The Ramblings of a Fly Fisherman

The Big Thompson – 5/6/2013

Fishing on the Big Thompson this weekend was superb.  In nearly every run, riffle or pool, there was a hungry trout waiting for the opportunity to attack your fly.  Most were caught on pheasant tail nymphs (size 16), but around 12:30pm, a nice hatch of BWOs started to appear on the surface. For about 1 hour, trout were surfacing everywhere.  The fly of choice at this time was the Adams (size 16).  Both standard and parachute versions worked equally well as long as you could maintain a perfect drag-free drift in areas where bugs were accumulating.
This was another trip where I only used the Tenkara rod.  Again, it allowed me to accurately place my dry-dropper setup in areas up to 30 feet away while still achieving a great drift.  This trip was also my first “Meetup” where I was the organizer.  I had a great time with Randy and Susan as we worked through some of my favorite water on this river.  I look forward to more trips with this group and fishing with these guys again!
If you would like to join this Meetup group - Colorado Front Range Fly Fishing

2 comments:

Walkin Slow said...

What exactly is a BWO hatch. I saw it and the fish were excited.
It was a learning experience to see how the river and its living creatures change hourly and what that does for the fisherman.

Thanks for your help.
Susan

Michael McFarland said...

BWO stands for “Blue-Winged Olive”. This is a pretty common mayfly on rivers and often one of the first hatches that you will see in Colorado with any kind of numbers. Watching the river and how trout react to their environment is key when developing your fly fishing skills. Honestly, observation when you are fishing is often more important than anything else as it relates to your success.

Check out the following link:

http://www.west-fly-fishing.com/entomology/mayfly/bwo.shtml

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