This Deschutes River rainbow whacked our mystery fly with gusto.
So, another weekend -- at the very start of June -- and the Salmonfly Madness still lingered on the Deschutes River. Well, there were actually many more golden stoneflies in the trees and bankside brush, but plenty of salmonflies were still hanging around.
On the Deschutes, like many other western rivers, golden stones -- the slightly smaller and more yellowish cousins to the salmonflies -- tend to hatch towards the end of the Salmonfly Madness. The trout eagerly switch over to the smaller bugs, but it pays to carry a variety of salmonfly and golden stonefly patterns. If a fish refuses the salmonfly, tie on the golden stone and see what happens.
Never show a Deschutes trout the same fly after a rejection. Change! I sometimes carry two rods if I'm fishing alone, which makes it easier to switch back and forth. If I'm fishing with a partner, we put a salmonfly on one line and a golden stone on the other. I still carry two rods, but the third rod is rigged for smaller caddis or mayflies.
Yeah, you never know what you're going to find out there.
Anyway, the catching was great. Conventional wisdom has it that trout gorge on big salmonflies for a day or two during this hatch -- and then wander back to deep water to digest the feast. Truth is, these fish will stuff themselves with big bugs every day -- as long as the big bugs keep flopping into the water.
The fish do get very picky after they've been hooked and released a time or two. Now, this is the cool thing: I suspect the trout are kind of like people, and a few of them always get the word a little later than the majority. So, it's possible to find dumb fish even as the hatch is dwindling away.
So did this one. What is the name of the fly?
I hiked well away from other anglers when I first got to the river. I found sections of the river that didn't have any big bugs at all -- but other areas, usually the ones with lots of trees and brush -- crawled with bugs.
I found my first fish when I heard a big, gurgling rise as I was sitting on the bank tying on a new 1X leader. I got up, looked around the back of the tree, and saw spreading rings. I thought I heard a burp, but that was probably my imagination.
Another bit of common wisdom is that Deschutes rainbow trout like to eat golden stones more than salmonflies. Some anglers claim the smaller bugs are tastier, but I've never had the stomach to find out for myself.
Anyway, I suspect the trout like the more plentiful bug. I saw more goldens than salmonflies, so I opened my box and looked at Chubby Chernobyls, Norm Woods Specials, Clark's Stones and scads of other flies tied to mimic golden stoneflies. I have another box with salmonfly frauds.
I saw a fly parked in the corner, and I'm not sure how it got there. I don't even know its name. I did like how it looked, and I liked the idea of showing the trout something a little different this late in the Salmonfly Madness.
So, I tied it on. It worked great. I like rubber legs on big bugs, and these quivered in the water after each cast.
The mystery golden stone fly -- in all its chewed-up glory
The fish believed this fly was the real deal, and I happily showed it to them for several hours. Each fish was a delight -- but also an ordeal, as I didn't want to lose the fly. It's clearly an offspring of the Chubby Chernobyl School of Fly Tying, but I really want to know its name.
I don't know why this is so important to me, but all this came during Salmonfly Madness, and rational thought went overboard a few weeks ago.
So, I'll send a free, signed copy of my book, "Fly Fishing for Sea-Run Cutthroat," to the first person who can help me with the name of this fly. Send your replies to dryflyguy2001@yahoo.com.
