We have storms headed our way for the next few days so I decided to get out early this morning to do a little fishing before I had to mow the lawn. I arrived on the stream at about 7 but saw no risers. I tied up a nymph rig and before I could get it into the water the tricos appeared!
This was the first of many to sip the tiny fly from the surface. Every time I was able to attain a drag free drift I got a strike. I missed as many as I caught. I think it is because the hook is so small it doesn't always find a place to stick. I learned that if I resisted the urge to set the hook hard and simply pulled the line taught my hookup ratio was much better.
These guys were the big fish of the day. I hooked into two really nice fish only to lose them a few seconds into the fight! All fish hit the olive size 24 trico. After a slow beginning to the hatch they came on really strong at about 830. In some places the water boiled with fish surfacing. The disturbance that the feeding activity caused made it hard to see the tiny fly on the surface of the water! I missed a few subtle strikes because of this.
By the time I decided to leave I caught around two dozen browns and two small rainbows, all on the trico. At 11 the hatch shut down and the fish surfaced more sporadically. The trico hatch is incredible. The fish feed on the surface with no regard for who may be standing on shore and within their field of vision. A fisherman can flog the water with saturated line and a gaudy fly without slowing their feeding. As comfortable as they become in the presence of people they will key in on the trico such that they will flatly refuse any other fly. A friend of mine told me that the trico must taste delicious because as soon as the hatch ends the fish again become easily spooked!
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