Yep, For real. What the ???? I know, I was in disbelief myself when I got an email from Steve Anderson of the Diablo Valley Fly Fishing club last week who said he may have seen a Hex at Lake Davis. With no pictures or evidence I simply could not believe it, I had to find out for myself if they were really there, and hold one in my hand for proof.
On the night of the 20th of June, Rob Anderson and I went to our location to rehearse the schedule of events for our Lake Davis Still Water Outings. Upon reaching the waters edge there were hundreds of California gulls making aggressive maneuvers down to the water and picking off insects. I thought to myself that this is quite strange as I've never seen them do this in all my years on the lake. They weren't after blood midges, that's for damn sure! We observed the water more when the large unmistakable silhouette of a mayfly appeared in my vision. It looked like a hex!
I saw one gracefully floating towards shore, took off my shoes and waded through the mud and grasped it, opened my hand and screamed like I had just won the lottery! We both stood their dumbfounded and just watched the show. Forget the fishing, this was a historic event happening live!
The next few nights displayed the same results and when the wind died down the amount of bugs hatching was phenomenal. The fish responded and took full advantage of this large food item, once you hear the suck of a trout eating a Hexagenia mayfly you'll never forget it!
On the evening of the 22nd one of our guest made more history with being the first known fly angler to present a hex emerger and landing a Lake Davis rainbow. We cheered so loudly I think the entire town of Portola could hear us!
History; Carl Nosek with a Lake Davis Hex Eating Rainbow!!!
With a flick of the switch the hatch ended, the Gulls flew off as did the geese now satisfied that their stomachs were full, and the trout hunkered down in the deep weed beds. As we walked back to the car the smile on Carl's face was still visible under the light of the "super moon", it was awesome!
So just how did the Hex show up? There are many scenarios but the one that makes sense to me is in the last 2 or 3 years enough Hexagenia mayflies were blown to the east by a big west wind from the Lake Alamanor area where upon they landed on the water of Lake Davis. After the populations of Hexes that I have seen, I am quite certain they will be at Lake Davis for quite some time. In the future a fly angler will be able to fish a blood midge hatch in the morning, then the damsel fly hatch, deep water chironomid presentations in the late afternoon, and fish the Hex in the evening.
This is HUGE!
No comments:
Post a Comment