Pike | Moose Knuckle Fly Fishing

Erik was leaving early today to beat the weather. We decided that hooking into some of those pike from the other day would be a nice way to finish of the weekend. I tied up two leaders made up of three feet 20lb Maxima blooded knotted to two feet 15lb Maxima. I also brought along my striper flies to see if we could lure the biggest one of the beat to our lines. We were all set for pike. Guess what?!?! We both hooked up with two large trout. I had a 18″ brown on a all black size 2 Half & Half. Eric had a 18″ rainbow on a Zonker streamer. Both trout had nice size and colors on them. We added a few pike into the mix but those trout were the big surprise. Big Fly = Big Fish

This guy nailed the all black Half & Half

I invited a MKFF friend, Erik, down from Wyoming for the weekend to check out the Stagecoach Tailwaters. He arrived around 1 on Friday, so I suggested we hit up a newly thawed out part of the river close to my condo. I heard about pike in this area of the river; however, I had no I idea that the pike fishing was going to be as good as it was. We caught over 30 pike in total. Destroyed or lost over 10 streamers in the process. I eventually just tied on straight 20lb test to deal with the teeth on these fish. Any big streamer with movement attracted these pre-spawn predators.

Erik drove down from Jackson, WY for some trout fishing, he had no idea we would be throwing streamers for the river wolf — Erik drove down from Jackson, WY for some trout fishing, he had no idea we would be throwing streamers for aggressive pike

On Saturday, we biked into the tailwaters in search of trout. The fishing was great, only 3 other anglers, but the fish have become extremely wary over the past month. When I first fished this section back in February, size 18 comapraduns were doing the trick. Now, I need size 20 and 22 RS2’s and CDC Emergers. We managed over 20 rainbows between the two of us. The best part came around 1 o’clock when it seemed every trout was methodically rising to small baetis. After 2:30, everything shutdown and the trout were completely inactive. My camera battery died early into the day, so I only have one picture from the trout fishing. It was an amazing day and we came home to a great corned beef, cabbage, and irish soda bread meal prepared by my wife Jess.