The natural hellgrammites in their third year are reaching full size with some of them almost four inches long. They are now at their most active stage because they will be hatching shortly. The large bass take advantage of these active hellgrammites and feed heavily upon them. I like to cash in on this by fishing my Heavy Black Murray’s Hellgrammite sizes 4 & 6 upstream dead drift in the 100 foot sections of the rivers below the riffles.
Try to drift your flies naturally right along the stream bottom by casting straight upstream or up and across stream at no more than a 20 degree angle. As your Murray’s Hellgrammite drifts back downstream to you keep a tight line on it by making long strips with your line hand.
In order to catch these bass you need to see their strike on your indicator system. To help me detect these takes I use my Murray’s Bright Butt Knotted 9ft. 2X leader and install two Murray’s Fly Shop Indicators along the length of the leader. By watching the bright butt of the leader and the indicators I can quickly discern the take and set the hook and land the bass.
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