Thursday, May 23, 2013

Nymphs May Rock, but Dry Flies Rule

Yes, all you die hard nymph fishermen (Doug), it may be time for a little stint away from fishing nymphs.  We are in that wonderful time of the year when the evenings are warm and multiple insects are coming off the water, and the trout are feasting on top.  Tuesday evening was another perfect example - the air warm and calm, the river cool, clear and a little on the low side.  We had Sulphurs, both large and small, hatching with the last hour or so of light a veritable blizzard of insects in the air and on the water.  There were also Light Cahills, Pink Cahills (E. vitreous), some big light drakes, rusty spinners and cinnamon caddis and small dark grannoms.  And best of all, the trout were on them like a kid to candy.


And we caught fish, lots of them.  Most of them were browns, with a few rainbows and even a small wild brookie.  We used two fly patterns - a #16 Sulphur Usual, and a #16 Sulphur pheasant tail soft hackle; both flies were fished in the film off a 10 foot leader tapered to 6X.  Once the day turned to night we put our headlamp on the water and saw it was literally covered with thousands of Sulphurs - hatching and spent.  The trout continued to rise - we could hear them out in the darkness feeding unencumbered by the daylight that might reveal their location.  Here's a nice wild brown we took while we could still see our fly on the water.

      
Put the nymphs away and get out and fish!    

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Private water???

Mr. Q said...

Too bad I'm in the kitchen during these hours.....