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River: Eagle River (Lower)
Fish: Brown Trout

Nice one on the dry fly from Summer

Post By: troutfinder      Posted: 10/28/2021 8:06:57 AM     Points: 787    
now that my season is pretty much over I just thought I'd share this one from the Eagle River back in early Sept. It's one of my best trout ever as I usually fish small to medium mountain streams where a 14 incher is a monster, and I typically fish dries even if i'm on a big river or tailwater, so the real pigs are less likely for me. This brownie had some shoulders and a bit of a hook jaw so even though i've caught longer ones, this was my favorite, and also i got him on top on a dry. He was mixed in with many 15-16 inchers that seem to be common on the Eagle what an incredible river I look forward to exploring more next summer. I tried the same stretch a week ago on a nice warm day but nobody wanted to come out and play due to the cold nights up there the last few weeks. Anyway, my secret magic fly that I use everywhere from march thru october is a big black foam ant...the pattern is called Sailor Ant or sometimes High Visibility Ant. Some people would just be amazed how effective a foam terrestrial can be almost all year long, from 8 inch brookies to 'picky' tailwater trout that will supposedly only eat midge nymphs on the bottom. I guess you just have to commit to them and results come...drives my fishing partners crazy ) Not sure if the pic will post! we'll see....
 Reply by: Barnacles      Posted: 10/28/2021 8:44:19 AM     Points: 3273
Excellent. Not much better than getting one like that on a dry fly. I'm not ready to embrace winter and ice like most people on here. This ugly foam worm was my favorite on the Arkansas this summer. Not sure why they eat it. It looks like a piece of road trash floating down the river.
 Reply by: VINNIE      Posted: 10/28/2021 9:40:01 AM     Points: 758
Even with no hatch they will still look up. Like you said commit and have confidence. WTG
 Reply by: troutfinder      Posted: 10/28/2021 11:05:04 AM     Points: 787
OMG Vinne, you said it. I've been fishing mountain streams and rivers for 40 years, if someone asked me the ONE misconception seen most often, whether in how-to books, fly shop websites or anywhere, it's the whole thing about whether there are any rises or surface activity and if there aren't don't bother. I get that it probably matters maybe at a place like deckers or something but man i fish attractor dries all day on 25-30 different streams and rivers a year in all months and never spend one second looking for or caring about rises or hatches. probably 95% of the time i'm fishing pocket water there are no visible rises and you can still catch them all day long on top, and oh also i love fishing mid day on sunny blue sky days with low clear water, but the books say that doesn't work ). maybe on a montana spring creek it matters but not in most mountains streams or freestone rivers in my opinion. just my opinion but decades of personal exp too...I wouldn't start every trip on any river with an attractor dry if they didn't usually work
 Reply by: SirGreg88      Posted: 10/28/2021 1:49:34 PM     Points: 229
Barn...……….. I think those trees along the Arkansas drop a bunch of caterpillars during the warm months. Maybe that's why it works??? Same shape but a bright color. My guess.
 Reply by: Walleye Guy      Posted: 10/28/2021 4:59:19 PM     Points: 184
And you don’t have to use size 20’s. A size 14 or even 12 works well. Not saying you won’t catch more with smaller flies but the difficulty of tying the smaller flies on to the tippet makes up for it IMO.
 Reply by: i2fly      Posted: 10/30/2021 3:50:05 PM     Points: 2230
The dry fly bite for was good for me most days this summer. We’d often fish 2 rods waiting for some top water action. But your right sometimes a big ol chubby or hopper will get you bit. But trailing emergers dry improved the bite. Big dries will bring big fish up the callibeatis, caddis, beetles and damsels got the bite.
I’m a stillwater water guy but don’t get me wrong I like rivers too. There’s no better way to fish either than pitching dry flies. I’ve caught some real toads up top. My friend Vinnie is a dyed in the wool dry fly guy. He’s was responsible for my budding dry fly addiction too. Straight up I was a nymph guy. Vinnie used to post about fishing big blue, Adult Damsel. From there it just took off. I took my oldest son to spinney some years back. We tied on tandem blues. His first fish on a dry fly was a 21” cutbow. I remember fishing with Vinnie one afternoon this summer. He was spanking the fish. I had not gotten a bite it was 1:30pm we were in 3’ of water. I had little faith left. I watched and mimicked. By 3:30 when I left. I had 8 on 7 in the net. #dryfliesareking.

I2
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