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It's May! If the water conditions are right. It's time to start looking for large stonefly adults. It's been cold enough this spring to put this hatch back a little bit. I'll start to seriously look for these bugs around May 15th on until the end of the month. Hopefully, the water will cooperate and not be a raging torrent of spring run-off.
Even with high water, it is possible to catch trout holding in the shallow edge water and in back eddies and back wash bends.
Last year during some higher, faster water, I was fishing from a high bank, concrete retaining wall. I cast a Twisted Stonefly into the head of the run and watched a 18-inch brown chase the fly downstream for 10 feet before he caught up to it and grabbed it. The battle was on but I knew the trout would win and that I would lose a fly. There was no way I was going to play the fish up the side of the concrete. I did fight him for a few minutes and as I sensed he was getting tired of the situation, I quickly, with a swift jerk on the rod, snapped the fly off. The trout flipped around and headed for the depth of the run. I wished there would have been a way to get down to him for a proper catch and release, but the wall was just too high. I would have released this fish anyway, but I felt bad having to do a long distance release and have him swimming around for a while adorned with his new piercing.
2 comments:
I fish the Blacksmith's salmonfly hatch. I know from your earlier post you know about those flies there. Just curious, where do you usually fish the salmonfly hatch? I'm unfamiliar enough with other Utah waters (except the Green), that I have no idea where else they hatch. (Funny thing, in 30 years of fishing, I've never fished south of Cache Valley except the Green - I always head out of state when I fish outside the valley).
I have fished them on the Ogden River in the canyon and up in South Fork. Lots of fish but nothing of bragging size. The hatch does bring the 14 inchers out. And ocassionally a fish pushing 16 or 18 inches. I have found them on East Canyon Creek, but private property keeps me out now. Locally, I chase the hatch on the Blacksmith and Ogden. They are close enough that I can check daily idf I want, and therefore, I have been able to find the hatch and willing fish fairly often. It's nothing like fishing them on the Henry's Fork or the Madison and Yellowstone, but for local fun, I've had a blast.
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