My favourite time of year to fish is fall: September through November. The worries of stressful water temperatures are gone. The water is generally low and clear. The fish are fat and as healthy as they get for the season. The rainbows are packing in the food before the colder temperatures hit. The brown trout feed aggressively before they start their spawn in the later part of the fall. The browns can also be as beautiful as they get!
Fishing can be a bit more technical as the fish are that much “wiser” from being fished to through the season. One thing that improves your catch rate is fishing small flies. Our “small” standards (#16-#20) on the Bow are nothing compared to what you have to go down to on some of the more heavily pressured rivers in the States (#20-#24), so we should consider ourselves lucky! This article focuses on select fall hatches and associated small fly techniques.
The Bugs:
Blue Winged Olive Mayflies (Baetis): These bugs are known by several names. When you hear someone talking, or see a fly pattern with the letters BWO, or the name Baetis, or simply “Olives”, those are all referring to this group of mayflies. Keep in mind there are several species within this group that vary in size (#16 - #22) and color (gray/olive or blue/olive.) They hatch in the spring and again in the fall. It seems in the fall the fish can be happier to eat the adults on the surface, especially on a cloudy, cooler day when the hatch can be the strongest. The hatch can be into the tens of thousands.
Patterns to try for surface feeding fish are:
Dries: HiVis Parachute BWO, UV2 BWO Dun, UV2 Sparkle BWO Spinner, Parachute Adams, CDC BWO, Keller’s Peppermint Olive, Dunnigan’s BWO.
Emergers: Smoke Jumper, Snow Shoe Emerger, Klinkhammer Olive, Soft Hackle BWO, Trina’s Hi-Vis Sprout BWO.
Nymphs: Pheasant Tail, tungsten bead Pheasant Tail, Trina’s Bubble Back, Panty Dropper, UV2 Maynymphulator, Tung Stud Amber, Splitcase BWO, Crystal BWO, Evil Weevil