fishing the salmon fly hatch

[kengore]

After years of seeing those big spent shucks on the rocks I finally managed to arrive at the river during the salmon fly hatch.

I expected to have a great time fishing, but the trout just didn't seem to care. There were huge bugs all over the place, in the trees, flying over the river and plopping in the water, but not a rise in sight. I was fishing a dry/dropper rig with a nice big #4 McSalmon fly dry and a weighted #4 Rogue Stone nymph as the dropper, both looked like a good match for color and size. I had enough snags to believe the dropper was getting to the bottom, I left a half dozen of them down there.

The stream was crowded with fellow anglers, no one was catching much. I finally hooked a mountain whitefish on the nymph, but that was all for the day.

So what was going on? The weather was variable, bright sun for a while then overcast and small rain showers. There was a light to moderate breeze, but no huge gusts of wind. The water was high running right up to the banks, but not too murky and there were still lots of pools, eddies and seams along the edges. Locals told me the hatch had been going on for about a week, could the fish have simply been full?

I would appreciate any comments from those who have had more experience fishing the salmon fly hatch. It's the first time my vacation schedule coincided with the adult salmon fly activity, I would like to try again next season but need to know a little more about tactics and timing.

[dphotoco]

Down here when an insect has hatched for several days on a row and in large numbers the best bet is to present something just completely different. I guess trout do like a twist on their menu!!

[JohnScott]

Ken -

I don't fish the salmonfly hatch around here all that much. But it is pretty well established that the trouts do get full up at times and just don't have an appetite on some days. Your guess is a pretty good one. A day or two earlier or later and you might have had all the action you could stand using exactly the same flies and same tactics. If that was the case, changing flies, giving them a different look, would not likely make any difference.

As far as timing goes, it usually takes a bit of time for the fish to start looking up after the salmonflies start hitting the water. Once they start, they should keep at it for some time even after the big bugs are gone, except for those days when they don't have an appetite. If I were going to pick just one day along the timeline, it would probably be a few days after they are finished on a given stretch of water. Time for the trouts to get hungry again, and still have the memory to go after big, bushy, floating things.

John

[DG]

I hit the first day of the salmonflies on the Gunnison two years ago. For one day, the fish would take them like candy. The next day, forget it. I went back to fishing caddis and could take a fish on a #16 caddis that wouldn't even look at a salmonfly. I saw that in Montana as well.

Dennis

[kglissmeyer]

My experience on the Henry's Fork and the South Fork of the Snake has been that during the pre-emergence, when the nymphs are crawling towards shore to molt, the fish get pretty well gorged before the adults ever start to fly. Best during the week or so before and the week or so after, with the after being the optumum time, but I've never found the "hatch" to be very reliable at all. A lot of hype, for not much. Don't get me wrong, if you can hit it just right it is the most phenominal thing you'll ever experience, but hitting it just right requires more skills, patience and crystal ball gazing than I have.

Kelly.