Brown Drake hatch at Silver Creek

Most of the Idaho's rivers opened for fishing a week ago. This time of the year, Brown Drake hatch is the major event at Silver Creek. It usually happens around June 5 but this year, the hatch schedule is a few days early. The hatch only lasts for about five days and only happens once a year! I have tried to fish at the Silver Creek during the hatch once a few years ago, but it was too late. The hath was already over that year. I have heard that it started already this year, so I decided to give it a try. The hatch usually starts toward evening. Benny and I got the Nature Conservancy land around 3 PM then try catching the rising fish for PMD. Benny was getting several hit on the PMD dry but I could not get them to bite for some reason. I finally caught this fish using an emerger pattern with a tiny bead head, with a technique of down and cross then swing.
PMD on Benny's waders. Fish were not feeding quite on the surface, you know, the one just a inch or so below the surface. I need to tie something like this and drift slightly subsurface...
We moved to the Nature Conservancy land to the Idaho Fish and Game land just before 7 PM to catch the Brown Drake hatch!


The bug of the day, Brown Drake! When we got there, the bugs are already on the air and having the mating dance. Enormous amount of the big bugs! But, the fish were not that crazy as I expected... The size of the hook for this fly was 8~6 (so big!). I felt a fish several time on the hook but it was very difficult to get them to actually hook well because of this big size of the hook. As it got later in the evening, fish were more on the fly but fishermen around me were having the same situation.

Look at this prolific hatch of the Brown Drake! Make sure to click on the pix and see the magnified version. Benny caught one nice brown but I did not catch fish with the big fly this time. Oh well, I will try next year again. Benny told me that one guy near him was catching 5~6 fish with a little smaller fly than the natural. It might be better for hooking.