I have told most of you about my recent trip, so these are selected photos from the Clearwater River in Idaho. The weather was terrible for 4 of the 9 days, resulting in lost or very limited fishing days. The Clearwater went from 2600 cfs up to 21,600 cfs within 36 hours! But the good news was that it brought a lot of fish up river to the South Fork of the Clearwater and for a few days we had great fishing. My best fish was about 36 inches at 16 #. Most fish averaged about 12 # overall, with very few under 10 #. The best fish was by Art Pine of Travis De Boer’s group; a big buck at 38 inches and 18 # on our last day of fishing. Can’t say enough about Ralph Rhodenbaugh of North West Jig Company who made the long drive down from the Seattle area and then hosted me for the first few days on his jet boat on the Middle Fork. I am deeply indebted to his hospitality and friendship to The Otter.

For the main river I fished tied flies in the Embryo Egg style in 8 mm or 10 mm sizes along with some Otter “Pegged Soft Embryo Egg” patterns. On the first day, off of Ralph’s boat, I hooked 7 nice fish, landing 4. The very next day, in the same slot, Ralph and I hooked only one fish!! Then for 4 days of fishing dirty, high water in both the Middle Fork and South Fork, it was two fish for 4 full days while I fished alone from sunup to sunset in rainy, cloudy and windy weather. Then on Saturday, with the South Fork still high but now clearing and dropping, I hooked another 7. These were all large fish, which somewhat soothed the body and shoulder aches. Never-the-less, the long previous week of early rising and late fishing (4 AM rise to 6 PM return) in inclement weather made The Otter call it a day at high noon.

Sunday through Tuesday on the South Fork was great with good fish for two of three days. The last day, I was hammered, stomped, spanked, and just plain out fished, humiliated, whipped and thrashed by the Travis De Boer group. Having the same eggs, same colors, same sizes, same rigging, and fishing the same runs did The Otter no good!!, I had one hookup against 15 to 20 hook ups by Travis, his Mom, Kristie, his step-dad Art plus Travis’ wife Julie!! They took no pity on this old man! To add insult to injury, humiliation, and disgust, Art Pine offered to sell me back some Otter Eggs in the correct size and color so I could start catching fish on them!! Imagine!!!!!

All in all it was a great trip, meeting many new fishermen and finding new waters to fish. I know I handed out over 15 dozen tied flies to other fishermen, along with hundreds of loose Otter Eggs in all sizes and colors to the many wonderful people I met along the river. Even gave out beads, bead threaders, safety pins and showed them how to rig them up so they too could catch a few nice steelhead. The Otter shall return, and perhaps gain some of his lost talent of fishing and hookups on the next trip!! Enjoy the photos as I am and the reflections of wonderful moments on a beautiful river system in Idaho with both old and new found fishing friends.

Regarding Otter Egg products, we really made believers out of many watching and fishing with us on this trip. There is no question that the Otter Embryo Eggs, both tied as flies or Pegged on a leader, continue to outperform most other flies or egg patterns, including on some days, even fresh spawn. Used with a fly rod, spinning rod, bait caster or center pin- it does not matter-all fishing systems worked very well as all these photos attest. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Best Regards,

Tight Lines and All Releases,

 Walt Mueller, Jr.”The Otter”
brdbreck @aol.com

Unknown to us, the flow on the river was way down due to lack of rain ( which made clarity gin clear!) and from shutting flows off from Dworshak Dam on the North Fork. In addition, the water temperature was a chilling 36d F, which put a damper on the fishing. Our guide had Charles try spawn during the first day, while I concentrated on our new Otter “Soft Milking EmbryoEgg” patterns. We both were using 10# tippets with our centerpin reels and long 13 1/2 foot float rods.

After about 5 hours of nothing, I decided to go down to 6# tippet on my rod. Walla!! Both Charles and I, after he changed his tippet, took 4 steelhead in a row. The water was so clear and low that this lighter tippet was absolutely necessary for hookups.

 The only way we held these large “B” run steelhead was due to the fact we had such long and limber float rods. Over this day and the next we hooked and landed 8 nice fish, with the largest one 34″ x 14# and another, taken by Charles, at  36″ x 16 #.  All were taken Otter’s “Soft Milking Embryo Egg” pattens, in the Tango/Silver Flash color in 8 mm size tied on #8 scud hooks. This pattern very closely resembed the remaining dead King Salmon eggs we saw in the river and along the banks. This color was almost a perfect match to those dead eggs!

Over the next few days we did virtually nothing. You have to have a boat, either sled or drift, to fish this river. The banks are very steep in most areas, with jagged lava rock on most of the banks making river access very difficult, to say the least, to get to fishable areas and runs. Over the next 4 days we only hooked one fish by wading versus the 8 we took when guided in a drift boat.

Needless to say, we were still pleased, as most other fisherman did not come close to what we landed over that time on the river. It was very enlighting to see Otter’s tied egg patterns  performing so well in clear, cold, low water that even spawn and roe fisherman were having no luck with their natural bait. We did not have to “Peg” our eggs either-only light tippets with the tied new “Embryo Egg” pattens. Enjoy the pictures, and we shall return early spring for another try at these beautiful “B” run steelhead!

The Otter

I had Travis De Boer, of Guerilla Guide Service (www.guerillaguideservice.com or at 208-924-8685 or travisrdeboer@hotmail.com.) show me a few choice spots on the South Fork and North Forks of the Clearwater River. On the South Fork, we hit only two fish for the day. There was a lot of traffic, and in the one hole we fished we felt most of the steelhead had already moved  farther upstream In any event, we hooked two nice fish, about 12# each, one of which was a wild buck with it’s unclipped adipose fin. Both fish were taken with the 8 mm Kiwi Opaque egg “Pegged” over a small orange glass bead. The next day we both fished the North Fork of the Clearwater River near Orofino, ID and had a blast. Between the two of us we hooked  20 hot ” B” run fish, in the 10 # to 18 # range. All fish were again hooked using Otter’s Soft Eggs in the 8 mm size “Pegged” over a small glass bead. Travis managed to land about 6 fish, and The Otter only two. But, these were very large steelhead in very fast currents and most difficult to land, especially since we had no net and had no area, other than the large rocky talus shoreline to beach a fish.  We found one small 3 foot square ledge area that Travis could get into the water up to his knees to tail fish, and The Otter took the rod each time till Travis had them by the tail. These “B” run fish were some of the most beautiful steelhead I have ever caught other than up in BC in the Skeena River basin. To think these fish had already traversed about 500 stream miles, and up 6 fish ladders over 6 major dams, plus avoiding commeercial nets, seals, and Indian spears and baskets since they entered the Columbia River drainage made each fish special to us. Three times during the day we had doubles hooked up. The Otter was using his center pin reel and float rod with 10# main line and still managed to break off 3 fish even with his Wright & McGill 11 ft. 3 inch float rod. Travis was using his new center pin system  also, since he just started “pin” and try out the system  He did quite well, out hooking the Otter by about 2 to 1!!! On all these large steelhead I used the new Eagle Claw Laser Sharp Octopus hook, style L2BU, in sizes 4 and 6. These hooks held all these large fish, in very high water and heavy currents, without one having even a slight bend. They held like the Rock of Gibraltar!!

After Idaho, The Otter spent a week in fishing the Muskegon and one day on the Manistee River. Fished the Muskegon for about 7 days with poor results overall. The water was at 7500 cfs, and very dirty. We did well on only 2 of 7 days, and both of those were up high above Pine Street boat ramp and then up and below Croton Dam.

Hooked about 7 steelhead, 2 trout and one walleye in one day fishing withlocal Muskegon River fishing guide Nate Hulst (231-598-2443) along with local Charles Chandlerof White Cloud, MI. Just met Charles as he is one of our customers. Charles took  4 fish on spawn, and I took mine on 8 mm eggs, not pegged but just on tied fly hooks. also fished several days with local river resident Jim Stegenga, aka “Chainman“, who still out fishes and spanks me whenever we fish together. One day he had 4 on spawn to my one, and the next day only one fish. Even with Jim, who is an excellent spawn float fisherman, fishing was poor and slim pickings for both of us in this high, dirty water.

On the one day I fished the Manistee, i was guided by Jon Kestner out of Boardman, MI. He took me to one hole early in the morning and we hooked  7 fish in a row, all on “Pegged” Otter Soft Milking eggsin the 8 mm size. The river was normal on levels, and quite clear, totally unlike the Muskegon River  earlier in the week. Jon can be reached at www.jonsguideservice.com or at 231-369-2997. His e mail is kestnerflyfishing@yahoo.com. Incidentally, Jon also guides in Alaska from June through September and knows how to peg an egg. He is also quite interested in ”Pegging” and using ” Otter’s Soft Embryo Egg system and intends to introduce it to his Alaskan waters this summer for several months of  non stop trials!

Best colors were the new prototype Steely Gold, Kiwi Opaque,  Apricot Opaque, Tango/Silver Flash, and Kiwi/Silver Flash. I managed 11 hookups on steelhead, and 3 on trout, one of which was a nice 20″ resident brown trout. Jon’s boat was great- a full 20 feet in length, and a very wide 96 inches. That really made it quite easy to move around landing fish with my 11 foot 3 inch Wright & McGill float rod and center pin reel! Jon and I were pretty much convinced that the new Pegging system for Otter’s Eggs was the key to our success. No one else on the river that day had as many hook ups as we had, and even for those using real spawn or hardware with spinning rigs.

Tight lines, all releases-The Otter

We will have a full stock of most all 17 colors and 6 sizes for sale along the back wall of Fly Tiers Row. We will have an 8 foot table to outselves!  We can show you how to tie up The Otter’s new and exciting “Embryo Egg” pattern, and how to also use Otter’s Eggs to  ”peg“  your eggs, Alaska Style. These latest two patterns and systems have been producting excellent results, so stop by and see The Otter at work!

The Otter will be demonstrating how to include a red or orange bead inside your eggs to form the “Embryo Egg” pattern look for your “pegged” eggs. The Otter recently spent 3 great trips at the Miracle Mile on the North Platte River in Wyoming plus at Delaney Butte Lakes, using this new “pegged egg” method with great results, so stop by so he can discuss this system and his trip results with you!

The Otter

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

We will have a full stock of all 17 colors and 6 sizes for sale at our booth, at section C-15.  We can show you how to tie up The Otter’s new and exciting “Embryo Egg” pattern, and how to also use Otter’s Eggs to  ”peg“  your eggs, Alaska Style.

The Otter will be demonstrating how to include a red or orange bead inside your eggs to form the “Embryo Egg” pattern look for your “pegged” eggs. The Otter recently spent 3 great trips at the Miracle Mile on the North Platte River in Wyoming plus at Delaney Butte Lakes, using this new “pegged egg” method with great results, so stop by so he can discuss this system and his trip results with you!

The Otter

Fat Brown in full spawning colors-19 "

I took another quick trip up to the “Mile”. When was the last time anyone else out there had a 45 d F day, with almost no winds, and cloud cover all day on the Mile in December? Not in my lifetime!!!!! We hit the weather perfectly and I cannot ever remember a December day this warm with little or no wind. And….the fish cooperated exactly the same-a dream come true! To sum the trip up, my buddy Lawrence Perry and I hooked 60 fish on the 13th no lie, just fact!   We landed about 2/3 of our hookups. All fish were taken on Otter’s “Soft MilkingEgg“patterns in numerous colors!  I had my Islander “Steelheader” center pin reel and 13 foot Loomis GL 3 float rod and was hitting center sections of all the runs that a fly rod could not reach. Plus, I had virtually drag free drifts from 35 to 60 yards, and did hook several fish at that 60 yard distance! Lawrence could not compete with that setup with his fly rod, and I think I may have converted him to start looking for a center pin reel and float rod!

Tangerine Opaque egg, 20" Male

The Otter with a nice 18" 'bow

Lewy hooked up!

Lewy above the Chalk Cliffs

Different from our other two trips, we dropped way down river this time to the S Curve Hole and below,  above the Chalk Cliffs and a mile or so from Pathfinder Reservoir. We wanted to see if there was any truth to the story that some of these lake rainbows come up river in December to winter over in the river prior to the March-April normal rainbow-cut bow spawning months. We only hooked a handful of browns all day- the rest were all rainbows-each on in the 16 to 20 inch range and fat as hogs from that plentiful lake food chain supply. And all we caught were as as a  bright chrome steelhead-all red hot silver bullets  jumping all over! They all fought like a tiger, unlike most of the “dogging” browns we have been hooking. You can  immediately tell  it’s a rainbow by their fight, ”zip” and leaping action. And some of these ‘bows are as wide as they are long! This convinced us the ’bows are coming in from Pathfinder Reservoir already to winter over in the river! They also are picking up eggs from the brown trout spawners, which is why Otter’s egg patterns are doing so well.

Fat 20" Silver Bullet on Tangerine Opaque egg!

Otter Egg colors that were the best were the Tangerine Opaque, Tangerine, Tangerine/Red Flash, Dead Egg White, Apricot, Apricot Opaque, Apricot/Silver Flash and Salmon Egg plus the old standby, Kiwi Opaque. I also hooked quite a few on Otter’s “Soft Milking Embryo Egg“, with a red or orange bead inside the egg, close to the outer egg skin. This new pattern is working very well, and especially on selective fish. It looks so close to a real egg…………!  Shortly I will post on my web site how to tie up this new “Embryo Egg” pattern, with  step by step photos to assist all our customers.

Otter's new Salmon Egg color red "Embryo Egg"

A nice fat 20" bow on a Salmon Egg color Embryo egg!

This trip was a good example of why you need numerous colors of eggs. Fishermen always ask  me “What color is best?”. Well, they all work, to different degrees. On this day, we used two different colors on each of our rods. We started in an 8 mm size. and worked the run for a few hours, by taking down river steps every few minutes, I fished the run in it’s entirety. Then I would walk back up river and start at the head of the run again, but changing colors and sizes, and lo and behold, more hookups in the same run! And after a few hours, move back up, and start going back down the same long run, but this time with a smaller egg size, the 6 mm, in some of the same or different colors. By switching colors, and sizes, and changing up after each hour in the same run, we produced all day long-on several holes that we fished that day. That is why my personal Otter Egg  Box has  10 to 12 different egg colors, and one box for each two egg sizes. I did not go down to my 4 mm egg size or the small Otter’s “Soft Sucker Spawn” ( OS-3)  on these three trips to the Mile since we did so well on the 6 mm, 8 mm and 10 mm egg sizes, but if I had hit a no hookup time, I would have dropped down even further in size to the smaller 4 mm egg, which incidentally, is the close to the actual size of the brown trout eggs that were are the river this fall. The “Soft Sucker Spawn” OS3 egg pattern will come in use this next spring when the suckers start coming up river. I still cannot answer why these trout  take such a large egg size; both the 10 mm and 8 mm eggs produced well over these last few weeks. Remember, the natural egg size in this river is between a 4 mm to 5 mm  diameter egg, based on my observations!

A short word about equipment is in order. Over three trips to the Mile this fall we encountered some brutal weather. Both Lawrence and I used the Wright & McGill Big Horn wading jackets. This jacket is moderately priced-not a $350-$400 jacket like many others. At about $200 at Bass Pro, it’s a deal. Heavy, good for cold windy rainy weather. If it can break the winds and  cold at the Mile, it has to be good. I’ve had mine in the rain and snow  from the Lake Erie tribs and Michigan up to the Skeena River in B.C. Canada and it has never failed me. Put a few light layers on underneath, and that is all you need as a great fall-winter and spring jacket for all weather conditions. And the new W&M Dragon Fly large arbor reel did the job for Lawrence. With all the trout we caught over these three trips, and about 8 days of hard fishing, this reel never flinched. It has a great drag, easily adjustable and it held all these big browns and the screaming silver bullet ‘bows. It also is moderaterly priced, and if you are in the Denver Area, stop by the Eagle Claw Store along I 70 at E. 46th Ave. off Colorado Blvd. and look over these items and many more!

Full colored male spawner as wide as long!

Otter's Apricot "Embryo Egg" and a Silver Bullet lake run 'bow!

The best egg sizes were the 8 mm as #1 choice, and then later in the day after we had pounded several long holes, we switched to the smaller 6 mm egg and that worked well. The smaller egg size picked up a lot of fish we either hooked previously in the day, or those that did not like the unnatural size of the larger 8 mm egg. Also, several of our late afternoon fish were the biggest of the day, and both Lawrence and I did not land several ‘bows and  browns that were in the 24 inch range, with big, heavy shoulders. Also, I did not “peg” any eggs on this trip mainly due to the fact that the normal Otter’s egg patterns were working so well that “pegging” was not necessary.

21" brown taken by Lewy on a Tangerine Otter egg

Lawrence with a 20 " bow!

I stayed overnight  to await an incoming snow storm, and the next morning the temperature dropped over 30 d F from the previous evening to a  chilly 25 d F, and the “W”  word came up blowing and howling with fresh snow. I fished  4 hours and  picked up 6 of 8 hooked, all on Tangerine Opaque , Tangerine, and Kiwi Opaque egg colors. Most were hooked on 8 mm eggs, with several on the 6 mm size. Definitely, the storm front that came in overnight put a damper on the fishing for the morning compared to the previous stellar day. All in all, this was the best of 3 trips to the Mile this fall, and my last one for the year. Now for the spring rainbow run!!! 

Fat Silver Bullet on Tangerine Opaque egg

Kiwi Opaque works!

Kiwi Opaque again!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all of you out there, and stay in touch. Have a great 2011-Tight Lines and All Releases -All Year Long! Make it a New Year’s Resolution!

Walt-”The Otter”

The Otter

After circling  their net 50 feet across the stream, they slowly close both ends of the  net and walk it to the edge of the stream where more volunteers and CDOW members carefully remove any trash fish or trout back to the river. They also discard rocks gathered by the net! Then with a small dip net, they carefully take up 4 to 6 fish at a time and place them in large buckets full of fresh stream water. From here, they carry the buckets up to a small building that houses the egg stripping operation. This building has two interior sides; one  10′ x 15′ concrete floor with a fish trough and small plastic egg dishes for stripping and fertilizing fresh eggs. The trough is about 2 feet wide, 5 feet long and is elevated so  CDOW members can stand next to it and easily remove, strip, and fertilize eggs into the small round stainless steel egg dishes attached to the side of the trough. The  other portion of the building has the stream flowing through it; about 8 feet wide x 10 feet long, with a small weir and two solid wire net fences at the outflow and inflow ends that keeps fresh salmon alive and contained in this holding pen until ready to remove them to strip the eggs from the females and fresh milt (sperm) from the males.

When enough fresh salmon are removed from the river and contained in the holding pen, one CDOW member goes into the holding pen with the wire net fence and slowly closes the initial 8′ wide x 10′ long pen down to an area of about 2′ wide x 8 ‘ across. He then clamps the two solid fence nets in place so CDOW members can dip their net into the 2 foot wide opening holding about a hundred fish. They gently remove about 20 at a time and place them into the metal holding trough, full of fresh water, up on the concrete floor area.

At this point, one CDOW member records all fish taken to be stripped of eggs or milt, and whether they are “ripe” for stripping or “green” ( eggs not loose enough to strip out of the fish). If the fish is “green”, it is placed back into the stream holding pen to mature for a few more days and stripped at a later date. Three members of CDOWwere stripping eggs at the same time. They stripped eggs from 3 or 4 ripe females, and then would take one male and strip his milt (sperm) into the plastic egg dish holding several hundred fresh eggs. Then they gently agitated the egg dish so the milt and eggs are thoroughly mixed. We were told that the fertilization of these eggs is almost instantaneous, so the entire basket of eggs are all fertilized in a matter of seconds. These fresh fertilized eggs are then taken outside to a small adjacent tent area where the final washing and cleansing operation is performed on the eggs in each egg dish.  A water trough, with fresh, filtered water from the local river is used to gently wash and clean these freshly fertilized eggs. In this operation they are gently agitating the egg dish and carefully taking each damaged, ruptured or unfertilized egg out, all of which are white in color. If any of these damaged or dead eggs were left in the batch, a fungi could form and then affect and kill all adjacent eggs in that batch from the fungus. For that reason, these eggs were washed and re-washed and gently swirled around in the egg dish until all damaged/unfertilized or fungus affected eggs are removed. Then the eggs are placed into another container of fresh water so they can be taken to the CDOWhatchery in Glenwood Springs, CO where they will remain in fresh stream water until they hatch, which takes 28 days. Also, from the time eggs are stripped from the salmon and until they are delivered to Glenwood Springs, no more than 5 hours are allowed to elapse in order to keep the eggs in prestine condition. Also, after these salmon are stripped, CDOW donates these salmon to interested anglers who stop by so long as they have a valid fishing license. What a great way CDOWstill salvages these stripped fish, especially since all these Kokanee salmon would naturally die and decay in the river after they spawn.

To date, CDOW has taken about 1.2 million eggs to hatch so far this year.  Of that amount, CDOW mentioned their hatchery survival rate for these eggs is about 94%, compared to a natural survival rate, if left alone in the stream, of only 1 %. With such a small natural survival rate, we are all grateful to CDOWfor their stalwart efforts  on this egg stripping and fertilization and hatching operation so we have a large quantity of Kokanee salmon to stock all over the state for our many resident and visitor angers for next years fishing!

In looking over some of the discarded eggs I salvaged from CDOW, I found their natural color is very close to several of our colors of Otter’s “Soft Milking Eggs”.  Both the Apricot and Salmon Egg colors, which are clear, are  an exact match to the initial eggs from the female salmon. Of course, all fish egg colors change with time as the eggs quickly develop and water harden in the river, and after they have been either fertilized or not after being deposited on a nest ( redd). For example, these fresh fertilized salmon eggs started to “cloud up” shortly after fertilization and loose their crystal clear color when first deposited. Many of these eggs will also turn white if not fertilized or if damaged or ruptured and for that reason we now offer a new Dead Egg White egg in our product line.

Regarding egg size, the eggs I salvaged were slightly smaller than the 6 mm egg we offer. My measurements came up with an average size of  5.5  mm from my samples. CDOW also stated that the run of salmon during the time I visited were smaller than average, and that would account for the smaller egg size I measured. However, our 6 mm Otter egg size would work well for trout in our streams where we have Kokanee salmon and brown trout spawning, such as in the Blue River above Green Mountain Reservoir all the way up to Dillon Dam, and above Dillon to the Stan Miller property below Breckenridge. An Apricot,  Salmon Egg  Dead Egg White, Apricot Opaque and Tangerine Opaque colors of Otter’s “Soft Milking Egg” fished from October through December would naturally mimic both the Kokanee salmon  and brown trout eggs from fish spawning during this same time of year and also each spring from March through May for spawning rainbow and cutthroat trout.

I have placed several of our artificial Otter’s Embryo Egg, in the Dead Egg White color with an orange bead inside the egg, next to the natural salmon and brown trout eggs in the pictures below. I salvaged the brown trout eggs from a 22 ” hen that spewed them out from my trip to the Miracle Mile on the North Platte River  in Wyoming ( See December 2010Post) the next day. I released this brown unharmed.  At first all these dead eggs are almost pure white in color, similar to our Dead Egg White color. After some time in the river, they gradually turn to a slightly orange tint that can be mimicked by our Apricot Opaque and Tangerine Opaque color eggs.  Do not miss out on the opportunity to use these  colors when you fish during these salmon and trout spawning months as these same colors are present in our rivers and steams during both these spawning times of the year.

The Otter spent 3 more days at the Mile. Weather was brutal the 1st day at 16 d F with 25 mph winds. Second day was warmer at 30 d F, but winds at 40 to 45 mph. My buddy, Lawrence Perry, who has fished this area for quite a few years said this is the worst wind he has ever seen at the Mile! The 3rd day was pleasant at 35 d F with little wind. Fished with Lawrence for 2 days, and his buddy, Juan Blanco, for one day. All three days each of us hooked about 15 to 20 fish, mostly browns, in the 14 to 24 inch range and some nice large cutbows and rainbows up to 22 inches, fat from feeding on fresh brown trout eggs.

Juan took a nice 22″ bow the last evening on an Apricot Otter’s egg, and Lawrence took a 22″ brown earlier on a Tangerine Otter’s egg. Juan also took some fish on a red analid, size 12, but most all fish were taken by the 3 of us all on Otter’s eggs. Best color was the clear Apricot, in 6 mm size, but we also took fish on Kiwi Opaque, Tangerine, Tangerine/Red Flash, Dead Egg White, Apricot, Apricot/Silver Flash, Tangerine Opaque, and Salmon Egg colors. This is another example of how changing colors of eggs in the same runs produces results with different colors. The Otter took fish the first two days on the 8 mm size eggs, and then the last day almost all on the smaller 6 mm size egg. On the photos below look at the fresh brown trout eggs from a hen that are Apricot in color, and exactly 6 mm in size. I put a Salmon Egg color egg next to these fresh eggs as a comparison. Both the Apricot or Salmon Egg color would match her fresh eggs!

The Otter fished with his new prototype pegged egg system for the 1st 2 days and did well with the system. He was using 8 mm eggs with a # 8 light wire  hook 1 1/2 to 2 inches below the pegged Otter egg. This new system uses a thin diameter tube inserted through the egg, and then either pegged with a toothpick  or by tying a 4 twist surgeons knot below the egg tube to hold it in place. He is still having problems with the eggs sliding off the tubing as the super glue is not working on the plastic tubing. He has new tubing coming shortly that will be easier to glue the egg to the tube so they will not slide off.

While I took a few fish with my flyrod, I was mainly using my centerpin reel with my 13 foot Loomis GL 3 float rod. I still like that system for the long deep runs where I can get a 50 yard virtual drag free drift. Plus, with these large fish, I can handle them easily with this long rod, rarely breaking a fish off. However, I did use mostly 3 X heavy leader tippets.

I landed most all of my hooked  fish on the  8 mm “pegged” Otter’s eggs while using the larger # 8 hook, but when I went to the smaller 6 mm egg with a # 12  hook my landing ratio was poorer. This new “pegged” system is great for wary and selective fish, and does produce better results when the fish are picky! And with a soft egg material, rather than a hard bead, these fish hung on better for easier hookups with our soft egg material.

Check out our photos below of another great trip!  Now we can’t wait till spring and the spawning rainbows out of Pathfinder Reservoir! The Otter

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