I made it out to the creek on Wednesday after school, hoping to get in some quality fishing before the crowds of bait fishermen show up on Saturday. It was pretty windy which made casting a little difficult. I didn't see much insect activity on the water. I only hooked one fish, landing none. I was pretty bummed. That was the third time in a row that I hadn't caught anything.
I had to go out again on Thursday to redeem myself. It's crazy how much of a difference one day can make. I didn't do anything different than the last three times that I'd been out, but the fish were just a little more cooperative. I guess the lack of wind could have helped. I don't know how many fish I landed. I lost count around twenty, so it was somewhere above thirty. The biggest fish landed were 15", 17", and 19". The 19"er was super fat. He fought way hard. I was surprised that I didn't break him off. He was really strong. I landed a few fish, including the 19"er, on a #16 olive caddis pupa. I caught quite a few fish on a #18 light-colored micromayfly. I had a few hits on a #12 olive damselfly nymph. In the evening, there were swarms of midges above the water mating, so I tied on a #20 Griffith's Gnat. I caught quite a few fish on it and a bunch more on the midge pupa dropper that I tied on as well. I changed the dropper a couple of times. I used a #20 olive one and a #20 dark red one, both working well.
As far as insects go, I saw a few adult damsels in the air. I saw a few caddis come off of the water. I didn't see any mayflies. That was kind of surprising. There were tons of midges around the rocks on the bank. There must have been a big hatch in the morning. Just before dark, there were tons of bugs in the surface film. Many appeared to be flying ants. Speaking of ants, I got attacked by ants, too. There was a branch that had fallen in the water. It was leaning on a rock. I walked on the branch to get to the rock. I guess I made these ants mad when I started walking on their branch, because they started crawling onto the rock, up my waders, and onto my arms and neck where they proceeded to bite me. I was tempted to jump in the water, but I didn't want to spook the fish. That probably sounds stupid, but the fishing was just too good!
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
sounds like a great day. As far as the flying ants go, Every colony of ants has only one queen, and she's the one and only female, So when new female ants are born they grow wings when there young and they must fly off to find there own colony as soon as possible, hears the weird part, after they find a place to live they actually chew the wings offs, thats why you dont see very many ants with wings, but from what I have heard they can create a hatch type of feeding from the trout. When I head up to the seirras next weekend, A carpenter ant dry is most likely what I'm starting with, there really coming alive this time of year.
