"Hell, give me Greenwell's Glory and Campbell's Fancy and Beaverkill, all wet and about size 12 and May on the Big River and anyone else can have whatever else he wants" - Catskill angler dreaming of the Beaverkill River, circa 1930
The "Evening Rise" is my favorite time to be on a trout stream and that is during the months of May through August. Without a doubt, this is the time that trout appear to awaken from their mid day siesta and start their evening prowl as the air and water temperatures begin to dip.
Now, if you spend most of your angling hours lined up at a tailwater you will miss my point because tailwaters, with their manmade temperature regime, take a lot of the anticipation out of our planning. Everything stays pretty much the same but not on a freestone. Noon on a hot July day will make a freestone appear lifeless but get there at 7pm as the shadows lengthen, the Cahills and March browns begin to take flight and the trout begin to rise. This is life on the Millers, my favorite evening river!!!
It is safe to assume that 80% of my casts after 7pm are with dry flies and nothing fancy either. The Comparadun changed my dry fly life decades ago and a Olive or Dun colored Comparadon in either a size 14 or 16 will imitate most of the freestone mayflies during late Spring and Summer.
Strategy
That bent rod in the above photo was the result of a good plan. First, I got to the EB around 6pm on a bright, warm afternoon. Nothing was rising yet so a deer hair caddis around a size 12 was tied on. This fly, in my opinion, represents not only caddis but different terrestrial insects too. I worked the head of riffles and the trout smacked it. Then, around 8pm, the first of the Cahills appeared and so did the trout. On went the Comparadun and the fun lasted till after dark.
Equipment and Rivers
Anything 4 or 5 weight will work from 10 ft graphite rods to 7 ft bamboo (go with the bamboo). Leave the ultra light trick rods and that euro stuff at home. Your traditional equipment will work fine. The Millers, EB and the Ware are great evening streams.
Last Fridays rain set us back a bit. Here are the rivers as of 5:30am on May 4th:
Ware - 253 cfs High but fishable. Lots of browns
EB - 772 cfs The gauge is below the dam so the river up by the Gorge may not be as high. If it's a true 772 it's too high.
Millers - 1420 (enough said)
Swift - 54 cfs Go for it!!
Ken
11 comments:
Ken, on your deer/elk hair caddis, do you palmer the body with hackle? I'm curious, as I do not always do that... and cant see a performance difference. MAYBE on small streams with high gradient the hackle helps it stay afloat, MAYBE... But overall the performance seems the same with and without the palmer.
You have me curious how you tie yours...
Will
Hello Ken, In your post, and if I may quote you, "and the fun lasted until after dark". I hope you were fishing for Brown trout.
Will,
I never Palmer the hackle, sometimes I Belchertown it but never Palmer (hahaha)
Anonymous,
When fishing for browns in the evening the fun never stops!!!!
Ken
None of my flies "Ware" hackle any more! Had to join the wagon but yes the evening rise is the name of the game. Enter the bertuzzi mngmt area on a warm June evening and watch the seemingly lifeless river come to a rolling boil as the cahill's start their fluttering parade and for me a pheasant body SH gets the job done
Hey Ken,
I was at the Squannacook river the other day and saw some fish ive never seen before. They were probably 12-15 inches long and kind of had the body of a trout. And from above it looked greenish with a big solid grayish white stripe running down both sides of its body. Any idea what this is?
Zack,
My guess, at this time of year, is that you found a school of spawning suckers.
Ken
In the Squannacook, Nissitissit, Assabet (and I think most rivers in New England) I think that fish is a Semotilus atromaculatus (ie Creek Chubb) I usually catch them as the season gets into May/June. They take a fly easily (sub-surface and dry). I caught a 12 inch one in the Nissitissit a few weeks back with the low water. They can put up a pretty good fight and I don't mind catching them when the trout aren't cooperating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semotilus_atromaculatus
Westfield is blown out. So much water coming into Knightville they had to close the dayville area because the parking lot was flooded.
Suckers
JonBoxboro,
Sounds like suckers to me. Larger than creek chub or fall fish and they were in a group. That's what suckers do in the Spring. Also fits the color pattern to a tee.
Ken
Anonymous,
I drove down to The Dayville section last week and it was high and dry. We had a loot of rain!!!
Ken
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