We are now shifting into Summer mode and that means a shift in tactics which could reward you with the best fishing of the season. I'm not talking about abandoning the freestone (natural) rivers and packing into the tailwaters like sardines but staying on the freestones. I'm not talking about fishing the same time of day that you fished in April and May but fishing early evening into dusk through July and August. It's the evening rise, that enchanted time that has been in our pastime's literature for over a century. It's that time when the sun sinks behind the hills, the air begins to cool, the shadows hit the water AND THE TROUT BEGIN TO RISE. In decades of fishing the Millers and the EB the BEST fishing for me has not been in the Spring over freshly stocked trout or in the Fall over freshly stocked trout but on Summer evenings over browns that have wised up and just loved to work the surface for emerging insects. And I have pretty much had these rivers to myself as many fly fishers spent their banking hours on the Swift and the Farmington asking permission to fish close to someone. Not my game for sure!!!
It takes a shift of habit to make this work. Living close to good natural rivers is a bonus but if you plan to play hookey for a full day by going miles to find a tailwater try leaving work by late afternoon and heading to a freestone and getting there by 6pm. Work soft hackles and other emergers OR a large terrestrial until you begin to see rising trout and then switch to an appropriate surface pattern. Following a dry in the low light of a summer evening dusk as it floats among surface working fish is a RUSH. Seeing that fly TAKEN in an almost casual manner can't be described!!!
Don't follow the newbee advice that you need to fish a 2 weight with dries. 4 and 5 weights are all you need. It's all I need.
After a evening of this fishing your ride home will be sublime and you will be planning the next event. Do what the great fly fishers did BEFORE they built tail waters: they fished the Evening Rise from June through August!!
The rivers are perfect including the Millers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This early weekend will have some cool morning temperatures on the Millers and the EB and you should do well through the morning hours. Then hit the rivers in the evening and hit them all summer long at that time!!
I can also take you there!!!
Ken
12 comments:
Great post as usual, Ken. You are right, there is absolutely nothing like seeing a trout take your dry fly. Some are small sips, some are slashing rises, both are thrilling.
I have not been fishing much lately myself due to work obligations, but plan to remedy that this weekend. I sure miss it when I can't get out.
Best Regards, Sam
Sam,
First, good work on the flies featured on Small Stream Reflections!!
Second, catch some trout on the surface and tell us about it!!
Ken
Thanks, Ken! Like you if I couldn't fish any longer I would still tie flies. I will tie on the dry flies this weekend and will report the results. Nothing like it.
Best, Sam
Ditto Ken's comments Parachute/Sam - cool to see your flies featured by "The Man" himself on SSR :)
As for the "Evening Rise"... man, Ken, so true. My fav, especially in the lower Millers (to me that means below the Orange Dam to the CT, so probably the middle and lower "really") the IDEAL is to arrive at 3-4, catch smallies on poppers/streamers, then swap out set ups or at least tippets and swing wets/SH's/emergers and eventually float dries.
So fun to be able to work multiple species really well over a few hours!
Will,
Give me the Upper Trestle Pool or the Kempfield Pool on a Summer evening and I won't need to be anywhere else!
Ken
Cant argue there. Question for you Ken. You know the awesome big pool that is below the RR tracks across from that old asian restaurant at the 2A/78 intersection, just down from the Waste Water treatment plant in Orange?
I have no name for it, but from a Bass perspective... BAZINGA :) would be the term over the next couple months...
Millers River water levels quite wader friendly this morning at Orcutt and Treatment plant. Warming up though. Bass were jumping.
Will,
The name that I heard for that pool cannot be repeated in polite company. It's also known for evening trout.
Bill/Tully,
The levels are good and we had browns on Wednesday evening. We had browns on in the BD this morning!
Ken
The EB is close to summer mode but not quite,so still using my versatile 5wt I had a great morning. Using a small olive bugger,blk & tan pats rubber legs #14 and yes a tan caddis on top #14 the fishing was good. Also I had the river to myself.
@Hibernation: I love your bass/trout MO! I will have to try it out, since afternoon/evening is usually most convenient for me. This past week I caught a few smallies on the fly for the first time, on a lake up in Maine. They put up quite a nice fight on a 5wt. A couple of the decent-sized ones managed to tow my tiny kayak around a bit! Trout will always be #1 in my book, but the smallies are good sport when you've got time but there are no trout to be seen. For a neophyte fly fisherman like me, it's good practice, too.
Cheers,
David
Hey Ken, I decided to try the evening rise on the lamprey near Durham. I got 2 brookies and lost a brown that jumped 5 times!!!! One brookie and the brown were on swung soft hackle.
Ash,
Yes, swinging soft hackles on a summer evening! Perfect!!! That brown must of been doing an impersonation of a rainbow!!
Ken
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