Day time dry flies
Okay so here's a question: I have seen some beautiful fish start rising about 5 pm and onward at a few different spots along rivers, plus morning action for sure. With it being warmer I know the fish will lie low during the day but out of pure random curiosity is there even a chance with dry flies during the middle of the day?
"I smoke my friends down to the filter"
where.... what river? it makes a difference, but a midge pattern is what I would use, right now a grasshopper will kill all day on the right river, and any terrestrial ( ant, beattle, blah blah blah ) I always keep a black ant I tied to float in my box, when I see a fish that iis rising consistently,, I cast to him, this works alot. you can also try a stimulater or any searching pattern, but in bright daylight I would go as small as possible. Its a pretty common mispercetion that most hatches come off at dawn or dusk, many stonefly and damselfly hatches happen in the time the sun starts heatin the water so you have to get your hatch matching skills down, in n.idaho and western montana many hatches come off all day, so time of day really plays no part in fly selection. If you are tryin to pop a fish but getting denied, and you are sure your match is good, you should ad a new tippet, and go as small as possible, most flies are tied about 2 or 3 times larger than they should be, remember, the slower the water, the smaller the fly. If you are really wanting to get into dry fly fishing I would recommend a 3-4 wt rod with a nice double taper line and the longest leader you can cast well, and size 16-18 flys, I find if I don't have trouble tying it on.... its too big.
Last edited by halibuthitman; 07-04-2009 at 04:56 PM.
What a great post! -- such good information. How long of a leader would you recommend if you can cast fairly well? is 8 ft enough?
Bohemian
a good point of refrence is your leader should be as long as your rod, I use 9-10 ft but on a small creek i will shorten it up considerably, If you want to test your casting skills, put on 8 ft of leader go to the park and cast a caddis fly 25-35 ft your line should roll onto the grass starting closest to you and the fly should land absolutly last, there are other ways to cast... but you should be able to do this about 7 out of 8 times, and smaller flies will cast better.
I'm going to give that a try -- I doubt if I can do that 7 out of 8 times, but practice makes perfect. I will be fishing on Monday or Tues and will work with some smaller flies. I'll let you know how it works out. Thanks again
Bohemian
Hoppers....I know a stream where 18"-28" rainbows and browns will come up to the surface to eat them in crystal clear water in the heat of the afternoon!
Stoneflies are the best!
We use a small hopper that is very close in color and size to the golden stones in that stream, the fish eat them up.
GREAT PHOTOS!!!!!
amendment
AAAAH dang! I just sat down a little bit ago to tie some griffins knats, and wammo looked at the hook size and I am a little bit off on the size fly I suggested, perhaps try size 16-18 first... a 22 is a smallsorry about my mistake, its very hot out and Im a snow-rain person.
Heat must be get'in to ya Brad it's a Griffith's Gnat
"It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigaretts, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses." "Hit it!"
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