I fished Hat Creek on a busman’s holiday Friday…lot’s of fun! I fished mostly the PH2 riffle as there really wasn’t a crowd at all. There were mixed hatches which is normal at Hat Creek; PMDs, Callibaetis, a couple Green Drakes, several caddis species and I even saw a Salmonfly! Skies were clear, temps in the low 50s and gusty NW wind. …brrr! But, fishing was really good! It was pretty much an all day affair nymphing. When the fish stopped biting, I just changed droppers. The ‘bucket’ of the PH2 riffle was good as expected but, the pocket water above the bucket was just as good. How a 16″ trout can hide in 1 foot of water 10 feet away from me still baffles me…but they do. My setup was a ‘no brainer’. Rubblerlegs on 4x, small dropper on 5x and no weight. The superfloss rubberlegs stone had plenty of lead wraps and that’s usually enough to fish shallow water. Yep…pretty much all day. Did manage one fish on a dry and it was actually the fish of my day. A beautiful 17″ bow that fell to a Mercer’s Missing Link caddis. Once the sun set over the tree line about 6pm I was done. I was cold and it was time to go. A great first day on the Hat!
Hot Flies: Rubberlegs, yellow egg (no-seriously!), poxyback PMD, pheasant tail, Serendipity, RS2, midges, Missing Link