Sadly, I missed the Farmington Trico hatch, which is my favorite one. It is the price I’ve paid for having busy work and family schedules. I went to one of my favorite pools, but the hatch had moved upstream.

However, I recently was able to spend a morning on the water and ran into oodles of fish with dries and dry-droppers. With flows lowered for a few days, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, and so, I made a mad dash for a short outing.

The water was cool (about 64 °F at the end of session), clear and low. 6x tippet didn’t work. 7x was decent, and 8x did the best. I fished dries a size 20 or smaller. Sometimes, I attached a dropper fly about a foot down.

The Ed Engle Sunken Trico Spinner did very well, as it does each summer once Tricos pop. I suspect the hatch was happening somewhere above me. Or, the fish still remembered seeing spent Tricos.

Either way, it was a double-digit outing. Small Caddis and parachute-post dries did particularly well. I caught quite a few small browns and salmon parr.  I also landed a few clean-looking browns measuring 12”+. No giants this time, though I did see a few rise to inspect my offerings. There were some big fish hiding in plain sight!

Last, I saw two browns pair up and slash around each other. Looks like a wee bit of pre-spawning behavior has started!