July 7, 2017
It’s just after the 4th and the monster mayflies of summer are now the main event on our trout ponds. This is what every still water fly fisherman has been waiting for all season.
The cool nights and rainy days have kept pond water temperatures ideal for the Green Drake (Hex) hatches. Just in the last few days fishermen have been in talking about huge hatches on some of the ponds and brook trout making pigs of themselves on cheeseburger size mayflies.
It’s time to drop everything get to your favorite trout pond before the hatches end and trout head for the spring holes to hold-up during the heat of summer.
When you head to your favorite pond don’t forget your sinking line. It will catch you fish long before the hatch starts. As you probably know the Green Drake hatches tend to happen during the last hour of light limiting the amount of dry fly action. We always string up our sinking line on one rod and a floater with a dry on another rod.
The Green Drake is a mud mayfly that lives burrowed in the mud with just its head out filtering the water for food and remains unavailable to the trout until it is time to hatch. They then crawl from their hole and wiggle to the surface where they crawl out of their case to become an adult winged mayfly.
Educated trout start to show-up in the bays, where a hatch will occur well before it starts, in search of the nymphs as they emerge from the mud. We use a sinking line with a shot 5′ leader and a Green Drake nymph (a very popular pattern is the maple syrup) and start fishing beneath the surface a couple of hours before sundown. Fish won’t start showing on the surface until the mayflies appear but you can usually count on hooking early evening fish sniffing around along the bottom long before the actual hatch begins. Because the mayfly doesn’t become available to the trout until just before dark your nymph isn’t competing with hundreds of others. Lots of times we’ll catch as many fish doing this than we will during the actual hatch when our imitation is competing with all those naturals.
The time is now to concentrate on the biggest banquet pond trout see all season.
And the Golden Stones of summer are now out in full force on all our rivers along with many species of caddis. It’s time to dust off your biggest bug box. We love tossing a size 8 Stimulator, or Bugmister, or Tarantula over the deepest runs in a river. Sometimes we’ll add whatever caddis is in season or beadhead caddis pupa as a dropper. You’ll be surprised who might show-up and when they do they mean business. Use anything lighter than a 3X leader and the ending to your big fish story may not be what you were hoping for.
Have a great weekend on the water.
