Sedges have edges

Photo of traveling sedge

The annual and usually predictable traveling sedge hatch on Georgetown Lake, Montana has been anemic this year, to say the least.  After 3 weeks of heartbreak, I think it's time to move on the some of the year's best carping.

To be fair, the fishing is still good up at the lake.  There are daily spinnerfalls of callibaetis and the damsels get going around noon.  The fish will eat a damselfly nymph slow stripped or fished below a dry or bobber.  The sight fishing on sunny days in the shallow flats has been really fun and many of these fish are eating dries as well as your perfectly cast damsel nymph or small leech.  I did see the sedges.  Each day I saw more and more.  Right at dusk, you will see quite a few and if you've never seen the hatch at full bore, you might think it looks ok.  But, it's not.  There should be more bugs, the fish should be so keyed in on them that they eat the dry all day, and it should definitely be going strong by now.  The lake has been full and we had a nice normal wet spring.  Maybe it's still coming; I don't know.

Anyway, it's hot in Montana and so is the fishing.  It's also prime time for giving the trout a break from the summer crowds and exploring all over Montana's carp country.

The dog days of summer

Lexi the figurehead

The scorching-hot dog days of summer have taken hold across the great state of Montana.  However, unlike the last few years, there is still lots of water and the fishing is shit hot.

Still water carping in the reservoirs is about as good as it gets right now.  The fish are post-spawn and hungry.  Early morning into early afternoon is the best time as they start to fade off when it gets mega-hot.  You'll find them but they won't eat like they did earlier in the day.

We've been hitting Georgetown every weekend for the past couple in order to hit the traveling sedge hatch.  These huge caddis are awesome and this is one of my favorite hatches.  Due to the high lake level and the cool spring, the water temps were just not warm enough yet to get them to pop on a grand scale.  We saw a couple here and there and had some surface eats on our not-so secret pattern but the hatch had yet to materialize.  Since last weekend, it has been hotter than 2 hamsters farting in a wool sock.  I would bet the dog that they're going off tonight!

The damselflies are a major factor for the G-town trout and the still water carp now.  Putting a damselfly nymph a couple feet below your high riding "caddis" pattern will get you into fish at G-town all day long.  Additionlly, dropping one in the action zone of a large, slow-cruizing carp may result in excitement and hilarity.

Stay tuned for Georgetown updates and some summer carp action!