This year’s Green Drake hatch on the Metolius has really been hit or miss for us. Seems like it’s been like that for the last couple of years. That doesn’t mean we haven’t seen Drakes. We have, just not the numbers I recall. Chasing the Green Drake Mayfly hatch is one of my favorite of the year and I haven’t given up just yet.
I found this Green Drake floating in the water and placed it on my fly rod. I captioned the image above “Green Drake meets Sparkle Dun”.
The Rainbows have been elusive. One day I’ll see consistent hatches where fish rise and eat the live insects. The following day, insects are hatching and very few fish rising to them.
What was interesting to me is I was able to catch a couple of non-Rainbows. Here is a beautiful Brown Trout in the 17 – 18 inch range that took one of my Green Drake Sparkle Duns.
I don’t see a lot of Browns in the lower river. I know they are there as we have hooked and landed several, but this might be one of the bigger Brown Trout I’ve caught on the Metolius at around 17 inches.
How about a small Bull Trout? It was only 12 – 13 inches and was still looking at and eating Green Drakes!
We did much better hooking fish during the Green Drake spinner fall. It happens in the morning, although not every morning. You might see them around 9 am or as late as noon. The fish definitely are looking for them.
Here is another Metolius Redside that Dancingtrout caught with the RiverKeeper Beta Spinner.
And a closeup of the fat trout…
My RiverKeeper Beta Spinner is a fly I designed to fool the trout. It’s definitely a funny looking fly, but the fish seem to like it.
I had several opportunities to capture images of Green Drake Spinners floating in the water with my Nikon Z6iii. The first one is a spinner holding on to a stick. I picked it up and took a quick picture.
This spinner is floating on the water. I like the symmetry of the tail.
Usually, I can find a couple of Green Drakes on the vegetation to take a few closeup images. I only found this one I shared earlier.
Here is another floating in an eddy.
I was hoping for opportunities like this, taken in previous years.
Or these Green Drakes flying off the water.
I was hoping for a chance to find a great hatch and capture more images like these or this epic series I shared before of a trout eating a natural. It all happened in less than a second!
I’ll have to wait for the fall Drakes for more opportunities.
Here are some of the flies I’ve used trying to coax the fish into eating one of my imitations.
By far, the fish liked the Sparkle Dun best, but perhaps because I fish it the most.
Lastly, while this isn’t a Green Drake Spinner, it is a larger mayfly. If I had to guess, I’d say it may be an Amaletus dun.
We haven’t given up of chasing Green Drakes. We’re starting this year’s fly fishing road and our first stop…the Green Drake hatch on the Upper Columbia at the Washington/British Columbia border. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!!
Enjoy…go fish!
