Toilet Bowl Update-January 29, 2018

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Real quick blog post today my friends!  I just want to give you a little update on what’s happening at the famous “Toilet Bowl” For months now, there has been quite a bit of talk about how the Toilet Bowl was going to be shut down and made unavailable for fishing! THAT’S SIMPLY NOT THE CASE! I have just spent the last three hours fishing around the bowl, and I’ve got a little bit of new information to share. Upon my arrival, which was pretty early for this time of year, approximately 9:30 a.m, I was greeted by power plant worker who informed me that the new signs posted will be soon followed by routine enforcement of the rules and regulations. As the sign clearly states, No Trespassing, parking, or fishing is allowed within 100 feet of the Plant.  On this particular morning, there were already 5 Anglers that were not only well within 100 feet of the plant, but were also fishing pretty close to the tailrace area. The plant worker, who will remain anonymous, was not in a position to enforce the rules, but was pretty adamant about the increased presence of law enforcement, that will be issuing hefty fines to those that don’t obey the rules. He explained to me, that because of the increased risk associated with sudden fluctuations and strong currents around the structure, the risk to the public is too great to leave to chance.  This comes after someone had already damaged the fence with a vehicle this past fall, and others that were diving in the area as well. As I fished below the structure, well outside the 100 ft. “off limits” area, several Anglers were ignoring the signs and showed no respect for the employee who was watching them from his truck. I’m not sure what the problem really is, that people cannot simply follow some pretty easy regulations that are only in place to protect them in the first place. This has been going on for years at the Toilet Bowl, but with the increase of Angers to the area, along with a general “lack of respect”,  combined with the fact that this could really turn into a dangerous situation at any given moment, the county has no recourse but to make this area off limits. He also informed me that if the public does not heed the warning signs and continue to disobey the posted rules, the entire area could quite possibly be made of limits to the public, period! I simply don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to access the area by foot, just a few feet downstream! On a lighter note, and the reason I went up there in the first place today, the fishing was really good. Clear skies, cooler temps early, and flows around 88 cfs.  Using a variety of bug, mostly midges and small baetis nymphs, I was able to land nearly 20 fish in under 2 hours! Be careful not to tread on the spawning beds, which are literally  scattered all throughout the flats. Stick to the deeper runs and riffles, where you have less of a chance of snagging or hooking into a spawning Rainbow. A few bugs that were working for me today, particularly well, were the grey and black RS-2, along with attractor bugs, such as the purple Pat’s Rubber legs and Red San Juan Worm. I also caught several fish on small pheasant tails and size #20-22 baetis larvae, olive and brown. That’s all the time I’ve got for today folks! Hope to see you out there on the river soon!

Chris