An Evening Hatch

 

An Evening Hatch

5/13/23

  After a pork chop and applesauce dinner Randy and I decided to walk down the creek, from the campground, hoping for an evening hatch. 

 

 When we arrived at the campsite on Thursday we fished after we set up and found rising trout to caddis. No biggies but a few rainbows and brown trout that would take our olive and tan caddis.

When we got to our destination there weren’t any risers but we casted dry flies anyhow and made fish rise in the first half hour.

 

 As it got later dimples and small swirls appeared on the water surface like sporadic raindrops on calm pond water. What I could tell there was a combination of small midges and small sulfurs starting to rise off the water. Not many but enough to make me tie on a sulfur imitation. I knotted on a #16 but many of the sulfurs I saw were maybe a #18 or smaller. There were also something I couldn’t see the trout were taking.

  It appeared the quick rises to the surface were smaller fish. Once I caught one I discovered they were small wild brown trout feeding. They were quick to the surface to grab a fly like a sudden surprise of a popped corn kernel. I guess they were entitled to eat too.

 

  The water I was casting to was no deeper than shin deep. It looked as if a few trout came out from the deeper water and under tree cover to feed in the open slow surface flow. Every once in a while I’d hook into a bigger brown feeding with the little guys in the shallower water.

  As evening approached I looked up and saw a few bigger mayflies. I believe they were spinners of some sort. They had 2 long splayed tails and a dark body. I figured there was a spinner fall and that may be what the trout were feeding on that I couldn’t see.

 More small sulfurs were coming off and I had many more refusals on my #16. it got too dark under the canopy of trees we were under for me to tie anything else on. We called it a day and headed back to camp as dimples of rising trout continued to surface. 

 ~doubletaper