Hay Creek Stream Conditions

[pjhawkeye]

Has anyone visited Hay Creek recently? Looking to head there Sunday, but was concerned the creek may be running to high. If anyone has any info on the stream level it would be appreciated....thanks!

[WxGuy]

It's clear and fishable now, so Sunday's lookin' good! There could be a little rain tomorrow, but it won't be enough to make a mess of things.

[pjhawkeye]

Thank you WaxGuy. I did make it out Sunday and had a decent day. It was my first trout outing of the season, so this mediocre fly-fisherman left they fly-rod in the car and did some spin fishing. Caught and released the majority of the trout on a Panther Martin and one on a Rapala. All of the trout were around 8-12 inches, with one brown around 14 inches.

[TRZ]

went out to hay creek monday and got 2 nice browns for dinner, 11.5 inchers. then hit spring creek and got a few nice little brookies. these fish hit a minnow and one was on a night crawler. action on hay creek was very slow, i fished it for about 3 hours with 3 fish caught.

[Lucky Dogg]

hey TRZ, did you only fish with bait? throw any

roostertails at'em? i'll be out one day this weekend and

was just wondering what else to use. later,Dogg

[Hotspotter]

Fished Hay Creek - 5/30 6AM-9AM

Conditions were good, warm sunny morning, with some small clouds of tricos? coming off as soon as the sun hit the stream. Fishing was tough per usual.

Fish were eating the small bugs, even with a good amount of lighter mayflies and quite a few BIG brown Caddis coming off.

With nothing to match in the dries, I nymphed it, and managed only one 11" brown. A buddy caught 4 smaller ones, but he's a better nymph fisherman too!

I keep thinking we'll get lucky, the stars will align, etc.....but i'm thinking that Hay Creek is just not my stream if i'm looking for big, dumb, hungry trout. We'll see!

Joel

[WxGuy]

Hey jnelson!

Sounds like you had a good day, even if the fish weren't going crazy for your fly. I would make a venture that the morning insects were midges, and not tricos. The tricos will rear their beautiful selves toward mid/late July and last until September. You would probably want to nymph a BH Prince, BH Pheasant tail, or caddis larvae (size 14 or 16) with a midge larvae trailed about a foot behind the lead fly. Put some weight ahead of your first fly and get those nymphs down toward the bottom. The midge trailer is always a good bet, especially if you're seeing a bunch of those little guys flying around.

I've seen some caddis mixed in with the other bugs too, but have noticed the fish aren't keying on them as much as the mayflies lately.

The light hendricksons (sulphurs) are coming off now, and the fish are pleased....

[trico]

Clouds of insects in the AM this time of year, sounds like midges. I've seen lots of cream midges as of late...hopefully I'll find some LH today.

[Hotspotter]

Wow. Midges......embarassing.....and i kept telling myself they look like little flies too. My old entomology prof. would be displeased!

Thanks for the tips, especially on fly selection WxGuy. I was fishing a BH Pheasant, but am just terrible at it. I'm still longing for my days out west where you could throw any old coachman or adams and do pretty well.

Lost a fly box last time I was out to Yellowstone....still haven't made a full recovery.....my stocks or my mental status. Have to make a landmark Cabela's run.

Joel