Bugs!!

Went fishing on the "Mayfly" River this evening. I saw:


Mayflies- A least 5 species including a few Sulphurs, "Mahoganys"
(#16), #12 gray somethings, #18 greenish yellow goobers (E. Needhami?)
and a some Light Cahills. A half hour before sunset they were either
hatching, laying eggs, screwing, loitering and doing whatever else a
mayfly can possibly do.

Caddis- Little gray ones that almost covered the water, swarming
everywhere, bigger tan ones bouncing up and down off the water like
rubber balls and even bigger gray ones that were lurking in the bushes
and would emerge, muttering, when disturbed.

Stoneflies- # 12 Olive ones, laying eggs.

Craneflies- #14 Yellow Sallys, # 10 reddish brown dudes.

Midges- Lots and lots of midges.

And mosquitoes. And then more mosquitoes. And then lots more
mosquitoes. The most mosquitoes I've run into in years.


The water was up at least a foot and moving fast!! Visibility only
fair. The water temp when I got there was 68.9 degrees!! Almost left
but saw a rise at the end of the pool I was standing in. Drifted a
Pass Lake over it and caught him. 10" brookie. Wound up catching 10 or
so total. Only one was caught casting "blind" and on a sunken fly. The
rest were seen rising and cast to. All fell to dries. Probably ended
up catching the most on a #16 Adams but they weren't being picky. I
think most fish weren't feeding on top, the high water was keeping
them down and well fed. All the fish brought to hand were fat.

As soon as the sun left the water the water temp dropped to 67.3
(guess who got a new digital thermometer). When I left it was down
another degree but the air temp was even lower (62.5) and there was
steam rising from the water.

Lots and lots of bugs. I have a feeling if the water hadn't been so
high it would have been an impossibly frantic surface feeding frenzy.
Every fish could have had his own personal bug species.

I've got to go find the pasta server now and scratch my back.

g.c.