Trip Report: Trico Hatch!

I woke up early this morning with the intention of going to a nearby river to fish nymphs. While I was getting gas I spoke with a fella who suggested I try to fish the trico hatch. I arrived at the river just before 8am and tied on a small parachute trico pattern I've been working on. Flies danced through the air and littered the water.

I dressed in long sleeves and pants anticipating a chilly morning but after wetting my feet I was freezing. After a few casts I didn't even notice.

I pulled this vibrant brown out of a riffle that housed another half dozen eager fishes. Almost every cast I made that did not have drag caught a fish. I worked hard on drifting my flies without drag but with 6x tippet and a short leader it was not easy. I also missed a lot of strikes because of slack in the line. While working up stream I notice a fish surfacing near a clump of grass along the shoreline. I tossed my fly perfectly in front of it and the fight was on!

I was surprised to see this fat rainbow on the other end. I led him into the net after a short but spirited fight. I continued catching 10-12 inch browns throughout the pasture section of the river. When I reached the end of the pasture I was not ready to be done. I decided to wade upstream in search of downed trees and bigger fish. I tied on a small gray bird of prey caddis imitation and placed my strike indicator. I pulled a few small browns out of the first deep pool before moving on.

This chunky brown came out of the head of a fast, deep run. He ran under a stump and wrapped around a branch but I was able to steer him out and into my net. I caught a few more out of that run before heading further upstream.

 After wading through stinky muck that was hip deep (yes I went balls deep while wet wading) I was ready to turn around. There is still plenty of good water to explore but I'll either wait until spring when the weeds aren't as thick or bring a pair of waders. After 6 hours of fishing I probably caught around 30-40 trout with all browns and two rainbows. Most fish were caught on a size 18 trico pattern but the biggest came on the bird of prey.