A quick zip in/zip out (there have been a lot of those this summer) last night from 7:00pm-8:30. I hit three marks in the FFO section and it was tough going. First spot blank, second spot one pipsqueak, third spot nothing until the 8pm to dark slot. A couple on streamers, a half dozen then on White Wulffs (although the white fly hatch is kaput). No real size — biggest was 10″.
The mysteries of smallies on the Hous continue, as I have fished these marks in past years at the same height (200cfs) at the same time of year and same time frame and done gangbusters. This was by far the worst outing of the year in terms of size and numbers.
Where’d you go, bubba?
currentseams 
Steve, the white flies lasted a long time this year- 7/31 to 8/17 or 18. nearly 3 weeks. much better than prior years. the ISO is now hatching. The bass slurp them up too. the bass may have moved to the deepest pools with the low water and hot weather.
I’ll see your “may” and raise you an “undoubtedly.” 🙂
I personally have the best luck with olive Slumpbusters and chartreuse bead-headed wooly buggers in the fast water and larger Chernobyl Ants in the frog water. But, like you know, you always seem to do best with your confidence flies.
Yessir. I don’t think this was a matter of fly selection (or at least, not streamer selection).
Maybe the left cause of higher taxes… (;-)
I think they have a very favorable bracket.
I know it’s difficult to schedule fishing time around river conditions but I try to pick flow quality over anything else. For smallmouth I try to pick fishing times around a minimum of two or three days stable flow or no more than a 15% spike or drop. USGS Falls Village (tma) flows were at 150 cfs for several days but jumped to 200 from Sunday into Monday.
Change is often bad for fishing. For bass, I’m usually more attuned to cold fronts and barometric pressure.