I just got back from 3 days of fishing/floating/camping from the dam to Taylor Flat. Its very good! Rising fish nearly all day. PMD's in the morning, yellow sallies all over the place (litttle yellow stoneflies), cicadas still on a section, hoppers around, ants everywhere, and sporadic caddis activity, especially in the evenings. There's also midges, but why bother when you can use flies you can see?
Flies: #16 caddis, #16, 18 pmd's, #16 rusty spinners, cicada pattern of your choice, some #10-12 hoppers, some #12-14 ants, and a yellow sally high-floating pattern of your choice. That can be a yellow caddis, stimulator, or something more fancy. The trout don't care. Fish the bigger bugs in the faster water and riffles. Fish the smaller pmd's and caddis in the slower eddies, scum lines, seams, and slower tail-outs.
I caught fish on every fly I threw at a rising fish for 3 days.
You'll love it!
Since you said you're a novice, and even if you were an expert, focus more on your presentation (Dead drift!) than the fly pattern. The fish will eat most any dead-drifted fly that goes over them right now. Use a long leader with plenty of tippet (I used 4x the whole time, even on the #18's). Stop your cast high co that the tippet piles up on the water and lets your fly float naturally.
I didn't do any nymphing, but that's a "can't miss" too. Again, presentation is the key, not the fly. Nymph the faster, deeper water and riffles where they pour into deeper pools. If you really want to hammer 'em, fish a big dry with a nymph dropper-that would almost not be fair
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