Fishing the Green Drake Hatch

We’ve been out on our favorite river fishing the Green Drake hatch. The catching has been minimal so I’ve had my camera in hand capturing images of Green Drakes on the water and in flight. I thought I’d share some of them with you.

The image above is the exception because we haven’t seen that many trout rising to these mayflies.

Here is a sequence I captured last week. These five images were taken in less than a second. I noticed a Green Drake floating downstream on the water, pulled my camera up and continuously focused on it as it moved down river. We had seen a trout rising in this feeding lane and I was hoping it would rise again.

A Rainbow rose to eat the mayfly. Notice the fly in the fish’s mouth?

Its momentum carries it completely out of the water.

The fish begins to return to the water.

And safely back home.

I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time with a camera pointing and focused. For you camera buffs, the pictures were taken at 400mm.

We were lucky to find this fish frequently rising to eat Green Drakes. But honestly, it was the only fish rising that day!

Here is another from a few days earlier.

Green Drake fishing has been frustrating again this year, but Dancingtrout is quick to remind me this is normal. I thought we might miss part of the hatch during our trip to Iceland. I heard a few stories of fish rising to Green Drakes, but they were few and far between.

On our recent trips to the river, a few Green Drakes might be hatching and we could see them floating downstream and flying safely away.

Here is one I captured leaving the water and flying away from me.

And another flying off the water.

I didn’t realize how much the wings flex on these mayflies.

Here are two images where the Green Drake is leaving the water.

I really enjoy pulling my Nikon Z 6ii out to capture Green Drakes. It keeps me busy while waiting for fish to rise. And early in the hatch, my experience has taught me it’s pretty much a waste of my time to cast until I see rising fish.

Hopefully, that changes soon.

Capturing and focusing on mayflies floating down the river is incredibly difficult. I can’t tell you how many out of focus pictures I delete!

In the meantime, here are a few more images.

I liked the wing shadow in this image.

This image shows a very shallow depth of field.

Occasionally, a fish is landed. This fish tale is from a trout landed by Dancingtrout.

And I get lucky too.

I need to get back on the river with my camera and fly rod!

Enjoy…go fish!