The Brown Drake mayfly nymphs are very active as they prepare to hatch shortly. As they move along the stream bottom they are exposed to the bass and they feed heavily upon them. This gives us a chance to get fast fishing and catch some large bass. Large populations of these nymphs concentrate in the slow currents along the sides of the riffles and I like to fish upstream dead drift in these areas. A great fly here is the Mr. Rapidan Brown Soft Hackle 10 fished on a 9ft. 2X Bright Butt Leader with two Murray’s Fly Shop Indicators spaced along the leader. This is very effective all day and the more you use this method the more large bass you will catch. Now let’s look at the great dry fly fishing on this hatch. When the dunes hatch in the afternoon and drift along the surface you can catch many nice bass with an Irresistible Dry Fly 10 and 12. Watch for rising bass along the sides of the riffles and go one on one with these fish. If you don’t see many risers just cover the water. My favorite part of this hatch is the last hour of the day when the spinners fall. I’ve often stood within casting distance of two dozen bass rising to feed on the spent spinners on the flat water below the riffles. It is not at all unusual to catch several dozen nice bass at this time of the year on an Irresistible Dry size 10 and 12 each evening.
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