1:55 PM
Matthew Supinski's Gray Drake/Selectivity/Nexus Blog
25 years ago we named our lodge and outfitters "Gray Drake Lodge" for a reason. The Muskegon River has one of the most dense and long lasting gray drake mayfly hatches on the planet! Only the Pere Marquette and other nearby rivers sourcing from the same marl bog watershed have these hatches in such density. Baltic countries also have them. When we opened up our cedar lodge during the hatch in early June, the next morning the entire lodge turned gray from all the adult mayflies molting on the cedar panels and tree trunks from the previous night's hatch.
( insect images by bug master JG Miller)
( Morning and early evening spinner flights were gray blizzards last year)
( Freshly hatched gray drakes molt on the lodge and trees nearby. The Muskegon browns that take drakes can be ultra selective and have stunning colors brought on my heavy protein overloads from salmon/steelhead and sucker eggs and scuds in winter )
This spring 2020 (June when we open back up) we will be offering single/double and small group Gray Drake Clinics.
Our focus will be on dry fly and swinging emerging wet fly guide trips that incorporate school-like clinics on how to better understand the dynamics of this "mystery hatch", which the famous Dick Pobst once described it in an article in Fly Fisherman in the 90's. Many anglers are confused about the drakes and are usually baffled by their behavior, how the trout take them, what presentations are best and when to strike the hatch right! We will attempt to teach the the selectivity approach to mastering these hatches and a 20 inch brown on the dry fly reality!
These larger mayflies bring up the big browns that are often elusive all year other than on the streamer. But the intricacies of the hatch and how selective browns feed on them is a cloaked mystery to many anglers.We have been studying these hatch details for two decades and would love to share them with you!
Our focus will be on dry fly and swinging emerging wet fly guide trips that incorporate school-like clinics on how to better understand the dynamics of this "mystery hatch", which the famous Dick Pobst once described it in an article in Fly Fisherman in the 90's. Many anglers are confused about the drakes and are usually baffled by their behavior, how the trout take them, what presentations are best and when to strike the hatch right! We will attempt to teach the the selectivity approach to mastering these hatches and a 20 inch brown on the dry fly reality!
Last year (2019) we saw one of the heaviest gray drake hatches we have seen in over 15 years- it was a solid morning to dusk spinner flight event that coated the water thick as sawdust with spinners. 2019 had a long cool and moist spring/early summer which favors the gray drake hatch cycle.
(A few fat butters from gray drake season )
The hatch cycle of Siphlonurus has been a mystery since you will never see an adult dun on the water. Thanks to the bug doctor:Johnny Miller of Catskill fame, who worked at the Gray Drake Lodge for many years, he uncovered the mystery. Honing the darkness middle of the night hours and shorelines/ swamps of the Muskegon's banks, he found the nymphs to swim like minnows and crawl up on shore in the middle of the night and hatch and fly off in the brush ( midnight till just before dawn). Johnny, as in the style of Caucci and Richards, photographed them hatching in his aquarium tanks- here are his images
( nymph here crawling up on wet stick)
Besides the other local hallowed Pere Marquette river that has dense hatches, the Muskegon hatch is a 4 week long magnificent display of nature like no other! The Siphlonurus mayfly ( rapidus, alternatus, Quebencences ) is a true #10 sized mayfly that is perhaps one of the most elegant mayflies and has blizzard flights in both the A.M. and P.M.- most only think of dusk!
FLY PATTERNS
I have taken my gray drake patterns developed over the last two decades to new heights recently in my #browntroutatlanticsalmonnexus and #selectivity book fly patterns. Using new materials I've incorporated realism and imitative search patterns that target predator forager feeding profiles during the hatch period. The larger selective brown's feeding can take on unique on preferences and key in intricate spinner patterns , sunken spinners and wet swinging articulated swimming patterns. As the hatch thickens their selectivity rises and can take on "hair pulling" frustration. Our clinic trips will teach the intricacies of these patterns and how to present them.
MY FROSTY HEMINGWAY DRAKE RECIPE (From my Nexus Book)
The realism and effectiveness of this pattern is truly remarkable! I have been perfecting gray drake patterns for over 25 years and this is beyond the best!
Thread: Light Grey
Hook: Daiichi Short Shank Dry wide-gape 1110
Tail/Body: Frosty Flies Realistic extended body Mayfly foam-Gray Drake -size Medium
Thorax: Hareline Ice Dub UV Peacock
Wings: Organza Dun with Light Dun Hackle
(Here is Rich Felber's magnificent 28 inch beast of a brown taken 2019 on my Gang Bang double. Rich has been an awesome gray drake chaser for years
and is one of the fishy-ist dudes I know!- that was the biggest brown taken on the gray drake spinner fall last year!)
(Drake magic time)
A BROWN TROUT FISHERY HAS BEEN UNLEASHED
( Going a full year now with the TYPE III regs and safe to say, is working very well and the larger browns are now becoming a strong year-class)
With the new trophy 15 inch brown regulations now in place for two years and the amount of 13-17 inch browns and 20" er's we have taken on nymphs and streamers this past winter and during the early black stonefly hatch on dries, the trophy brown fishery is ready to explode on the Muskegon!
My Final Thoughts
This 2020 spring, as we struggle to get back and re-open our services and everyone's lives to some semblance of normal with all the Covid pain and anxiety everyone has suffered, there is hopefully exciting things to come! For those that have been blessed with survival and my condolences to those that have lost loved ones ( I lost a cousin I played with in Poland as a boy, a strong, healthy, rugby playing Doctor to this terrible thing last week I am sad to say) I pray good things will be brewing despite our hardships.It has taught me, and hopefully all of us to appreciate the things in life we have taken for granted: family, loved ones and the simple things like having another day on this amazing planet to see and witness the wild natural beauty that has been created for us. It has been a very cold spring which is ideal for the gray drake hatches to endure for great lengths of time.and intensity. Last year's hatch was the strongest we have ever witnessed in my 25 years on the Muskegon. It became a day-long event from morning until dusk, which I have never seen and lasted a good solid 4 weeks. The gray drake hatch will be the telltale sign of great things to come when every brown in the river will be poking their heads up to eat drakes on the surface.
Please still stay safe, strong and positive!...this thing is not over yet and lets not be foolish and careless in our actions!
Cheers!,
Matthew Supinski
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231-250-2846
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