The “Sulphur” Hatch on the Farmington River: Part Two

Part Two: Ok, lets talk more about the “sulphur” hatch on the Farmington River. My first day on the river was filled with surprises.  Now the text book time for “sulphurs” to appear is 5pm, just as the light begins to leave the water. But rather than wait all day, I opted to get fishing just after lunch. Hey, I was anxious to see the river and anxious to wet a line.

When I got in, I saw a few caddis coming off. They were tan and about size 16.  Then around 1pm, I noticed something unexpected – “sulphur” duns begin to appear.  Seemed more than slightly early for the hatch, but the fish started moving. Wow, I felt lucky to be there.  Great I thought, here we go. I dug out a size 14 dry fly to match, and presented it above the “rises”. Believe me, my anticipation was running high. The trout continued to work, yet not one of them took my fly! Ouch. OK, I figured my presentation must be a little off, so I adjusted my angle to get a better drift. Still no dice.

Shucked up Sulphur Emerger

“Shucked up” Sulphur Emerger

At that point I stopped and watched.  There were five trout feeding sporadically within 20 feet of me. They didn’t appeared to be large fish. Still I badly wanted to connect. After a couple of minutes, my observations paid off. Although the duns were floating right over the trout, not one dun disappeared. Instead the trout were busy immediately below the surface, taking “emergers”.

Before coming up to the river, I had bought some “emergers” from Rick Strolis. Rick is a fine fly tyer and author. The fly in question was his “shucked up”  “emerger”. I had them in size 14 1nd 16. Quickly I tied one on and bingo, sure enough, now the fish would at least come up and look at my offering. We were finally getting somewhere. Unfortunately for me, however, before I could connect, the afternoon hatch quickly petered out, without me taking a single trout. Drat. Not off to a good start!

Onward to Part Three

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2 Responses to The “Sulphur” Hatch on the Farmington River: Part Two

  1. Ted Rzepski says:

    Exciting account of the challenge of fishing the Farmington river. I’m still a beginner at trying to figure out what to tempt them with.
    Are you fishing your fiberglass rod?
    Ted

    • Ed Mitchell says:

      Ted,
      Yes trout can be tough at times, especially in a river that gets this much angling pressure! These trout are educated. I’m using my 7 foot Kabuto glass rod, whenever dry flies are the game. When nymphing, I switch to a longer rod.

      Ed

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