There is nothing more savagely graceful, and naturally pure than watching trout sip, slash-at, and bulge rise to a beautiful mayfly, caddis or stonefly hatch. It is the true essence of why fly fishing started. Everyone should experience the magic that happens on a tail-water, freestone stream, or spring creek, when an aquatic insect emergence happens. And being prepared with the right tactics and cast presentations, fly patterns, leaders and the savvy sense to understand what is occurring, is one of the most fulfilling episodes that fly fishing for trout offers. But unfortunately, so often we don’t have it all put together and we fail; or flog the water in frustration.
Something I truly love doing is teaching. My guests and I do it on my extremely popular ‘Hallowed Waters Podcasts’, which many of you have heard and subscribe to. There we entertain very dynamic topics like matching the hatch, spey and other highly specialized techniques so vital to trout, steelhead and salmon fly fishing success.
In 2024, I will be offering mini-schools for one, two and up to three individuals in very personalized river settings: tail-water or spring creek. Sterile classroom and multi-participant school settings lack engagement and immediate reinforcement. Mine are designed to understand the intricacies of putting all the essentials together in a plan to understand a subject that has been dear to my heart all my life, and one that I wrote a book on- selective trout and selectivity.
Our Muskegon tail water is like one giant spring creek with its ultra-clear waters, extremely rich mayfly and massive caddis hatches (two books were written about caddis on this river I.e. Carl Richards /Dick Pobst authors)
We will Explore and Learn:
Topics:
In each 8 hour class on-stream, we will have an agenda that we will check off. The more questions asked and willingness to have an open mind, the better.
Identifying the stages of a hatch matching scenario- what stage the trout are keying in on, and how to identify that-also how to best imitate the bugs that are hatching with the correct patterns
Identifying Rise Forms and Rise Sequence Intervals- Ascertain the Sizes of fish rising-Studying the various Rises-Simple, Compound and Complex
Reading Water- where trout are most likely to set-up to intercept nymphs, adults. Egg- laying spinners. Each piece of water holds a key to the puzzle we often don’t pick up on
How to fish Mayfly/Caddis/ Stonefly as a Living Insect- We too often fish extremely lethargic and way too passive during a hatch scenario
Learn the correct dry fly, nymph/wet fly, and trout spey presentation styles that can be employed in the hatch. And what to do during hatch calendar periods when nothing is emerging. Often you are in-between periods where trout have imprinted to various signals and trigger stimuli in their predator foraging responses-thus maximizing your time on the water and learning to observe more and be successful, rather than flogging the water.
Matching the Hatch Casting- Learning the correct casts that maximize drag free drifts-or ones that allow for proper imitation into the fish’s window-also impart movement in highly active hatches like caddis and stoneflies
Kick-sampling and rock turning for Entomologic Aquatic Insects samples
Mini-Caddis school on understanding this highly difficult to match cast with the “Statue of Liberty” 4 phase caddis approach
Learning the deadly stutter/swing approaches for imitating my wiggle ‘strymphs’ that I developed for my “Selectivity” and “Nexus” books, and are very successful in larger swimming nymphs’ mayfly hatches
For more Information visit: www.graydrake.com
Also, Go to my Matthew Supinskl /Hallowed Waters and Gray Drake Social Media pages
Call 231-250-2846
Email [email protected]
See you on the Water!
Matthew Supinski