Made my first trip up to the Stilly for this year. I started fishing around 12:30 and it was overcast the entire time. It seems like it still may be a little early for Coho, so I didn't really know what to expect. When I got to my favorite spot near Blue Stilly Park I started off with a dark purple jig and proceeded to twitch my way down the pool until I eventually snagged into something and lost the jig. By that point I had begun to see quite a few small fish, very likely trout, jumping and swirling on the surface. I switched over to a copper size 3 Vibrax and continued working the pool. I may have gotten some hits on the Vibrax from the trout, but that is a pretty big lure for them. Eventually went to drifting gear and started with a size 1 50/50 Dick Nite. Almost immediately started getting some interest from the trout with that, hooking one and getting a few more bumps. Eventually got a solid hit and brought a nice Cutthroat, probably 11", to my feet. I figured I would take a quick picture, but with the barbless hooks and wanting to keep the fish wet it eventually spit the hook as I was trying to get my phone out.

Kept on fishing and eventually switched over to a chartreuse speckled, white backed, size 1 DN and had quite an entertaining strike with that setup. I know that fish will sometimes follow a lure right up to your feet before hitting it, but almost all of my hits for the day were when the gear was still out deep and quartering out. Well, on this particular retrieve I was watching the spoon come in ever so slowly, and it was just about right in front of me when I saw another Cutty materialize out of the murky water and smack the spoon. It was so surprising that I involuntarily twitched and it immediately shot around for a second pass. Once it had the spoon in its mouth again I set the hook, but ended up just pulling the spoon out and off the fish went. Very entertaining. Finally switched to a size 0 50/50 DN and got one more Cutthroat to my feet before switching back to a pink marabou twitching jig with a worm tail.

The Cutthroat were rising to these big brown flies (not sure what they were, but looked like maybe a woolly bugger, stimulator or carey special in brown/orange combos would work) most of the time that I was there. It was extremely entertaining to watch one of those big bugs come in for a landing on the water and become fish food within about 4 seconds. These weren't subtle takes either, most of the hits were clear out of the water. I really wish I would have brought my flies and trout gear, seeing as the Coho didn't seem to be around. I did see one bigger fish jump, maybe 14" or 15" long, that was very silvery and had more of the football salmon shape than the elongated trout shape. That was about it for potential salmon action though, and it could have just been a shiny Cutty or maybe a Dolly.

When the rains really hit I am hoping things will pick up for the Coho, nevertheless, a very entertaining day on the river.

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