The spate has gone by &
the home water is finally clearing & coming into shape. The native
redbands, most of them thinking only of sex for the last two months, are now
done with spawning & looking around for something to eat. With abiding synchronicity
nature has timed the end of the spawning season to coincide with the onset of
the year’s heaviest insect hatches.
As the spate diminishes, the
bugs get going. If you watch it daily you see the progression. At first a
spritzer of sedges. Some BWO’s on cloudy days. Nothing but a handful of tidlers
up & going on them. It feels dead, but don’t be fooled, the clouded silt is
a veil hiding the river’s secret doings while rising pregnant in its season. It
is about to give birth. Daily, hatches of wee bugs increase until about the
first or second week of June, when March Brown mayflies appear. March Browns
are just the thing needed to put some fat back on haggard post-spawners, &
these really get things going.
A gently swung softie will
generally outfish a dryfly, where I fish. Here’s one that is turning the trick
right now.
UC March Brown
Hook: #10 Mustad 3366-BR
(equal to a standard #12), the fly dressed small on the hook, about #14
Thread: rust-brown UNI 8/0
Hackle: partridge
Tails: bronze gadwall flank
Rib: burnt-orange floss,
twisted
Body: hares mask with a bit
of Hareline UV Pink Shrimp Dub chopped in ~ & finish.
