I hit the stream with my ole Fenwick FL-6 in anticipation of some trout sipping something near the surface. The old fiberglass rod does great despite it being around 35 years old.
The river did not disappoint as the hatches were frequent and trout were feeding near the top all day long. There were two bugs hatching all day. One was a very small midge and the other was about a size 18. I am unclear on what exactly it was but it skimmed across the top of the water and the trout were gulping them everywhere. Despite this, I could not match the fly for anything. I tried everything that resembled it but could not get a rise.
After about an hour, I realizing that I was not going to conquer this and dropped some flies down below the surface and picked up fish readily throughout the remainder of the day. This included fish on a Barr's Emerger, WD-40, and BWO Emerger. I will take these flies as 2nd choice any day if I cannot figure out the dry fly bite. Any day without a bobber is a good day for me! At the end of the day, I did finally manage a few on top fishing a Griffith's Gnat as a dry fly.
Sounds familiar...I was on the Current a couple weeks ago and got into a bunch of fish looking up. They were keying in on one particular bug , a small yellowish mayfly that was skipping across the water upstream (egg laying??) and I had a frustrating afternoon trying to match it. Caught a few on a crackleback and a small yellow sally that I had in my box but in the end I went back to the nymph rig to keep my sanity!
ReplyDeleteYes, that was exactly the scenario. Skipping across the water..laying eggs. The trout were very aggressive on the hatch but would not look at anything I threw on top..including a crackleback. I spent 15 minutes trying to catch one of the bugs as they skipped by me. That got some looks but I was desperate!
DeleteI thought that I had the fly matched pretty well at one point but decided after watching the fish for awhile that they were only taking the bugs that were skipping across the water moving upstream. I really think it was the action and not the fly choice that kept me from being successful.
DeleteGood to know that I'm not the only one challenged by that particular hatch!!
I had the same thought...so I tried skipping the fly. Lets just say that I need some refinement on my skipping technique!
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