I called my friend Lew to see what the word was on the Upper “C.” “Fishing is pretty good, bugs everywhere, bring big bugs.” Saturday morning I was driving up 131 to pumphouse to experience my first Salmon Fly Hatch. While unloading my boat I was looking around the banks and tree branches but did not see and bug life, a moment of anger entered my blood thinking the hatch had moved further up the canyon. As I was walking back from parking the truck I saw a giant bug fluttering through the air, then another one, I started running back to the boat too excited to explain.


Looking up in the air swallows were having breakfast on these giants flying through the air. As we rowed down the river I was looking for risers but didnt see that many. It wasn’t what I had exactly pictured for a big hatch like this. Occasionally you would see a few fish come to the surface but they were eating smaller bugs.

Cam was helping me look for risers but he got too tired.
It looked like we were going to have more luck sub-surface so I tied on a Bitch Creek and trailed a Pheasant Tail behind it. That got things moving we had a few small browns in the boat a mile into the float. The Bitch Creek was the hot fly for the day as we entered the caynon fishing picked up and Reid was into a big brown.

Well that big brown got the better part of Reid but on the next cast we hooked back up and got this little fella.

We fished this hatch for the last 2 days and only had a couple fish come to the surface for a dry. It wasn’t what we had expected fishing wise but what an amazing hatch to witness.