July 10, 2016

July 10, 2016

Humbled once more!

“That’s life. That’s what they say. Riding high in April. Shot down in May.” Yesterday I was on the top of my game. Today I fished the field water with a good friend and I couldn’t hook a fish. When both of us get skunked, you know that it is tough fishing. It was a cool morning so I was not surprised that we encountered a pretty good flight of White Miller Caddis. We noticed that the trout were sipping Blue Winged Olive duns and spinners rather than slashing after the caddis. I had declared Sunday a “soft hackle free day” and wanted to fish to a mayfly hatch. But, the question was, “Which mayfly?” Over the course of the morning we saw BWOs, spent Callibaetis spinners and a few rather large PMDs. We each tried a half dozen different BWO patterns with no success. I had a couple of “misses” on a Hen Winged Callibaetis spinner but no hook ups. Then, the trout “podded up” although we did not see any Tricos on the water. In retrospect, we probably should have tried a Trico emerger pattern or cripple, just to put something in the film in front of the gorging trout. All in all, it was a delightfully challenging morning before the wind came up and put it all to rest.

Reports are that fishing on The Pond has been productive and that the Tricos are bringing the fish up.

Doug Andres, Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch