Smoking might be a little understated–it’s more like a four alarm fire out there and the only way to douse it is to get on the river and fish. I fished the Mid-Mckenzie Monday evening from 6:15-7:45 and caught over 30 trout including three doubles. The fish were a mix of hatchery fish and natives and I was briefly connected with troutzilla but the hook didn’t hold. The rain and the cooler temperatures have energized the fish and they all fought with renewed vigor–nearly every trout went aerial on me. Fly selection was pretty simple–an #8 October Caddis dry with a #8 October Caddis pupa beneath it:
I haven’t other people using the version of the pupa that I use but I’ve caught redsides to 18″ on this fly year in and year out so I know it works. Basically, the fly has a white antron shuck over a flame orange dubbed body, a hungarian partridge soft hackle and a hare’s ear collar with an appropriate sized bead. When wet it has a transluscent glow that that kills–and got killed yesterday. The fly in that picture is pretty shredded by that point.
I fish the pupa under the dry and when the dry goes under I just swing it and the pupa simultaneously and it works as a wet too–the dry is similar to the October Caddis emerger Barret tied up a few days ago.
Now is my favorite time of the year on the Mckenzie, the October Caddis drive the rainbows absolutely wild.–KM
