Thomas Ames Jr. calls them the White Winged Curse. They can hatch by the millions on sunny warm Summer mornings and it appears that every trout in the river is feeding on them except they will refuse YOUR finely crafted Trico offering every time.
How do I fish a Trico hatch? There are two times. One is in the very early morning. The males hatch before first light and can be taken on the surface or in the surface film. That means you should be on the water around 3:30 in July and a bit later in August. The mid morning spinner fall is stage 2 but I like stage 1. The trout don't seem as spooky with the darkness.
The conventional wisdom is that your fly should be black with a white wing. Olive and brown bodies work well too like the one in the photo. So does a long 7x tippet.
Where to find Tricos? The Farmington is full of them as is the Millers River. On a summer morning you can see thousands hovering above the Upper Trestle Pool. The guardrails on the bridges are loaded with them.
So, hit the water before dawn in July or August for a real challenge!!
Ken
4 comments:
Ken,
Is it mostly browns or bows chasing the tricos?
Anonymous,
Almost always browns. Rainbows get scarce on that river by July. The browns hang in there!!
Ken
My first experience with Tricos was on the South Platte In CO. Swarms of them and the fish were really only interested in spinners. I did through a curve ball at the fish ( a USUSAL), when my guide went to the truck, and took my largest brown. The guide had never heard of or seen a USUAL and apparently the fish hadn't either!!!
Anonymous,
I was on the Millers River one balmy October afternoon dealing with a "behavioral drift hatch"
(tiny worm like insects moving in mass downstream in the surface film). Nobody could catch anything until this chap showed up with a #14 USUAL. I netted the brown for him which was 24 inches - the biggest Millers brown I have ever seen caught.
The usual is a GOOD fly!!!!!!
Ken
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