WILD,WEIRD,WHACKY,WET...WTF!....THAT'S HOW TO DESCRIBE THE WEATHER AND HATCHES....BUT "GOT BIG TROUT! "

(Tom Terry's nice brown from Saturday)

In all the years of fly fishing....god embarrassed to say how many.....never seen more crazy weather/hatch patterns, and generally confused 'everything' ! Some nights the hatches are thick....most nights nothing!. This weekend, I had the pleasure of guiding Tom and Sue  from Chicago for three days. We caught a ton of nice trout nymphing/streamers with 5 hefty browns and a bow in the 19-21 inch range on the Muskegon, despite the gazillion tubers, canoes/kayaks etc.. Those smaller bows/smolt steelies and brownies are as fat as footballs and put a heavy bend in Tom and Sue's Sage ONE 4 weights- they were amazed by how hot these fish fought in the current.

(Isonychia adults have a a deep green/burgandy thick body)

( Tippy's nice brown on a Iso at the begging of June)

 We were surrounded by Doppler radar red and yellow all weekend but managed to escape till last night when we got hammered with storms and rain. BUT............ we needed it since it was gettin g dry and water levels were dropping.

( Iso wiggle and CDC dun with tailing shuck)

(Hex has been showing up in increasing numbers on the Muskegon by Croton dam...or lower river0

 So "WHAT'S UP WITH THE HATCHES?"....god I wish I had a clue....and for me that's embarrassing to say!. There are Hex's on the P.M. already. Our Muskegon has seen some great sulpher hatches....very sporadic gray drakes which makes no sense since we had a good year last year. Our Drakes did start around May 3rd...very early, but nothing consistent.Lats nights sporadic cahill stenonemas and a few Isonychias.
 Here is what I'm seeing. Still poking around the muck and lagoons near shore , I'm finding gray drake nymphs.One devestating theory I had was when we had those huge floods in early May, they pushed siphlonorus nymphs into the grassy banks which dried up quick when the water came down fast- mortality possible. The gravel in riffles and shorelines have tons of Isonychias, caddis larvae, blue wing olive nymphs.
 BUT......bugs don't like erratic and wild barometric pressure changes which we have been full of!....why?....Darwinian my friend,,,evolution. Aquatic insects that through the millenia that hatched on severe weather barometric changes didn't survive....they got blown away into oblivion and their seed found no purchase. The most successful aquatic mayflies hatched under satble conditions. Blue Winged Olives like overcast and rain....but stable lows and low light...not wild trends like we've had. Caddis don't care one way or the other!
 SO....now with our water level up to 2940 cfs...from 1800 yesterday....the PM/Manistee north waters high off-color and we are going back to 60 degree daytime highs and 37 F nights....after 88F yesterday, this is actually good for all mayflies except HEX.!
We should see good Isonychia emergence's and more gray drakes to follow in the next few weeks, which like somewhat cooler weather patterns and rising water.Caddis also like spikes in water levels to hatch.
 That's the latest from the bug world. The rivers are loaded to the brink with chinook salmon parr and the steelhead fry which just hatched are everywhere...plus you know what is still spawning...trout are "FAT"AND WILLING".....and I'm not going any further on that one...period.....Cheers!
COMING TO THE GREAT LAKES FLY FISHING THEATERS SOON- SKAMANIA SUMMER STEELHEAD....HAVE YOU CAUGHT ONE?....WANT TO?....TIME TO START PLANNING!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , chinook salmon , gray drake , isonychia , monster brown trout , selective trout , siphlonorus gray drakes , skamania steelhead , steelhead fry , super caddis hatches , trout and eagle