Rise of the mayfly
Brown drake hatch a boon to fly casters
May 31, 2007
 
ERIC SHARP
 
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
 
GRAYLING -- Spiders and anglers, rejoice!
 
Brown drake mayflies are starting to hatch on lakes and streams all over Northern Michigan. Soon every spider web near a river will have caught more than its owner can handle, and fly fishers will enjoy the most reliable evening rise of the season.
  
Though numerous books and Internet sites list the brown drake emergence as June 1-July 4 on most Michigan rivers, anglers in recent years usually have found strong drake hatches under way by the third week of May.
 
"I hear people say that the hatch this year is late (coming at the end of May). But this is what we used to consider normal," said Rusty Gates, owner of Gates Au Sable Lodge on the Au Sable River about 10 miles downstream from Grayling. "The (brown drake) hatch has moved up maybe 10 days from what it was 20 years ago."
 
Gates said good brown drake hatches have been under way for several days on the North Branch of the Au Sable, "and we'll see the same thing on the Main Stream and South Branch by the weekend. We've got some 80-degree days coming, and it won't get below 50 at night. That's what we need."
 
The brown drake, Ephemera simulans, is one of Michigan's biggest mayflies. The nymphs are burrowers, which means hatches are bigger and last longer on rivers that have more stretches of soft bottom. However, most Michigan trout streams see some brown drake activity, which makes this an excellent evening attractor fly to use throughout June and July.
 
The newly emerged duns usually look brownish in the air, although a close-up view reveals that many are a dull gray. The spinners that molt from the dun stage a few hours after first hatching have yellowish bellies, and many brown drake patterns include a mix of yellow and brown on the fly body.
 
The duns provide 90% of the angling models for these flies, and most fishermen use a No. 12 dry fly hook to mimic them, although the flies range in size from 10 to 14.
 
The heaviest hatches occur from about 7 p.m. until after dark, but the brown drake is a good pattern to use at midday because fish are accustomed to seeing them and can feed 24 hours a day on drowned drake duns and stragglers.
 
As the brown drake hatch starts to thin it coincides with the start of the Hexagenia limbata hatch, the giant Michigan mayfly that brings both anglers and big trout out at night. And many anglers find that continuing to fish the slightly smaller brown drake in the early days of the Hex hatch is more productive than switching to a bigger Hex imitation.
 
"When I started fly fishing 30 years ago, I used to get frustrated because you've have a pretty good Hex hatch going and the fish wouldn't touch your fly, even though you could see them rising," said Anthony Meredith, a Redford angler who fly-fishes nearly every weekend.
 
"At first I figured that it was because the hatch was so thick they just didn't see an artificial among all the naturals. Or maybe the pattern I was using wasn't right. But then one year I was just about to get out of the water at dark when a few Hexes started coming off.
 
"I stood and watched for a couple of minutes, and some trout started to feed. I still had a brown drake on, and changing flies in the dark is a real pain in the butt, so I dropped the drake above the closest fish, and I'll be darned if it didn't take it, a nice 16-incher. I finally figured out that the fish just hadn't keyed on the Hexes yet, but they'd been feeding on brown drakes for a couple of weeks.
 
"Ever since, I've probably fished a No. 10 brown drake during the Hex hatch more often than I've fished a Hex pattern. When the Hexes are on, I usually get out and start fishing a drake pattern about 8 or 9 (p.m.). If a really good Hex hatch gets going, I'll switch. If the Hexes are light, I stay with the drake. But if you get a Hex spinner fall, you have to switch, because the trout won't take anything else."
 
Ray Schmidt, who runs Schmidt Outfitters in Wellston, said that gray drakes were still the primary hatch on the Pere Marquette, and brown drakes were still a week or so away on that river, the Manistee, the Little Manistee and the Pine.
 
"We usually get them a few days later than they do on the Au Sable (system)," said Schmidt, whose late uncle, former Michigan conservation officer Clarence Roberts, developed the Roberts drake, probably the country's best-known brown drake fly pattern. "The big time for brown drakes is about the sixth to the tenth of June.
 
"But the fishing on these rivers has been phenomenal. This cool, high-water spring has been great for the trout."
 
[img]Rise of the mayfly
Brown drake hatch a boon to fly casters
May 31, 2007
 
ERIC SHARP
 
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
 
GRAYLING -- Spiders and anglers, rejoice!
 
Brown drake mayflies are starting to hatch on lakes and streams all over Northern Michigan. Soon every spider web near a river will have caught more than its owner can handle, and fly fishers will enjoy the most reliable evening rise of the season.
 
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Though numerous books and Internet sites list the brown drake emergence as June 1-July 4 on most Michigan rivers, anglers in recent years usually have found strong drake hatches under way by the third week of May.
 
"I hear people say that the hatch this year is late (coming at the end of May). But this is what we used to consider normal," said Rusty Gates, owner of Gates Au Sable Lodge on the Au Sable River about 10 miles downstream from Grayling. "The (brown drake) hatch has moved up maybe 10 days from what it was 20 years ago."
 
Gates said good brown drake hatches have been under way for several days on the North Branch of the Au Sable, "and we'll see the same thing on the Main Stream and South Branch by the weekend. We've got some 80-degree days coming, and it won't get below 50 at night. That's what we need."
 
The brown drake, Ephemera simulans, is one of Michigan's biggest mayflies. The nymphs are burrowers, which means hatches are bigger and last longer on rivers that have more stretches of soft bottom. However, most Michigan trout streams see some brown drake activity, which makes this an excellent evening attractor fly to use throughout June and July.
 
The newly emerged duns usually look brownish in the air, although a close-up view reveals that many are a dull gray. The spinners that molt from the dun stage a few hours after first hatching have yellowish bellies, and many brown drake patterns include a mix of yellow and brown on the fly body.
 
The duns provide 90% of the angling models for these flies, and most fishermen use a No. 12 dry fly hook to mimic them, although the flies range in size from 10 to 14.
 
The heaviest hatches occur from about 7 p.m. until after dark, but the brown drake is a good pattern to use at midday because fish are accustomed to seeing them and can feed 24 hours a day on drowned drake duns and stragglers.
 
As the brown drake hatch starts to thin it coincides with the start of the Hexagenia limbata hatch, the giant Michigan mayfly that brings both anglers and big trout out at night. And many anglers find that continuing to fish the slightly smaller brown drake in the early days of the Hex hatch is more productive than switching to a bigger Hex imitation.
 
"When I started fly fishing 30 years ago, I used to get frustrated because you've have a pretty good Hex hatch going and the fish wouldn't touch your fly, even though you could see them rising," said Anthony Meredith, a Redford angler who fly-fishes nearly every weekend.
 
"At first I figured that it was because the hatch was so thick they just didn't see an artificial among all the naturals. Or maybe the pattern I was using wasn't right. But then one year I was just about to get out of the water at dark when a few Hexes started coming off.
 
"I stood and watched for a couple of minutes, and some trout started to feed. I still had a brown drake on, and changing flies in the dark is a real pain in the butt, so I dropped the drake above the closest fish, and I'll be darned if it didn't take it, a nice 16-incher. I finally figured out that the fish just hadn't keyed on the Hexes yet, but they'd been feeding on brown drakes for a couple of weeks.
 
"Ever since, I've probably fished a No. 10 brown drake during the Hex hatch more often than I've fished a Hex pattern. When the Hexes are on, I usually get out and start fishing a drake pattern about 8 or 9 (p.m.). If a really good Hex hatch gets going, I'll switch. If the Hexes are light, I stay with the drake. But if you get a Hex spinner fall, you have to switch, because the trout won't take anything else."
 
Ray Schmidt, who runs Schmidt Outfitters in Wellston, said that gray drakes were still the primary hatch on the Pere Marquette, and brown drakes were still a week or so away on that river, the Manistee, the Little Manistee and the Pine.
 
"We usually get them a few days later than they do on the Au Sable (system)," said Schmidt, whose late uncle, former Michigan conservation officer Clarence Roberts, developed the Roberts drake, probably the country's best-known brown drake fly pattern. "The big time for brown drakes is about the sixth to the tenth of June.
 
"But the fishing on these rivers has been phenomenal. This cool, high-water spring has been great for the trout."