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What's Up @ Rocky Ford?

9K views 51 replies 33 participants last post by  Keith Hixson 
#1 ·
i have a lot of great memories at rfc with my family, so i still feel pulled there once or twice a year. decided to take a day off and drive out monday night and arrive late so i could night fish and then fish in the morning tuesday in relative solitude. instead, i got almost total solitude. but it looks like there's a reason for that, besides just being a weekday.

first sign something was off was my night fishing scout when i got there. never seen the paths so over-grown. creek looked about normal for this time of year, but i saw more beaver and muskrat at the upper lot pool than trout. saw 1 fish just below the bridge, a pair of beavers hard at work the whole time. walked to the dock to scan the water, saw nothing. i didn't bother to fish, just watched and then retired to the middle lot to sleep.

at 6:30 i woke up and headed back to the upper lot and looked around again. no fish. then i went back to the middle lot and walked to the creek and scouted the normal spots - zero fish. zero wallowing backs/rises out in the flats. and zero pelicans, which would make me happy if it didn't seem to indicate there are no fish.

so i got back in the car and headed to the lower lot. walked to the bridge - nothing. crossed and walked down scouting usual spots as i went - nothing. here i did see some pelicans, but no fish, and no signs of fish. no wallowing, no rises, no cruisers. got down to the lower spillway where the stream gets more freestoney/creeky and walked and watched - saw nothing. i noted that the stream is in a new channel in this section - out of the rocky channel, very narrow, very weedy. it's a different creek down there now than it normally is. then i caught some movement and zeroed in on...a carp as long as my lower leg and twice as thick. troutiest water i've ever seen a carp in. saw two more of those, then headed back up.

at the upper pool, i located the one fish i saw the night before in the same spot, holding below the bridge and feeding. i worked on him with this and that for a while and got some looks and refusals, then wandered around just enjoying the sun and bird sounds for a while. came back and gave the one fish one more cast with a fly he had already seen, and he pounced on it. good fish, looked clean and healthy, fought well. i was worried about over-tiring him and tried to get him in too quickly, picked a bad angle and broke him off. was about 21" i'll guess.

i know the creek goes through cycles and so does the stocking, but i've never seen it remotely close to being this barren. seemingly devoid of trout. i'm guessing from the overgrown paths all over the creek that it has been like this for a while, cause no one is walking those paths. i guess the good news is if you like it there, now's your chance to enjoy it in solitude. i know i did.

in recent years i'd guess i normally see several groups of a dozen or more pelicans up and down the creek. yesterday i saw 1 pelican near the upper lot, and a group of 4 down by the lower hatchery. that was it. maybe with covid limiting angler travel they decided it could be a good chance to let the pelicans empty the cupboard and maybe abandon the creek?

i hit another unnamed spot after leaving the creek and connected with a couple of fish, landing one. equal to the first section of my rod, so ~25" and clean as a whistle.

Salmon-like fish Fish Gesture Marine biology Water
 
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#3 ·
I have not fished RF sense winter before last (I moved to Oregon).
This is what I know.
The new hatchery owners did some wheeling and dealing with WDFW and got the stocking requirements changed.
The last time I fished RF the fish were smaller, like 12 to 16", but willing to bite and good fighters.
If the pelicans are not there in numbers, than my guess is there are not as many fish
 
#5 ·
I fished it last week for just under 40 minutes. Not as many fish as usual. I did carefully stock and hook one of those carp by laying a scud on a rock and waiting for a pod to move up the creek a bit. That fish fought quite well down the creek until a bend in the creek and undercut bank gave it enough slack to pop the hook.

I headed up to the riffle section and found a couple of fish scudding, but I really didn't have more time to fish or stake things out so I threw out out a large streamer and was rewarded with an instant break off. Bad knot. About 5 casts later I hooked up again, landed the fish, reeled and left.

Water Water resources Nature Natural landscape Plant


My short time was due to coming back from Urgent care in Moses Lake to where we were staying at Park lake. Some nice hand swelling from some sort of infection.
Hand Arm White Comfort Peripheral
 
#9 ·
I fished it last week for just under 40 minutes. Not as many fish as usual. I did carefully stock and hook one of those carp by laying a scud on a rock and waiting for a pod to move up the creek a bit. That fish fought quite well down the creek until a bend in the creek and undercut bank gave it enough slack to pop the hook.

I headed up to the riffle section and found a couple of fish scudding, but I really didn't have more time to fish or stake things out so I threw out out a large streamer and was rewarded with an instant break off. Bad knot. About 5 casts later I hooked up again, landed the fish, reeled and left.

View attachment 249197

My short time was due to coming back from Urgent care in Moses Lake to where we were staying at Park lake. Some nice hand swelling from some sort of infection.
View attachment 249196
I had a hand that looked like after getting mosquito bites all over. It was swollen and warm. I went to the dr and they said it was fine, just a reaction to the mosquito bites. No reaction on the other hand.

Skeeter Syndrome
 
#11 ·
Benadryl didn't touch it, thus the drive in to Moses. Anti booties after 5 days brought the swelling down.

With that hand? The soap lake girls would be all over him. Then if he tells them about the carp? Game over.
Thus the reason why I kept my hand well hidden while driving through the Lake of Soap!
 
#16 ·
Benadryl didn't touch it, thus the drive in to Moses. Anti booties after 5 days brought the swelling down.
Or, the swelling came down in 5 days while you also happened to be taking anti booties.
A doctor friend of mine happens to make fun of me if I use topical antibiotics on a wilderness trip, insisting there are actually no studies to prove they make a difference.
But who would want to take a chance, not me. J
 
#18 ·
Or, the swelling came down in 5 days while you also happened to be taking anti booties.
A doctor friend of mine happens to make fun of me if I use topical antibiotics on a wilderness trip, insisting there are actually no studies to prove they make a difference.
But who would want to take a chance, not me. J
I way I was taking any chances, and infections happen from bug bites all the time. I'll happily take my full dose of meds. My wife is a nurse and she thought it was a good idea as well.
 
#13 · (Edited)
About 50 years ago or so Me and my BIL went camping up close to the Skagit. I was sleeping in a mummy bag and only the one side of my face was showing out side of the bag. The mosquitoes had a field day on my face.. When I woke up the next day my face was swollen. And I was in pain from all those little blood suckers stings. I don't rightly remember what I used on those bites. But it took a few days for the swelling to go down.
 
#20 ·
About 50 years ago or so Me and my BIL went camping up close to the Shagit. I was sleeping in a mummy bag and only the one side of my face was showing out side of the bag. The mosquitoes had a field day on my face.. When I woke up the next day my face was swollen. And I was in pain from all those little blood suckers stings. I don't rightly remember what I used on those bites. But it took a few days for the swelling to go down.
Don't know if Shagit misspelling was deliberate or not but if it was, now that's funny. :D
 
#30 ·
I fished RF for 20 plus years, year round.
Winter and early spring was the best, sometimes 20 plus fish days, even when there we lots of other fishers.
No pelicans for many years in the spring and summers.
When the pelicans showed up the fish population dropped off big time.
In spring the turn over would get bad. I called it onion soup.
Then summer would roll around and the weeds would get thick and the fish would not be in the open.
The evening hatches could be awesome dry action in summer.
I will say I will miss fishing RF esp. in winter.
 
#34 ·
I have a house near Rocky Ford, and have been fishing it regularly since 1990. I last went down to the creek in July to check the spinner fall. Clouds of bugs from the handicapped dock all the way to the barbed wire, and no rising trout. I did see a dozen pellicans, a flock of cormorants, and even some terns. If the hatchery is truly stocking trout under three pounds, this is exactly the size range these birds target. I beileve the real canary in the coal mine is that these shore birds have moved inland due to "adverse ocean conditions". Since the pellicans moved in three or four years ago, the trout population has steadily declined to the point that R.F. is no longer a viable option in my opinion. Not the end of the world with vany other venues available at this time, but R.F. was always the one reliable fishery in the dead of winter. I'm going to miss it.
 
#37 ·
I fished it July 3rd and had one my best days in the last few years. However, there is definitely fewer and smaller fish in the creek.

You know you're having a good day when the pelicans are hanging around waiting to chase down your next hook-up. At that point, I think you should be allowed to take them out as self defense. ;)
 
#38 ·
On bee stings. I use some stuff I got at Walmart many years ago. A little dab on Mosquito bites and bee stings and you can forget about it. No more hurt. It is put out by Equate, it's active ingredient is Clotrimazole USP 1%, Antifungal Cream.

About 5 bucks a tube. It lasts a long time. But it's main purpose is Athlete's Foot. Don't knock it if you have never tried it.
 
#39 ·
On bee stings. I use some stuff I got at Walmart many years ago. A little dab on Mosquito bites and bee stings and you can forget about it. No more hurt. It is put out by Equate, it's active ingredient is Clotrimazole USP 1%, Antifungal Cream.

About 5 bucks a tube. It lasts a long time. But it's main purpose is Athlete's Foot. Don't knock it if you have never tried it.
I use MSG - yeah the stuff one tenderizes meat with. Make it into a paste and apply. Sucks a lot of the bad stuff out.
 
#46 ·
I saw lots of white pelicans on the Missouri (dare I mention the location?) - big river, something like 5,000 trout per mile. Rocky Ford isn't big water and there's maybe 1 -1/4 miles of creek between the hatcheries (for those of you not familiar with this creek, the upper hatchery is at the source of the spring, the lower hatchery is at the end of any public fishing waters until you get down by SR 17). That's not a lot of water for 30 or 40 pelicans (or 30 or 40 anglers). One other difference? Your Montana rivers have natural spawning, lots of it, not so much on "the warm water ditch" (no offense Bill).
 
#47 ·
Pelicans can destroy a small fishery like Rocky Ford in a few weeks. The Columbia and Snake Rivers have always had Pelicans but they are big waters. I have been fishing the ford for about 30 years. The fishing has always been an up and down thing. I have had 20 plus days and I have been skunked a few times. I have seen Pelicans there off and on over the years. When they get hungry they will leave. It will take a few years to rebuild then when the fishing gets really good they will return.
 
#49 ·
Just fished the lower sections of Rocky Ford this last Friday (from the Hwy bridge down to the lower access at the spillway. Didn’t see one trout, but a ton of carp. My buddy and I caught several before calling it a day. Wonder how they all got in there and what that’s going to mean for the future of the fishery. Seems like they’re going to easily take over the creek.
 
#50 ·
Just fished the lower sections of Rocky Ford this last Friday (from the Hwy bridge down to the lower access at the spillway. Didn't see one trout, but a ton of carp. My buddy and I caught several before calling it a day. Wonder how they all got in there and what that's going to mean for the future of the fishery. Seems like they're going to easily take over the creek.
The dam you're talking about was constructed to serve two purposes (if memory serves correctly):
1. A sediment basin to reduce nitrates/phosphates into Moses Lake, and
2. A barrier to keep carp out of Rocky Ford.

I think the state treated RF (rotenone) at the completion of the dam.

The creek downstream of the highway has never (in my opinion) been the best trout water; summer temperatures down there are much higher than the spring fed source. Maybe low DO levels then as well.

What was in stream vegetation like?
 
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