Spawning brookies: Fall color under the water

As the warm, lazy days of summer fade and the crisp days of fall arrive, angler activity on streams declines dramatically, offering a great chance to fish over less pressured trout that will stray farther from well-protected and difficult-to-reach holding locations.

It is that fantastic time of year when sportsmen can reach into the closet for both their shotgun and their fly rod. Many areas across the upper Midwest offer the chance for cast and blast outings, chasing both grouse and trout.

As the maples begin to blaze and the progression of the brilliant fall colors begins, so too do brook trout become more beautifully colorful as the spawning season arrives.

Brookies become more aggressively active with the passing of dog days of summer and the onset of cooler temperatures, also gathering in gravel riffles for the annual mating ritual. Fly fishers should steer clear of disturbing redds, the spawning areas easily identified by brighter patches of gravel that have been scooped out by the brook trout.

The bugs

The variety of insects emerging on trout streams narrows dramatically as the cooler weather takes hold. Hatches of caddis, such as the Cinnamon Sedge (#16-18) and the Giant Autumn Sedge (#10-12) that emerges at or after dusk, can linger through September and into October.

During the early fall terrestrial imitations such as hoppers and beetles can be effective. In some regions prodigious swarms of flying ants trigger eager surface feeding activity. As hard overnight frosts begin to occur, terrestrial activity quickly fades away.

After cold overnight temperatures take hold, small Blue-Winged Olives (#18-20) become the predominant, if not only, meaningful hatch. These small mayflies can hatch prodigiously on overcast days. Longer (8-12 ft.) and finer leaders (6x-7x) and delicate drag-free presentations are required when fishing these smaller flies.

Light rainfall will not put a stop to the Olive hatch, the emergence first slowing as the rain picks up, and then surging in concert with a slackening of the rain. This hatch continues until very late into the fall season. On more than one occasion, I've had the opportunity to fish to rising trout in November during an early snowfall with water temperatures hovering around the 40-degree mark.

Get wet

While streamer fishing also picks up with cooler weather and fall rains, my preference is to go after the brilliantly colored brookies with wet flies including both standard and bead-head nymphs and soft-hackles. The brook trout are mostly concentrated in shallower, more easily fished gravel riffles and runs, presenting a chance for fly fishers to hone their wet fly fishing skills in a comparatively less challenging setting.

Soft-hackled wet flies such as Peacock & Partridge and Pheasant Tail & Partridge are perhaps the easiest flies of all to fish and very effective in the type of water where brook trout hold in the fall; they are not as effective in slower water. The most important feature of soft hackles is the movement of the soft Partridge or Grouse hackle.

Soft hackles are generally presented with the same set up used when dry fly fishing, that is a floating line and a 9-10 foot long leader. This allows a quick change to dry flies if the fish start to surface feed on adult flies.

Soft-hackled flies can be fished singly or as a "dropper" in combination with a dry fly, especially a relatively buoyant fly such as a hopper or caddis. In this case, the soft-hackle is tied to a 12-24" tippet section of leader material that is tied to the bend of the hook of the dry fly in a straight-line, trailing manner. The trout may respond either to the dry fly or the soft hackle and the dry fly provides a visual cue that can be especially helpful to those who are relatively inexperienced with fishing wet flies.

Weighted and bead-head nymphs are also very effective in the faster moving gravel runs that brook trout favor at this time of year. I often fish these flies in tandem, two weighted flies or a weighted fly and a soft-hackle, using the straight-line dropper technique described above.

When fishing in quicker and/or deeper runs, additional weight is often required to get the flies down to the gravel bottom. While small split shot is used by many fly fishers in this situation, I prefer the tapered polymer-coated sinking leaders that have become more widely available in recent years. These tapered sinking sections are available in lengths from 5-10', which create leaders from 7-12' long when a 24-36" monofilament tippet is added.

These sinking leaders are more easily and accurately casted than a standard monofilament leader with split-shot added. As an additional benefit, they are much less likely to get hung up on the bottom or obstructions than a standard leader with shot attached.

Swing away

The same basic presentation can be used for either soft-hackle or weighted flies -- a cast across the current followed by a "swing."

With soft-hackles, cast across stream and slightly upstream. Mend your line to achieve a drag free drift for as long as practical. The mixed currents of a riffle give movement to the hackles while the fly is drifting. At the end of the drag-free drift, point your rod tip at the fly and allow it to "swing" back to your side of the stream.

In the case of weighted nymphs, cast across and slightly downstream. In this case, the fly will begin to swing immediately. While it is OK to let additional line to gradually feed out during the swing, don't allow too much slack to form; it is essential to maintain "contact" with the fly in order to detect strikes.

Start at the upstream reach of a riffle or run and gradually work your way down stream to systematically cover all of the water. To add natural-looking movement to the fly on the swing, gently move the tip of the rod up and down a couple of inches; once the slack goes out of the line the fly will rise a bit in the water column. When your fly has reached the end of the swing let it pause, move the rod tip up a time or two and then retrieve it slowly a few feet before making the next cast.

One of the great advantages of using this technique is that trout that hit a properly presented wet fly or weighted nymph swinging on a "tight" line often hook themselves. Generally, a swift reaction is not required and can be counterproductive; rather, steadily take the slack from the line by moving the rod tip up and across the stream from the strike.

While surface-feeding dry-fly trout opportunities still exist this time of year, this is perhaps the best time to begin to experiment with or hone or your wet-fly and weighted-nymph fishing technique. That fact combined with the splendidly colored foliage and brook trout of the season should provide more than ample motivation to reach for your fly rod.