(Todd pictured with a nice rainbow trout that took a dry fly)
A dry caddis fly produced this healthy rainbow trout for Todd yesterday. While the past few cool days with heavier flows has been producing nice caddis hatches, this recent warm spell and lower water levels has temporarily slowed the hatch a little. The big trout are present. They just are a little more picky and a lot more weary of un-natural looking presentations.
Dry Fly Presentation Techniques
Start with shorter casts working your way out to longer distances. Pay special attention to let the fly slowly swing down and away from you as it drifts naturally down stream with little disturbance. Pay close attention to mend your fly line up stream of the fly. In doing so, trout are less likely to spook before hitting the fly as the fly line appearing first usually puts the trout down.
This time of year the trout love to key in on the terminal end of the swing as the fly line straightens out at the end of your drift. Spend a little extra time there allowing more trout to decide to strike. Give it a try the next time your on the trout streams. It’s a beautiful time of year to fish!
Look for the cooler weather next week mixed with rain to raise the water levels, lower the water temps, and turn the bite on. Salmon have started to enter the river system but the warm clear water is slowing their progress. Things change quickly on the Muskegon, so as we dip into the cooler temps next week with much needed rain will increase the salmon migration.
post by: Jon Fortuna