SULPHURS ON THE RISE BY JOHN BERRY

In the past week I have had reliable reports of a sulphur hatch on the White and Norfork Rivers. As a devoted dry fly fisherman this is music to my ears. The sulphurs are our most prolific mayfly hatch of the year. They seem to be occurring a bit late this year but, with the unusually wet conditions, this may be this is normal. The sulphurs are a size fourteen mayfly and are yellow or orange. I have seen them this year on the Norfork River but the trout were not keying in on them yet.

Before the hatch starts, you should be fishing a good imitation of the nymphal form of the sulphur. My personal favorites are the copper John or a bead head pheasant tail nymph. I have switched to a size fourteen beadhead pheasant tail as my dropper of choice, in the heavy water, we have had lately. While a dead drift is a killer technique, I often let the nymph rise at the end of the drift. This imitates the rise of the nymph in the water column to begin their emergence. This often triggers a vicious strike.

When you observe rises but see no insects, this means that the trout have switched over from the nymphs to the emergers. During the emergence, the insects are drifting just below the surface of the water. They must bust out of their nymphal shucks and then break through the surface tension of the water before they can arrive on the surface of the water. During this time they are very vulnerable and easy picking for the trout. The best way to fish during the emergence is to use soft hackles. My personal favorites are the partridge and orange or the partridge and yellow. I have even fished doubles with a partridge and yellow and partridge and orange on at the same time. When you figure which one is more effective, just remove the other.

Finally, when you notice the trout switching from emergers to adults on the surface of the water, it is time to change over to the dry fly, my absolute favorite time. My favored dry fly for this hatch is the sulphur parachute. This was a fly that my late brother, Dan, tied to perfection. I was down to a precious few. When I was going through his gear earlier this year, I discovered his stash of twenty flies. It was like finding a gold bar to me. It was a great connection to him.

To fish these flies, you need to be sure and carefully dress them with a good floatant. Cast them eighteen inches or more upstream from a rising trout. Be sure to get a perfect downstream drift. Carefully mend if necessary. When a trout comes up to eat a fly, you must wait a second before setting the hook. Most fly fishers lose trout when fishing dries because they set the hook too soon. I call this the longest second in fly fishing. The adrenalin is pumping and you finally got a take and now I am telling you to wait a second before setting the hook. It is counter intuitive.

This is our best dry fly hatch of the year. Be ready for it and enjoy!

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.