Although it’s been hot in the afternoons, the fish have been really eating hard on local and private lakes lately. Early AM has been a nymph game until the callibaetis and damsel hatches heat up. The callibaetis have been starting mid morning, typically about 10:00AM and going to 1:00 or 2:00PM. We’ve been seeing damsel dries upon arrival. If you happen to see a rising fish eat a damsel dry, the rise forms are noticeably more violent and “splashier” than the sipped callibaetis dun or spinner eats. It’s as if the trout know the damsel dry can take off at any moment and they need to make their attack count. This makes for some really fun sight fishing as well as some really great fights after the aggressive eat. If you are lucky and the wind didn’t blow away the spinners from the night before you can have some dry fly fishing with callibaetis spinners right away. If you don’t see any dead spinners on the water a leech, damsel nymph, callibaetis nymph, or scud are going to get them. Plan on a later lunch to get the most out of the morning and don’t be afraid to bring along a sinking line to dredge deep in the afternoon…
