I am pleased to report that plenty of trout survived the flood of Aug. 2010. Last night on an evening outing she gave up a number of fish from 4″ to 14″.Water clarity and levels were perfect. Bloody Prince Nymph/flashback pheasant tail combination was all you needed to catch fish.
The humidity was high as I made my trek into the lower Kinni last night. I checked the water level and clarity at F bridge just to make sure I was not disappointed before making a long hike into the middle of the lower river. At F bridge I found various Items stuck in trees, bushes and matted down vegetation. I found pieces of old dinner plates and a exploded television, beer cans and a “For Sale by Owner” sign perched perfectly on top of a plastic chair. How much would you pay? These Items were left there by the high water that swept through the valley just a week ago.
The water on the Kinni is in great shape. There is almost a glacial tint to the water and the rocks are scoured clean. Weeds! What weeds? I nymphed all evening and never fouled my hook with weeds. There seems to be a bit of extra flow and the water seems deeper. Flows are steady at about 100cfs so that would make sense.
The bank vegetation is matted for now and will definitely make walking easier for the near future.
The bugs, I am not sure about the bugs. There were no bugs in the air last night except a few gnats and mosquitoes. My guess is that the scouring of the river decreased the bug population for now. I think the fish will be more likely to swipe at our artificial imitations since there is less in the river to eat. That is just a guess. Trout fishing is rarely easy. The takes last night were all over the board. Some aggressive, some very subtle. I was fishing a #10 Tung Head Bloody Prince to get down in the fast water and trailing a #20 flashback P. tail. I only targeted the fast water. When the water flattened out, I got a few hits on my strike indicator. They probably would have taken dries if I would have changed patterns.
Good Luck!
On a side note: Volunteers needed for work on Hay Creek this Saturday, August 21st! Work will begin 9:30am and will include seeding and mulching. Please let Michelle at michelle@twincitiestu.org know if you can make it out.
Thank you,
TCTU
Can anyone tell me what this is? It almost glowed in the darkness as I walked out last night? It was startling in the darkness.
9 users commented in " Kinni Clean! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHey Andy. Glad to see you’re back to rocking and rolling. The side of the creek does look a bit trashed (little play on words from what you found), but floods will do that. Can’t help you with the tree fungus.
Mark
Laetiporus?
“chicken of the woods”
The orange shelf fungus is called “Chicken of the Woods” and it’s supposedly edible.
I think they’re sulfur/chicken of the woods mushrooms but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.
http://leslieland.com/2009/09/hunting-laetiporus-sulphureus-the-sulfur-shelf-or-chicken-mushroom/
While I am not an expert, the last photo would appear to be that of Chicken-of-the-Woods mushroom. If it is, it typically grows in hardwood forests, especially oaks.
Wow
Great job on the ID! Although I have not eaten this shelf mushroom, they say the taste after cooking is excellent if they are fresh and young. Older specimens can be slightly indigestible, ouch!
Coming from Montana, this is the wierdest flood seasson I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve been fly fishing since the 1980s and just witnesing the volume of rain alone in the Driftless region is just astounding!
Hi Andy, et.al.
As a fly fisher, mycologist, and author of the article on Sulfur Shelf Mushrooms cited above let me confirm the identity of the mushroom pictured above as Laetiporus (Polyporus) sulphureus.For most people it is edible, though some folks seem to have sensitivity to it, especially from some trees.
If this sounds fishy, allow me to venture a comparison, possible familiar to others who have Bonefished in the Bahamas: On the Island of Eleuthra I was told never to eat a Barracuda caught on one side of the Island (and I have by now forgotten which)as they were often tainted with a toxic which caused deafness and blindness. The families living around Rock Sound where I stayed would eat Bonefish caught anywhere but assiduously avoided eating any Barracuda since the fish can swim around.
Fortunately, the mushroom growing on a tree can’t.
The usual advice I see in the literature is to avoid Sulfur Shelfs growing on Spruce, Locust, Yew, and Eucalyptus, to test your sensitivity by eating for the first time only a small bit, well cooked, without alcohol. It is best when quite young, even before the shelves flatten out.
Tender at this stage, it later grows tough, woody, and indigestible. But it will come back to the tree a few times a year, for years.
The place it serves in nature is to reduce the wood to a brown mass, releasing the carbon (as CO2) stored in the cellulose and leaving behind the lignin which will help to build new soil from the remains of the tree.
Nice blog you got going here. Lots of luck for the fall hatches.
On my home stream, the Esopus in the Catskills it is Isonychia that usually produces the best fishing for Rainbows: along the coast, from Maine to New Jersey it is Baby Bunker, Bay Anchovies, and Sand Eels for Stripers.
Bill
Thanks for the great input. Not sure how you found me but happy you did.
andy
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