I know there are no hatches in Sept in the Rockies but.........

My home river has finally come down and over the last few weeks, for
the first time since prerunoff, the fish have been avidly coming up for
dries. I've been fishing pocket water on my home river with good
success and had a great day on a feeder creek that CharlieW. told me
about. About a week and a half ago, the Trico hatch started on the
lower river and the fall has been OUTSTANDING for the last week.

The area I have been fishing has a tall cliff along one bank that shades
the water until midmorning. The hatch starts at about 9:15 and is over
when the sun peaks over the cliffs and strikes the water, about 10:15.
Been going out most mornings. Ten minutes to the spot on the river,
about an hour's fishing and then home. I got there earlier one morning,
but the river was completely dead until about 9:00 when I spied the
occassional riser. By 9:15, the pods of fish were feeding heavilly
enough in the shallow flat that they use to feed, that you can fish to them
without scaring them off.

The area I've been fishing has a large deep pool on the lower end with a
shallow riffle on the top. In between, there's a flat that's about
a hundred yards long. At the present water levels, it runs from two the
four feet in depth. The flat has few features and the current is faster
than the pool below but moderate enough that there are few surface
disturbances. Most of the time, this flat is devoid of fish. The
upstream riffle will hold some fish, but during nonfeeding periods, the
fish will concentrate in the pool in the lower end.

During a light hatch, a few fish (often good ones) will cruise
the flat picking bugs off the surface covering large areas in their feeding
cruises. These fish are usually VERY spooky and tough. You have to be
the first person through the area if you even want to see these fish.
The water is shallow enough and the fish are big enough that you see the
fish feeding below the surface as well as above.


During heavier hatches, fish will move onto the flat in pods ranging in
size from 4 to 10 fish. Most of the fish will set up specific feeding
stations. The competition, and the heavier feeding make them less spooky
and more approachable.

The Trico spinner falls have been very heavy lately and the flat will
usually have four or five pods of fish feeding on the spinners. Most of
the pods will stay in a specific area and use set feeding stations but
one of the pods slowly cruises through a large area in a rhythmic
fashion making a curcuit of the area every ten minutes or so. Even
though there are concentrations of fish in a relatively small space, the
majority of fish are locked onto their station. Although a covering cast
that floats through the area will be close enough to several fish to be
seen during its drift, casting to a specific fish and getting the fly
right in its feeding line is much more effective and usually critical.

When the fish are really "tuned on" to the hatch, you can catch one fish
out of the pod and the rest will continue feeding. However, during the first
and last part of the hatch, a hooked fish will scare the rest of that
pod (or several pods) back to the pool. Although I tried a variety of
different Trico spinner patterns in a variety of sizes, they caught only an
occassional fish. I've had much more success with a tiny Griffith's
gnat. The fish are definately feeding on the spent spinners and the only
thing I can think of is that the Griffith's gnat makes a better
impression on/in the surface or maybe it's something else I'm not
considering.

Most of the fish are sizable, heavy fish and I've been landing about one
out of three or four takes. Some of the missed takes, I'm sure, are due to
partial refusals but even with good takes, it's hard to get solid enough
hookups with the small hooks. I try and apply enough pressure to limit
the length of the fight and end up pulling out of many of the fish.

I didn't get out this morning for the hatch but drove near the river
during an errand around noon and stopped to check out the river. It was
overcast and I thought there might still be a few fish on the flat
feeding. I spotted a couple fish and went for my rod. Since the spinner
fall was over, I thought I'd try a bigger fly and tied on a 16 cream
colored parachute. Hooked and landed both feeding fish! Although we had
a cold front come through today, I hoping for a couple more weeks of the
Trico action.

(I've got some pictures of these pods of fish feeding on the Tricos. I
also have a few of my trip with Rusty as well as some of the pocket
water I was fishing at the end of August. I'll post em when I get the
chance).

Willi