All through the day, all through the rain, all through the evening there was the widest variety of insect hatches today, than I can remember ever seeing. There were 5 or 6 different mayflies, black and cream midges, crane flies of a couple of different sizes and colors, golden stones and large long horn caddis. Sometimes the choice of bug was tough with so many insects on the water throughout the day. Every fish caught was a fat one. Darth Vader made his appearance this afternoon and what appeared to be hexagenias were in the air. Even though we have received considerable rain in the last few days the rivers are clear and look good. If the overcast, high humidity, and rain keep up don’t miss the fishing. It was cosmic.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAndy – Any patterns for that ‘Darth Vader’ fly?
Yesterday I used a generic black parachute mayfly I had tucked in the box which got a few fish, but seems there has to be a better one. Ran into this same situation last year, so would like to tie up a few. Most were caught on a WD-40 emerger pattern (black body/gold wood duck shuck/wingcase)
I concur.
So many bugs that it was difficult to choose what to throw – which of the 10 or 12 different insects on the water do you try to match?!?! A quandary, indeed.
Fish eating hard and heavy all day and all night – it was truly an epic day on the water.
Darth Vader is the best mayfly name ever!
I have been seeing tons of Mayflies too, LHs, March browns, Cahills, yellow baetis, Isos, a Hex. Suprisingly not much for trout of any size rising, you could catch plenty dinks on dries. Nymphs have been stellar though.
I have tied a black CDC Comparadun on a TMC 102y size 19 and 21. The hook is black. I am using duck CDC for the wing. This pattern rides low in the water, but on overcast days it is surprisingly visible. Thread body, xelon shuck or microfibit tail, Duck CDC for wing. Size 20 dry hook will be fine as well.
I’ve had a bit of success using a trico spinner during the vader hatch.
Bob
I have too, and that is a great suggestion. My confidence fell short the other night using one though. I did catch two fish on it, but after multiple good drifts and no takes, I switched to a different pattern because of the white wings. Darth is a black wing mayfly. My brain tries to find something wrong with each and every pattern I throw at the trout if it is not catching fish on every good drift. I then lose a bit of confidence and change patterns. My brain works oddly that way, I am constantly looking for more rewards from the trout even if they have given me some! Last night, I stayed with the same #22 PMD knock down spinner pattern all night even though it was not getting as many takes as I deemed successful. I fooled more than enough trout to make me giggle. The “catch” in me breaking my own rules last night was that it was too dark to see the 6x tippet and the fly that I would have changed to. Go figure, I did just fine at catching without changing patterns so your suggestion of using the trico spinner would have probably worked just fine the rest of the evening, if I would have just left it on. Great suggestion.
bob’s smart and stuff.
Andy –
You are right about the white wings on the tricos being off, but it’s usually the smallest, bIack fly I have (and to be honest I’m never ready for the vader’s). Maybe a trailing shuck black midge would work as well. I might tie up a few “trico” spinners with dun colored wings instead of white this week – we’ll see how they work
Somebody probably has a better picture of DV, but here’s a phone shot from a misty evening.
http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/5453/darthvader610.jpg
You can see he has white-ish legs. Maybe a charcoal gray to black fly with grizzly parachute, black cdc wing post and mallard flank tail would do it. I’d go 18, though judging from this one.
Don’t over think this. A slender black thread abdomen and a dark cdc wing, black dubbed thorax, split microfibett tail tied on a #20 mustad 9833 3x light dry fly hook has been working since the fly first showed up on the river a couple decades back. Recognizing the right weather conditions to go fishing is most important to fun with this bug.
Jay
If you talk to Jan tell him that the green apple sulfurs came off that night as well. I think he left the river at 6pm and asked if I thought they would show. I stayed until 9 and they came off thick at 7-7:30. right weather conditions could be tomorrow, light rain through mid afternoon. I am with you on the thread body but I like the 102y black hook with the wide gape.
hex hatch confirmed on Rush last night (Monday). after dark. was having great success w weird orange/brown long-antennae caddis, but switched to a hex when they appeared. fish were not that interested in the hex. how best to fish them? the hex that were not just flying around seemed to flutter on the surface briefly, then depart (without incident). the few other times I’ve seen a stray hex, the fish went nuts for them. maybe I left too soon. did end w a nice fish hammering the hex and taking me downstream quite a ways.
Hey Andy,
Jan here, I did stay for the Sulfur hatch, just went to a different section. They came off very well and the fish surprisingly continued to feed. I did manage to catch the most beautiful brown trout in the world that night. It was really big too. If I didn’t love my wife so much I would have married that fish.
Joe and I are going over today hopefully for a repeat performance.
p.s. poor Sulfur hatch last night, good MB spinner fall though.
http://www.rackelhanen.se/eng/10282.htm
this is a link to a website I found that shows a “darth vader midge”
Jan
Got off the river at 7 tonight. Bugs not quite the same tonight. Guided elsewhere all day. Finished up where I saw you. Crane fly pattern worked well in the evening
Robert
There has been so much insect activity over the past week with strong hatches of some bugs and sporadic hatches of others. Rise forms are all over the board and the fish are stuffed like pigs. The fish can be total opportunists in the same 30 yard stretch. I am not sure I can answer the “best way” to fish them but I can tell you this. The answer that you seek is locked in the moments that each fish feeds. Selecting the “best way” is usually unique to each hatch event. Hundreds, maybe thousands of variables are involved and no two events are exactly the same, only similar. Your strong observations are getting you closer to the answer and every time you experience this hatch there will be more clarification. There are times when I have seen hatches thick on the water and not a fish rising. There are times when fish compete for each bug on the water and they take any pattern offered. And there are times when even the best anglers struggle with the best way to fish them.
Thanks Reid,
Looks like that might work.
Andy thanks for general wisdom—always appreciated. I was wondering, though, specifically about the hex, should I encounter the hatch again.
Robert
Robert
I am not sure where you were on the river or how thick the hatch was. Were there thousands of bugs? Hundreds of bugs? or a few Hex’s like I saw. Sometimes the hatch comes all at once. Sometimes it comes in pieces depending upon the conditions. All the stars have to align in order for the conditions to be right for their hatch. Some years there are strong populations, some years not so strong. The only way to know is to go and find the habitat where the nymphs are likely to be, and go fishing. Here is what I do know. For the past 20 years the hex hatch has been considered a non-important hatch on our trout streams. 30-40 years ago it was stronger on our trout streams, partly due to poor farming practices which left more silt in the river. There are some sections of some trout rivers in Pierce and St.Croix counties where there are populations of these bugs. Not large populations but they do exist. I have not actively pursued this hatch on our trout streams because I am not sure it is worth the effort vs. reward like other hatches I have gathered years of information about. I fish the Hex hatch on the St. Croix, if I can, because that is where the high density hatches of hex occur. I know this hatch comes off on these rivers from mid to late June. Up North on the lakes, it is around July 4th. First and formost is you need the to find the silty slow water habitat that the nymphs exist in. I am not trying to be coy when I tell you that if I put in the time on the water to find a large population of these bugs, in a place where I could reasonably predict the hatch, and trout existed there in good size and numbers, I would probably keep it to myself and only show non-descriptive photos of large trout to my friends. I suspect the stretches of good hex water on our local streams are few and far between and your pursuit is an honorable one. To be honest, I do not have enough information or experience to give you a good solid answer to your question. But may I put my request in to be your personal photographer when you do find the magic location and night. I hate those shots of people trying to photograph themselves with large trout.
Thanks for the question Robert and thanks for following the site. Send me your address and I will send you something cool.
Andy
Here is some info that came from Malcolm Knop and Robert Cormier’s book MAYFLIES “an anglers study”
-Hexagenia limbata is usually confined to lakes and slow silty streams, often not considered suitable trout habitat.
– Hatches occur at twilight and can continue well into the night, exceptions can be heavy overcast when the hatch can occur in the afternoon
– High density Hex hatches occur usually over a one to 2 week period, however the bugs can be on the water from June to September
– Climatic conditions greatly influence the timing of the emergence.
-There are a number of Hex species.
Andy:
I don’t ever get to fish with Jan anymore. I seldom fish the Rush anymore either. Funny thing is I don’t miss it much. Guess I got my fill.
Jay
Jay
Just a stage.
Jay, you got your fill? You don’t miss the Rush? That’s great. You don’t miss the loss of those super-tankers of days gone by? So your mourning period only lasted, what, about ten years? Or could it be you don’t like fishing there any more because of all of those ghosts? I know they still haunt me.
Nope…just not able to get my fix on the Rush
Wow,
Good stuff Jan. There are fewer and fewer folks who realize how incredible it was.
Andy/Jan
The Rush I knew no longer exists and the memory of the ghosts has even faded. The new Rush is a great trout stream in its own right but it just doesn’t hold my interest like it once did. You all enjoy it!
Jay
Jay,
sorry I missed you this past weekend. There is alot of huffing and puffing expert flyfishing advice on them there internets…….I have to say your past observations and advice re: hatches and strategies this time of year again proved to be right on point. The vaders were a trip saver along with a nice olive hatch.
Even in the very much shorter time I’ve fished the rush I’ve noticed a change as well but have lots of time yet before I get my fill. Thats the price of living 4.5 hrs away.
thanks
bill
i don’t mean this in a snarky way, but wasn’t the Rush of old a stocked fishery, with warmer temps, and little natural reproduction?
Dear Snarky,
Just kidding Josh. The answer is yes, and your question bring up a great topic of discussion. I think the question you might be getting at is; What is all the hub bub over this once stocked fishery? Remember the Rush river was always a trout fishery, but man decided to help it along once it had damaged it to the point where it no longer supported the resources it once did. This story is true of the Kinni as well, as it has undergone its changes over time.
I think mostly we all start out as anglers. For me, catching fish was the biggest part of the whole game. Catching a big fish was the greatest thrill. Catching a trophy fish was either pure luck, pure skill or a bit of both, but it was the pinnacle, it was pride. There were those who could pay money to be “guided” for a trophy or at least a much better than average chance at one. And yes, there were the trout ponds. Pay by the pound, catch a trophy every time and get your picture taken with it to boot, all factory direct from the hatchery. As one continues angling, there are many forks in the road from which we choose our path. All of them still involve a quest, or at least a secret desire to catch a big fish. As fly anglers, the path of continued discovery leads through science, art, and solitude with an eventual understanding of how important the cycles of life are in a world of damaged and diminishing resources. As things around us change, we recognize those changes and strive to understand the why’s and determine the positives and negatives. Was the Rush River a stocked fishery previous to three years ago? Yes. Was there brood stock put into the river? Yes. Did the Rush River support a population of large trout that started out small and grew quickly because of the warm water forage in the river? Yes. Were these trout dumb as a box of rocks and easy to catch? No. Is it possible for hatchery fish to learn wild trout behavior if they are able to hold over? …..Was it nice to catch big trout once in a while so close to home? Yes. Did I completely understand the difference between wild trout and stocked trout in 1985 when I started fishing there? Not really. Do old codgers see change, and talk about the past? Every chance they talk to each other. Youth is fleeting, I am interested in your opinion on the one question I posed and left unanswered.
” Is it possible for hatchery fish to learn wild trout behavior if they are able to hold over?”
i guess that depends on a ton of factors; most importantly what is the source or genetics of the holdovers? Do they derive from wild fish, captured for eggs and milt( like the timber coulee strain in sw WI), or are they 100% hatchery raised fish, with the closest genetic tie to the wild being many, many generations back, and likey not indeigenous to the introduced watershed.
my short, uneducated answer though is no. Mostly because the curve is too sharp/ time is too short for them to lose the pavlovian stupidty that has become innate behaivior to them in regards to feeding.
Andy,
btw very much appreciate the very helpful and generous regional info you provide. Wish I had taken the time to look it over more carefully before coming up. A hatch matchers delight this last week……couldn’t have asked for more
bc
I think you are right. “A ton of factors.” Genetics, survival of the fittest, product of environment, just to name a few. I will do some digging because the old timers who were involved in providing fish for the Rush and surrounding rivers are still with us. I am interested in the real story. Your short answer you didn’t need because you are educated, and it shut the door on your long answer. But I understand why you needed to add it. I will dig. Thanks josh.
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