Insomnia, Giant Yellow May Flies and Trout

If you fish, and are a night owl, or can’t sleep, July is the month for you. In some local Cascade lakes in Oregon and Washington, something crazy happens as the veils of darkness get pulled down. The giant yellow may flies of summer start poppin’! Hexagenia Limbata is over 1” long and it's wing height, when resting on the water, is close to the same, and… it’s BRIGHT YELLOW! I guess that makes sense, if you are born to stand out like the giant target these bugs are, survival probably depends on your ability to sneak out at dark. Honestly though, during the hatch I often wonder how any survive. The first attackers come from beneath the surface. It’s amazing to watch a big yellow bug “pop” onto the surface. Then the countdown begins. How long will it take to get air borne or how long until it disappears in a crazy splash or swirl. What survives the water borne attacks, still have the air borne attackers, the bats, to deal with. It is worth watching this play out during the first hour of sunset whether you fish or not. The water boils with fish thrashing flies and the atmosphere just above the water undulates as crazy numbers of bats swarm the surface of the water picking up the flies. My advice- keep a constant bead on that fly because if you lose your focus and realize the number bats in your vicinity, it might make you a bit uncomfortable. If you fish, like I did last night, you get to be another part of this craziness. My evening as I will describe it, has been repeated for the last 2 decades, usually two or three times a year. It usually starts in the first week or two in July and will be productive, in varying degrees, for the entire month. The last couple of years with warm water, it has been a week or two earlier. Last night I was joined by a long time sports industry rep and good friend, Jim Elliot. Since he lives close to the action I met him after work and he had his drift boat on the trailer ready to go. Lucky guy just recently retired. We slid the boat into a windy lake a few hours before the hatch and worked our way to the windward side of the lake. We started out anchored in a cove that I haven’t fished much but it has a good depth, between 8’ and 10’, and a mud bottom (pretty much the home location of the Hex). We started with intermediate lines and size 10 -12 leeches and seal buggers. Not much happened on our attempts to catch them by “casting and stripping” our flies at various depts. I knew that might be the case because I had fished the lake during the day over the weekend prior and saw evidence that the hatch had started and when fish target them, similar to a big Stone Fly hatch on a river, they gorge and don’t feed much between the hatches. We missed a few fish and decided we would head over to my favorite cove and kill time. Once we arrived at “Profanity Cove”, a name I gave the cove while overhearing the “comments” of all anglers (including self) that fish the area and happen to miss a large number of the splashy rises to their flies. On otherwise peaceful evenings, when everyone is concentrating on seeing their fly on the water, in darkness, a missed rise invariably invokes a voracious OH #*&@! or %#&@ IT! A few more fish were missed but when I put on a lighter colored large fly, more closely resembling the Hex nymph, and swam it just under the surface, I finally got a solid hook up. After releasing the fish, as I was contemplating my next cast, I noticed some rises in the cove and spotted a number of hatching bugs. It was early but I figured if the bugs are hatching and the fish are eating, it’s time to get the dry fly rod going with my favorite Hex Cripple that has been surprising effective through the years.
On my first three casts my fly was met with suspicion, everything from what appeared to be an indifferent lick to a splashy swamping. No hook ups though. I had given Jimmy a new emerger pattern that I worked up on the tying bench this last week. His first three casts were solid hookups. OK, I know what to do- change flies. Fortunately, with the early start we got, we had at least 6 fish to the boat while it was still easy to see. It turned out to be a very fun night. We probably landed around 6 fish each while having at least 3X the number of encounters. We ended up catching this lakes grand slam, Browns, Cutts and Rainbows. If you decide you want to give this a try, here is what I typically use/take: -9’- 5 wgt loaded with an intermediate line for pre hatch fishing -9’- 4 wgt rod with floating line and 9’ leader with a 18" to 24" of 3X tippet (big flys to turn over and fish not leader shy in low light conditions) -Fly box full of Hex imitation Dries, Cripples, Emergers and Nymphs also good to have leaches and dark caddis patterns to imitate the Alder fly that seems to be very active the same time of year. Other MUST haves: -Head lamps -Fly drier and Floatant -Bat Repellent