Upper Trinity Mystery Hatch

[flyfshrmn]

Anyone fish the upper Trinity in mid to late October? There is a constant evening Callibaetis hatch, small (14-16 in size) of very dark green or black bodied flies. with almost transparent wings, and double tails. I have tried to match these with about 20 different patterns w/o success, tied and fished as emergers, nymphs, dries, wets, with all different kinds of wings and wing cases. I get constant refusal rises from fish of all sizes from 6 inches to Omigod, did you see the size of that one! You can see the fish taking the adults and emergers on the surface, sometimes feeding within a few feet. I've varied the size from 14 to 18 with no success. Anyone out there fish this hatch and have any ideas?

[David Lee]

Sounds like the tiny winter Stoneflies I used to run into on the lower McCloud years ago .

Come November , those little guys would be crawlin' all around the Gilman road stretch . I never tried to MTH , because a #12-14 black nymph caught fish for me without fail .

Sorry I'm not more help :?

David :D

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

You might check this out with the Trinity Fly Shop in Lewiston.

[flyfshrmn]

Bill,

I tried TFS and bought a couple of the recommended patterns, but had the same results. I've also tried going down to real fine tippets w/o affecting the results. The fish are not leader shy and in fact before this hatch really gets going in the evenings, I regularly get several fish on 3x and 4x tippets. Once they start feeding exclusively on these flies, it's impossible to get a fish to hit. The water is so clear that you can see the fish move up to the fly, then turn away at the last second. The emerging flies are in all stages as I've ascertained by using a dipnet and strainer. You can see constant flashes on the bottom as the fish take them on the move to the top and constant rises as they pick the emergers off the surface. The riffle I fish by my house will have a couple of hundred visibly feeding fish when this hatch is going on. To complicate things, by mid October, there will be lot of October Caddis retuning to the water to lay eggs and fish jumping completely out of the water trying to catch the adult Caddis. I've tried fishing just the Caddis with a Stimulator with little result.

[Jgoding]

Is that you Dad?? I'll tie you some fish catchers if you need me too.