A lot of anglers ask us a very common question, “So, what’s been the hot fly?”. It’s a good question, and sometimes knowing what they’re taking is half the battle in fly fishing. Perhaps of more importance however is how and where successful anglers are fishing. If you’re not fishing the right water, or presenting your fly incorrectly, the “hot fly” probably won’t achieve the desired outcome.
So, we’re just about a week through the annual hex hatch at Back Lake, or “the most wonderful time of the year”, if you’re an angler. We probably have at least a week of solid hatching activity left ahead of us, and then a slow dwindling of the hatch after that.
So, I had to see for myself, if in fact, the hexagenia hatch may have started on Back Lake. This is the time of the season, after all, and everyone is anxious to enjoy some great nights of top water fishing.
Everyone is anxious to find out if our favorite mayfly hatch of the season, the Hexagenia Limbata, has indeed begun at Back Lake. My answer is not yet … but it’s not too far off and perhaps we can expect to see the emergence start over the course of the next week or so.
The fishing’s been steadily good over the last week or so on sections of the upper Connecticut River. The “Trophy Stretch”, between First Connecticut Lake Dam and the inlet of Lake Francis, has been the best fishing lately.
It’s beginning to look a lot like fishing season, everywhere you go …
Okay, so I may have substituted a couple of words from that venerable Perry Como crooned yuletide song, but you get my meaning. It’s June, there’s bugs around (lots of them), and the fish are looking upward for their next meal here on the upper Connecticut River.