These are several of the hex hatch patterns that can work at any given time, depending on how the trout are feeding and your casting ability. In order, from left to right: Olive Sparrow, Woodduck Heron, Mark’s Hex Emerger, Hex Cripple, Foam Hex, Sexy Hex, Hex Usual, Paradrake Hex, Lucca’s Hex Spinner.

The Back Lake hex hatch continues, but there seemed to be a minor speed bump when we were at our hottest and most humid this week. The conditions slowed the hatch somewhat and also kept many of our trout from actively feeding, at least when it was possible to see them during daylight hours.

We had some severe thunderstorms up here Thursday night, and a good amount of rain yesterday to cool things off. It is much cooler today with some nice weather moving in for the next couple of days. In addition to this, we’ll have overnight temps in the upper 40s tonight and tomorrow night.

What does this all mean for the fishing on the lake? We expect it to improve this week, especially for the trout – they, like us, were probably suffering during the heat wave that we were going through last week.

While Back Lake may have slowed a bit this week, the Trophy Stretch of the Connecticut River and some of Pittsburg’s outer brook trout ponds were pretty good.  The flows remained constant this week (75 CFS in the “No Kill” stretch, 157 CFS in the Trophy Stretch. and around 350 CFS below Murphy Dam), but I expect a raise in the flows at some point this week due to the torrential rain that we had the last two days.

As usual, the Trophy Stretch was fishing well on many nymph patterns, egg patterns, San Juan and Goomie Worms, and even some dries (caddis, small sulphurs, and lots of stoneflies have been coming off in the stretch – bring your Stimulators!). Of course, if you’re a dedicated slinger of woolybuggers, you can do that too.

Coon Brook Bog and Terrell Dam have been the most productive of the outer ponds lately – eager brookies can be a lot of fun. If you’re a guest of ours, the outer pond boats are free to use – just pick up a key, two oars, and an anchor here at the lodge and you’ll be on your way.

More updates to come …