Making sense of stoneflies: Annual salmonfly hatch keeps anglers guessing
By BEN PIERCE Chronicle Outdoors
Early summer in Southwest Montana means one thing for dry fly anglers – stoneflies. Among the largest aquatic insects that reside in Montana waters, the annual emergence of the salmonfly and golden stonefly both captivate and befuddle anglers.
It’s a season filled with limitless anticipation, occasionally epic days and often frustrating ones.
The first of the salmonflies – the largest of the stonefly species that emerge on the Yellowstone, Madison, Gallatin and Big Hole rivers – began their seasonal emergence the second week of June on the Madison and Big Hole rivers.
Roger Oettli of Great Divide Outfitters on the Big Hole River said the first salmonflies started emerging at Brownes Bridge on June 14.
“To see the fish come up and hit a size 4 or 6 dry fly, it just kicks people up,” Oettli said. “Throwing big dry flies is an exciting thing for fishermen.”
On the Madison, angler Chris Bellitt of Belgrade said he saw the big bugs the very same day.
Salmonflies are easy to identify mostly by their tremendous size – the bugs often measure nearly three inches in length. They have a bright orange or red band behind the head and broad wings with dark veins.
Golden stoneflies, which typically emerge a week or so after the salmonfly, are quite similar in appearance, but have notably smaller and a yellow underbody.
Unlike caddisflies, mayflies and midges – which emerge from their juvenile state to adulthood though the surface of the water – stonefly nymphs crawl from the river bottom onto the bank where they break out of their exoskeletons to complete their metamorphosis to winged adults.
The stonefly’s migration from river bottom to bank is a vulnerable time for the bugs. Trout will hang in the shallows along the banks and pick off the big nymphs as they struggle toward land. This period offers an excellent opportunity for anglers to capitalize on the feeding frenzy.
Bellitt said he likes to fish big nymphs along the banks in the days leading up to and during the first emergence of the salmonflies. He said patterns with a little extra action are his preference as the salmonfly hatch often coincides with runoff conditions and low water clarity.
“I like big black stonefly nymphs or a big red-bellied nymph,” Bellitt said. “Rubber legs, too, to get a little more action out of it, especially with this murky water.”
Bellitt said his favorite place to fish the salmonfly hatch is on the Big Hole River, but that even there things can get frustrating.
“The fish sometimes gorge out on the nymphs,” Bellitt said. “Everything can seem to look perfect, but it just isn’t.”
After their initial emergence, stoneflies move gradually upstream. Theories on this behavior abound. One of the most widely accepted is that the fish follow the progression of warmer water temperatures.
“Salmonflies have a tendency to move upstream four to five miles every day if they have consistent conditions,” Oettli said. “Their ideal water temperature is 55.4-58 degrees Fahrenheit. They get real active in the evening when they crawl out on the rocks and in the morning they start laying their eggs.”
A tell-tale sign of the hatch, even if you don’t see adults fluttering above the water, is the shucks stoneflies leave behind after they have hatched. Savvy anglers will note these shucks, clinging to rocks or reeds, to identify the progression of the hatch.
Oettli said the movement of the bugs can be hampered by foul weather. On June 15, he predicted a slump in their movement upstream with coming rain and cool temperatures, but that conditions on the whole are favorable.
Oettli said water levels on the Big Hole peaked on June 7. Spring snowfall and cool weather in May bolstered snowpack and he expects water levels to continue dropping slowly for the remainder of the month.
Both Oettli and Bellitt believe that bodes well for the area’s stonefly hatches.
“I think dropping and clearing (water conditions are good),” Bellitt said. “Mostly sunny days are when I’ve had the best luck. (The salmonflies) are active in the sunshine as opposed to those rainy days when they just sort of stay clung to the bushes.”
Last season’s salmonfly hatch on the Big Hole surprised a lot of local anglers. The big bugs reached as far upriver as Fishtrap Creek and Oettli said many of his customers experienced their best success fishing the hatch in decades.
“When they hit the Dewey Canyon it is some of the best salmon fly fishing you can imagine,” Oettli said.
Still, the salmonfly hatch is as renowned for its grand promise as it is for its frustrating failures. Conditions often mire the water or put the bugs down. The casting can be demanding. And frankly, when three-inch flies are drifting by on the surface of the river and trout remain trap-jawed on the bottom, well, that just doesn’t sit so well with a lot of anglers.
“If you can hit it, it is really good fishing,” said Sean Blaine of Angler’s West Flyfishing Outfitters on the Yellowstone River. “But even if the water is clean enough to fish, you need to have some good anglers because you have to cast real close into the banks. You are going to lose some flies and a lot of guys get frustrated chasing it.”
The truth is, fishing the salmonfly hatch well demands patience and serious angling experience.
Even then, it can be less about skill than an old-fashioned dose of luck.
“Sometimes, you’ll get (the trout) to at least come up and give a poke,” Bellitt said. “It might be the high water or the clarity, or it may just be so early in the hatch that they are not fully aware of the bug’s presence.
“But if you are in the right spot and the bugs are hatching enough, even if they are not hitting the water, those fish get keyed in on them and the fishing can be amazing.”
Related posts:
- Salmonfly watch: Part deux
- Anglers await arrival of phantoms as Mother’s Day caddis hatch heats up
- Fishing report: Spring midge hatch on the Madison River has trout looking up
- Salmonflies spotted on Lower Madison
- Running out of tying time? Here’s 3 quick flies for the Mother’s Day caddis hatch
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