One Minute In The Wild: Brown Drake Hatch on Silver Creek

WHEN ANTICIPATION COMES TO AN END

Every June, the quiet, meandering spring creek in central Idaho begins to boil with rising trout in the first or second week of the month. People from around the world begin calling the local fly shop (Picabo Angler) nonstop, asking for a report as to when the bugs begin their annual spinner fall on Silver Creek. And that bug is the Brown Drake. 

In the lower sections of Silver Creek, brown drake nymphs burrow down under the silt. When water temperatures are just right, they begin to emerge. First, there is an emergence typically occuring at night. This is one of the best times to catch the beginning of the brown drake hatch. As the fish discover the large nymphs swimming to the surface, anglers have a chance at a fish of a lifetime on a cripple or emerger style pattern. This June, we had a full moon, allowing us to fish the warm parts of the bright night until midnight on the first emergence.  

After the first emergence, everyone begins to wait for the infamous spinnerfall. Typically, it happens on a warm, still evening upon a night or two of strong emergences. The bugs wait in the grass throughout the day as their wings dry, preparing to fly all evening long. When the weather conditions align, they’ll all go at once. The spinner fall of giant mayflies is a breathtaking experience. Bugs so thick that they cover your body, landing on you left and right. They dance and fly upstream as thousands of spinners come down the river. When fishing to a rising trout eating drakes, one must be the next spinner or dun in line. Casting that 9ft 2x leader repeatedly on the same fish as it eats drake after drake. It is good to be opportunistic when you locate that one big fish, get a fly to it quick and carry all three life stages of the bug (emerger, spinner, and dun).  

During the spinner fall, it is best to fish the clear wing spinner, my favorite is made by Umpqua. As the bugs keep laying eggs and dying, the fish will continue to feed late into the night, as those spinners continue to float down from upstream. In many cases, we fish a single fly. But no one said you couldn’t fish a dun to a spinner, or a dun to an emerger. Fish bigger profile duns as the light dims, so you know it is staying afloat and for the fish to locate your dun easier as it gets darker.  

Each day of the hatch that passes, the bugs will move further upstream. They start behind Picabo Angler in what many would call the airport beats, and will stop at hwy 20 bridge above Silver Creek West. Typically, the brown drake hatch will go one of two ways. In years past, we’ve seen 5 days of warm, epic evening spinner falls completing the entirety of the hatch and other years where the stormy June weather can kill the bugs in the grass turning off the hatch all at once. In the following mornings of the hatch, there can be midday emergences as well. They are not as consistent, but more sporadic. The fishing in windows throughout the day or in the morning can be sweet with drake emergers, like the captive dun or last chance cripple, upon these odd weather patterns. This results in dragging out the hatch for up to two weeks of much smaller spinner falls. To fish effectively, find where the bugs are emerging and watch the shucks float down the river. Then, locate the thousands of duns in the grass preparing for your evening spinner fall on that specific section of river. 

The Brown Drake hatch is truly something special. We wait all year long for just a week or two of some of the most epic dry fly fishing in the west. The river goes from dead quiet, to absolute madness on the surface. It is a time of year where the majority of anglers can stick fish in an above average class on 2x tippet and a size 10 dry fly, versus the typical silver creek setup of 12-15ft of leader and 6x tippet.