I'm Praying for the Rain

Cutthroats are often thought of as fair weather fish due to their propensity to rise to dry flies on bright sunny days. While this may be true, like most trout, when the feed is really on, so are they. This past weekend was a perfect example of this. Green drakes (among a few other mayflies) were popping - and with the cooler and often drizzly weather slowing the act of eclosion, and keeping the duns on the water a little longer, the cutties were feeding with reckless abandon. Fly anglers who were prepared for the weather and didn't mind being out under adverse conditions were the ones having all the fun.

The contrast from two weeks ago was an interesting lesson in fly selection - green drakes were the dominant hatch on both occasions, but the fish were targeting slightly different stages of emergence. Two weeks ago was mostly hot and sunny, and water temperatures were higher. Emergence of individual bugs was a relatively quick event so the fish were targeting the duns as they waited for their wings to dry and were attempting to flutter away. Here, the paradrake out fished the emerger 10:1. This past weekend being cooler both in terms of water and air temperature, coupled with the damp conditions meant that the act of emergence was a little slower. The fish were more focused on nymphs just starting to emerge in the surface film. My green drake emerger out fished the paradrake 10:1. All of this highlights the importance of not just knowing what insect is emerging, but having a few flies to match more than one stage of the hatch. 

If you are interested in tying my Green Drake Emerger it is quite simple. Just tie an unweighted Hare'e Ear nymph in dark olive with an antron tail, rib with brown 2/0 nylon thread, and tie in a post style tuft of natural deer hair. When fishing this fly apply some floatant to the deer hair only, and then saturate the body and tail with saliva. The fly should hang in the surface film and look just like the nymph as the cuticle splits and the adult is just starting to work its way out.