Twitch It!

It's that time of the year again when tiny bugs hatch and when fish are on them, they are nearly impossible to get to eat. I remember a conversation at the bar one night when a guy asked, "So, what do you throw at them when they are on suedo's?"

The response, "The biggest hopper in your box. You have just as much chance at catching 'em and at least you can see the damn thing."

The reality is, when the water warms up to what it is now, the mayflies and the caddis get very small with suedos, tricos, PED's, and other flies that don't get bigger than a size 20 but are often as small as a 28. What you do have, however, are terrestrials that get blown into the water. Big ugly bugs bring up big ugly fish. If a two foot brown is going to get off his lazy ass to move for something, it's going to be the steak dinner, not the spring roll. The problem is, when the sun's up and the temps follow, the big boys stay down until the conditions are right; clouds, wind, and oxygen. On the rare occasion where an afternoon storm rolls in, those big boys will move into the riffles and start looking up. For my money, I'd rather throw hoppers all day looking for one of those big takes than sit on a pod sipping the impossibles for hours hoping to get lucky. Just remember, hoppers try to get off the water by swimming so twitch it!

Keep 'em where they live...