Heavy Hatch Frustration

[Guest Grinr]

How do I compete with the thousands of naturals drifting by?

I'm guessing anybody that was on the Bow yesterday afternoon(south of the city at least?)witnessed the incredible caddis hatch and feeding frenzy that it triggered?I fished from 6-10pm along a 100m stretch of bank where the rising and slashing was was virtually non-stop the entire time,but grew increasingly frustrated trying to get those trout (some of which were REAL HOGS)to pick my fake EHCs as their next snack amidst the literally thousands of real bugs drifting by every minute.Granted,I was a bit unprepared and "undergunned" I guess,in that I felt that i didn't have any caddis dries with me that were large enough to accurately match the large(10-12 depending how sparse you tie?)tan caddis that blanketed the river from bank to bank?I only had a small selection of caddis dries in various patterns on my person,the largest being a few sz14s,mainly because I initially set out from home planning to swing some streamers and buggers from a sink tip as has been working fairly well for the last month or so,and left most of my dryfly boxes at home......grrrrrrr!!!

Regardless,I was able to fool a few(and I do mean FEW)fish into taking what I had and tried to make the best of it,landing one smallish(14") bow,LDRing another,and pricking a cpl more,including at least one true hog of a brown that I stung briefly.I tried various presentations,drag free drifting,skitter/skating,high sticking/hopping,dropper nymph under heavy hackled little Wullf....doing my best to imitate what the naturals were doing and/or trying to make my fly stand out amongst the smorgasbord,and had my best luck(what little I had)skating and twitching an EHC downstream over risers,but all in all,it was

a very frustrating evening with sooooo many fish rising and ignoring my offerings for the most part,esp when I read this morning of others having an EPIC day of double digit fish and then some!!

Sooooo....that said,hitting the river today,do ya suppose being armed with a more accurately sized to match the naturals tan caddis imitation (10s and 12s?)might make all the difference in the world?

.......orrrrrr,even with the right size pattern,with sooooo many naturals to compete with,might I be better off to change tactics completely,being as it sounds like some here were having great success on nymphs and emergers?FWIW,I'm not really much of a fan of Indy-rigging/bobber and worm fishn,lol.That said,for some reason I'm far less snobbish towards hopper/dropper fishn....go figger??I'm thinking that aside from being prepared with some more accurately sized dries today,maybe I'll try swinging some appropriately matched soft hackle wets down and across,then lift them up through some rising fish when I find them and see how that works for me?

 

Any thoughts??

[Crogg]

EHC with sparkling pupa dropper (like 6-8") has worked well for me. F Flies work really well too

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

try pulling streamers through the bunch of risers, cast out far and swing it in.

[Guest Grinr]

EHC with sparkling pupa dropper (like 6-8") has worked well for me. F Flies work really well too

Ummmmm......F Flies???

 

try pulling streamers through the bunch of risers, cast out far and swing it in.

Hmmmm....well,like I said,I had set out for the evening planning to swing some big hiwater/runoff streamers,but couldn't resist the dry fishin once I got to the river and seen all the action.I just assumed the fish wouldn't be interested in streamers when they are so keyed in on a hatch?I've never really given that an honest try before,that is,swinging streamers thru a heavy hatch??

[DougC]

F-Flies are just a simple CDC caddis pattern. Simple, easy, and flat out catches fish.

 

Lots of pics here

 

 

[Guest Grinr]

F-Flies are just a simple CDC caddis pattern. Simple, easy, and flat out catches fish.

 

Lots of pics here

Aaaaah,IC.....thanks.....Ive never heard them called that before?

Why "F"??

.....as in CDC "fluff"?

[Dangler]

Aaaaah,IC.....thanks.....Ive never heard them called that before?

Why "F"??

.....as in CDC "fluff"?

 

'F' as in why does this simple F'n fly catch so many fish when my beautiful, laboriously tied F'n flies catch squat?

[reevesr1]

I actually had no fish show any interest in my larger Caddis flies (10-12s). I did not fish for all that long, and took 3 on a #14 EHC wit cdc and 2 on a #16 or maybe 18 emerger.

 

 

[dutchie]

I actually had no fish show any interest in my larger Caddis flies (10-12s). I did not fish for all that long, and took 3 on a #14 EHC wit cdc and 2 on a #16 or maybe 18 emerger.

 

 

like ricky says , sometime bigger is not better , when it gets tough , i always go smaller , first smaller fly , then smaller tippet

[agbff]

If the hatch is going hard and the fish are chowing but not eating your bugs try these.

- I think that size is way more important than colour.

- Figure out what kind of rises they are (emerger v. adult, even try a spent caddis)

- maybe they are eating the odd may fly coming down depending on the consistency of rises.

- different fish can be chowing on different bugs, switch it up.

- Can be good two fish two different sizes of the same bug or two different bugs together.

- the smaller tippet can make all difference.

 

420- Why swing through rising fish when you can try and get em on the dry!

 

Hope it helps.

[Hawgstoppah]

Skate the caddis dry through them, that's why they are slashing and banging around. To do this stand slightly upstream of the fish, around a 45 degree angle back down to the risers, get a cast upstream of them, and hold your tip way up and let the fly skate through them, lots big slashy takes and if they are keyed on the movement, this will take them. Good luck.

[Guest Grinr]

Thanks guys but I already tried most everything suggested prior to posting last Saturday,downsized fly and tippet,lengthened tippet,skated flies,hopped them(highsticking sorta?)...not much interest at all with so many naturals floating by?Sunday I tried swinging streamers thru the risers on both floating and sinktip.....still nada.....then finally had some good success on a low riding CDC emerger(F-fly?),so I think I've got'em figured out now?Drifting easy pickins emerger patterns over them amidst the thousands of adults seems to be hard for them to resist?Also gonna whip up some sparkle pupae tonight and give them a go this weekend.