Posted on June 23 2021
Today is the reason I recommend retirement to everyone. The weekend and Monday were too hot and yesterday was just plain brutal, cold and windy with no bugs until late. Today was everything (almost) you could ask for as a fly fisherman. The missing spring sulfurs showed up when and where they were supposed to and the fish ate them with relish. Unfortunately they ate them subsurface. From 3:00 'til 6:00 I saw exactly one trout dine on a sulfur dun and he (an 18 inch rainbow) ended up in my net. It was the only fish I caught on a sulfur all day. Though you said it was good? Well, if you noticed, I stayed until 6:00, the hatch was over about 4:30. The fish were still hungry and proved willing to eat "stuff" on top. Landed four quality fish and lost two more.
With no one providing information about the summer sulfur's progress up river, I decided to do it myself. Drove to the game lands and in the still bright sun found a good mix of bugs with fish willing to eat them. To everyone's disappointment Dortheas were not among the bugs hatching but there were olives, isos, caddis and a mix of other mayflies along with assorted spinners. Started with a caddis with no success, then tried an iso and promptly hooked a nice rainbow on a blind cast only to loose it. Refusals outnumbered takes on the iso. Fished a caddis and a medium rusty spinner for most of the rest of evening. When the sun got off the water the fish were much more willing to eat and with the nearly full moon providing ample light to cast I didn't reel it in until somehow the leader and fly got wrapped around the rod in a tangle that required amputation rather than untangling. It was 9:50 when I got back to the car (who said the days are getting shorter?)
I fished the upper WB yesterday and had a great day!! There were sulphers and olives with a spattering of Cahill. Caught one fish on a sulphers emerger and a bunch on a sulphur Dunn.
We ate and came back!! Caught some on a olive and as the sun went down the rusty spinner worked good. This was by far my best day on the river this year.
Thanks for all you advice and help !!!!!!!!!!!! You have been a big help in my ability to fish!!
Just so you do not feel that your faithful readers have abandoned your efforts for golf. I, for one, have not been able to get down to the WB for a couple of weeks. I am going down tomorrow and will try to look for sulfurs or anything else. Following your advice, I will probably start further down river than usual after checking flows and temps. I know that you are a pure dry fly guy, but being less knowledgeable and having less time available, you are really tempting me to try nymphing when no rises visible. We’ll see!