Big Mayfly Time- The light giant drakes of Summer ( and heat wave warning)

( A Hex/yellow drake/ Danica  imitation- author image and tie)

Summer's  giant drakes are one mayfly hatch period that guarantees big trout will be on the prowl for them. Besides the legendary Hexagenia/( light hex) and Rithrogena (dark hex) hatch of Michigan and the Midwest, Hexs' /giant drakes exist all over the globe and east coast were you have silty stream bottoms and fine gravel . Even on classic eastern/western freestone/cobblestone rivers, the lower silty portions of them have Hexagenia hatches, as do limeteoners and spring creeks everywhere. Big trout will pack on the weight from these hatches, and the fact that many do not fish late into the night on ice cold spring creeks since they fish well in mid-day, they often emerge without notice.

Europe's Ephemera Danica comes off a little earlier starting in May ( thus the word Mayfly). It is very similar to the Green Drake emergence cycle, but will continue its hatching throughout summer on the ice cold spring creek/chalk streams of Europe well into July. I once encountered excellent Danica hatches on the River Avon spring creek/chalk stream in Salisbury England in late July, and the big browns went ballistic for them!) For the amazing landlocked salmon/lake/sea browns of Michigan , and New England/Scandinavia/Baltic areas the Hexagenia is a big appetite arouse where the Hex nymphs comprise an amazing part of the diets of big water salmonids where found- especially in Great Lakes/Finger Lakes.

                 (What we see of the Hex hatch is only skin deep. An amazing autopsy from a  Great Lakes charter guide friend (James Chamberlin image )on northern glacial inland lake in Michigan- lake trout belly stuffed with hex nymphs)

(Hex nymph image J.G. Miller)

( massive vertical growth takes place on these lake systems with hexagenia overload- Landlocked Atlantic shown here- browns get even more glutton-like. Author image)

Here they emerge from their burrows to relocate by massive schools/pods, especially in fall and spring, and the salmonids chow-down heavily on them in deep water depths. Atlantics' , steelhead and browns, plus char binge down on them all year. Sometimes the sonar graphs of fish finders in these lakes are a blizzard cloud of them on the graph)

                                  ( I'm a big fan of the amazing foam mayfly bodies of Frosty Fly  https://frostyfly.com/. , a Slavic based company in Canada that does excellent mail-order.They come in all varieties and are insect specific ( here is Hex, Danica)- tell them I sent you. You can combine them with wings of CDC, duck feathers, Snowshoe rabbit, traditional hackle- you can custom infuse them into your creations like I do)

              ( my Nexus Hex wiggle nymph from my "Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus" Book- author image)

                         ( light and dark Hex- sometimes a gender or species specific trait= J.G. Miller "the Bug Doctor" image)

                (Top: more traditional yellow drake/Potamanthus wiggle from my "Selectivity" book- a killer on many classic freestone and spring creeks in late summer...Below: a beautiful wild  Catskill's/Neversink brown trout of September that love to eat them in between meals of olives and beetles ( fish embodies the Salmo Nexus morphology- author images )

The other Yellow Drakes : Potamanthus, Ephemera varia and Epeorus vitreus , all emerge sporadically many times on most waters and stand out like a giant yellow flower on the water. You can be sure they will get gulped up fast by any trout due to their meaty proportions and being extremely obvious.
On the ice cold Catskill tailwaters they float for long duration's and will get extremely long compound/complex  rises from the trout, which have been used to sipping # 20's. Both Classic eastern freestoners and spring creeks have them, and they start to hatch in June, but will sporadically hatch all summer at odd times of the day- you will never know when they turn up! They are excellent indicators of good healthy freestone and spring creek water qualities.

More to come in the "Rise Forms" departmental column of my new online magazine being released this month- cheers!, stay cool, give the trout a break, and turn off all electronics in the house to save electricity- use solar chargers for your smart phones and tabs- mine is working great!
Matthew Supinski

                                       (NOTE: Please stay advised on heat wave conditions: carry a thermometer, and don't fish waters that are approaching or are over 70 F . Only fish cold limestone/subterranean spring creeks that stay ice cold year-round, alpine environment brooks ( Rockies/Appalachians etc.) also Catskill and other tailwaters around the globe that have very deep 150 plus impoundments depths for bottom draw. Michigan is loaded with subterranean spring creeks and they are the tiny creeks that you never fish because they are obscure and require the art of walking-they carry more wilds than you ever thought!, but watch out for heat stroke and carry lots of water) Usually very tiny feeder springs of tributaries of rivers will have icy conditions that hold up. But the farther you move away from spring sources, the warmer it will get. Also watch out for large thermally stressed fish in springs that have migrated there for survival, They are usually larger and darker and move lethargically- MOST WILL SURVIVE IF YOU LEAVE THEM THE F' ALONE!- best to stay inside and tie flies, READ!, yes read books (long lost art due to modern society's ADHD) until the heat breaks- you can do it!, like the commercials say "we're in this together eh!)


( for more reading and  fly tying recipes /tactics on this subject and others. Lots of  in-depth/code cracking hatch matching conundrums :

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes , hexagenia limbata , Matt Supinski #Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Matthew Supinski new books , may fly hatches , Michigan ground zero legacy , Selectivity book

( My 12 inch wild trophy brown for a good cardio workout-worth every bit of sweat!) )
Hoofed-it for close to three miles through steep ravines and glens on my ground -zero gem ( last stocked in the 1880's with the original Von Behr Black Forest German bachforellen) Got one wild 12 inch trophy to show for it- it was worth it! Turned a 20 inch plus donkey by a downed tree stump, but it saw me and with the low, clear water and he wasn't interested. Found some bear shit, smelled very herbaceous like it normally does at this time of year. ( I'm a bear shit expert!😁)

The most beneficial thing to small stream 'stump-jumpin' is the excellent cardio/muscular workout you get. Climbing/bending over downed logs/trees, crawling up-and-down banks and steep inclines, You are totally sweating by the time you come back to the car. Pace yourself by looking on the forest floor for edibles- only saw a ton of skunk cabbage today.. Take plenty of water with you in your pack! ( can't get that kind of workout in a motorboat!

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Posted in: brown trout , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , michigan fly fishing , Michigan ground zero legacy , spring creeks

Last Week's Beastly Truttasaurus Brown!

Last week's beast of a brown!...congrats Dan! ( while guiding with Matt in Michigan)- story on his Facebook page

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Posted in: Brown trout-Atlantic Nexus book , gray drake lodge , Michigan brown trout , Michigan ground zero legacy

THE MOST PERFECT BROWN TROUT!- SIMPLY SALMO TRUTTA MAGNIFICENCE

                         ( Master Muskegon River guide, associate and friend: Jon Fortuna, one of the fishy-est dudes I know, with "THE" most perfect brownie I have ever seen!- a true massive congrats Jon! )

In case you haven't noticed, I'm passionately obsessed, possessed and compulsive with all things  Salmo: salar and trutta-browns and Atlantic's- the "Atlantic trouts" . My Nexus book on them was the most difficult and thought draining tome I've ever embarked on. #browntroutatlanticsalmonnexus

 When a fish touches your soul at at a very early age in the impressionable boyhood stage like brown trout and Atlantic salmon did on the Baltic rivers of northern Poland that I open my Nexus book chapters with, the power of these fish to cast a spell on you for life is simply spellbinding .

When Jon a few days on one of his evening trips texted me this image of the brown he just caught with client, I could feel his shaking/trembling with joy and humbleness coming through the texted image. When I first saw it, I was awestruck by the truly magnificence of this brown's "perfect" morphology/color spectrum/allele spotting patterns- everything about this #groundzerobrowntrout specimen- simply amazing does not do Jon's catch justice. When writing #Nexus I have looked through thousands of images of brown trout for the book- some of mine and other world class photographers so kind to gift me with their works) Here is why this fish is so special.

Ground Zero Genetic Infusion 

In Nexus I romanticize the importance of our subliminal  micro- ecosystem of tiny to medium cold flowing spring-fed wooded rivers from Newaygo to Baldwin, Michigan. Here in 1884, a special train came up from the Federal Fish Hatchery- Northville, MI to stock the "first brown trout"west of the the Atlantic ocean in civilization's new world western hemisphere- kinda a big deal ! 

Baron Von Behr's promise to send his beloved Black Forest German brown trout was on that train. They are typical of  the many brown trout strains of internal river systems in Europe : mix of brown spots with red dots circled with white rings, orange "butter" bellies, and a blue sapphire dot on the cheeks- a beautiful creature! These were and still are the main allele configurations of our ground -zero browns in our Michigan legacy. Our progressive Michigan DNR, leaders in fish culture for centuries, have preserved these German brown genetics by stocking Wild Gilchrist Creek browns at fingerling stages in rivers where natural reproduction needs help. 

As time progressed, other strains of brown trout came to the new world such as Scotland's Loch Leven and more coastal estuary/large water body specimens that had access at one point or still do to the Atlantic and surrounding seas, thus having less spotting and more silvery forage pelagic based allele structures that favor their life survival strategies.

Loch Levens when river based tend to have the more fuller brown spotting/leopard spot looks dominance in their appearance. Michigan uses a Wild Rose ( Wisconsin originated) brown that has faster growth potentials than the much more elusive and shy Black Forest German Forellen( Bach Forellen is German stream brown trout). Jon's perfect specimen embodies all these allele spotting into a fusion that takes on massive artistic implications. The fusion of leopard spotting with red crimson cell-like spots , extreme orange butter, reddish blood marking transitions, a cluster of leopard spotting running into the lower belly like Marble Trout of Slovenia....the artistic diagnosis never ends with this fish!)

"YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT"- THE MUSKEGON'S MASSIVE FORAGE BASE DIVERSITY
The Muskegon is one of the most fertile rivers I've ever witnessed. Since it is a tailwater that connects inland lake reservoirs and the Great Lakes it has a massive infusion of ecosystems that fuel the food chain in both directions. After years of lobbying for Type 3 regulations to create a trophy brown trout population, our new and talented /dedicated biologist Mark Tonello of the MDNR had the wisdom to implement these regulations and the brown trout populations are responding nicely and growing larger!
A big part of a brown trout's appearance /lifestyle and diet come from their genetic backgrounds and what they forage on, including adapting their morphology to their habitat type/water color and viscosity.
This "perfect" brown has an ideal mix of genetics that was fueled by an extreme diversity of prey. Robustly colored  browns usually result from extreme aquatic insect and freshwater crustacean, which the Muskegon has an enormous amount of. Crayfish, scuds and the entire aquatic insect smorgasbord of mayflies, caddis, stone flies and midges abound. Also bait fish such as sculpins, darters, chubs, sucker minnows and salmon /steelhead fry add to the mix. Couple these with the seasonal onslaught of eggs from spawning salmon, steelhead and suckers and the food supply is mind boggling, thus creating morphological vibrancy .
Bottom Line: All About The Fish
To me and many others, the fly fishing journey is more than just the catching. It is in the appreciation and adventure to witness the beauty of the natural order of things of God's creation. No fish is more stunning, sporting and beguiling , and captivating of the soul and eyes than Salmo-#civilizationsfoundingfish. Vision is a divine blessing we often take for granted. When you lay eyes on Jon's brown trout, a magnificently balanced beast of 30 million years in the making, you can only be humbled by the power of the natural world- how anyone can kill a fish of this beauty is beyond my comprehension. To all the guides and anglers that practice catch-and-release , the Salmo gods bless you!- especially with our Atlantic salmon populations that need mankind's help now more than ever.
One thing is for sure: you will be seeing more trophy brown trout ( Truttasaurus!), and stunning looking ones at that, in the years to come from the Mighty Muskegon!
(blogger's note: A year after my Nexus book was released, Jon's brown made me realize once again what emotional joy we receive when we catch a big brown!...to those that worship these fish, more of this adventure is in my Nexus pages)

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Posted in: Brown trout-Atlantic Nexus book , Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus , gilchrist browns , jon fortuna , Loch Leven Brown , Michigan brown trout , Michigan ground zero legacy , muskegon fly fishing , wild rose browns

It's Finally here!!!! Nexus, a lifetime in the making!

            Just in time for the holidays and winter show/2019 clinics!

Many have been asking for ordering contact information for Nexus...here it is. Also very excited to be lauching the brownatlanticnexus web site today...going to be real cool!, along with enlarged fly plates/individual historical flies tied by Jim Haswell with zoom -in macro capacity and detailed fly recipes and features on contributors...here is ordering info

To order Nexus: retail dealers: contact Skyhorse Publishing contacts:

Sarah Jones
Author Liaison/Sales Representative

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Allworth Press | Arcade Publishing | Gary Null Publishing
Helios Press | Night Shade Books | Not For Tourists
Sky Pony Press | Sports Publishing | Talos Press
Vermont Office
802-579-1054
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
Like us on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram!

Ronnie Alvarado
Assistant Editor
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Allworth Press | Arcade Publishing | Carrel Books |Gary Null Publishing | Helios Press | Night Shade Books | Not For Tourists | Sky Pony Press | Sports Publishing | Talos Press
307 W 36th Street, 11th Floor | New York, NY 10018
Ph:(212) 643-6816 | Fax: (212) 643-6819
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
@skyhorsepub

Also:, Anglers Book Supply- contact Jackie at (541-342-8355)...or visit their web site https://www.anglersbooksupply.com/login/?next=/

Individuals: Please watch Matthew's Show Appearance/clinic/book signing schedules, also ask your local fly shops to order them and watch for Matt's local fly shop/book store appearances. If you must get it quickly, Amazon ( including global/international Amazon) is well stocked and quick delivery for Christmas...Cheers

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Posted in: Brown Atlantic Nexus , gray drake lodge , Matthew Supinski new books , michigan fly fishing , Michigan ground zero legacy , muskegon river fly fishing