Hexagenia



Excellent Hex spinner water, the love the riffs

The fishing pressure on the local trout streams has become basically non-existent and I have found most areas here empty of fisherman.  We have good  water levels and with the warm humid weather the fly hatches are excellent. One in particular has had me on a local stream every evening for the past three nights,  the Hex spinner fall.  The first evening I noticed the larger spinners floating in the air above the riffles and mistakenly thought it was the larger Isos we have here.  I don't expect them to be this large this late in the summer, but, the fish were going nuts on them so, I played along.  Not having an Iso pattern I used a #10 brown X Caddis and in about 45 minutes up to dark and had landed @15 browns, 5 of these 18- 20" and none under 14".  The next evening I had a revelation.



Hex comparadun compared to #14 BWO









24" brown trout



As I stood along the shore preparing to wade out a fly landed on my cheek , it was a female hex spinner.  These flies are probably all of 1 1/2" long  and then I realized these weren't Iso spinners, they were Hex.  The trout don't start rising, not really rising , more like SLASHING, until about 8:10 and this continues on into darkness.  While I stood there another fly landed on the bill of my hat so I snapped a picture, it was the male spinner .  I had no patterns for this fly but I did have a few stimulators in my box and the trout loved them.  Again, another evening of BIG browns.





Male Hex spinner





 Yesterday I took a few minutute at the vise and tied a couple Hex comparaduns on #8 4x long hooks and hit the riffs again for the third evening in a row.  To the point, another tremendous evening and the largest brown I've ever take out of a local trout stream, a 24" male.  The spinner fall seemed to be lighter yesterday, I don't know if the showers we were having was affecting the Hex or if the hatchs/ spinner fall is nearing it's end for the time being.





Well, I will once again hit the riff tonight, it's an urge I can't resist.  It's like being hooked on a bad habit.  I've been Hexed.



















Local Fishing and the Salmon River

My wife and I came home early from the west.  With water still high on the Snake River, Wy and the probability that it will stay high till late August,  we decided to come home.  We did spend some time in Montana though and the Madison and the Gallatin were fishing fine.

Locally the rivers and creeks are down which is typical for the summer.  The trout fishing has been good here if you stick with the small stuff, #18-20 BWO and #20-22 Midge working fine.  I was up to the West Canada Creek  and it is in very good condition.  Did some searching with Parachute Adams and had good success thru mid afternoon but as it moved towards evening had to shift to the small stuff again, BWO primarily.

It is the Salmon River, however, that most are interested in.  It's August now and we wait for the first movement of salmon into the river.  The water release is 185cfs but with the rain we've had the last couple days the gauge at Pineville is at 268cfs, the run off from Orwell contributing to this and Trout Brook probably adds to this down below.  Reports from the lake are good, indicating the fish are moving this way.  Normally Labor Day weekend marks the un-official start of the run, doesn't matter if it's 10 fish or 100 fish that show up around this time, it's ON. 



In the river now you'll find good bass fishing as well as a few brown trout.  Any summer run steelhead have found refuge in the deeper spring fed areas of the upper river and have been keeping their mouths shut.  I'm going to float the river in the next few days and check it out 'from the rowing seat'.