June 26, 2016

June 26, 2016

Another good day of fishing on the Double R Ranch’s field water. As was the case yesterday, it started out with hordes of hovering White Miller Caddis and the fish were snaring them off the surface here and there. I landed one mid-sized Rainbow on my #14 Pheasant Tail soft hackle. When I lost that fly to a fish I switched over to one of Allen McGee’s soft hackle patterns and landed a 19 inch Brown which resembled the one I caught yesterday. He calls the fly his “PMD Ascension Flymph.” While I personally have not done very well with it during a PMD hatch, the fly is an absolute killer during caddis hatches including White Miller Caddis flights. If I remember correctly, the abdomen is fashioned from cream colored dubbing, its wing consists of three strands of pearl Flashabou, the hackle collar is light dun and it has a cream dubbing head. Give it a try. You can find Allen’s patterns in his book, Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs, which your Stream Keeper considers to be the all-time very best book about soft hackled flies. My favorite part of the book is the extensive section which addresses how to fish soft hackled flies.

When the White Miller Caddis disappeared we were treated to a thick Blue Winged Olive hatch, again size 20. The trout were very focused on these mayflies. I broke off a couple of large trout on the 7X leader and had some difficulty hooking others, but it was great sport. Just to make things more challenging, there were spent Callibaetis spinners drifting down the creek as well as some BWO spinners, which served to distract the trout from the BWO hatch. . Then, the strongest damsel hatch of the season broke out. We are moving into Big Time fishing. Some Members have done well in the afternoon casting beetle and ant patterns up against the bank.

It was reported to me that this morning The Pond featured both Callibaetis and Baetis hatches, making it nice for the fish but rather challenging for the angler. When the hatches are over Members have done well on Callibaetis and Damsel nymphs fished deep.

Keep in mind that there will be some good fishing involving hovering White Miller Caddis in the evenings provided the wind lays down.

Doug Andres, Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch