Planning for the Salmonfly Hatch

If you’ve ever enjoyed the piscatorial frenzy of a salmonfly hatch, you’re likely thinking about it already, even though the first bugs don’t appear for another couple of months. Keith McCafferty writes about 6 U.S. rivers where salmonflies appear in abundance from late May until late July. “No hatch in North America incites as much frenzy as the emergence of Pteronarcys californicus, the giant stonefly (a.k.a. salmonfly, a nickname that comes from the orange color on the thorax), in the rivers of the Rockies. It’s a season of gluttony that stretches from late spring to midsummer, with exceedingly bad table manners exhibited on one end of the fly line, and ecstasy or despair on the other.” In Field & Stream.