Last week I took what has become a nearly annual late June trip to Montana. Mostly fishing a real zipper lip of a river that runs through the town of Ennis, which has only four fly shops. Ideally I'd time this time each year to coincide with the hatch of giant stone flies commonly referred to as salmon flies. Timing isn't always easy because the hatch is accelerated or retarded by the springtime ascending limb of water temperature. Hit it pretty good this year, as the bugs were just getting going, with the hatch moving upriver about 2 miles per day, just like it's supposed to under near ideal conditions.
The adult phase of this insect can be 2 - 2.5 inches long. The imitations of this bug are the largest dry flies I've ever cast this side of a deer hair mouse or WOG. My kit is packed with two fly boxes of adult salmon fly patterns these days. The river was in perfect condition for water height and clarity. Since salmon flies aren't the most abundant food source for the trout, fishing adult salmon fly patterns is not the most productive way to fish. It should be, but it ain't. If catching lots of trout is your goal, then nymphing is the way to do it. But I don't drive 600 + miles to fish nymphs when there is a reasonable chance of getting surface eats.
WW rolled into his campsite Monday the 22nd, so we began floating and fishing on Tuesday. Fishing was kinda' slow; slower than I expected based on conditions and progress of the hatch. Wednesday was even less productive, but the weather was off a bit. I thought that if fishing didn't improve, I would drag a nymph for a while just to get more action. Watching a dry fly all day, even a large one, is difficult, and then when the only two eats you get all day both happen while you're looking away for 1/3 of a second. But then the early afternoon improved, and I got a couple eats in short order. Friday was the best day in terms of number of trout raised to the salmon fly. We saw a lot of bugs in the air, crawling out on stems of grass, and on the bushes. Everything was pointing toward Saturday being "epic," as the youngsters like to say. And then we got the weather forecast for Saturday: Winter storm warning, with up to 8" of snow at West Yellowstone. Now that's one way to really significantly retard the hatch. WW called me in Ennis Saturday morning to report that the wind was absolutely howling up his way, and there was no way we were putting the raft on the river. So that was it. No way was the hatch going to take off again until Wednesday, and neither WW nor I wanted to hang around for that.
We caught some trout, but not a lot - which is typical. No monster fish, but I did catch a nice brown at 17" and a rainbow that was 19 1/2", so that was nice. We've caught more fish and larger fish, but t'was not to be this time around. I did have my camera with me on some of those days, but, true to form, I never got it out to take any photos.
Now, for an alternative fishing perspective. Back at the cabin one afternoon I met and got to talking with cabin neighbors Dan and Erica from PA. They live near and fish those nationally famous spring creeks. When I asked how they had done on the M . . . , I mean zipperlip river, Dan said they fished the walk and wade section, maybe 50 yards of it. And they caught 19 whitefish and 9 trout each. I was kind of taken aback because no one I encountered had reported success anything like that. Turns out they Euronymph. They were both eager to show me their equipment and flies and describe the technique. Amazing.
On Saturday, with the wind howling upriver I decided to drive over to the Ruby River where Dan and Erica had fished the day before. The wind was barely blowing over there, although it rained off and on. And Dan and Erica were fishing there again on Saturday. I ran into them in the afternoon and decided to just watch. There they were, putting on a clinic, catching fish nearly at will. They do hook a lot of whitefish while fishing those small nymphs, but they also catch a lot of trout. I'm impressed, but I don't think I'd want to fish that way as other than a novelty. It almost removes the element of chance or luck. I think I might get bored. It's analogous to swing versus dirty azz nymphing for steelhead. I know that in certain water types I could hook a hell of a lot more steelhead by nymphing, but I'd rather catch them using the method I prefer and enjoy. Kinda' the same with trout fishing. I don't think I'd drive the 600 miles to Montana if there wasn't at least a reasonable chance of hooking trout on dry flies. And I'm no purist. I just have preferences.
The adult phase of this insect can be 2 - 2.5 inches long. The imitations of this bug are the largest dry flies I've ever cast this side of a deer hair mouse or WOG. My kit is packed with two fly boxes of adult salmon fly patterns these days. The river was in perfect condition for water height and clarity. Since salmon flies aren't the most abundant food source for the trout, fishing adult salmon fly patterns is not the most productive way to fish. It should be, but it ain't. If catching lots of trout is your goal, then nymphing is the way to do it. But I don't drive 600 + miles to fish nymphs when there is a reasonable chance of getting surface eats.
WW rolled into his campsite Monday the 22nd, so we began floating and fishing on Tuesday. Fishing was kinda' slow; slower than I expected based on conditions and progress of the hatch. Wednesday was even less productive, but the weather was off a bit. I thought that if fishing didn't improve, I would drag a nymph for a while just to get more action. Watching a dry fly all day, even a large one, is difficult, and then when the only two eats you get all day both happen while you're looking away for 1/3 of a second. But then the early afternoon improved, and I got a couple eats in short order. Friday was the best day in terms of number of trout raised to the salmon fly. We saw a lot of bugs in the air, crawling out on stems of grass, and on the bushes. Everything was pointing toward Saturday being "epic," as the youngsters like to say. And then we got the weather forecast for Saturday: Winter storm warning, with up to 8" of snow at West Yellowstone. Now that's one way to really significantly retard the hatch. WW called me in Ennis Saturday morning to report that the wind was absolutely howling up his way, and there was no way we were putting the raft on the river. So that was it. No way was the hatch going to take off again until Wednesday, and neither WW nor I wanted to hang around for that.
We caught some trout, but not a lot - which is typical. No monster fish, but I did catch a nice brown at 17" and a rainbow that was 19 1/2", so that was nice. We've caught more fish and larger fish, but t'was not to be this time around. I did have my camera with me on some of those days, but, true to form, I never got it out to take any photos.
Now, for an alternative fishing perspective. Back at the cabin one afternoon I met and got to talking with cabin neighbors Dan and Erica from PA. They live near and fish those nationally famous spring creeks. When I asked how they had done on the M . . . , I mean zipperlip river, Dan said they fished the walk and wade section, maybe 50 yards of it. And they caught 19 whitefish and 9 trout each. I was kind of taken aback because no one I encountered had reported success anything like that. Turns out they Euronymph. They were both eager to show me their equipment and flies and describe the technique. Amazing.
On Saturday, with the wind howling upriver I decided to drive over to the Ruby River where Dan and Erica had fished the day before. The wind was barely blowing over there, although it rained off and on. And Dan and Erica were fishing there again on Saturday. I ran into them in the afternoon and decided to just watch. There they were, putting on a clinic, catching fish nearly at will. They do hook a lot of whitefish while fishing those small nymphs, but they also catch a lot of trout. I'm impressed, but I don't think I'd want to fish that way as other than a novelty. It almost removes the element of chance or luck. I think I might get bored. It's analogous to swing versus dirty azz nymphing for steelhead. I know that in certain water types I could hook a hell of a lot more steelhead by nymphing, but I'd rather catch them using the method I prefer and enjoy. Kinda' the same with trout fishing. I don't think I'd drive the 600 miles to Montana if there wasn't at least a reasonable chance of hooking trout on dry flies. And I'm no purist. I just have preferences.
