July 15, 2016

July 15, 2016

Weekend Fishing Outlook.

With increasingly warmer air temperatures, this weekend we should be enjoying a continuation of a plethora of insect hatches. The past several days on the field water and The Pond we have encountered Tricos early morning followed by Callibaetis and Blue Winged Olives. While there have been clouds of Trico hovering over the bank and lots of fish rising in pods, on these warmer days the Trico hatch has been over in an hour so you need to be here early or you’ll miss it. Lately there have been a lot of the female spinners with white abdomens and black thoraxes, and they are small . . . size 22 to 24. Today the Trico hatch was followed by a really nice Blue Winged Olive hatch, both duns and spinners; they seemed to be a bit larger, about a size 18. Spent Callibaetis spinners were also on the menu but I couldn’t pick out a productive spinner pattern. Were it not for the fact that a hatch of damsel flies garnered the attention of just about all trout, there would have been some good “trash time” fishing as mats of BWO and Trico spinners formed “mats” along parts of the bank. You really had to see it to believe it.

Consider a lazy float in the heat of the afternoon. On some parts of the field water large fish have been swirling subsurface when glass conditions exist. You can hook some of these brutes on ants or beetles or by swimming small nymphs in front of them. Don’t neglect the damsel imitation or a hopper pattern, either.

Doug Andres, Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch