Humbled by the Musky! :)

[BowhunterNJ]

Well yesterday was beautiful weather and the trout were rising steadily throughout the day on the Musky.  I always bring a little scoop net with me to scoop the surface film with and noticed a mixture of flies.  My entomology, while never good, was certainly better when I fly fished more frequently.

 

From what I could tell there were some sulfur duns later in the afternoon and the last hour, pretty large ones (maybe size 12-14)...but very sparing on the hatch.  Throughout the day, a mixture of caddis (around size 14-16) in tan body, and some pale green body...and the last hour saw some black wing/bodies coming off.  Not sure if that was entirely random or there is a timing of "body color" hatches.  Certainly a strong caddis hatch in that last hour.  Also saw some small BWO coming off (around size 18-20 I believe) throughout the day.

 

There was also another fly that I couldn't identify...maybe the last 2-3 hours of light it came off from time to time (from what I noticed, could have been coming off before then).  I grabbed one out of the surface film and noticed it has a green body and bluish opaque wings.  I would have thought BWO except the size of it, which was probably around a size 14, so I'm not sure what it was.

 

Next time I'll have to take some pics of the duns to help with an id, I was too into trying to figure them out and cycling through flies

 

I did manage to land a number of them, but it seemed like faked out hatch matching.  One odd thing was I got a fair number of "swipes"...and I'm not sure if I was missing them or they just missed or refused the fly...as if they swam up to attack it, swiped at it, created the splash of a take, I waited for them to go down before setting the hook and just came up empty  (this happened dozens of times with various flies).  They refused 95% of the casts but then would take one.  I kept cycling through flies that they'd swipe at put the ones they didn't away.  This at least kept showing them something different from time to time, even if I couldn't match whatever they were taking consistently.

 

Another angler who lives nearby came down the last hour or so, said he fishes it almost daily.  He gave me a fly to try (CDC emerging sulfur I believe), but to no avail.  Same situation, a few swipes at it, but no hookups.  I went back to what was at least rendering a take from time to time.  Fish caught on BWOs, mixture of caddis, and occasionally a sulfur.  I dropped from 6X to 7X in hopes that they were being a little wary, it did help out with the hookups but not drastically so.  Ultimately I'm definitely missing something in my box...because I felt like I should have had way more hookups with the surfacing action that was going on!

 

All in all, a great day on the water and perfect weather.  Definitely a ton of fish in the river, and I'm pretty sure stocking is over, so hopefully the crowds die down, making June an awesome month to hit the rivers and enjoy some dry fly action!

[Bucksnbows]

The mayfly you saw was a blue winged olive, it was our Attenuata hatch which is larger than all but the Cornuta BWOs.  They may have been chasing caddis, sipping sulphur spinners, chasing emerging Isonychia or sulphurs, or some of each.  The river has been hot fishing for 2 or 3 weeks now and should stay hot for some time with these cooler temps between the hot spells and the recent rains like we're getting today.

 

I bet the guy you ran into is Roy who lives across the street

[BowhunterNJ]

Yes, he did live across the street.  I didn't catch his name though.  Nice guy, he gave me a fly and caught a few as well while he was there.

Another guy came mid afternoon from the Conservation area.  Said he was looking for a new stretch to fish, had a great day nymphing in the Conservation area...caught a few 20"+ bows and browns but there were way too many people.  I think I'd probably keep fishing any area I was catching 20"+ fish in

 

I couldn't pinpoint what they were feeding on, maybe they just had too many options that it was hard to contend with what was out there for them.  I caught maybe 10 or so, had 30+ other crashes but came up empty...and that was pretty much over an entire afternoon...felt like I should have had way more fish than that given the activity.  Saw everything from gentle sips in the film, to quick rises, to vicious attacks to complete aerials.  So there was a mixture of a lot going on at once.  The majority were the quick rises, looked like fast takes in the surface film maybe trying to grab emergers.

 

Do you have a "go to" fly or set of flies in that stretch this time of year in the afternoons/evenings?

[Bucksnbows]

I have a couple go-to flies this time of year when they are chasing either emerging caddis or emerging mayflies.  A LaFontaine sparkle pupa does a fine job fished in the film for the caddis, but you need to know size and coloration by catching an adult in the air first.  We often have multiple caddis species hatching at once right now which makes that tough.  I find they will nearly always take a sulphur emerger in the sizes prevelant during the hatch.  Because we have both Dorothea and Invarias hatching, the sizes are either 14, 16 or 18 with the Dorotheas being the smallest of them.  If Light Cahills are about, trout go nuts for their emergence as well and the rises can look like caddis emerger rises. 

 

I take the time to see if the fish are slashing, sipping, or gulping the flies before I decide which patterns.  If you're around one evening soon, just let me know and we'll fish together on that stretch or nearby.  I'll PM you my cell #.

[BowhunterNJ]

Nice, great info there! I live quite a ways from the northern streams (1.5 hours or so), but maybe we can meet up on a weekend sometime.  I'll be trying to get up that way again throughout June for sure.

[Bucksnbows]

We'll get you out soon! 

 

Funny thing happened to me again today.  I was supposed to have a late afternoon half day trip (4 hours), but they rescheduled because it was raining lightly.  I can't tell you how many anglers think rain is bad for trout fishing when the exact opposite is true.  Rain, especially light rain, often brings out strong hatches including our blue winged olives (BWOs).  The fish are already wet, so they don't seem to mind, lol.  Then those same folks post on internet sites how they went fishing on a hot, dry day and didn't see any hatches and were frustrated they couldn't dry fly fish.  Mayflies which make up the lion's share of our better dry fly fishing need cooler and wetter weather to survive the night or a few days to molt, mate, egg lay, and fall dead to the water's surface.  Once a mayfly hatches, it has no mouth to feed or gain any nurishment including water.  A hot dry day is just what they don't need.  Also, our mayfly hatches are mid to late afternoon and only get later as the spring slides into summer.  The exception is our Tricos which hatch very early in the morning and are done typically by 9 am or so.  That hatch won't begin until July and can last until the first frosts of October some years.

 

Be on the water when the bugs are hatching and you'll enjoy some fine dry fly fishing to rising fish.  Fish only mid day and hot, sunny days and expect nothing buy nymph fishing. 

[runum n gunum]

Good read guys