This morning I fished the Oatka from about 9:50 till 10:50 and witnessed a wonderful spinner bonanza. The females where in mid flight with bright yellowish orange egg sacks attached to the back of their abdomen. Then they would drop onto the water to deposit their eggs and in doing so became easy pickings for many hungry trout. Fish were rising everywhere and tying on a fly was difficult but setting the hook on my first 3 or 4 was even tougher. See, when you are dedicated nymph fisherman such as me, it becomes difficult to adjust for the dry fly fishing. I did manage to finally set up on my first fish with a #14 hendrickson dry fly and soon landed it. Then I changed flies (I know what you’re going to say, “why change flies?”) Well, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try a number of new flies I had tied and watch the fish to see how they would react the fly patterns. So, I tied on one of my new hair winged flies. This produced an outstanding take. The trout slowly swam towards the fly following it downstream for a second then broke the water’s surface and sucked the fly in. After landing this fish I did it again and tied on my new FWR spinner (foam winged rusty spinner) and took another trout. The FWR spinner worked exceptionally well. It was durable and floated perfectly even after dragging it under the water (don’t ask). After this fish, the spinner activity was done and I switched to a hendrickson nymph which produced two more fish. I was hoping to get a number of good shots of fish and bugs on this trip, but the camera was not happy today and I managed only 3 pictures of fish, sorry. ~ Brian
Sounds like the process was a good time, I enjoy it when one fly catches one fish and you have to change, Its like they learn to not take the fly the last guy took.
good stuff bfly … isn’t fly fishing funny in the sense that a couple weeks ago you were chasing steelhead and catching fish measured in pounds …. now, dry fly fishing to some river trout and the same rewards are there even though the size of the fish is much smaller … i love that most about fly fishing … i can get just as much satisfaction from catching a nice big striper or bonefish on the fly .. and then equally as much satisfaction fishing a small stream and catching a big 14 inch trout … good stuff. looking forward to the hendriksons and caddis hatches in maine this year.
I love the process….it does make it easier when there’s a great hatch or spinner fall! I think i remember someone saying that the first really good hatch of the year is “stupid time” for the trout.
You got it! Steelhead one week, stream trout the next. Wouldn’t have it any other way! I hope you enjoy you’re first great hatch of the year…Fish On!
I forgot to mention in my last reply that i enjoyed your story…and hey…that’s one saucy salmon