[idabelangler]

LMF Flies for the Fall

What I've seen the usual fly selection for fall is holding true. Fish are rising well into the day and you can match the hatch in zone 2 until they generate.

Right now very small white/cream mayfly and caddis patterns will produce. Watch the way the fish are rising to determine what fly to use. More than likely you will come across a pod of fish where each fish might be rising to a different "lifecycle" of the insect hatching. It's a very fun time to fish right now. Small olive/yellow midges are coming off as well.

I would also venture a guess that a shad dump will occure within the next 2 months so have some black nose dace in your fly box just in case. A shad dump can really screw up the dry fly fishing and when that happens very very early morning fishing is the best time.

There is one other strange insect that has been very prolific in zone 2. I'm not sure what it is, but it looks to be some type of common fly. It looks like a house fly but much smaller and will buzz around you relentlessly while you are fishing. Don't worry they don't bite or at least I haven't been bitten and I never wear insect repellent. Take some size 20-16 griffiths gnats to match this "hatch". If you can't get any takers on mayflies, caddis, or midges the fish just might be sipping these bugs. It's saved the day for me more than once.

Hope this helps!

Mike B.

[Fish Bones]

Thanks Mike... we appreciate the report!!!

[Piscator]

I was just wondering if the black incest you mentioned may have been a small Fall Caddis or another name for them the Black Caddis. The East Texas Fly Fishers recently had a presentation of the LMF River given by Harry Boyd of Boyd Rod Company. He stated that one of your best hatches during the Fall season was the Fall Caddis. I had never seen a Black Caddis fly and he was most gracious enough to give me one. Then just the other day I picked up four of them at Academy in Longview, TX.

I hope to come up to the LMF maybe Saturday depending on the weather and if I will have to house some Houston Family Refugees. I wanted to hit the Spillway Creek to try my new Echo 3wt courtesy of The Full Creel.

Thanks,
Terry

[idabelangler]

Terry these are not caddis flies. They look like minature houseflies. Caddis flies look like moths on speed. I thought they were deer flies at first but I've never been bitten by one. Dark caddis flies are prolific in the spring and early summer, I'm sure there would be some fall hatches but most of these black caddis seem to be contained in fast moving water like the creek and a very few sections of zone 2 and 3. My post on fly selection is mainly for the zone 2 dry fly fisherman out there.

Oddly enough there is a warm water species of black caddis here in McCurtain county that gets huge! (#12-10). I've been completely covered with these bugs while fishing for bream at local lakes. They like yellow fishing shirts I guess.

For the majority of fall fishing on the LMF think white/cream and small (18-16) There will be a large cahill(14) type mayfly hatch soon but for the most part the insects get smaller and smaller and lighter and lighter as the weathers gets colder. That is until the prolific midge hatches of the winter. That's a whole different story. But that's what makes fishing, especially dry fly fishing on the LMF fun!