Dry Fly Fishing Summer and Fall and the Hatches to Plan For - Gary Lewis
We know 99 percent of what a trout eats, it eats beneath the surface. But we imagine a trout is there. He is hungry. He looks up. He will take a dry fly. Dry fly fishing is about belief.
Gary Lewis and Elke Littleleaf Kirk with a nice rainbow that smacked a large attractor dry. Mitchell Booher photo
This sport we call angling came down to us from the Anglos, the Angles, the north Germanic tribes that migrated to the British Isles. The Angles used rod and line instead of nets to catch their fish. And the first ones to write eloquently of fishing with an angle were Dame Juliana Berners (nun and author, born 1388), Izaak Walton (1593-1683) and Charles Cotton (1630-1687).
In his update to Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, Charles Cotton put it thusly: "To fish fine and far off is the first and principle rule for Trout Angling." By fishing fine, we mean to employ a small fly to imitate an insect, on a line light enough to deliver the fly in a natural presentation and stout enough to land a fish.
Skittered over the riffles with enough breeze to keep the Elk Hair Caddis aloft, four to six inches above the surface, the fly drew trout after trout up and out. Trevor Barclay photo
Dry Fly As Religion
In the Cascades and in central and eastern Oregon, an angler might adopt a dry fly esthetic with the knowledge it is quite possible to catch trout on the surface any day of the year. Another angler might use just one dry fly to the exclusion of everything else. Another aficionado of the dry fly might study the esoteric, the mysteries of the dry. That is the beauty of fly-fishing. Fly-fishing affords whatever the angler wants out of it from scarcity to abundance, from simplicity to complexity.
Oregon Dry Fly Pilgrimages
The faithful gather in great numbers on the Deschutes from Mecca down to Maupin and beyond during the salmonfly hatch for the first great hatch of the year, but the knowing understand more trout can be taken on the surface in July.
Think about it. If a trout stuffs itself with 10 salmonflies in an evening, to get the same amount of protein from caddis, it has to chow a lot more bugs and that four or five times as many "eats" in an afternoon and a lot more chances to dance a rainbow.
On almost any evening in July, the Deschutes, the Metolius, the Crooked River and Fall River will see hatches of caddis, mayflies (be ready to match the Pale Evening Dun down to No. 18), Yellow Sally stoneflies and on blessed afternoons the Green Drake mayfly matched as large as No. 8 or No. 10. It is not enough to have one fly to match a hatch. Flies don't last long on 5X tippets when redband trout take the offering and snap off with a shake of the head.
Clear water over smoothed stones, the sun dappling through the alders. The classic way to fi sh the McKenzie is in a drift boat and you will leave fi sh unmoved if you do not learn the McKenzie refloat, which can be fished with a pair of dries or a dry and a soft-hackle wet. While the Elk Hair Caddis can produce, try to be precise with color matching and a profile that more closely mimics the natural.
Dick Sagara (left) and Gary Lewis with a Deschutes River redband. Merrilee Lewis photo
In southern Oregon on the Williamson River, the big yellow Hexagenia mayfly hatch tempts big rainbows and brown trout up out of the big lake. The hatch takes place almost wholly after dark, but the fi sh will rise for an artificial from early afternoon on. And there is a magic manic moment betwixt sunset and full dark when you cast to splashes and set the hook on splashes and hope and pray. And sometimes say words you have to confess later.
Dry fly fishing is not just for rivers. The Hex hatch happens on Mt. Hood on Harriett Lake, Clear Lake and Lost Lake and seems to start earlier in the evening and the trout stuff themselves silly with the big yellow bugs.
One of the most reliable hatches in central Oregon is the Callibaetis, which is most oft en a pale tan, pale yellow or olive bodied mayfly but can occasionally be almost black in some Cascade lakes. In East Lake and Paulina Lake, the hatches are legendary.
A beautiful Fall River rainbow. Gary Lewis photo
Good dry fly fishing continues through October across much of the West. While some of the mayfly hatches taper off the Blue Winged Olive can appear year-round with sometimes a spike in numbers in October. Fish dry this year through the October caddis.
Dry fly fishing is an exercise in belief. And dry flies are like prayer. If "to fish fine and far off " is the sport's highest value, then dry fly fishing is the ultimate expression of the angler.
Advice for the Angler
In Izaak Walton’s day the tippet was made of horsehair. In his book The Compleat Angler, Walton provides this advice from a gentleman named Mr. Thomas Barker. First let your rod be light and very gentle, I take the best to be of two pieces and let not your line exceed (especially for three or four links next to the hook) I say, not exceed three or four hairs at the most, though you may fish a little stronger above in the upper part of your line; but if you attain to Angle with one hair, you shall have more rises, and catch more Fish. Now you must be sure not to cumber yourself with too long a line, as most do; and before you being to Angle, cast to have the wind on your back, and the Sun (if it shines) to be before you, and to fish down the stream; and carry the point or top of your Rod downward, by which means the shadow of your self, and the rod too will be the least offensive to the fish, for the sight of any shade amazes the fish, and spoils your sport, of which you must take great care.”
—excerpted from The Compleat Angler
Gary Lewis is a co-author and publisher of Fishing Mt. Hood Country and Fishing Central Oregon and is host and producer of the TV show Frontier Unlimited. Visit www.garylewisoutdoors.com
MAPS FROM OREGON RIVER MAPS AND FISHING GUIDE:
