As always we begin on the “home waters” down the road on the Metolius River. Here is a crazy story, and believable mostly because I know the source.
What is the earliest date of the season you can guess trout being caught on a Green Drake dry?
Carolina Phil (who is also a new shop employee after years of being one of our best customers) rose 3 and landed 1 on a #10 Drake DRY on April 3rd. Last year, on April 7th he had a similar experience.
I wonder why?
It is possible a few “sentinels” come out early, on the lookout for species survival and in doing so early assures that some species success is more assured in the event of catastrophe at the time the majority of the species hatch from mid-May to late-June. But even that scenario seems far fetched this far out. I personally remember fishing a strong Drake hatch on the Metolius on April 22nd with a good friend from Murren Switzerland. He loved it, I did too, but was more floored by the date than the actual hatch.
Would I go all in on Drakes this month? No I would not, especially with a dry. But I would do a search through some seams and eddies with one late in the afternoon from time to time, and put more focus on a GD Nymph.
Most of the past week did not seen very good Cinygmula hatches (there are trickling hatches around mid afternoon). Blue Wing Olive hatches have been very good this week and the fish are looking up for emergers, cripples and duns. Keep an eye on Spinners late in the day/early evening. It is going to rain Monday, and I am going to guess that the mayfly hatches will be good.
There ar plenty of caddis around and I would use Corn Fed Caddis, Iris Caddis, Orange Elk Hair and Orange Rubber Leg Stimulator for the top, and corresponding caddis pupa in colors and sizes appropriate for the hatch. Without doubt a #8-10 Orange, #14 Amber, #14-16 Tan pupa will match most of what the fish are seeing in the drift.
other nymphs of course are Golden Stones, Drake nymphs, Perdigons, Eggs, Frenchies, 2 Bits and Micro Mayflies are some of my favorites.
My shop kids were out in force this week on the Bull Trout. Gavin landed 3 yesterday, so yes, it is good. Big streamer season is upon us.
Every once in a while I get to talking with a customer who are on the way to the river, and through small talk, they mention something about their own fishing history that piques more interest. In this case I just had an inspiring conversation with Herb after he mentioned he fished a lot on the Delaware River back East. The Delaware is the birthplace of one of my favorite flies. I asked him if he knew Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi who were legendary anglers from the Delaware River, and who invented what I consider one of the top 5 dry flies of all time. Do you know what it is?
Bob and Al invented the comparadun, and back in the day they dubbed their bodies using dyed beaver fur in a process they called spectrum dubbing which they used the color wheel to blend colors to create the illusion of the natural shade of the mayfly they were matching. Blending dubbing colors, like an artist would blend oil paints to create the desired shade of the insect being matched was ground breaking at the time. In the modern world a comparadun remains one of my very favorite dry flies, but I am awfully happy to use Natures Spirit dubbing dyed to match any hatch we will encounter.