Fly Fishing in August Podcast by Harry Murray

Trout Fly Fishing in August

By this time of the season the trout in our heavily fished streams have seen the same artificial flies over and over and often they simply refuse to take them. In order to improve the dry fly fishing now I’ve developed a series of flies I call my “change of pace” patterns.  These show the trout flies which produce different light patterns and silhouettes on the surface while matching many of the natural foods they feed upon at this time of the year.  These include Oakworms, Moths, Wasp, Houseflies, Horseflies, Yellow Jackets and Inchworms. I usually fish these upstream dead drift right along the stream bank casting to all of the trout I see rising. If there are few rising trout I simply cover the water as I wade upstream.

Bass Fly Fishing in August

By the middle of August last year I was seeing many smallmouth bass feeding on the natural Hexagenia Mayflies.  Usually I see most of this feeding the last 2 hours of the day. If the water is more than 4 feet deep where I see the bass rising I cast down and across stream at a 45 degree angle to drop my fly 2 feet upstream of the riseform and impart a gentle twitching fly action. The Mr. Rapidan Skater Dry Fly size 8 is my favorite match of the Hexagenia Mayfly. If I see splashy riseforms I know some of the bass are feeding on the emerging nymphs just below the surface of the river. Here I attach an Mr. Rapidan Soft Hackle, Olive size 10 to a 3 foot 2X mono dropper below the dry and fish this 45 degrees down and across stream using a gentle twitching action.  If the water is less than 3 feet deep where the bass are rising I use an upstream approach and wade very cautiously to prevent scaring the bass and go one on one with them.