June 30TH Double R Fishing Report
Monday, June 30, 2014:
FISHING REPORT:
The weather report indicates that for the next four days the wind of this past weekend will moderate, perhaps giving the mayflies a chance to hatch in the morning. Be on the lookout for an early morning hatch of the green bodied female Trico duns, as swarms of the black bodied male Trico spinners have been observed on the Double R Ranch water both in the evening and in the morning. See my past blogs for information on how to fish the Trico hatch, at least once it gets established; in its early days the hatch can be chaotic. You can start by fishing miniscule Trico nymphs, then green bodied dun patterns followed by black or green bodied spinner patterns. On the field water we continue to encounter flights of White Miller Caddis early morning and, just recently, the evening flights are starting to occur. Try running #16-12 Pheasant Tail Soft Hackles under the hovering insects, casting your fly to within a foot of the opposite bank and swimming it across the stream, or in front of working fish. Also, be on the lookout for Blue Winged Olive spinners and sporadic hatches of BWO duns, which can range from size 18 to size 22 depending on the field water’s mood of the day. The trout are starting to chase damsel nymphs in the shallows of the lower field water and the adult damsels will increasingly be a factor in both trout diet and the angler’s strategy.
The Pond experiences a reliable Callibaetis hatch daily and fish are rising on both sides of the new islands and in the “north channel.” First you will notice flights of Callibaetis spinners and later you’ll run into Callibaetis duns emerging, that is, if the wind doesn’t blow too strongly. Your Stream Keeper prefers to use his #14 Callibaetis Hatch Matcher because it seems to effectively imitate both the spinner and dun phases of the mayfly, but anglers continue to take fish subsurface with the usual array of Callibaetis nymphs.
The Double R Ranch water is running a bit higher as of late; the most recent number I have heard is 107 cfs, but it varies. Other encouraging signs of a return to near normalcy is that the regular vegetation is starting to appear in Beats 12 down to 6, and I have been watching fish rising more consistency in those stretches of the field water, perhaps just in time for the Trico hatch.