Question: I fish a few small rivers up in the mountains here, and by mid-September it seems like everything’s shut off. No bugs, no rising fish, just cold gray water. Am I wasting my time with dry flies at this point, or should I just nymph and throw streamers until October?
—Greg M., New Hampshire (via the Ask MidCurrent form)
Answer: You’re probably not wasting your time. It may have more to do with when you’re going out than with your fly.
Mid-September in the Northeast, Blue-Winged Olives are hatching, and what brings them off is the weather, not the date. They come off hardest on cold, drizzly, overcast afternoons. If the days you’ve been getting out are the bright crisp ones, that would explain the empty water. BWOs go quiet in the sun and pick back up when it clouds over.
They’re small, sizes #18–24, with olive bodies and gray wings, and they usually hatch from late morning through the afternoon. They come off in numbers, so you’ll see rising fish rather than the odd swirl. Look for them in slower, smoother water: the tails of pools, soft seams, back eddies. Fish working them are sipping, so watch for small quiet rings.
This is fine-tippet fishing. Go with a long leader, 12 to 15 feet down to 6X or 7X. A short stout leader will put fish down before your fly gets there. Carry a Parachute BWO (#18–20) for water where you need to track the fly, a CDC Comparadun or Sparkle Dun (#18–22) for flat water and picky fish, and a Pheasant Tail (#18–20) or RS2 (#18–22) for fish feeding just under the surface. If they’re rising steadily and refusing your dun, try the emerger before you drop a size.
Timing shifts year to year, though. What’s happening on your water in a given week can differ from any chart, and on small mountain streams a cold snap can shut things down early. If you fish a gray afternoon, watch the water for fifteen minutes and see nothing, go with what you’re seeing.
That’s when I’d pick up a streamer. Once the fall rains come through and the rivers have come up and started dropping back, I fish a small green sculpin pattern and do well with it, with an Autumn Splendor as the other one I’d have tied on. Slightly stained water and a streamer swung or stripped through the deeper runs will find fish on days nothing is hatching. The September rain that ruins the dry-fly fishing is often what sets up the streamer bite.
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