Karen and I have been enjoying this amazing summer like weather out on our local pot hole lakes this past week. Yes, the boatmen are happening and to a lesser extent backswimmers (larger ones). It has been a very interesting week. Water temperatures are slowly coming down but not as fast as years past. Nevertheless boatmen have been coming off. Three days ago Karen and I were fly fishing with micro leaches until the boatmen started to swim to the surface and fly off. The rainbows, tigers and browns were definitely chasing and cruising looking for these delectable morsels to dine on. The interesting thing was the action did not get going until 2:30 pm. We tied on our trusty water floatmen and another pattern called Rinse and Repeat (...a Phil Rowley pattern, that will be out on You Tube shortly). I love to cast and retrieve a beaded boatmen and a floatman type pattern. The beaded pattern trails about 2 feet behind the floater. When the action gets good, I switch to two floaters. I like to make it move as soon as it hits the water. Karen got broken off by some big trout. Is it a stockie or is it a bigger fish?!
... yesterday, Karen and I were at Ironside Pond just outside of Rocky Mountain House. The boatmen action was not hot and heavy. What we observed was quite different. Lots of rainbows and tigers chase the boatmen as they head to the surface. Remember that the main area of the lake is quite deep (40 feet). The boatmen do not linger on the surface. They pop right out and fly. If you cover the chasing fish with a cast, often they are already gone. Contrast that with the "edges" where you can find cruising fish that will gulp down a boatmen and then carry on looking for more. These fish were not deep and seemed to be a bit more catchable. It was interesting to watch the trout behaviour. I had trout in the shallows swirl around my flies, refuse and carry on. These fish wanted the boatmen to be motionless. I saw Todd from our club do well on this day. Karen and I caught a few but for the most part we were snubbed. The shallows on a bright sunny day had spooky fish. The fish had definitely played this game before.
I talked to Adam from our club about his experience. His best presentation was under a strike indicator. His presentation was static, ...very little movement!
Three different days, three completely different experiences. Well as you can see, more research is in order by everyone. I'd love to hear your experiences! Drop me a note.
...on the downside, someone left a nasty 4 foot scrape on our car yesterday. I was hoping they would have left a note. Sigh.
Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend. A small bit of advice. Turn left instead of turning right, haha!
Deer Hair Backswimmer (thanks to the gentleman who slipped this great fly to Karen)
Jennings Ultimate Boatmen
Rinse and Repeat
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