I saw several golden stones and caddis flying around, but there were almost no rises. So I started using pheasant tails and prince nymphs to get on the bottom. I had to have 2-3 split shot on my line to get me there, too. Even after trying midges, San Juan worms, RS2, and other PMD nymphs, the only flies that I caught fish with all day were the pheasant tails and prince nymphs.
This was the first time that I had ever caught a fish with a pheasant tail on the swing upward that occurs at the end of the drift. You can see that here:
When a fish takes a fly in the front of their mouth, that is often a sign that they took an emerger. And he definitely took on the upswing--a pheasant tail. I was pleasantly surprised. This tells me that the fish were looking for caddis and he mistaked my pheasant tail as a caddis emerger. I suppose the pt can imitate a lot of different insects, which makes it one of my favorite flies to use.
I caught quite a few fish during the three hours that I was on the river. I don't think I saw anyone else catch anything, though. Most people were using streamers, dry caddis, and drakes, but I chose to go deep and I was rewarded.
This fish was long but not fat:
Next time I fish this deep pool I'm going to have a 9-foot leader followed by about 4 feet of tippet. This was about a 17" brown that took a prince nymph in this deep pool.
