The pre-spawn exploratory

Over the years, fall has by far become my favorite time of the year to fish and a central component of that is the salmon spawn. For trout, salmon arrive at the perfect time, providing a critical energy rich food supply - salmon eggs are about 3 times as energy rich as aquatic insects -  just before the lean winter months arrive. This wealth of food often attracts migratory trout from far and wide and when timed right makes for the best fishing of the year. Generally I find that Labor Day kicks off the season, but every river is a little different and sometimes it pays to get in early while the trout are hungry and still anticipating the incoming salmon run.

It was this thinking, as well as a desire to see how the river had changed after the high flows of winter that led myself and Dyllon to hope in the car and head for the water on a stormy mid-August afternoon.

Low water and stormy weather

We arrived to the sound of thunder in the distance, but luckily found ourselves in a pocket of decent weather between storm fronts, and were met with are river starved of water after a summer with barely a drop of rain. However, that did not deter us and as it is always interesting to see all of the changes to a river that you know well. 

The river we were fishing can be quite dynamic and we were immediately struck by the changes, with the first two previously decent holes we came to being completely filled in and the next one upstream having changed for the worse, being much shallower and the riffle at the top being far less pronounced then last season. However, it was here that we got our first look at a trout for the day, as a what we suspect was a 14" Cutthroat darted out to investigate Dyllon's presentation before deciding it wasn't too its liking and disappearing again. As we continued on, almost every change we saw was a disappointment, with a tree down in one of our favorite riffles, and another across a confluence hole causing most of the hole which had been my favorite spot the previous season to fill in. While I did manage to briefly hook an ~16" Rainbow at the confluence hole, we found holding spots to be few and far between this year and with this stretch a shadow of its former self we decided to move on and try another spot.

This next spot was quite a mixed bag, a few holes and riffles looked just as good or slightly better then they had last year, while again one of my favorite spots was nowhere near as good as it had been during previous seasons. So with the first 1/2 mile of water we covered it seemingly lifeless and having changed for the slightly for worse, we were starting to debate whether we should continue on when we finally spotted a lone female Chinook starting to dig a redd in a tailout.

First redd of the year, a lone female Chinook starting to dig

There just happened to be a good riffle and log jam just downstream of the redd and it seemed that the trout were already there looking for eggs as Dyllon caught several small Rainbows, before hooking into a beautiful 13" leopard spotted native.

Dyllon's gorgeous native Rainbow

After the bite slowed down at this spot, we moved further upstream and while we didn't see anymore spawners, it seems like the trout were already keyed in on eggs as Dyllon immediately hooked into another albeit smaller Rainbow in the next riffle upstream.

Vine maples showing the first signs of fall over some good holding water

It was my turn next and just downstream of where Dyllon got his fish, I got a good take and a few moments later had a decent native Rainbow to hand. While it had gorgeous coloration and spotting, I briefly thought that it was a hatchery fish as it had some major fin wear, but on closer inspection, the fish just looked to be battle scarred, with a part of its dorsal missing 

My battle scarred Rainbow

Just as the fishing seemed to be picking up, the stormy weather that had surrounding us finally broke and the sound of thunder kept getting closer and closer providing as clear of a signal as any that it was time to get off the river.

Getting off the river with thunder clouds hot on our heels

We made record timing getting back to the car, and it was a good thing too as just a couple minutes down the road we ran into a major storm cell with torrential rain that made it near impossible to see. However, despite being pushed off the river in a hurry and the downgrade in some of the habitat, it was great to see some fish around and know that the spawn is just around the corner.