster you lost was a holdover - they've been putting BIG fish in this river that past two years. A trustful source told me he saw a kid catch a freshly stocked 22" brown out of the cable pool... best part is Mr. Brown was safely released.
ReplyDeleteRe: native fish in this stream, in the past few weeks I have been catching some extremely small and colorful trout, both browns and rainbows. In showing some pics to a friend in the conservation business, he asked me if they were natives. Now it is possible that the state would stock 6-10 inch fish in the quinnie, but I would not doubt that both browns and rainbows are reproducing in this stream, especially near the well covered, cold-water 190 stretch where I caught mine. Unfortunately, these fish will most likely not make it past 12-14 inches, and most will not last the summer with the lack of "growth days" which are affected by low flows and warm water.
-NC
NC,
ReplyDeleteI've been fishing most of my life and recently started fly fishing. My wife and I took a drive to the Quinnie on Saturday and walked a bit of it and we're impressed with the beauty of it. I would love to learn how to fish it. If you ever want a partner some weekend just say the word (lunch / beers on me). I'm a novice at fly fishing but have had some luck this year in Ashville NC with my son.
Anyway love the blog please keep up the great job!
All the best
Matt
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! I'd be happy to meet you out there. I am going to try to head there tonight, but I'm not sure if I will make it or not. Best bet would be to shoot me an email and we can coordinate. I think my email is found on the blog page...
-NC