One of favorite birds of the early summer has soon up, the Baltimore Oriole. This means as I talked before in a previous blog that sulphurs are going to hatch soon. Mother nature has certain relationships and this over the years has proven true. But until I see my first sulphur (guessing this weekend) I’ll just enjoy by bright orange friends.
With the official start of lamprey season (chestnut lamprey), the biggest match the hatch we have here in Michigan for our streamer program. Not that there is really a season for lamprey, but I just happened to notice they the crawled out of the mud this week. Some people have told me trout don’t eat lamprey. Okay. If they don’t eat them, I’m fine with that, but they sure don’t like them. Pictured below is a trout we caught this weekend on an imitation lamprey streamer pattern. This trout had 11 different lamprey attached to him and out of anger destroyed my simple fur and feather pattern.
Hard to tell what I was shooting yesterday as this creature started to unveil himself, but pretty sure I was shooting Mr. Dragonfly. Just amazing to watch mother nature work, wish I would of had more time to watch the whole process.
Isonychia duns emerge late afternoon into late evening. Wings are slate-gray in color, but the true give away for identification is the middle and hind legs are stark white, while the forelegs are dark in color. But often the forelegs are raised in position when the insect rests. This Isonychia gave me a couple minutes of his time and let me take a couple different shots.
Okay if you have fished with me, you understand that one of my strengths is not Latin terminology for aquatic insects. I have a very simple approach to aquatic life. Match the color and size. But sometimes knowing a little bit more than they other guy, can give you an advantage. Below is a video of a couple bugs in the tub. Late May and early June the Manistee as both the Siphlonurus Nymph and Baetisca Nymph swimming around pretty regularly, in certain sections. And yes I had to look those names up!
I have been using Ann Miller’s new Hatch Guide for Upper Midwest Streams. I highly recommend this book, contact Ann at AnnRMiller@aol.com . This is a great guide for on the stream and at the fly tying bench. Thank you Ann.
Ed McCoy and I ventured down the Manistee River yesterday throwing around one of the standard early season dry flies the Medium Brown Stone (video link) . Ed and I drummed up some nice fish on the boon dog, and then setup and zapped some smaller fish eating Hendrickson spinners. Here is a picture of Ed holding a nice 15″ brown that could not let the stimulator go by. Used a 15mm Canon Fish Eye lens for this photo. Some of the most overlooked dry fly fishing of the season is early May. No crowds and plenty of chances at decent trout.
Watched the Hendrickson take down the Ed McCoy AP Drake in a boat side wrestling match. FYI if you like chasing trout with the dry fly, make sure to pick up some of Ed’s Drake pattern. New pattern at Orvis.
Feb 13th Picture of the Day
An unidentified clinging mayfly. More than likely a cahill or sulphur. Did a little macro work on a small creek near the house. Just needed to get out and stretch the legs. Click on picture to make it bigger.
look close you can see more tails
Grand Traverse Bay Smallmouth Bass
