The bugs are here. The last week the dry fly fishing has been insane on the lower sections of the South Fork. We are putting up some huge numbers with size 6 & 8 dry flies between Cottonwood and Lorenzo. I had a solo client the middle of last week that boated over 40 fish all on dries. Since the water has stayed cold for so long there is a multitude of bugs coming off. Everyday we are seeing Salmon flies, PMDs, and Green Drakes. What is cool is that you can pound the banks with big Salmon fly patterns and then slide up into the riffles and throw mayflies to sipping fish. There are lots of fish in this river and it seems like you cant go wrong right now. The mornings are still a little slow but as that water warms up both the bugs and the fish get really active. The only part that is a little confusing is that we aren't finding lots of big fish coming up on the Salmon Flies. It seems like we are getting a lot of fish between 12''- 16''. Most of the big fish that we have been seeing have been in the 18'' range. But for this river that is nothing to brag about. The bugs that have proved most successful are Eldens Ant, Chubby Chernobyl, Green Drake emergers, and PMD emergers.
What is awesome about this whole big bug hatch is that the Salmon Fly Hatch is not the best hatch on the river. When you really want to be here is when the Golden Stones start to come off. The Golden hatch is hands down the best hatch on the South Fork. For those of you heading out this way get excited because it is about a week away! Put some cloudy weather with a Golden Hatch and you just might have the most epic dry fly day of your LIFE.
Here are a couple of crazy stories for those of you who like to hear about some of my client stories from on the water. The first is something I have never experienced since I have started fly fishing. I had a client have two seperate fish blow up on her double dry fly rig. We were setting up on this riffle and when she laid her bugs down by this log two seperate fish flew out of the air trying to kill those things. The funny part is that she missed both of them. That is one of the coolest dry fly shots that I have ever seen.
The other story I have since my last post is a couple who are in their early 70's did over 80 guided trips last year on different watersheds throughout the world. When I guided them the first part of July they had already done over 40 guided days in 2008. Now that is a family that has their priorities straight. Can you imagine spending that much time on the water with someone you love and a guide. I think I have found my dream life. So this means about every 5 days of the year they are getting guided. Wow! Where do I sign up for this program?
Until Next Time.
Tight Lines!
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