The rivers of Pierce County are in fine shape. Extra flow and stained water will let anglers get closer to fish without spooking them. Stripping black buggers #6-10 and swinging Olive bodied soft hackles size 14-16 worked like a dream. Standard indicator fishing also worked well. Golden stones were in the air along with some sporadic mayfly flights. Few fish have been hitting the surface on the lower Kinni in the last few days. Yellow crane flies are also in the air and on the water every day now. Anglers are waiting on the light colored PAD’s, sulfurs and Hendrickson which should come in the next few weeks. The big rains may have dislodged some of those nymphs from the rocks and spit them into the St. Croix/Mississippi. We will have to see.

Butterflies have been all over the last week. They are such a pleasure to watch. My clients and I identified a bunch of different species yesterday. The butterflies above were identified by poking through a few books this morning. They are Giant Swallowtails, some of the largest in the family. They were drinking moisture and minerals from the sand when we found this group of 3.