September's wild trout

[dc410]

Fall is definitely sneaking in quick on us this year. I just spent an absolutely gorgeous evening on a local limestoner targeting wild trout. I fished from 5 PM to 7:30 PM and the water temperature was 59 degrees. Perfect for the native brookies! When I arrived, I saw multiple fish rising so I was expecting a pretty good evening.
I tried something a bit different just to see how it would produce. I tied on a size 14 peacock body CDC & Elk and tied an unweighted Green Weenie about 18 inches below and off the bend of the CDC & Elk. I know that the dry/dropper thing can be very productive but I rarely do it. I fished these same two flies the whole evening.

In the 2 1/2 hours that I fished I caught 13 native brookies and 5 wild browns (and probably lost at least 10 or 12 on the long distance release). I caught 5 on the CDC & Elk and 13 fish on the Green Weenie. The largest fish was about a 10 1/2 inch native brookie taken on top on the CDC/Elk. I found it interesting that all of the browns were taken underneath on the Green Weenie. It appeared that the brookies were the only ones working the top this evening. There was a sporatic white fly spinnerfall at dusk but I didn't see any trout specifically taking them. Great to see that some of the fish are starting to put on their fall colors. This is a great time of year to be out on the streams with very little pressure and the fish are so beautiful. Don't miss out on it!

 

[BrookieChaser]

Nice fish!

I need to find some streams with water in them.

 

[salmonoid]

I find that a dry/dropper combo works quite well on mixed brookie/brown streams. I usually take the most brookies on top and the browns on the dropper. I've combined a big stimulator with a wooly bugger on one stream (results in more of a sunken stimulator), a hopper/micro bugger, and various dries with San Juan worms or green weenies. You could also go all terrestrial with a beetle/worm combo.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

If this is the stream I believe it is, all summer I've done well with both brownies and brookies on the top. However, come Fall, I often slap a dropper beneath a large caddis/stimulator. I'm reluctant to do it in the summer because I catch more chubs that way...nasty.

 

[PatrickC]

Very Nice!

 

[pcray1231]

There are times, especially early season, where I frequently use a dry-dropper combo to good effect. However, by the time summer rolls around, I'm getting 90% of my hits on the dry. That accounts for both browns and brookies, but generally on small streams. When that happens, I feel that the use of the dropper is costing me more than 10%. i.e. the dropper lowers the hooking rate. And to fish it effectively, it forces me to get closer, thus spooking some fish I'd otherwise catch. Hence, off with the dropper.

On larger streams, being forced to nymph is more common, and I don't think the dry-dropper is as effective as I'm varying depth more and have to use more weight, sinking the dry. Plus, they ain't hitting the dry, or else I'd be using it solely, so what's the point? I high stick or indicator nymph in these situations.

Yesterday, actually, I was on a small stream I know has lots of fish, and I was doing poorly in the morning. Figuring we had entered the cold season scenario, I went to the dry-dropper. That didn't work either. I think they were just "off". Shortly after lunch, things picked up, but they were nailing the dry, not the dropper. So I proceeded to ditch the dropper and ended up catching a few for the next hour or two before I had to quit.

Personally, I think the "cold season" scenario where dry-droppers are ideal is mostly small streams with highish water and hungry, but not yet super aggressive fish. Low water in fall, well, they'll hit the dry, or not hit anything.

 

[troutbert]

pcray1231 wrote:

Yesterday, actually, I was on a small stream I know has lots of fish, and I was doing poorly in the morning. Figuring we had entered the cold season scenario, I went to the dry-dropper. That didn't work either. I think they were just "off". Shortly after lunch, things picked up, but they were nailing the dry, not the dropper. So I proceeded to ditch the dropper and ended up catching a few for the next hour or two before I had to quit.

It's now fall and it's getting pretty cool overnight. And warmer in the afternoon, so the fish are more active then.

Also, bugs, both aquatic and terrestrial, are more active in the afternoon.

So the fishing, particularly dry fly fishing, is MUCH better in the afternoon than in the morning.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, I know. Morning-early afternoon is just what I had available.

That said, seeing as things were slow, I still thought I could get a few on a dropper, but no dice. Just simply no fish until they got active, and when that happened, they wanted the dry, not the dropper.

 

[lv2nymph]

Nice evening there John congrats, that's some nice looking fish ya got there.

 

[boychick]

Good write up and great pics. It looks like you had a wonderful outing. Thanks for sharing.

As for the dry dropper, I use the dry and if it’s a bit slow on top I add a dropper and see how that changes things. Pay attention, listen to what the fish are telling you, and then adjust accordingly.

With regard to the "cold season" scenario, I think Troutbert said it well

It's now fall and it's getting pretty cool overnight. And warmer in the afternoon, so the fish are more active then.

I've noticed that this is true with late fall, winter and early spring steelhead too. A few degrees in water temperature makes a big difference in the fish activity, as the water warms a bit the fishing "turns on."

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I fished this stream last night (I think...I'm pretty sure!). I tied a dropper off my fly. I put a little red bloodworm type thing on. I confess my reasons for doing this is I'm obsessed w/ getting a trifecta on the stream. The rainbows (stocked or possibly wild) are extremely rare at this point in the year (you can do this easily in April or May with stocked bows), but I thought my best bet of catching a bow would be off a dropper.

No bows, but I caught the most buttered up brownies I've seen this year so far. The Fall is definitely upon us! All the brookies I caught on top, all the browns, except for one, were taken on the dropper. I haven't noticed the brookies changing much as far as color but the browns are definitely getting that buttery goodness to them.

 

[dc410]

There has been some real good information shared on this thread about fishing a dry/dropper rig as well as the relationship between water temp an fish activity at this time of year where temps are really starting to drop overnite but they daytime highs are still fairly mild.

I stopped for about an hour late yesterday afternoon and fished a different beat on the same stream with the same set up as in my OP. Bright sunny skies and very clear skinnier water made it very challenging. I did pick up about a half a dozen Brookies all on top ..... Nothing on the dropper. I didn't even see a brown. Definitely a totally different situation than the other evening. In fact, if I would have had more time to fish, the dropper certainly would have been coming off. Thanks for the feedback.

Sasquatch ....... Yep, you are definitely thinking right. As a matter of fact, I think I might have spotted some Sasquatch tracks in the one exposed gravel bar yesterday afternoon.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Depends! How far up were you? I usually don't even start until about a half mile or so back P.Stat. Rd., close to where the Boyscout property postings begin.

The stream is so beautiful back there. It's amazing what the lack of traffic makes, and actually having trees, etc. choking the banks really helps reduce the widening of the stream.

 

[dc410]

Sasquatch, PM sent.