Fly Fishing NH's Connecticut Lakes Region

Back Lake Hex Hatch Update: 7/5

Finally, some good weather has filtered in to our region, and last night was perhaps the best of nights to be out on Back Lake. A warm, sunny day with little wind and generally perfect conditions for targeting rising fish … but would the trout be playing the game?

We have already pointed out on this blog how the hex hatch has been a bit … underwhelming this year. Lousy June weather (lots of rain and some cold days) affected the hatch to some extent, and it really seems to have had an impact on the trout themselves. There simply have not been as many cruising fish around my boat during this hatch compared with those hex nights of years past.

The fish are there somewhere (N.H. Fish & Game’s Fish Stocking Report says so), but they’re not exhibiting the feeding behavior they typically do at this time of year, and there’s no way to explain it. The hatch itself has been good at times, and as usual, most of the activity is occurring from 9 PM onward.

Last night seemed to be very similar to the pattern established above. Tall Timber guests and our guide Mickey Cunliffe gave similar accounts when reporting to me at the end of the night – some Hexagenia coming off early on, with bass eagerly taking them. Few cruising trout gobbling down hexes from 7:30 – 9 PM, and by the time it may have been happening, you might never know it because it was nearly pitch dark (9:30 PM).

In any event, the hatch does seem to be winding down in intensity, as it normally does right after July 4th. That doesn’t mean that the fish won’t take them when presented properly, and usually hexes can still be found in limited numbers even in to early August.

If you’re planning on casting to rising fish on Back Lake in the next couple of weeks, bring an assortment of flies (Light Cahills and Black Caddis were out there in numbers a few nights ago) and tie on a hex pattern if you start seeing cruising trout taking the behemoths on the surface. Fish the deeper water where the trout migrate to after some warm summer days, and resist the temptation to cast to those risers you see around the edges of the lake. Those are bass, and likely small ones at that.

 

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