Green Drakes Popping in Colorado

We’ve heard numerous reports this week that as flows in major rivers have dropped by 1/3 or even 1/2, Colorado’s green drake fishing has exploded. Mike Oatley’s report on Rocky Mountain Park fishing is typical: “Look for the big, fat mayflies to begin to appear early in the afternoon and continue coming off until five or six in the evening. The drake hatch can be a little spooky and erratic — heavy in one stretch on one day, and then many fewer bugs on the same water the next day — and they almost always prefer to emerge when there is some cloud cover.” In the Estes Park Trail Gazette.
Meanwhile, Ned Parker of Breckenridge Outfitters says it is only a matter of days, if not hours: “‘… As soon as [the Blue River] gets down a couple hundred more CFS,’ Parker said, ‘the green drakes are going to start hatching like crazy, as are the PMDs and caddis.'” Bryce Evans in the Summit Daily News.