For our fly anglers - get out NOW!

[Buck154]

I tried catching flies before and and there wasn't enough fight from them. Need  a -20 weight rod for catching bugs 

[ESetter]

14 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Tomorrow I’ll jump on the laptop and get bug pix up and flies to match the hatch. 

Love this idea Brian. I would even recommend making it a sticky in the fishing section so people can always reference it and not have to repeatedly ask you. 

Edited April 5, 2020 by ESetter

[OMC]

Brian great post and idea about fly fishing section. 
Fished a northern stream yesterday got on the water about 1:30. Started in a section that only had holdovers and even though there were lots of bugs they weren’t eating on top. Finally found a few very selective larger holdovers pickin away on something! I got schooled by those fish badly 🤪 threw everything at them and finally had to leave them because my boys said let’s go and catch some. Headed to a area that was stocked and we had a blast. Took many on Hendricksons and Quills while the hatch was strong. Ended up using a dropper bead head pheasant tail and it was nonstop action. Saw a lot of stoneflies, caddis and mayflys. 

[MGHunter66]

Great thread, should continue on all year. Brian has some really good info to pass along. 

[230jhp]

Caddis have been coming off for weeks on the Pequanock, but I haven't seen anything rising. 

[Bucksnbows]

On 4/4/2020 at 8:46 PM, Pathman said:

There was a feeding frenzy on these yesterday evening on the Pequest. 

Pathman, that is the female Hendrickson dun, meaning it just hatched into a winged adult.  Now it will fly to streamside vegetation, molt one last time, and be ready to mate.  At that point, its wings will become clear and not the dun (gray) color they are in this stage on your hand which is called sub imago.  Once they molt to mate, they are called spinners by anglers and imago by scientists.  That is Ephemerella subvaria, the Hendrickson mayfly.  It is the first major mayfly hatch that brings trout to the surface to feed on them.   

[hammer4reel]

with the little bit of rain, threw some garden hackle.

have to match the hatch, little red wiggler pattern was spot on

 

neat thread, makes me want to get out and use some of the equipment my father loved to fish with 

[SPEARFISH]

On 4/4/2020 at 8:31 PM, Bucksnbows said:

This was my fly of the day Friday afternoon on the Musky. Size 18 Blue Winged Olive (BWO).  They were very selective to this hatch and it took me some time to figure it out with all the grannom caddis pouring off the water. Mayflies struggle under the surface film to climb out of their shucks and hatch into a winged insect that needs to dry its new wings before flying off to streamside vegetation to molt and later mate, lay eggs, die and become trout food.

Caddis just burst through the surface and fly quickly away upstream.  The mayflies float along for several seconds before attempting take off. Trout rise steadily to them during hatches  
 

The fly is a size 18 BWO parachute style dry fly. 

There was a great hatch on the Musky yesterday.  At times it looked like bunker popping.  My son was having a blast with a similar fly, and he's mostly a spin fisher.  Every time he made a good cast and got the fly to lay out he got a hit.

[Bucksnbows]

 

Hendrickson mayfly flies to mimic each life stage.  From top to bottom:

1) Gold ribbed, bead head flashback pheasant tail nymph.

2) Standard pheasant tail nymph

3) parachute emerger (note the trailing shuck)

4) Loop wing emerger (can be fished wet or dry)

5) Hare's ear emerger (can be fished wet or dry)

6) Hendo Hammer parachute dry (amazing fly imitating emergence, adult duns on the water, and spinner in one fly)

7) Parachute dun dry fly

8)  Comparadun style dry fly

9) Rusty Spinner dry fly (imitates the spent winged spinner which is the last life stage and includes the mayfly dying and lying flush on the top of the surface film)

10) Rusty Spinner tied with snowshoe rabbit foot hair for the gray wings.  Floats like a cork and a great late evening fly before you lose all fishing light

 

These are just some of many Hendrickson flies, but these cover 100% of their life cycle.   

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Bucksnbows

[Pathman]

Great info BB, it appears there’s a lot to this fly stuff in regards to matching the various phases of the flys life cycles. 
So am I assuming correctly that you’d have to change flys to match the different stages such as the “spinner” post molting that you mentioned? or is there a fly that can be used in general that would be productive throughout the various stages of emergence? 
 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Pathman

[Bucksnbows]

1 hour ago, hammer4reel said:

with the little bit of rain, threw some garden hackle.

have to match the hatch, little red wiggler pattern was spot on

 

neat thread, makes me want to get out and use some of the equipment my father loved to fish with 

Hammer, we are seeing something interesting with the newer Chinese worms taking over our forest floors.  On rainy days, these very wiggly worms wind up crawling on the surface and many wind up in our wild trout streams where native brook trout and wild brown and rainbow trout are gorging themselves on these worms.  During electrofishing after a rain event, many of the wild trout regurgitate these worms.  Something for both the fly and spin anglers to consider.   

[Pathman]

Jumped the gun BB, thanks for pics and descriptions! 

[Bobcat19]

On 4/4/2020 at 8:31 PM, Bucksnbows said:

This was my fly of the day Friday afternoon on the Musky. Size 18 Blue Winged Olive (BWO).  They were very selective to this hatch and it took me some time to figure it out with all the grannom caddis pouring off the water. Mayflies struggle under the surface film to climb out of their shucks and hatch into a winged insect that needs to dry its new wings before flying off to streamside vegetation to molt and later mate, lay eggs, die and become trout food.

Caddis just burst through the surface and fly quickly away upstream.  The mayflies float along for several seconds before attempting take off. Trout rise steadily to them during hatches  
 

The fly is a size 18 BWO parachute style dry fly. 

Awesome info that makes a lot of sense. I saw similar behavior on the Pequest all day Saturday. To me what looked like an all out Caddis hatch fish rising as far as the eye can see. Fished an elk/deer hair caddis dry and couldn't raise a thing. Changed to a darker mayfly imitation (i think it was a March Brown pattern) and was able to catch numerous fish on the surface. I thought I was perfectly "matching the hatch" and similar to your observation this may have been happening, only eating the Mayflies because they never go the chance to eat the Caddis.

[Bucksnbows]

Today was a light hatch on the upper SBR. I stayed on the Wild Trout Stream regulations waters and caught a nice wild brown along with some rainbows that swam up. 

[Bucksnbows]

1 hour ago, Bobcat19 said:

Awesome info that makes a lot of sense. I saw similar behavior on the Pequest all day Saturday. To me what looked like an all out Caddis hatch fish rising as far as the eye can see. Fished an elk/deer hair caddis dry and couldn't raise a thing. Changed to a darker mayfly imitation (i think it was a March Brown pattern) and was able to catch numerous fish on the surface. I thought I was perfectly "matching the hatch" and similar to your observation this may have been happening, only eating the Mayflies because they never go the chance to eat the Caddis.

Caddis do not sit on the water waiting for their wings to dry like mayflies. Caddis hatches cause trout to slash because they burst through the surface film and fly away. When you see them rise to eat a bug on the water, that’s most likely a mayfly.