Hatch! #77

Pop Quiz, when I say “Hatch”, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, I can tell you the the first thing that comes to a fisherman’s mind is bugs, bugs, bugs and more bugs coming into life for the first time, in great numbers and landing on the water, which make the fish go into a feeding frenzy. Remember that you don’t exactly know when a hatch is going to take place, and for most bugs, it only happens once a year, so often times you miss it. Why is a hatch so good? Well, glad you asked. It is because if you have a similar fly to the one that is on the water, you just might be able to join in the fun of lying it down on the water and that fish rises up, takes it and then you are off to the races.

That is exactly what happened to TC and I this past weekend. We decided that we would go to one of our favorite ponds and see what we could conjure up. The wind seemed to be cooperating, the clouds were abundant and we were willing. When we got there, we quickly put our rods together, loaded the canoe and out on to the pond we paddled. Now, this particular pond has one good area where we do quite well. The big ones tend to lay in the weeds until it is time to feed. My first instinct was to put on a march brown fly and give that a try. I got TC to put on a green drake over her objection that she wanted a blue dunn. As we got on the water, it become apparent that we were in the middle of a hatch. They came in swarms and landed on the water, only to see the fish rise, take them and go back into the deep. We gave our flies a try, casting them into the ring the fish were making when they broke the surface, but to no avail. They would rise right by our flies, take the bug next to ours and descend. As any good fishermen knows, your luck can be really good if you have the right fly during these times. Well, it just so happened that we had tied up a few before coming. Yes, the old blue dunn was the bug of the day and for some reason, TC had called it right, back at the truck. 

With little effort, I pulled two blue dunns out of our fly box and we quickly attached them to our tippet line. 

As a fish would rise, we would throw our line into the ring they made and on four occasions, we pulled up some very nice brook trout.  First, an 11” red bellied trout, then another 11” and then a 10” which we put back. And finally a 13” trout that was nice and fat. When TC hooked it, her face came alive, her poll bent and she sprang into action. I grabbed the net and watched as she kept control of it and made sure her line was good and tight. In short order, she had that beautiful fat fish next to the boat and I did my part by scooping it into the net and in the boat.

Soon after that, we decided that it was time to pick up anchor, paddle to shore and pack up for the two-hour journey home. It is not often that you hit it like we did this day. Hatches come and go very quickly, but it is always exciting. This was TC’s first experience with a hatch and she enjoyed herself. Our day was over, but not forgotten. We had been successful and any fishermen will tell you that is the ultimate goal.

On our way out, we saw a white bird on the side of the road pecking away at the little pebbles. We came to a stop, took a few photos and I actually got out of the truck and walked toward it as it wobbled back and forth. It didn’t seem to be bothered by me in the least. I got back in the truck and changed by iphone to video and started to take a few frames. That bird must have been photogenic because it walked right toward my truck. The more frames I took, the closer it got. We said our goodbyes and headed down the road, careful to make sure that it was not in our path as we left. I looked in my rear view mirror and it went back to picking away at the pebbles.

Now, I got a photo from a friend of mine. He too was successful and grabbed this nice salmon. Looks like that will be really good eating.