Mo Report: Dry Dropper

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. With our low and clear water, a big old Thingamabobber or Air Lock indicator is not going to go undetected by our piscatorial adversaries. They will simply laugh, close their mouths and let your stuff drift past. Then they will go back to chomping all the delicate morsels drifting their way. If you are fishing from a boat and drifting the deeper water, fine. You can bobber away and still get into fish. If however, you are wading the juicy skinny runs and riffled water where many fish are feeding right now, you need to lighten your presentation.

This chunky brown ignored my JuJu Baetis dropper and ate the #14 Hi Vis Parachute. I’m ok with that. I’d prefer they eat the indicator fly all day long.

Depending on water depth and velocity, run your dropper from 8" to 36". 18" was perfect for this guy.

This fish ate a #20 CDC Parachute that is impossible to see at any distance in glary conditions. The Hi Vis Adams up front made it possible to keep an eye on the drift.

This fish let the Hi Vis Adams drift over his head before he ate Dr. Johnson’s JuJu Baetis. Nothing wrong with that. Would he have eaten the nymph under a bobber? Probably not. He was in very skinny water.

Last year on May 4, the flow below Holter Dam was 8500cfs and the water temp was averaging 45 degrees. Nymphing with a long leader was very, very good, but dry flies not so much. Today, we have a skinny streamflow of 3750cfs. On May 1st, the water temp below Holter Dam topped 50 degrees. Conditions are very different this spring. Enjoy the changes and stock up on Caddis.