Don’t Overlook the Little Olive Mayfly
This was Vince Marinaro’s advice on little olives when we fished the Letort together. On overcast days the Blue Wing Olive Mayfly hatch can be heavy prompting many trout to feed on the surface.
For example, my son Jeff, and I were fishing the Yellowstone River several miles downstream from Livingston Montana. It was a drizzly October day and the trout were lined up along the bank to sip in the olives. I have no idea how many trout we caught.
The next day we drove up to Yellowstone National Park to fish the Lamar River. Late in the afternoon the cloud cover became very thick and we had pretty heavy snow flurries. The olive hatch became very heavy and the trout started feeding all over the stream. The bright wings on a Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry size 18 were easy for us to see. The trout took them readily right up until it got dark.