PALE MORNING DUNS
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Click here for Part 2. This is Part 3 in the series |
Tips on fishing the Hatch
The following will be a collection of fishing methods that I have used over the past thirty years and have found to be effective.
NYMPH FISHING ON THE SPRING CREEKS
The angler who wishes to fish the spring creeks with a reasonable margin of success must consider the use of nymphs. Now hold on, we know that there are those of you who just won't use nymphs for any reason. That's OK!! To each his own.
But after comparing guide notes for several seasons, I have found that many of you don't use nymphs because you are unsure of the methods used in fishing them and that you have had little success when you have used them, mainly because you were unable to detect the strikes in time enough to hook the fish. I hope to help you overcome these problems.
I have found that once folks understand what's happening with nymphs and once they find that detecting the strikes is fairly easy, many anglers embrace the nymphing method wholeheartedly. The biggest single factor in taking the fear out of nymphing is the use of a strike indicator. What was that, a groan I heard? Now, now, look around and you will see that most of the "Pros" promote the use of strike indicators. Indicators allow you to see the strike faster so you can react to it. Some call it cheating, or fly-fishing with a bobber, but I put it like this.
We are out fly-fishing for trout, and Lord knows we miss plenty, break them off, or otherwise fail to make the connection, so why limit ourselves? I heard that a famous angling writer and fly tier was once giving a talk to a group and he was explaining about the use of strike indicators when a gentleman rose from the back of the group and asked "What's the difference between using a strike indicator and a bobber?" Never missing a beat, this speaker replied, "The indicator goes through the guides a lot easier than a bobber and is a whole lot simpler to cast with a fly rod."
Now let us talk a little bit about the trout and the nymph. First, when referring to nymphing, I am talking about any aquatic life except minnows and leeches. As for fly patterns, I am referring to everything fished wet except classic wet flies and streamer/leech types. This means nymphs and emergers. While dealing with the spring creeks, the nymphing list would include mayflies, caddisflies, midges, shrimp, sowbugs, stoneflies and damsel nymphs, to name a few.
A major portion of the trout's diet comes in nymphal form. After studying stomach samples for over 20 years, I have found that 90% of everything a trout eats is in nymphal form. Therefore, if the angler wishes to take more trout and otherwise improve his/her effectiveness, a little time must be devoted to the study of nymphs and how the trout react to them. No, you don't have to take up the study of Latin to accomplish this.
All it takes is a little bit of rock rolling and poking around with an insect net and, lastly, watching the trout feed. To watch the trout you will need a good pair of polarized sunglasses.
The spring creeks offer the angler the greatest trout-fishing classroom found anywhere. Because of the clear water, you can see the trout and watch them feed. From this you can learn the various rise forms and observe the depth at which the trout are feeding. With the clear water you can collect insects easily. You can also release the insects and see how they swim. The spring creek anglers can see their own mistakes and profit from them.
Learn to identify the basic nymphal food forms. Once you have a fair idea of the food forms, how they act and how the trout react to them, you are ready to gear-up and start fishing.
The equipment will vary according to personal choice. A long 8' to 9' rod for 3, 4 or 5 weight lines offers the beginner better line control and casting accuracy, but a bamboo from 6' to 8-1/2' in the 2 to 5 weight line class is a joy to fish on the spring creeks.
I know it's a little off the subject, but a note of interest about bamboo rods. The angler using a bamboo rod can put more pressure on the fish and subdue it quicker than the person using a similar graphite stick. This is because the bamboo "gives", and absorbs the shock of the surges, where a surge against a graphite rod means you must allow the fish to take line or break off. The only graphite rod that I know does as well is the Orvis One Weight.
Now, back to equipment. The reel must have a smooth drag system, preferably one that is adjustable, and must be capable of holding at least 50 yards of backing. The leaders will go from 10' to 14'. I prefer knotless leaders with an additional tippet. Hand tied, knotted leaders will work, but the knots can cause drag and at certain times of the year weeds and other flotsam can catch on the leader causing problems. I use the loop-to-loop tippet method favored by Lefty Kreh.
This is where you take the end of the leader, tie in a double surgeon's loop and take the end of the tippet and do the same. Then, holding the leader loop in one hand, slide the tippet loop up the leader. Take the end of the tippet and draw it through the leader loop. This will form a figure 8 and will not hinge. This method offers a knot of greater strength. My findings have shown that on 78% of the trout broken off on the strike, the break occurs at the tippet knot. The tippet will range from 36" to 54" and the rule of thumb is to go with as strong a tippet as you can get away with. This generally means that during early June and July you can use 5X and 6X. Into late July, 6X becomes the choice and by September you're down to 7X. Rarely is 8X needed, but there are times. When you are forced to go to 8X, pray a lot.
Now we move on to the selection of a strike indicator and its placement. There are two types of indicators that are easy and practical to use.
The first is the pinch-on style, possibly the most popular. These come in a packet of a dozen and are equipped with an adhesive surface. They are placed at the desired location on the leader by simply folding the indicator in half. These will work, but even trimmed down, they are bulky, cause drag and are a real son-of-a-gun to move or remove.
The style of indicator we prefer is made from fluorescent yarn. This style is easy to see, cast, and floats like a cork when treated with floatant. It's also easy to move and remove. The fluorescent yarn comes in bright green, pink and orange, which lends itself to varied light conditions. There is also strike putty, but I believe it isn't delicate enough for spring creek angling situations.
The method of applying the indicator is simple. First, you cut a strip of yarn about an inch long. Then you place an over-hand knot in the leader in the desired place, but don't tighten down the knot. You place the strip of yarn in the knot and then tighten. The mono tightens on the yarn, not on itself. Therefore there is no chance of breakage as you suffer with a wind knot. With your scissors, you shape the sections of yarn into a small pair of wings, grease them up with your favorite floatant and you're ready to go.
If you wish to remove the indicator, all you have to do is take the point of the hook and loosen the knot and roll the indicator up or down the leader as desired or remove it altogether.
The placement of the indicator will depend on the depth of water that you are fishing. You want the indicator far enough up the leader so it doesn't interfere with the drift of the artificial. Generally, I start my indicator up about 40". As the trout start to feed on nymphs drifting up the middle water, just move your indicator closer to the fly. Once I ran out of the emerger that the trout were taking, so I moved the indicator within 2" of the fly and, using a weighted nymph, I was still able to take fish.
Also, if you have trouble seeing small dries and surface emergers, try using a small indicator about 36" above the fly for a point of reference when looking for your fly. Remember, if the little winged indicator is floating along naturally without drag, then your fly is doing the same. When you see the indicator stop, or move in an unnatural manner, set the hook gently.
Another method of nymphing, which has become popular, is the use of two flies, one dry and one nymph. The dry should be something you can see. Additional tippet is tied right to the bend of the hook of the dry fly. The tippet length depends on the depth you want to fish the nymph. On the spring creeks of Paradise Valley, I often start the nymph three to four feet behind the dry. But when fishing emerging nymphs, I have placed the emerger only eight inches behind the dry. Oh, by the way, sometimes the trout even take the dry.
FISHING THE HATCH
How to fish during the hatch when the trout are selectively feeding on a certain stage of the hatching insect can indeed be a perplexing problem. Careful observation is the key to understanding what imitation to use and how to fish it. Once again the key to being successful is careful OBSERVATION!!!
Often I have used this phrase and then found that anglers either didn’t know how to observe or what to observe. Therefore, I am going to explain each step I take when fishing a hatch, along with explaining how and what I observe influences what imitation I use and how it is used. Also, to better explain what I will be doing, I will use DePuy’s Spring Creek as an example.
What we are about to discuss is called situational angling and this topic could easily fill several well-written volumes. (That task must wait for someone more gifted than I.) What I am going to do is cover the basics by taking you through a typical late July morning hatch on the Paradise Valley spring creeks. Once again we can see where following the "Formula for Success" will help the angler to properly prepare to fish during this time period. Those who use the "Formula" will know what hatches to expect and have patterns and leaders suitable for the waters.
If I were concerned with only fishing the hatches, I would sleep in and arrive on the stream about 9 A.M. I could start my day in many different areas, but for the sake of making this understandable I would go to the upper section of the stream and gear up at the Fisherman's Hut.
The first place I would start would be Betty's Riffle. Now the time is 9:30 A.M. I would first take a few minutes and just watch the water to see what was going on. The first thing that I might notice would be a few rainbows "flashing" out in the riffle water. This would indicate that the trout are nymphing. I would closely observe these fish to determine how close to the bottom they were feeding and how often. If the trout were starting to feed in a fairly steady and regular rhythm, I would suspect that the PMD nymphs were starting to move and drift. This action by the nymphs may start as much as 90 minutes before the actual hatch. The start of this process is gradual and slowly builds as the time for hatching grows near.
In today's world of watching the clock, and managing our time, I find that anglers often try to apply such measures to hatches. This is wrong!!! There is no whistle or bell that rings to tell the nymphs that it is time to start drifting. There is also no director yelling, "OK! It's time to hatch. On my mark!! HATCH!" No, this is a gradual process that slowly builds.
Once I had observed what the trout were doing and already knowing that the PMD's would begin hatching around 10:30 to 11:00 A.M., I would then select a nymph that would imitate the nymph of the PMD and prepare to fish. (If I was on a strange stream and didn't know what was coming, I would sample the water below the feeding trout to determine what they were feeding on.) For this situation I would employ upstream nymphing techniques.
PRE-HATCH
Betty's Riffle‑‑‑Upstream Nymphing: I would be using a 10' 6X leader and would place a yarn type strike indicator about 48" above the f1y. My pattern of choice would be a Sawyer style PMD Nymph. Because I will be fishing in fast moving riffle water I will place a micro shot about 3” above the fly. I would then approach the trout so they were above and slightly across from my position. Then I would employ upstream nymphing methods. In this case I am working to trout that are visibly feeding, and would continue to fish in this manner as long as I was taking trout.
After awhile I might notice the trout have moved up and are feeding in the middle water, and that the deep nymph action was slowing down to nothing. I don't tie my spring creek nymphs with any weight other than the wires used in the tying process. Therefore, I simply remove the shot. The wire alone would be enough weight, coupled with the upstream delivery, to place the nymph in the trout's present feeding level.
The next thing I would observe is that the trout are taking nymphs that are only 4 to 6 inches under the surface. Here I could do two things. First I could simply grease a section of my leader and move the same nymph up into the feeding zone. Or I might change patterns and use a Sawyer PMD FlashBack. If I were to use the FlashBack I would trim the shuck back to about 1/2 the length of the hook shank. Once wet, this pattern can easily be worked 4 to 6 inches under the film.
DURING THE HATCH
Annie's Run: Finally I would start to see the trout take the hatching nymphs in the film. Then I would switch to the Foam Floating PMD Nymph.
I would also move to a new location to fish. To fish the flush floating emergers I would either drop down stream and fish the flat, smooth water of Annie’s Run or move up above the bridge to the Ph.D. Pool. Today we will fish Annie's Run.
In the smooth water I would first add a 36” 7X tippet to my 10' 6X leader. I would work fish that were across or up and across from my position. You want to approach as close as possible to your target. Longer casts mean more problems with drag, line control, and reaction time.
Often on bright, warm days I will continue to fish the floating nymph throughout the major portion of the actual hatch. I do this because observation has taught me that on warm, bright days the insects hatch very quickly and the duns are only on the water a second or two. Therefore the trout tend to ignore the duns and seem to concentrate on the emergers. However, on a cool day the duns will hatch out and ride the water for long periods of time and the trout will start to move on them. If this happens it is time to switch over and use a thorax or parachute imitation.
I enjoy fishing the hatches in Annie's Run or the Ph.D. Pool and can often find some very challenging fish.
DURING THE HATCH: SITUATIONAL ANGLING
One day while fishing Annie's Run with a floating nymph imitation as previously described, I noticed three very nice fish working the far bank. These trout were holding very tight to the bank and the feeding rhythm was very irregular when compared to the rest of the trout in the area. After I worked my way into position and made a few casts to each fish, which they totally ignored, I proceeded to sit down on the bank and carefully watch one of the trout and at the same time see what was floating in the film. The rises were the same surface film takes that I had been seeing right along, but yet they wanted nothing to do with that floating nymph. It wasn't long before I noticed what, at first, appeared to be spinners floating in the film.
Upon closer examination I discovered that these were, in fact, adults that were half hatched and for whatever reason had drowned. The term for this is stillborn. I looked through my boxes and found some shuck trailing spent wing imitations I had tied for this purpose. Now I would like to tell you that after correctly figuring out what these trout were taking I was able to take all three of them. But that wasn't what happened. I did take the first fish, but I set the hook a wee bit too hard and broke off the second fish. While moving up to get into position I tripped over a rock and fell, which promptly spooked the third fish. By now the time was approaching 12:30 and the hatch was starting to fade.
AS THE HATCH FADES
Once I was back in action I switched to a thorax dun and fished my way back to Betty's Riffle. Why the dun? Often, as the hatch starts to fade and the flush emergers begin to disappear, a few "feeders of opportunity" will still move to adults. By now it's close to 1 P.M. and it's time for a cup of coffee and a quick sandwich.
We have now covered one fairly straightforward hatch, yet it took up to five different patterns to do so effectively. This is just a sample of how I fish hatches. This does not cover a complete day nor is it the only way to fish. These are just guidelines for those individuals to use who have little or no experience fishing hatch situations.
Part 4 will run next week
| Editor's Note |
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This article was originally written as a ‘class booklet’ for a class on fishing spring creeks. The names mentioned in the article are specific places on DePuy Spring Creek, Livingston, Montana. |
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