First Hatch

Last Sunday, I went fishing with my wife Lori and my neighbors, Mike and Cathy Wilhelm. The Sow Bug Round-up was over and the river was on the bottom. We arrived at Rim Shoals at 11:00AM and found that the parking lot was packed. We didn't worry because we knew that the majority of the anglers would clear out by lunch so that they could head home. We walked the trail down stream and crossed the river. My favorite hole was occupied so I fished some likely spots and picked up several fish on size 20 olive scuds.

I looked up and observed that my favorite spot was available. I scurried over to it and on my third cast hooked and landed a twenty-inch brown. After a spirited battle and photo opportunity, I settled back in the hole and noted a caddis on the water. I cut my nymph off, removed the lead and strike indicator, and tied on a fresh 6X tippet about five feet long. I then quickly tied on a size 16 elk hair caddis and started fishing dries. It was my first hatch of the season and the adrenaline was pumping.

The first take took me by surprise and I set the hook too hard breaking off the fish in the process. I quickly set about tying on a new fly. While I was doing that I noticed that the caddis were a bit larger than the fly I was using and they seemed to have a white wing. I changed to a size 14 lime trude. A better match, it would also be easier to see. I carefully applied fly dressing and returned to the business at hand. Over the course of a half hour I calmed down and landed a half dozen fine trout. I looked up and saw that Cathy was sitting on the bank. She is relatively new to fly-fishing and needed to get in on the action. By this time I had caught enough and I thought it was time to share.

I waded over and asked if she wanted to fish the hatch. She said yes, it would be her first hatch. We waded back to my spot and I demonstrated the technique. I then traded rods with Cathy and she began carefully casting the fly. On the fourth cast she hooked and landed her first trout on a dry fly. The excitement of watching the trout rising to take the fly flipped her switch and she was totally absorbed by the process. About this time the water around us began to boil with hatching insects and rising trout. It was like throwing a t-bone steak into a group of feeding sharks. Over the next hour Cathy caught and released nine trout, the largest being a sixteen-inch brown. I was able to photograph her catch to record the occasion. Mike noticed the commotion and reluctantly waded over to get in on the action. He had been hammering the trout with scuds and emergers all day and it was hard to give up something that was working. Cathy handed him the rod and She and I sat on the bank and watched Mike land his first trout on a dry fly even though the hatch had subsided.

Further down stream Lori had noticed the hatch and had also fished it with a trude landing over a dozen trout on a dry after catching quite a few on small scuds.

That evening, while sharing a pizza, we relived the excitement of the day. For Lori and I, it was the return of an old friend. For Mike and Cathy it was the discovery of the most exciting aspect of fly-fishing, dry flies. Let your first hatch be something special!