Anyone having luck dry fly fishing on the Cedar in the evenings? I have been seeing a ton of bugs with one or two rises. I've had much better luck during the day, anyone else experience this?
I have yet to get anything of significance to take a dry. Mostly little guys. Stick with a swung nymph and you will get better results.
How late are you fishing? I find that the trout really start looking up riiiiiight before dark. Meaning - you have to bring a headlamp to hike back out to the car.
I've had some takes on dry flies, but mostly just little fish that will jump at anything. I've had more luck with emergers, soft hackles, or even fishing a dry fly "wet" in the evenings. The fish really seem to key into the movement of a nymph rising and emerging rather than a dry floating overhead. It seems to be the sudden upwards movement of the fly in the water column is what they will really go for. I think that's why a swung nymph works - the nymph rising at the end of the swing is often where the take happens for me at least.
I’ve had really good success with dry flies on the Cedar this year. I’ve been hitting it pretty hard in the evenings. The pattern seems to be little ones early on, medium ones later and then big ones just as the sun fades away. And yes, it involves walking out in the dark. Had a great night Saturday. First, when I walked in, there was a newbie trying his hand with a fly rod. He had a yellow stone, sans indicator, and wasn’t being that successful. I give him some tips, tried to help him with his cast (the blind leading the blind!) and gave him a couple of flies that I’ve had success with. While showing him how to cast, I managed to hook two fish in three casts (nothing big, but it helps validate what you’re doing). Then I ran into a father/son pair who were doing pretty well themselves. They were friendly and shared the river with me. When I was walking out I ran into them at the first hole. The father had hooked up with a big fish just prior to my arrival and the son had a nice 15” on his rod. We pulled out the net and flashlight and brought him to hand. Nice fish, but he tired him out in the fight, apparently because he was using 5X tippet. It took a while for us to revive the fish which reminded me that you shouldn’t fight the fish too long. I’ll be there tonight, waiting for that magical 30 minutes and hoping I don’t mess up my rig at the wrong time. p.s. two months until ice in!
Hmmm. This weekend I'll be hitting the salt one morning to catch a nice outflow... but I think I should burn a little more gas and get down to my old homewater on the Cedar and check it out on the other day... The dropping flows are enticing: USGS Stream Flow Gauge:CEDAR RIVER BELOW DIVERSION NE
My honey hole from years past just isn't gettin it done. Time to find a new spot until the water goes down.
