North Fork Clearwater River, ID

Fourth of July Creek; downstream to Bungalow

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Outing Information

Date
Start/End Time
12:00pm to 6:00pm
Best Fishing Time
-
Rating
Fair
Classification
Public
Water Temp
-
Water Clarity
Slightly Stained - 3' to 5' visibility
Water Level
-
User
Jason Hansen

Fish Caught

Cutthroat Trout

Caught Avg Size Pattern Optional Fields
10 12" #10 Orange Stimulator
5 12" #16 Yellow Foamy Notable Fish: 14"
15 12"
Total: 15 fish Top Patterns: Stimulator (10) Foamy (5)

Weather

SkiesMorningAfternoonEvening
Cloudy X X
Precipitation
None X
Rain - Light X X
Rain - Heavy X
Wind
None X X
Air Temp High/Low
55.0°F / 40.0°F
Wind Direction
-
Weather Front
-
Barometer
-
Moon Phase
24% Full (Waning crescent)

Other Patterns Tried

No other pattern information for this outing.

Hatches

No hatch information for this outing.

Insect Seining

No seining information for this outing.

Fishing Partners

No fishing partners were saved with this outing.

Waypoints

No waypoints were saved with this outing.

Notes

It rained all Thursday night and was raining Friday morning. I got a late start because I was waiting for the rain to subside (it didn't). I headed up 4th of July creek around 1pm and waded/fished probably 1.5 miles up it. The creek is pretty small and there aren't any decent holes like there are on Skull creek. Looking back at the Topo, I should have hiked up Weitas creek instead. I caught a few fish on the Stimulator but nothing of any size. I fished my way back down from 4th of July creek to camp from 3:30pm to dark. There were significantly fewer caddis and mayflies out thanks to the constant rain. I had great success at one hole around 4-5pm where I was getting lots of rises in 1-3' deep riffly water. My large fish from that hole was a 14" cutthroat caught on a #16 humpy or adams as the trailer behind the Stimulator. I made it back to Bungalow about an hour before dark and it stopped raining for that last hour of daylight. I fished Bungalow from the bridge up to just above the rapids. I caught 9 fish and had 24 rises in that time. That same ratio held true during the days, too - I was getting lots of splashes to the Stimulator but not nearly as many hookups. I believe the fish like to rise over the top of the fly and drown it, then perhaps circle back and eat it. I need to work on determining from the rise whether the trout took it in their mouth or just drenched the fly. If they only drenched it, I could wait on the hook set for a couple seconds to let them circle back to take it. Fish totals from Friday were around 15 on the day I think.