Sunday, August 23, 2015



Back to Jackson.


So, just shy of one year since my post about not being able to match the hatch and find what trout were feeding on, I returned to the Middle Fork of the Yuba, just below Jackson Meadow Res.

During the course of the last year I read someplace that when trout are rising and feeding, but you can't find a dry they'll take, consider a "sub hatch" that may be occurring just below the surface, if not in that fine "film" on the water.

I went to the exact same spot. (I'll post a photo later. Don't have it with me as I type this.) It was about the same time of day, and the usual sunny, warm weather conditions. I saw many of the same bugs in the air.  I tried the usual dries. Nothing. Fishing rising, but no takers.

I remembered what I had read. I left the dry on, after all, there was a legit hatch and I had the correct fly.  I added a dropper about 12 inches below the dry.  I made it an emerger, not a beadhead nymph with weight, but a fly that was light and would float, if not sink just a tad.

Bingo!  The trout loved it. I started get hits, and attacks.  I reeled in six trout in a short period of time.

And I noticed that all the rising fish were in the shadows.  Not much happened on the portion of this "pond" where the sun was hitting.  In fact, they way the current flows, I was able to cast into the sunny side, and let it slowly drift into the shadow.  Almost every time, just as the fly was crossing the boarder between sunlight and shadow - that's where they hit.

I finally felt victorious.  Fun day. Caught fish. Figured out the problem. Awesome. 

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