Trike's

The lack of any recent postings does not mean I haven't been angling. The exact opposite. I've been consumed with the Trico's on the Grand.

I suppose it's probably not the easiest hatch to fish. There's a few things you need to know in order to be successful with them. Some obvious, some not so.

Whenever you get into the tiny flies, you encounter a wonderful little nuance known as micro drag. Besides the currents and seams we can see, there are also tiny swirls and jogs we cannot. If you watch tiny naturals on the water, there will be subtle little pauses in their drifts, or they will swirl back against the current, affected by the small variance in current. Tippet material can be to stiff to allow these micro currents to affect our fly as they should. This requires using a very light tippet. 8x being appropriate. Short casts can also help. When I say appropriate tippet strength, the general rule is to divide your fly size 3, and thats your tippet. In example, a size 24 Trico, divided by 3, gives us 8. So 8x.

Precise casting is also a priority. The number of Trikes on the water at one time can be enourmous. Fish do not have to move to find their next meal. If you watch a trout on a steady feed, they will be coming up in exactly the same spot. Being 10" of off its feeding lane will likely not get results when targeting specific fish. Your also going to want to get your fly over top of him in time with his rise rythym. Fish on a steady feed tend to rise in a steady cadence. By timing your presentation with his pattern, your increasing your odds of a hook up.

As far as I know, the hatch tends to work like this. Male duns come of at dusk and late at night. They hang around waiting for the females to show up. I've seen it written that they don't provide much angling opportunity because of it. I really can't speak to that myself. I'm familiar with the morning activity. Then, almost as soon as you have light, you'll get female duns emerging. This will get the fish moving. Fish can be taken in the early stages of the emergence with duns, even before the lock into a steady feed. Not long after they start emerging, after spending sometime streamside and molting, they start forming great clouds of spinners over riffles. There they are joined by the males. After the mating starts, the males hit the drink first. So, in terms of fishing the hatch, you'd prefer to be on the water at dawn, and fish the female duns. Once that stops producing, its onto the male spinners, then the female spinners if the males stop producing.

This is also the time you want to be using your light rods.......2wt, 3wt etc...........Lighter rods protect lighter tippets better. They also allow for a more delicate presentation. Hopefully be out again shortly, taking advantage of this hatch while its hot.