May 12, 2024

Roaring River is still murky and off colored, but not muddy. Water is running a nice 111 CFS right now, and fishing was good all week, with lots of quality fish were caught. Trout weighing 7, 8, and a 10 pounds were caught this week, and there were lots of nice 3- and 4-pound trout caught, as well.

Good flies in this type of water were the mop flies and mega worms, and the chamois worms all worked well the past few days, More rain is coming, so we will probably continue to use these flies. There was a bit of dry fly fishing in some of the areas of the river where the current was a bit slower. There’s still good amounts of caddis and B.W.O.’s , and ants and beetles were catching a few also.

We’re starting to see more cicadas, but not huge amounts yet. I figure the next couple of weeks, we will start seeing a bunch of them. Pheasant tails and copper johns were good nymphs this past week, as were black, olive and brown wooly buggers. Good numbers of trout were caught on glo-balls and pink San Juan worms this past week.

Marabou jigs were good all week, though you needed a bigger jig this week. A 1/16th size worked well. Black, black/yellow, white, gray and the olive green all worked well.

Spinners worked well early, and few nice fish were caught on spinners this week. I know the 8-pound rainbow caught this week was caught on a white spinner. Yellow, pink, white and black spinners did pretty good this past week, and little reble crawfish and crick hoppers did well also.

Gold and the little copper colored spoons did pretty good all last week.

Plastics were still very good. The pink, yellow and the white Powerbait did very well, and the pink and the yellow Powerbait grubs were as good as ever. Lots of trout were caught on them last week.

White, pink, and the cheese yellow worms all worked very well. With the water still murky, you can still get away with using 4-pound line.

Good luck on the river this week!

Roaring River State Park trout-fishing tips are provided by Tim Homesley, owner of Tim’s Fly Shop, located at 23387 Hwy. 112.