Dry fly season is finally here. After a long winter of throwing nymph’s and streamers we should see some good action on both mayflies, and caddis flies. Hatches that are starting to show up include Beatis and Dark Hendrickson. As April continues we should also see good hatches of Blue-Winged Olive and Black Caddis.
Wednesday and Saturday were spent in the Whitewater area. On Wednesday the bugger bite was starting to die off. I had been just smashing large fish stripping buggers through deep holes. On this night the bite was productive, but no large fish. Saturday we were able to get a couple of beginner fly fishermen into their first trout on a fly rod. Steve and his wife Bonnie joined us for a full day of fishing. In the morning we nymphed with mixed results. By mid-day we had switched to a woolly bugger. The key to catching fish this day was not to strip the fly, but to dead drift it as deep as possible. With this technique and a black bugger Steve was able to land a bunch of nice fish the largest measuring in at 15”. I had the luxury of sitting over the hole Steve was fishing and watching the fish as Steve worked the hole. What an enjoyable experience, as I could see every take. Steve had one fish bust him off that was in the 15-16” range and one on for just a second that was 18”+. I can’t say how exciting it was to watch this large fish. We had seen him multiple times, and watching him take a fly was exhilarating, and slightly disappointing at he same time, as we did not get him hooked. Mid afternoon saw a very good Beatis hatch. The fish were very cooperative as Steve was able to pick up multiple browns on a Parachute Adams.
Good Friday was spent floating the lower portion of the Root on a pontoon style drift boat. I had never fished from a drift boat before as most of our fishing is wade fishing. What a great experience! The fishing was not spectacular as we caught 12-15 small fish on the day, but it was very enjoyable to fish from the drift boat.
Sunday I spent some time on Trout Run. I was only able to spend about three hours in the late morning. The most productive method was still nymphing. Scuds seemed to outproduce all other flies, but a pheasant tail picked up a few fish also. Later in the AM, about 10:30, small numbers of Beatis started to appear. At this time in the day the hatch was not very significant, but trout were taking some on the surface. I switched to a #18 Parachute Adams, and picked up a couple of fish. All in all a very good week of fishing.