Rain in the Forecast...!
Hey all, thanks for checking in! This spring sure has been interesting. As Erich Gross would say with a shake of his head..., “We need rain. Bad.”
Back in February there was very little snow on the ground, at least in southwest Michigan. The lack of snowmelt meant that our water table was already low moving into this spring. What little precipitation we’ve received has soaked straight into the dry soil and into the roots of thirsty grasses, trees, and wildflowers.
Hennies are slowing down, probably at an end with this warm weather. Sulfurs have started up and caddisflies continue to oviposit, especially at dawn and at dusk. Rivers are flowing low and clear. Truth be told, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for daytime dry flies. Nevertheless browns have been caught by both the lucky and the most technically focused, gear-laden, anal-retentive maniacs. Wherever you lie along that spectrum, if you put in the time and came out empty handed this week, no one blames you. We are all fortunate to fish in Michigan, even when the conditions are less than ideal.
One way to adapt to our current dry spell is to focus on whichever deep runs and buckets you can find during the day. Getting flies down into the feeding zone with a tight-line setup can produce results when a floating line isn’t paying the bills. For those who are curious to learn more about euro nymphing, give us a call to set up an on-the-water tutorial or check out this excellent resource: Euro Nymphing Explained
Hot flies this week are: Small thread frenchies, walts worms, soft hackle hares ear, and pat's rubber legs.
CREATURE FEATURE
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
If you've ever seen a honeycomb patterned set of holes drilled into a white birch, you've likely seen the handiwork of a unique species of woodpecker: the yellow-bellied sapsucker. As its name suggests, the sapsucker hammers away at the outer bark of a tree to eat the sugary plant fiber found in the phloem layer. Like other woodpecker species, the yellow-bellied sapsucker’s tongue extends back behind its skull, allowing it to reach into crevices to “lap up” nutrients. Interestingly, the sapsucker will sometimes leave its drilling site for a day or two, only to return to pluck out protein-filled insects that got stuck in the sticky sap of the bleeding tree.
