-Ray Bradbury
Two anglers 30 yards upstream of me were discussing the fishing situation. One fellow reported he had tried five different flies on a particular trout with no response. He said, in what I thought sounded like a New Jersey accent, "Man these fish are hard". His friend concurred. He was going to make one more fly change and said, "If that doesn't work I'm going to put a cheeseburger on a hook...I bet that gets his attention". The other fellow said he had talked to an angler in the morning who told him the trout were eating a Mayfly called a Pale Morning Dove. His friend said, "I think they are called Pale Morning Dun". His buddy relied, "No, he said Dove". The conversation went on and on, back and forth between "Dove or Dun, Dove or Dun, Dove or Dun". After five minutes of this I almost screamed out "For God's sake it is Dun, not a Dove"! But it really didn't matter: Dun, Dove, Pale Morning Dove, Pale Mourning Dove, or even a Pale Morning Bun!...they were clearly having fun and engrossed in fishing the creek and so was I.
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| silver creek east |
The Jersey boys and I were on Silver Creek in Idaho, in 100 F heat and the place was almost at a stand still. Even the riverside birds had stopped singing. A nearby heron looked like he was teetering and going to pass out. I kept dunking my ball cap in the creek. The Jersey conversation continued: "Hey, I walked across a section of the creek earlier and got stuck in the silt... it was like quick sand....it took everything in me to pull my feet out...it was sucking me down...I thought I was a goner! His friend said, "this certainly is a different place".
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| 20 inch bow on size 16 PMD |
While listening to the conversation I was watching Damsel flies. They were landing and clustering on the green stems which broke the surface above the expansive weed mats of the creek. Every once in awhile a trout would skim the surface of a mat, creating a wake with it's back and surge at a cluster of Damsel flies. Sometimes I'd see a dorsal fin cutting through the water like a shark feeding. This went on in the mid-day heat: an occasional trout prowling and lunging at the Bluet Damsel flies in just inches of water and then retreating to the deeper channels between all the thick green creek vegetation. I patiently waited for one to feed in this manner and then tossed my damsel fly impression at it. I had some success with this strategy but did even better when I used a black beetle. Plunking the beetle close to the trout scared them. I did best by watching where a trout was heading (damsel fly cluster) and feeding my beetle pattern downstream to that location. If I was lucky enough to get it in the trout's cruising path, often it slurped up my offering which was right at eye level. Then it would go crazy fighting on top of the weed mat and try to head for the channels, or bury itself in the weeds. I landed some but many got off using the green growth to their full advantage. They were skilled at this.
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| silver creek rainbow |
That was my mid-day fishing. I also walk the creek stalking good sized trout in the shallows using the high sun, blue sky and clear water to my advantage, and then making long casts as the fish were easily spooked. I caught several nice fish this way. It was challenging sight-fishing.
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| silver creek brown |
In the evening "Pale Morning Doves" were the main hatch. Most fish were on emergers just feeding subsurface. A few fish were on dries and I targeted them but they were very picky. I collected several PMD naturals and studied them. Their wings were yellower than my impressions and the bodies although mainly yellow had an olive shade to them. They were darker than my flies. My impressions had wings of either grey and white polypropylene, light or medium dun CDC and some with light deer hair. The deer hair came closest to the natural wing colouring but it was not quite right. I had nothing in my travelling tying kit which seemed to match it. Then while looking at my dog I found the right colour: golden retriever hair. I tied up a several PMD's with a retriever hair wing ( golden hue) and tied the bodies first with a quick wrap of green thread then pale yellow over it which when wet looked like the natural Mayfly. I had better success with my new fly the next evening and the night after that. Was it the colouring?.. who knows...but that's the fun of Silver Creek. It certainly is a different place. From now on I'm calling that beautiful summer Mayfly a Pale Morning Dove.
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| bluet damsel flies |
Here are a few more snaps from this special public spring creek.
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