It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Bear Creek Anglers. Lots of trips and lots of kids. Normally, I don’t recommend fly fishing for kids, but this is COVID and you can only play so many video games. All our kids caught fish, which doesn’t always happen and then for all of our kids to catch fish on dry flies!!! Big deal! Not for sure how long I fished as an adult before I was able to do that. As guides, we can’t take all of the credit for this success or even a little bit, the accolades go to the fish and the fact that they were hungry and looking for something up top.
I guided today with a gal who had not been in her waders for a while. She commented on how the belt seemed a little tighter than the last time, and referred to it as her COVID 19. I guess akin to the freshman 15 that is referred to when you enter college. She ended up with eight trout to the net in a few hours of fishing. The browns responded well to the nymphs in the riffles. I put her husband on the dry fly trailed by an emerger once the sun was high and on the water. The trout were a little bashful and tended to prefer the emerger fished under the surface.
My son and I had an ok 90 minutes on the water yesterday and fished ants and beetles. We didn’t slay them, but had a few pretty amazing ‘takes’
Flies to Fish in the coming weeks:
Nymphs: Copper John, Prince, Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear (#18 to #16) Caddis (#16 to #14) Midge (#20 to #16) (Red Copper John trailed by a black or tan midge has been really good for me lately)
Dries: Caddis (#16 to #14) Tricos – very early in the morning (#18 to #22) You could be fishing the Trico spinners by 7 or 8 in the morning – Griffith’s Gnat (#20 to #18) Blue Wing Olives are out there, not many, but they are in the spider webs. #20 to #18
Terrestrials: Time to be fishing the ants, beetles, crickets and hoppers – mid-morning through late afternoon – with emphasis on the hottest and sunniest part of the day.
Emergers: Any emerger/wet fly/soft hackle to match the dry flies above. Fish it with the dry. Definitely fish a midge soft hackle near dark and early in the morning if you can determine the fish are taking midges and not Tricos. Even if you can’t, not a lot of difference between a midge and mayfly soft hackle. Fish a softie when their taking emergers!!! The fish are less particular about the soft hackle than they are about the dry fly.
Sreamers/Buggers: If you are looking for big fish or if the water is a little off color… or if nothing else is working.
Fishing report by Kent Kleckner of Bear Creek Anglers in Decorah, Iowa.