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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.

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.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Adirman
Adirman's profile picture
Monticello, NY

Posts: 479
Adirman on Jun 30, 2016June 30th, 2016, 3:22 pm EDT
Hey, so I went to the Big E. last saturday, fished for about an hour and a half, caught 2, a small rainbow and a nice brown, probably around 11 inches. Used a 3 fly nymph rig w the coil, worked ok but im thinking that in some of the deeper runs, my flies were not getting down deep enough,negating the efficacy of the sighter. Of course, I could have readjusted by cutting and retying but My feeling is that a thinga ma bobber indy or maybe yarn that is more readily adjustable might be a better option for certain stretches of the E. where profound changes in depth can occur. Some of the holes were like 6ft or more in depth and when it gets the deep, I think a floating surface sighter wouldbe a better choice, what do you think?
TimCat
TimCat's profile picture
Alanson, MI

Posts: 121
TimCat on Jun 30, 2016June 30th, 2016, 4:52 pm EDT
I've heard about something called "strike putty(?)" that you basically glob onto your leader. It's supposedly easy to put on and off, but after a while it slides up and down on the line. Those foam sticky indicators are easy to take on and off too, but have the same problem as the putty after the adhesive gets wet after a while. I have been nymphing without a bobber this year. I know I'm missing a lot of strikes but I don't really nymph much anyway. I usually end up fishing emergers/soft hackles when not much is going on on the surface. I need to step my nymphing game up. Ha
"If I'm not going to catch anything, then I 'd rather not catch anything on flies" - Bob Lawless
Adirman
Adirman's profile picture
Monticello, NY

Posts: 479
Adirman on Jul 1, 2016July 1st, 2016, 7:19 am EDT
Yeah, Ive talked to a few guys who do it entirely by feel, i.e., no indy, not quite there yet myself lol. My feeling is that even if you can have success nymphing entirely by feel, your still gonna miss some strikes, so, say you had a 7-8 fish day w/o and indy, with one on top perhaps you would have caught 11-12.
TimCat
TimCat's profile picture
Alanson, MI

Posts: 121
TimCat on Jul 1, 2016July 1st, 2016, 10:31 am EDT
Definitely. I've seen underwater videos of trout spitting flies out so fast, there's no way a person could detect it.... Maybe even with an indicator
"If I'm not going to catch anything, then I 'd rather not catch anything on flies" - Bob Lawless
Troutnut
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Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Jul 6, 2016July 6th, 2016, 12:48 pm EDT
I've seen underwater videos of trout spitting flies out so fast, there's no way a person could detect it....


Yeah, I can confirm from my work with video that this happens all the time with real debris. Fish sample lots of things that aren't really food and very often spit them out within a tiny fraction of a second.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Adirman
Adirman's profile picture
Monticello, NY

Posts: 479
Adirman on Jul 6, 2016July 6th, 2016, 4:03 pm EDT
There is NO WAY youre ever gonna get them all lol!

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