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Midwest insects
By Tom Helgeson |
At the risk of over-simplifying the subject and offending those among (and you know who you are) who have given over their shabby lives to the fastidious pursuit of exact imitation, here's a look at the major hatch activity on midwestern trout streams and rivers. The best thing you can do for your fly fishing is to begin gathering information on the hatches that occur on the rivers and streams you are likely to fish.
Read the good texts available on aquatic entomology as they pertain to fly fishing; investigate the rivers and streams of your fishing seriously with or without a fly rod; be observant when you do fish for evidence of aquatic and terrestrial insects and how their lives intersect deliciously with the lives of the fish you favor.
And remember that though there are optimum times to fish based on the emergences of aquatic insects, you don't have to be on the water at exactly the right moment on exactly the right day with exactly perfect weather conditions. Unless they are full, uncomfortable (water temperature) or can't see (dirty water), trout feed almost all day long on insects, aquatic or terrestrial, that happen by. Trout also will eat beetles, ants, worms, minnows, crayfish and each other.
The Midwest/Spring
Depending on the opening of your state's trout season, in April and early May you'll encounter hatches of small "early" stoneflies and evidence of small olive/brown mayflies (Baetis-hook size 18 and 20) and the larger darker Hendricksons (hook size 14 and 16), which on most midwestern rivers is the first major hatch of the Ephemerellas (mayflies).
Depending upon geography, you'll probably start seeing caddisflies on most of the rivers you fish in very late April or early May. Start learning also about a fly called the midge, a very small two-winged fly (looks like a mosquito) that hatches all season.
Flies: Baetis-Blue-Wing Olive, traditional, and Adams #18; pheasant tail nymph, sinking. E. subvaria-Hendrickson, traditional, or Comparadun and Adams #14; Hare's Ear nymph, sinking. Caddisflies-Elk Hair Caddis, dark or light; midge-wingless #22 Adams or #20 Griffith Gnat.
The Midwest/Early Summer
A smaller, lighter Ephemerella, the Light Hendrickson (E. invaria and rotunda, hook size 16) causes pulses to quicken in the fly fishing community during early to mid-May. A much smaller mayfly called the Sulphur (E. dorothea, hook size 18) also hatches profusely on many midwestern streams about the second week of June. Caddisfly activity increases; the flies are mostly olive, tan, or black, hook sizes 14 and 16. Mid-June look for emergences of Brown Drakes (Ephemera simulans, size 10), the first of the larger summer Mayflies.
Flies: E. invaria, rotunda-traditional Light Hendrickson, Comparadun or parachute-style patterns; E. dorothea-classic Pale Evening Dun, Comparadun or parachute-style; E. simulans-classic Brown Drake or extended body pattern).
The Midwest/Summer
The largest mayfly in North America, the Hexagenia limbata begins hatching in late June from rivers with silt (mud) bottoms. A dramatic evening emergence that occurs sporadically through mid-summer. One of the very smallest mayflies, the Tricorythodes, begins hatching in early July and continues every morning until fall. The number of Tricos on the water each morning can bring up large fish. Continued caddisfly and Baetis emergences, especially a smaller, light-olive species called Pseudocloeon (hook size 20, 22). Terrestrials-ants, beetles, grasshoppers, leaf worms-can become important now.
Flies: Hexagenia limbata-extended body, sizes 8 or 10; Tricorythodes-parachute or spent-wing, sizes 20 or 22; Pseudocloeon-Light Blue-Wing Olive, parachute-style; classic terrestrial imitations.
The Midwest/Fall
Continued Tricorythodes emergences during the early morning and Blue-Wing Olive (Baetis) activity during the day, especially when it is cool and rainy. Terrestrials also important, and midge.
All of you who fly fish in the Midwest can name other "important" hatches. We are lucky that our river and lake resources continue to be so fertile and diverse. I've fished wonderful hatches of the Stenonema species-the March Brown and the Cahills-and I've heard stories of spinner falls of the pale white Ephoron leukon that covered the water like a snowfall. There are in fact a multitude of aquatic insects that influence our fishing, every day of the season. Each river (each lake) has a specific and predictable sequence of aquatic insect activity based on a hatching time and habitat.
It's all a matter of what you know and when you go.
"For Beginners" appears in every issue Midwest Fly Fishing.
A few weeks ago, not long after the start of last year's trout season, I stole a few hours from the demons of commerce and drove south to a river where, I'd heard, the Hendricksons, an early season mayfly, were hatching.
It was blustery and cold and when my friend Harry Rockwood and I drove up to the river, it was already mid-afternoon. Gusts of wind slipped down the valley and riffled the surface of the water of a pool in front of us. Harry was ready to fish first and reported from the river, "Come over here and look at the bugs. Hendricksons all over."
I watched Harry fish for a while, grim-faced and casting upstream into a nuisance wind, and walked upstream. I passed a couple other fly fishers, one of whom I knew, and made my way upstream into the shelter of high limestone cliffs.
The trees around me were leafless and gray but small sproutings of grasses and clusters of tiny blue spring flowers made me feel warm and hopeful and I looked over the water for Hendricksons. Every so often, one would leave the water, but whatever intensity the hatch had had a few hours before was clearly dissipated.
In years past, I've found nymphs of the Ephemerella subvaria (the Hendrickson) in moderately fast runs and, of course, that's where you expect to find the duns during an emergence. I waded to the edge of a run where the water was a couple feet deep and fast.
Even though there were few flies hatching so late that afternoon, the fish had remained where they'd been feeding earlier and were on the prowl. I caught several. Harry had the same experience downstream. Cast over the runs where you'd expect the trout to be during a hatch and you'd catch fish.
When I started to learn about fly fishing for trout, I had my heroes. In those days, some two decades ago, our gurus were, in retrospect, pretty ordinary-bright men and women who had figured out that how and when trout feed is pretty predictable. You had to know what to look for and when to be there.
The hatching of aquatic insects influence the feeding behavior of trout, or any other gamefish that feed on them. The more insects available to the fish, the more intensely they'll feed. And, the more you know about aquatic insects and how and when that feeding occurs, the more fish you'll catch.
Here's a behind-the-scene look at the Hendrickson adventure I described to you earlier. When I knew that I might be able to find time to fish that week, I called Wayne Bartz, Midwest Fly Fishing's fly tying columnist who lives near the river I wanted to fish and asked him what the fishing had been like recently.
"There have been Hendricksons," he said, "about noon and they last until mid-day and then there might be some spinners (mayflies that have mated, then return to the river to lay eggs and die). The South Branch has been pretty good. I fished there a couple days ago."
By the time Harry and I headed out that day, we knew most of what we needed to know to fish successfully. First, we knew which river to go to-a river that had a history of Hendrickson hatches and one that had been fishing well. Second, we knew which stretch of water the Hendricksons would be hatching from and when.
We also knew, both of us from our reading and from our experience fishing the hatch, that Hendricksons hatch most profusely on cloudy, cool days (which it was). We also had brought with us appropriate flies to represent the Hendrickson during its actual emergence-Hare's Ear nymphs and emergers to fish below the surface and # 14 and #16 Adams and parachute-style patterns to fish on the surface of the water, representing the duns.
Even though, as I mentioned earlier, there were few duns (adult mayflies-in this case Hendricksons) on the water, I caught at least 20 brown trout in a couple hours of fishing that afternoon and Harry, who fishes less frenetically, caught a dozen.
Reports on the fishing on that river the next day were revealing. Fly shops in my home city were describing less than successful outings because of the weather (ideal, except for the wind, for Hendricksons) and sporadic hatching (which didn't seem to make any difference if you stayed in the water and fished hard over areas where the Hendricksons lived).
It's all what you know and when you go."
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copyright Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine 1999
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