Hook Size: 14/16
most spinners, the low floating insects are difficult to see during low light conditions. Look
for them to collect at the bottom end of riffles and long runs and the calmer pockets of
faster pocket water streams.
Then spinners normally fall from late in the afternoons to just before dark. About the only
way to see them is to keep a close check overhead of the same areas of the stream they
hatched from. The Small Western Green Drake spinners will fall in the same general
areas they emerged from. You should be able to see them dancing about when mating,
especially if there are substantial numbers of them.
The males will fall as soon as the mating is finished and the female will fly back to the
nearby bushes and trees until their eggs are ready to be deposited on the water. Within
a very short time they will appear and begin the egg laying process.
Another way to determine if the Small Western Green Drake spinners have fell is to use a
skim net. A couple of minutes with the net in the water will tell you If the spinners are
there or not. They are almost impossible to see floating spent in the surface skim during
the low light conditions they normally fall under. The spinner fall usually occurs in a short
time of about an hour or less but it depends on the weather and the sky conditions. Like
most other spinner falls, cloudy days are best.
Presentation:
In the faster, pocket water streams, you will need to use an up and across, dead-drift
presentation of the Perfect Fly Spinner. You want to place the fly below, or at the ends of
the moderate speed runs and riffles. The spinners will also collect at the heads of pools.
The trout tend to eat them in areas of the stream where they collect as opposed to where
they fall on the water.
In smooth flowing streams, a down and across, dead-drift presentation may be preferred.
Long, light leaders and tippets are usually required under smooth water conditions, even
in low-light conditions. The trout tend to just sip the spinners from the surface. They can’t
escape the trout and the trout are very aware of that. Small, rise rings are usually the
only indication a trout has taken your spinner imitation.
