Blue winged olives.  Lots of them.  As we walked through what was left of a previous day's snowfall, Tom Wolff and I broke our way through some brush to find several nice fish rising to a hatch of olives.  Not just rising, these guys were going to town.  This particular fly is a Baetis, a common swimmer type mayfly that can be found in most waters in our area.  I pulled a fresh #18 blue winged emerger from the box, knotted it to the 6x tippet with frozen hands and fingers, and handed it to this skilled angler.  I watched as Tom went to work, and he placed a nice down and across cast to the first rising fish.  It was as I suspected it would be, the first fish took it with enthusiasm, and within about 25 seconds a nice rainbow lay in hand.  We admired its beauty, slid it back into the cold water, and dried the fly off for another cast.  As it was again, the next fish came up and inhaled the fly, another nice rainbow landed in hand. 

     What is amazing about this hatch is how the fish key on the different stages of the the hatch.  On some days when its cold and calm with light to no wind, trout normally will pluck the duns off the surface rhythmically.  On days will a breeze they will often key on the emergers, those unfortunate flies that find themselves stuck in the surface film, and when they do so they can be maddeningly selective----or just what we hope for right?  On really breezy days they may key on emergers and ascending nymphs, knowing that these flies cannot readily emerge and fly off.  Author Gary LaFontaine, who wrote such great books as Caddisflies and The Dry Fly:  New Angles , referred to these flies as "crippled ducks"---owning to the fact that they were stuck and could go nowhere.  During a heavy hatch its common to see a good many cripples too, flies that never make it off the surface.  Trout love them.  And that is exactly what we saw too recently in so many days on the water. 

     And after a long morning what a pleasure to have a below freezing day end like this.  We ended the day with about 10 fish, all caught during a good hatch, and on a frigid February day with below freezing temps.  Incredible, to find rising fish on a day like this was truly amazing. And that's why we love Blue Winged Olives, they are often the magnificent start to a new season!!!!  We are looking forward to more of them.............><((())):>  *  To download a Windows Media Video file on our Winter Fly fishing over the past few months click here .  (31MB)