I was on the river Saturday and Sunday and it is fishing very well. Good numbers of fish, with a big, fat brown on Saturday that measured around 20-21". I raised another big brown (probably about 5-6 lbs) on a clouser late in the day, but it just charged the fly several times without hitting. Most of our fish came on standard nymphing techniques, with pheasant tails, princes, and generic small mayfly larva imitations.
The sluicing from last year must have gotten good results - the bug life in the river is about as good as I ever remember seeing. There are scuds everywhere and more mayflies than I have seen in a long time. On the other hand, I haven't seen many caddis - maybe that will pick up as the year progresses. Now if the Corps can get the minimum flow issues worked out so the gravel bars don't all go dry at low water, the fishery in the Caney may really take off.
Incidentally, we also caught the biggest creek chub I have ever seen on Sunday. It was the size of a small stocker trout. One for the record books...
Also in the "other species" department, the white bass run on the Caney is in full swing, and you can catch a bunch of them in the slow water parts of the deep pools on clousers (for the fly fishermen) or roostertails and super-duper spoons (for the spinfishermen).
bd
