Hidden Hatches

The Au Sable riverboat is one of the most pleasurable ways to fish. Sleek and elegant, these boats provide a fine casting platform as one floats down miles of gentle water in search of rising trout.

Every Eastern angler worth his blue dun hackle knows of the Hendrickson hatch.  What Western angler doesn’t get itchy when he or she hears that the salmon fly is starting its march up the Madison?  And adults in the Midwest become nocturnal creatures for weeks at a time when the big bugs of Michigan’s trout rivers become conveyor belts of calories as the various drakes wiggle out of their mud holes to emerge and ultimately mate and fall over darkened streams.  These bugs and a host of others are the glory hatches that drive anglers to rivers throughout the country.  But there is much more to the world of mayflies, caddisflies, and stoneflies than these headline acts for the angler looking to solve more esoteric entomological puzzles and put a few more trout in the net.

I vividly recall a trip to the Au Sable in Michigan that my wife, son, and I took with the hopes of encountering the legendary brown drakes on this wonderful river system.  Find them we did, awesome they were, and as happens more often than we would like, the trout were, by and large, not impressed.  Seeing a river channel covered wing to wing with big, succulent mayflies is truly a spectacle.  Try fishing in bug stew like this, though, and let me know how you do. 

While we thoroughly enjoyed seeing this force of nature, it was another bug that gave us an evening of memorable fishing.  A little-known mayfly, the Black Quill (leptophlebia species for the Latin lovers) showed itself in numbers that were more than enough for the fish but not so overwhelming that we didn’t stand a chance of catching a few trout.  This bug wasn’t even featured as particularly important in Caucci and Nastasi’s landmark book, Hatches.  Yet there they were one beautiful June evening.  Trout were caught and memories were made.  Our guide even came up with a nice pattern for the fly based on his time on the water over the previous few days.

The Black Quill is one of those rarely discussed bugs that are found in specfic types of habitat. They love silty water.

One phrase in the above sentence is critical for anglers in finding bug activity like that described above: time on the water.  Our guide “discovered” this activity thanks to the fact that he is on the water almost every day during the peak of bug season.  The casual angler that is chasing the headliners might never see or notice activity such as this because they are focused on and hoping for the movie for which they bought the ticket; not the short being shown before the main event.

Another way to discover these hidden hatches is to head to waters on your own favorite stream that you do not normally fish.  Many of these “hidden” insects occupy very specific habitat, often habitat that doesn’t necessarily look like ideal trout water.  The Black Quill in the above example, likes slow, mucky habitat that doesn’t often have a trouty look.  In fact, it may not be very trouty in the depths of summer but in late May and early June the water may be perfectly suitable for trout and offer miles of water to the angler willing to check out the unexplored waters on famous and not so famous streams.

Once you have come across one of these unusual bugs it is worth doing some research to find out more details.  Let’s stick with the Black Quill for a moment.  Tom Fuller, in his book Eastern Hatches; What Flies to Fish, When, And Where notes that this is an important bug but with narrow habitat requirements: boggy waters and backwaters.  Just like the stretch of the Au Sable that provided enjoyable sport.  Armed with this knowledge, I plan on looking for this bug in a few areas of “frog water” that I fish too little.

This leads me to another important consideration.  Just because you read something somewhere does not mean that it is entirely true. Don’t take any statements written in any periodical or book as an absolute truism.  One of my favorite bug events is far more widespread than I had previously read about.  I am learning more and more about where and when to find this insect.  By all means, use the information that you read about in print but keep your eyes open.  You may be able to build on the knowledge that was presented by others. 

The Gray Drake is another mayfly that anglers don't typically target. Their dun phase is of no importance. The spinners are another matter.

There are also situations where well-known hatches are considered secondary on some watersheds.  On the Delaware system, for instance, the prolific trico is not given the consideration of a variety of other insects.  In his excellent book Fly Fishing Guide to the Upper Delaware, Paul Weamer notes that the trico is highly overrated on this prolific river system and that trout are somewhat indifferent even when they appear in large numbers. That said, on a fall float down the West Branch of the Delaware I noted a pair of bank sipping fish. A few moments later, as we floated downstream from where the fish had been seen, a trico spinner landed on my arm.  Was it trying to tell me something?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  I do regret, however, that I did not ask my guide to anchor up for a few moments just to see what was up.

If you are on the water with a guide and you see something, do not be afraid to raise your voice.  A good guide will be attentive because he or she knows it is an opportunity to learn something new or build on existing knowledge.  Whether or not those fish were just dace as the guide supposed or whether they were trout barely poking their noses out of the water eating tricos as I have seen elsewhere, we will never know.  Be an interactive part of your guided trips.  Use your knowledge to your benefit while absorbing as much new learning as possible. 

In late May or early June position yourself within a riffle and look up. If your river has gray drakes they will not be hard to miss. They often get on the water just at dark and the window of opportunity is a short one.

Finally, keep an open mind about what stage of the insect you plan to imitate. It is not unusual for a mayfly that hatches sporadically as a dun to take on far more importance as spinners.  Another example is the Yellow Sally stonefly which can often be seen making flights on comfortable summer evenings.  These flights rarely translate into fishable events.  However, I have done very well by fishing nymphs of these pretty bugs in the early morning hours throughout June. Call it hatch matching by another means!

As you head out to the water this coming season, look past the box office hatches, and keep an eye open for those off-Broadway events that can be equally, if not more enjoyable than the big-name hatches.  It is incredibly rewarding to discover these hidden hatches that will bring you that much closer to the river or rivers you love to fish.