I was out on the South Branch of the Whitewater yesterday evening for a few hours. Thanks to Tacklebill's advice, I tried a caddis emerger around some structure and was able to catch 4 small browns and an 11 inch rainbow in the same spot in about 10-15 minutes plus quite a few missed hits . I just got into fly fishing over the winter, so this was an exciting outing to say the least for me! I also tried a Hares Ear and Dark Hendrickson without the least bit of luck. I've been out about 5 other times over the past couple of weeks and haven't had much luck with anything. I was looking at a normal hatch chart for SE MN and it said that the dark hendrickson would be the best bet at this time of the year, but I haven't even caught one with it yet. Anyone know why this is? I don't know much about "bugs" and matching the hatch so if anyone has a little advice please enlighten me!
The hatch charts indicate the months when favorable weather patterns (air temps, water temps, cloud cover, etc) most likely occur for a particular species. If a favorable weather pattern doesn't occur on the stream, then they won't hatch or mate. So it varies from year to year, just like the weather we have in Minnesota. Plus streams vary from one to the next and even different sections of the same stream. One day you'll be on the water and witness a hatch and thats when you start taking mental notes, time of day, wind, air and water temps. After awhile you become an amateur bug forcaster
It's always hit and miss, just like the weather guys on TV, but eventually you start getting a rough idea of when to expect certain hatches on your favorite waters. I hope this all makes sense. Just this past weekend in Northern Wisconsin we came across 2 minor hatches of Dark Hendricksons on 2 different sections 2 hours apart in the afternoon.
Hopes this makes a little sense.
Thanks for the good tips guys, they will definitely help!
The DH and caddis hatches are April hatches. The DH can get going as early as April 1 and run for up to 3 weeks. It was still going a bit late in April this year. Gray caddis follows, typically any time from the midle of the month until May 1 when other varieties of caddis take over. Hatches generally occur first further south and end up moving north throughout theor progression. It also matters a great deal where you fish. Just because a hatch chart recommends something doesn;t mean that the particular river you're on will produce that hatch that time of year. In fact, most streams don;t have the DH hatch whatsoever. Caddis are way more prevalent, and midges may be the most prevalent of all. Many anglers overlook that lillt guy thinking it's just a winter time hatch. I ran into cream midges on Saturday with a client. It wasn't what I was expecting, but the fish were on top sipping, so we made the necessary adjustments.
Just my two cents,
D.A.
