3 Tips for Fly Fishing the Trico Spinner Fall
3 tips on how to fly fish the Trico spinner fall with less frustration, more trout, and more triumph There are hardly any hatches that bring as much frustration and triumph as the Trico hatch of summer and early fall. Massive spinner falls of these minuscule mayflies, sometimes stretching down to a #26, bring trout to the surface like lumberjacks eating pancakes. It can be an agonizing hatch, filled with long leaders, uncivilly early mornings, tiny bugs, perversely difficult trout, fine tippet, and often a good dose of tears. But there’s not much in fly fishing that’s as rewarding as fooling a good trout on a Trico dry fly. Tricos start to hit streams in mid July and provide consistent and reliable match-the-hatch dry fly fishing until late September. Male duns (hatched mayfly adults) emerge in the evening, followed by female duns in the early morning, but it’s the spinner…
Tricos on the Root
September 1, 2013 Day 2 – I persuaded Noah to hit the river with me early Sunday morning. It was another beautiful morning in the Driftless as we hiked down the trail and started fishing. This time we headed downstream and hit some of the deep, turbulent pools that brush against the limestone cliffs. Both of us fished dry-dropper rigs in hopes of picking off a few browns, but didn’t have any luck. After fishing nymphs for a while, I noticed a few sporadic risers feeding in a slow tailout. I checked the river for bugs, and sure enough a few tricos were floating downstream. I quickly chopped of the nymph and tied on a #12 Pass Lake dry with a big white calftail wing followed by a #20 trico spinner twelve inches behind. The trout were still rising inconsistently, and the first few browns I floated my trico over…
Tricos- Four Patterns to Fish the White Winged Curse
Over the winter I have been tying a bunch of trico patterns to get ready for summer fishing. If you have ever fished this hatch you know how challenging and fun it can be. These guys can be just maddeningly difficult, but they bring up lots of trout. Tippet down to 7X and a precise drag free drift are a must. Tricos usually emerge (very) early in the morning from July to September. Here are four patterns to fish the “white winged curse”. Trico Spinner I like to throw my spinners about 10-12 inches off the bend of a big bushy dry fly for better visibility. An Ausable Bomber works great for this. For a female spinner, use light olive thread. Hook: #20-24 dry Thread: Black 8/0 UNI Tail: Microfibbets or grizzly hackle fibers, splayed Abdomen: Thread Wing: White or cream Antron yarn Thorax: Black superfine dubbing Double Trico Spinner…