Fishing The Sulphur Hatch

BY JOHN BERRY

It was a rainy day and my wife, Lori’s, parents were visiting. We had been scheduled to take them to Branson for the day but had rescheduled for the next day, due to the weather. I checked river conditions and noted that the river was down. I decided to get in an afternoon of fishing. The prospect of doing it in the rain did not bother me. Lori’s parents silently questioned my intelligence and wondered just what the heck their daughter had gotten herself into.

When I arrived at Rim Shoals, I ran into David McCray, one of my fishing buddies from Memphis who has a weekend place in Gassville. He had arrived before me and had already rigged his rod and donned his waders. We spoke briefly and agreed to link up on stream. David walked toward the river and I briefly escaped the rain under the hatchback of my ancient Volvo wagon while I put on my waders.

I pulled out my beloved nine foot four weight Sage Light Line fly rod and began rigging it. The sulphurs had been coming off during the preceding week so I tied on a copper John nymph in size fourteen. The sulphurs are our major mayfly hatch of the year. They are yellowish orange and the copper John is a dead on imitation of their nymphs. I used an eighteen inch 6X tippet, a bit of lead tape just above the tippet knot and a strike indicator set at the depth of the water plus a couple of inches.

I zipped up my rain jacket and closed the hatch back. I walked the trail down to the top of the shoals. I carefully waded across. The water was still dropping out and the wading was a bit treacherous. Halfway across I stopped and pulled out my wading staff. I always carry a folding wading staff and pull it out whenever I encounter fast heavy water. I carefully made my way across and breathed a sigh of relief when I emerged on the other side.

I made my way down the island and quickly located David. He was fishing one of my favorite spots. I waded over to yet another favorite spot that is located just a few yards out from his location. We were close but not too close. We both had plenty of water to fish, both spots held a lot of trout and there was room for both of us to cast.

David was rigged pretty much the same as I was, a copper John under an indicator. David was into a nice trout when I arrived and I hooked a good one on my second cast. There were a few sulphurs starting to come off and the trout were keying in on the nymphs. The natural progression for the sulphur hatch, or any other hatch for that matter, is to start with the nymphal form of the insect before the hatch (copper John). When the nymphs rise to the surface and the trout begin keying in on the emerging insects you switch to an emerger pattern like the partridge and orange. Finally, when the trout begin keying in on the adults, you switch to a dry fly like the sulphur parachute.

There is a certain amount of overlap on these phases. For instance, I have found that trout will take nymphs during all phases of a hatch or the trout will key in on the emergers and never move on to the adults. Emergers are much easier to fish with and for the fly tiers among us much easier to tie.

As David was fishing, he noticed that at the end of the drift he waited a short while leaving his nymph in the water. A good trout hit the fly and he was able to land it rather quickly. He mentioned the situation to me and it made me think. When you are fishing a nymph, you have to concentrate on a perfect drag free drift and quickly set the hook when there is the slightest movement of the strike indicator. Yet here is a take on a fly that is not drifting and there is no hook set.

Since the strike occurred at the end of the drift, I surmised that, when the drift ended, the fly began to ride up in the water column and the trout took it as a rising nymph. As I was standing there in the run discussing it with David, my fly ended its drift and began riding up. I felt a strong take and instinctively lifted my rod. A couple of minutes later I had landed a fat sixteen inch rainbow. I was amazed when the exact same thing happened again a few minutes later.

As a result, we amended our fishing style so that we hesitated at the end of our drifts and purposely let the fly rise in the current. We caught trout after trout. Maybe half were taken on the perfect drag free drift and the other half were hooked when the fly began to ride up. In essence, we were fishing nymphs as emergers and experiencing great success, while doing it.

The rain continued off and on for the rest of the afternoon as did the fishing. We didn’t count but we both did well. It seems like one or the other of us was into a fish all of the time. About five thirty, I glanced at my watch and realized it was time to head home. Lori was cooking beef tenderloin and it is bad form to miss a great supper like that. I reluctantly bid adieu to David and waded back to the access. I took off my waders, loaded my gear and headed back to Cotter.

I had ignored weather conditions that would concern others and been flexible in the choice of my fishing technique. All I had to show for it were the memories of a great afternoon of fishing!