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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Dorsal view of a Skwala (Perlodidae) (Large Springfly) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
This Skwala nymph still has a couple months left to go before hatching, but it's still a good representative of its species, which was extremely abundant in my sample for a stonefly of this size. It's obvious why the Yakima is known for its Skwala hatch.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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Msmith14
Msmith14's profile picture
Posts: 10
Msmith14 on Apr 23, 2012April 23rd, 2012, 3:22 pm EDT
Hi I herd from a few people that lake run browns make a second run into the streams around this time of year but im not sure if this is true. What do you guys think?
Wbranch
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York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on Apr 23, 2012April 23rd, 2012, 7:01 pm EDT
Who told you such drivel? Mostly untrue except maybe if the streams you are referring to get a spring steelhead run and maybe the browns follow them up to eat the eggs.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Msmith14
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Posts: 10
Msmith14 on Apr 24, 2012April 24th, 2012, 2:45 am EDT
Thats what im saying. They got me excited for a minute:(
PaulRoberts
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Colorado

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on Apr 25, 2012April 25th, 2012, 6:59 am EDT
Well...kinda. You are on Lake O, yes? If so, there are two possible scenarios:

1). When the southern shore warms it draws huge numbers salmonids, along with many browns. Some of these fish (smaller ones in my exp, 2-4lbs) will ascend tribs a short ways (a few miles in some cases), provided there is enough flow -like spring with freshets. These are feeding fish, bright pelagic silver, and don't stay long. I've found them though and they are a surprise on light trout tackle.

2). I was told by a DEC biologist that some very large browns were appearing in the large tribs (Salmon River he was referring to) in July. He was wondering if this was some photoperiod entrainment issue at the hatchery. I was doing research at the time on photoperiod which is how we got to chatting. I couldn't help him there -kinda doubted that it was years old photoperiod. I suggested they were either in feeding, were still hangers-on from spring (some browns winter over in large pools in large tribs and leave on the spring freshets), or they were males getting a jump on the spawn (I've seen males showing signs of aggression as early as August).

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