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3. How are your hatches doing lately?

Up here in northern lower MI (well, down here for you Jason) we've been having a prolonged dry spell, with waters currently low, clear, and pretty warm. The upper Rifle was 68 F on Thursday evening, the Pine felt probably five degrees colder and fish there were more frisky (and I actually got larger ones there). The pond is warm at the surface but a few brookies still bit. But...

Next to no hatching activity going on, at least for anything other than midges! I have not seen squat for caddis hatches in several weeks, and the only mayflies are a handful of Light Cahills that appear just as darkness falls. Fish can be conjured up, but the water is mostly pretty dead.

Just curious to know how other folks are doing in their home waters.

Jonathon

Jonathon-

Ditto for us here in SW Mich- streams are running in the 20's for percentile of flow for the most part, and minimal hatch activity. I was on the upper PM again last week and saw the same sporadic L Cahill activity, 9:30 pm and later which pretty well meant nightfall. 2 fish before it was too dark to wade safely.

I've stopped fishing the Rogue, my home stream, due to low water and high temps. The only good remaining hatch is the E Leukon which will crank up around Labor Day barring low and hot water.

sidebar, I'm sinking a new well because the water table has dropped drastically these last couple years- getting pretty dry!

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe

Crazy weather this morning, 2.94 inches of rain in the gauge and when I checked the USGS website for MI flows the Rogue is suddenly in the 91st percentile...the Big Lake is a weather machine and we live- or dry- by its dictate.

High and muddy on the stream, go figure.

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe

Just got back from fishing the North Branch of the Boardman. The water was clear, cold and low. 63 degrees at 1pm. I didnt see anything hatching but this stretch is real tight. I've never seen a 'hatch' on it but I do see the occasional group of mayflies come off. About size 16-10 brown and tan ones every week I've fished except today. I did see a ton of cased caddis clinging to the weeds. I also saw a lot of huge stone fly shucks on the banks. Midges all about the surface. I left before the most likely hatch times would be today though...

Jonathon, I didn't go fishing last week because of the high temps, the week before last there was some type of hatch of noseeums as fishing were rising and actually coming right out of the water to smash there prey, pretty cool. I did all right on a parachute adams, I have the day off tomorrow, I'm getting up really early and heading up to fish the morning.

Mike.

In CT it's been a heat wave 90's + w/ no rain. Water levels are low. Not super prime fishing but we do have a tail water fishery which keeps sections cold. ISOs, Cahills are coming off at times. I've had to work harder for fish & into late evening.

See vids for the action

On the Rifle at Selkirk last night there was, again, next to no hatching activity, with the exception of midges as it was getting dark. Saw a few Nectopsyche caddisflies skimming the water but they were only in a few spots, and a handful of Light Cahill mayflies. Almost nothing but little guys feeding, but somehow I managed to bring up a 12" brown on a grey EHC, right in front of a couple of spin fisherman to boot! Mighty slow and warm out there...

Jonathon

Jonathon, I was there in the morning, hit the water at 5:55 am, worked my up to the creek. I caught a few there and had one nice one on, but it got wrapped around a stick and broke off, cool none the less. Almost no fish rising, and very little bug activity. Went up by the ranch campground and a decent fish on a hopper pattern so close to the bank I don't know it got through the vegetation for the fish to hit. It just got to hot about 1:30 pm, so headed home.

Mike

"...a decent fish on a hopper pattern so close to the bank I don't know it got through the vegetation for the fish to hit."

They will hang just outside an undercut bank to snatch up those hoppers, and some times its only a matter of inches from the bank. It is most definitely hopper season, they've been working well for me! There is a part of the Pine I plan on hiking into one of these days for some hopper fishing, but I have to let the deer flies die out first, as this trail goes right by a great big swamp...

Jonathon

Won't mention any names as my home waters are in danger of being loved to death but... Suffice to say I was in Northern California.

I was on the water earlier in the week in search of some "normal" evening Caddis (never bothered to identify the genus etc) hatches which at this time of year are fairly predictable and some great fishing

It did not happen!!! I managed a few fish on random spinner patterns and a lot of refusal rises to a PED/PMD cripple.

Interestingly enough, the morning rise was actually much stronger than I would have anticipated and to a surprisingly diverse group of insects that I normally associate with cooler weather and/or early season fishing.

I'm guessing that water temps may have been high enough and perhaps consistently enough with drought and long term changes associated with global warming that evening water temps might becoming too high for some insect groups?

Again just guesswork and observation but after cooling all night, water temps may be more favorable in the mornings?

I was surprised to say the least.

Dem, are you experiencing the drought in your part of the state? We are still pretty dry as a bone around here, though it's mostly the grasses that are turning brown, though I saw some local corn not looking so great yesterday...and the bushes in front of my house are looking a little wilty...

Hmmm, what insects are you seeing in the a.m.? I'm a night owl so I rarely get up that early, but I am curious to know if they're the same bugs that typically hatch in the evening. Still not seeing much of anything in the way of evening hatches around here...

BTW welcome to Troutnut if I haven't welcomed you on here yet!

Jonathon

Early season hatches (normally PM) will come in the morning when the weather heats things up too much. I have fished Hendrickson emergences at 9 AM. It was all over by 11...

Went up to the Manistee this morning, my first time. I fished the Deward area and in my first 15 minutes had a good fish take my hopper, such a good fish it broke me off! Other than that it was slow, but what beautiful country, I could live up there.

Mike.

The drought still seems pretty severe to my untrained eye. We had a decent amount of rain but the snow melted way too quickly--a pattern that seems to have occurred all over the west--and temperatures climbed pretty quickly and have stayed higher than average.

As for bugs, I am embarrassed to admit, I don't actually remember what I was seeing. Definitely some Trico--which I wasn't expecting. There were scattered PMDs as I recall and an unidentified Ephemerella species as well. The one that really threw me was a Golden Stone(at this time of year???) I only saw the one but...

No... I haven't become senile nor am I dealing with early onset Alzeheimers lol

...and I no longer key out bugs once I figure out some patterns and techniques that work for a hatch. You can only get so much mileage out of the difference between the inermis and the infrequens ;-)

I was at the tail end of a 4 1/2 week road trip across the Rockies, starting on the North Platte and working my way through the Tetons into Yellowstone and then Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon--finishing up in NorCal so some parts of the trip are clearly a blur--especially towards the end!

WOW, that sounds like a helluva trip! Did you take any photos? If so, post a story with them on here! Us Troutnuts love to see each other's road trips, not to mention Jason's NON-road trips (see the front page of this website for his crazy fishing adventures). OOOPS, just saw that you already did!

Mike, yes, it's hopper time baby! I am waiting for the deer flies to die and then there a is hike-in stretch of the Pine I am dying to "hopperize".

Went to Cooke Pond looking for smallies tonight. No bugs on the water, almost no risers, no hits on streamers or a popper. First night I've been skunked since April! Thank goodness for those little pond brookies last night, they're always reliable.

Jonathon

Good to hear other Nuts are getting on-stream, and sharing their trips with the rest of us! My planned-for excursions have hit some roadblocks the past few weeks. This past Monday I did get time on the Boardman above and below the "Forks' and then at Scheck's casting terrestrial patterns; some bumps but nothing hooked, no hatch activity until about 11 am when some Olives started coming off now and then. I managed to catch one and they were approx sz 16's, dark olive body and abdomen, slate-grey wings and I wish I'd had my camera with me.

My first time on this part of an absolutely beautiful stream, COLD AND CLEAR beyond belief and I can't wait to go back.

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe

Boardman River Olives, redux-

I did some researching and its likely the mays I saw coming off were Drunella Lata- coloration, size, and later summer timeline add up. TX to the Insects by Common Name on this site for Slate Winged Olives information, again!

Roguerat

I am going to do some afternoon fishing here sometime, as the deerflies should be pretty much gone sometime soon. I will be hopper fishing, but since I haven't been out in the afternoon for quite a while (everything this summer has been like 8 p.m. or later) I have no idea if anything would be hatching. There certainly hasn't been anything but midges on the water in the evening around here lately, so a changeup is in order.

This past week has been the first since May that I didn't even go fishing once. Our weather has been soooooo freaking hot and dry I figure nothing big was going to be biting (except deerflies!), and that if I hooked anything I would be stressing it out too much in the heat. Last night and today we finally got a decent rainfall and slightly cooler temps, so this week I will venture back to the Pine (that stays fairly cold from numerous springs you can hear trickling in from the banks) and hit the Pond. I'm wondering if my grass might even turn green again!

Good luck guys!

Jonathon

While I was up at my cabin three times in the last three weeks it has been very hot and humid and it has affected the fishing significantly. There is virtually no rising fish all day unless you luck onto a cloudy day. I have been getting out on the water in the dark. Walking up river with the aid of a flashlight. Then fishing streamers until 7:30 or whenever the mist burns off. Then working around the cabin until it gets too hot for this old man to be outside and then watch TV until 6:00, have dinner, and then go out until dark.

In York, PA today the temperature at 3:30 was 97 and the heat index makes it feel like 124 degrees. I decided it is a waste of time and money to go up to the cabin for 2-3 hours a day of fishing. I'm not going back up until there are at least two consecutive days of no more than 82 degrees.

Passin' time on a muggy Saturday afternoon...

Ditto on the heat and all, Jonathon. I was on the Boardman until maybe 11 am then waded out, simply too hot and no activity to speak of. The Rogue was in the 17th percentile for flow this past week then shot up due to downpours overnight, now its simply high and muddy again. Things will even out sooner or later, I'm still waiting on the Ephrons to show up.

Roguerat