CATCHING THE HATCH BY JOHN BERRY

Several years ago, when I was the president of the Mid South Fly Fishers, the fly fishing club in Memphis, we had a speaker nick named No Hatch. His claim to fame was that he had made many pilgrimages to Michigan to catch the famous Hexagenia hatch (a huge mayfly) but had never actually seen the insects. Hence, his nick name was No Hatch. This year I was beginning to feel a bit like him. Though I am on the water a lot and saw several hatches come off, I was never in a fishing situation, where the fish were keying in on the hatching adult insects.

All of this changed last week. Our niece, Brooke, graduated from Pharmacy School and was in town to celebrate and kick back for a few days. I gave her a guided wade fishing trip on the Norfork on Monday. The idea was to work on her technique so that she could hold her own when she fished with my wife, Lori, and her mom, Terri, (Lori’s sister). Later that morning Lori and Terri joined us. Brooke did well. Around noon we experienced a sulphur hatch. The trout keyed in on the size fourteen yellow orange insects and the hatch was on. Both Brooke and Terri caught their first trout on a dry fly. Lori, a guide and accomplished angler was on fire. She caught several on the top including a fat nineteen inch rainbow.

While I was excited to finally see a good hatch, I was supremely disappointed to not get in on the action, I made a vow to return to the Norfork and catch the hatch. I patiently waited for several days. It seemed like my work schedule and the generation conspired against me. Finally, on Saturday the Fourth of July, I had the day off and there was a prediction for wadable water on the Norfork until 2:00 PM.

I got up early and headed toward the Norfork. I was on the water a few minutes after seven. There was a dense fog on the river and it was a bit cool. As I was walking up from the Ackerman Access into the Catch and Release water, I ran into Mac Caradine, an old friend and fishing buddy. He said that the water was coming up. I looked at my feet and did not detect rising water. Mac said that another angler had called the dam for the generation report, which had indicated that they had begun generating at 7:00 AM. I pulled out my IPhone and called the dam. The recording did indicate generation on the Norfork but the date given was for the day before. They had not updated the phone message, from the previous day. I was not going to let erroneous information interfere with my fishing. I continued wading upstream. Mac followed.

I walked to the spot where Lori had done so well earlier in the week and began fishing. I started with a grasshopper with a copper John dropper. I figured that the trout would key in on the copper John because it is a good imitation of a sulphur nymph. I caught one and then noticed some fish rising. I did not see any insects so I concluded that the trout were going after the sulphur emergers and that a partridge and orange soft hackle would do the trick.

I was into a good fish in a few casts. The eighteen inch rainbow reluctantly gave up the fight as did the sixteen inch cutthroat. The action continued for a couple of hours and I landed about a dozen good fish. I took a break after a couple of hours and chatted with Mac as he headed down stream to fish another spot. He said that he had done well with a green butt. I never give up a chance to fish my signature fly. I quickly changed over to a green butt and caught a spectacular nineteen inch rainbow on the first cast.

About that time, I began seeing adult sulphurs and better yet the trout were keying in on them. I had my hatch. I took a minute to tie on a sulphur parachute. I had found a dozen of my brother, Dan’s, ties as I was going through his fishing gear recently. I had dropped them into my dry fly box and hoped for the best. I got a couple of refusals before I hooked up a fat twenty inch rainbow. I regretted not bringing my net on this trip. This fish was too much to land without a net so I carefully beached him on a sloping bank nearby. I took a quick photo and lovingly released him. He swam off as if nothing ever happened. I stayed there for a couple of hours and landed several trout. The smallest was sixteen inches. I had never caught that many quality fish, in such a short period of time.

By then, I was getting tired and hungry. I wanted to leave before the water came up. I walked out and removed my waders. The only way to top the day was to drive over to Heidi’s Ugly Cakes for a Rueben sandwich. It was the perfect end to a great day.

I had patiently waited for the right conditions and had not let bad information deny me the opportunity. In the end, I prevailed. Life is good!

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