Other than a bunch of big, beefy stoneflies crawling around, few bugs get flyfishers more stoked than a thick hatch of drakes. From black ones on the Williamson River in Oregon to yellow ones back East on the Battenkill, this most famous of mayflies brings equal excitement to fish and fishermen.
While most of the Eastern drake hatches have come and gone by the end of June, and even the most famous drake hatch in the country–the green drake emergence on the Henry’s Fork in Idaho–has peaked, many of the Rocky Mountain hatches are still going strong by mid July. And on some streams–the Roaring Fork and Frying Pan rivers near Aspen come to mind–you can fish the best drake of them all (the green one, of course) for 100 days or more on some years.
Recent reports coming up from the boys at Scott Fly Rods in Southwestern Colorado have the Gunnison River on fire. And personal experience on Wyoming’s upper Green and Northern Colorado’s lower Poudre River is proof that plenty of drakes are still popping, bringing feeding fish to the surface–especially on cloudy days.
While almost any hungry trout has a hard time resisting a size 12 mayfly fluttering over its head, part of what makes fishing a fat drake hatch so rewarding is that even the normally wary brown trout will let their guard down when these big bugs come floating by. You may need to work on getting that cast deeper under overhanging brush or undercut banks to find the biggest browns, but don’t be afraid increase your leader strength a size or two (3X isn’t unreasonable here), and get aggressive–the drakes will bring them up.