Summer’s Überbug: The Green Drake Mayfly

Summer’s Überbug: The Green Drake

Golf has the Masters. College football has the Rose Bowl. Triathlon has the Iron Man. Downhill skiing has the Lauberhorn. And fly fishing has the Green Drake hatch.

I say this with all respect and deference to the Open Championship, Orange and Sugar Bowls, or whatever is left after the NCAA sold all the bowls out for a playoff, the Challenge Roth, the Hahnenkamm, as well as trout fishing’s other classic insect events: Callibaetis, Mother’s Day caddis, stoneflies, cicadas, and Hexagenia.

You may have your own biases and favorites, and that’s perfectly fine. Goodness knows I love the Mother’s Day caddis hatch on Colorado’s Arkansas River, though in truth, it’s more like a “Tax Day” caddis hatch that’s happened closer to the middle of April than May in recent years. I love stoneflies, like everyone else, and I’m not sure it’s worth waiting 17 years for the cicadas, but I guess that depends on where you are. And being a Michigander, I love the Hex hatch, but it sure would be nice if it didn’t happen in the dark, and I could actually see trout eat them (but hearing them is also fine).

That said, there’s only one bug that has me humming “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” in the middle of summer and praying for a steady soaking rain to go fish in…

The Green Drake.

Actually, the Green Drake is more than one bug. In England, on the classic chalk streams, it’s the Ephemera danica, while out West in the U.S. we’re usually talking about Drunella grandis. In the eastern U.S. it's Ephemera guttulata, and there are even more variations scattered about.

If you can remember all that Latin and keep it sorted, you either have a memory like a steel trap, or an awful lot of free time on your hands. I’m no scientist. I think of it like calling a game football in England and soccer in the US, when we’re generally talking about the same thing.

That game is big, fat, juicy mayflies that turn trout from timid sippers to manic carnivores before your very eyes. Technically and biologically, the bugs may be different, but the fish and angler can’t tell a difference, as evidenced by chalk stream brown trout inhaling the Western Green Drake patterns I dug out of the bottom of my fly box. The game can happen at different times in different places–England in May, Idaho in June, Colorado in late July, different times in the East–but trust me, you’ll know the giant bug when you see it.

Have a bunch of different fly patterns in your box for different water conditions, and pray for cloudy, rainy days. – Kirk Deeter

Your Green Drake Checklist

1. Writer Paul Bruun of Jackson Hole takes a trip down Green Drake memory lane: “It begins with random but tumultuous whooshes as emergers are loudly inhaled. Such crazed behavior personifies noted author Lefty Kreh’s famous remark about the results of rolling a wine bottle into the drunk tank.”

2. Longtime Colorado fly-fishing guide, Pat Dorsey, with an excellent Green Drake primer: “The iconic summer mayflies of clean, brawling Western rivers.”

3. Chris Hunt of Hatch Magazine spends 10-weeks chasing Green Drakes up and down the west coast: “And at every stop, try as I might to dig through the fly box for something new, I’d see the drakes lifting off from the water like DeHavillands taking flight from a remote lake, and I knew it made little sense to tie anything on but an honest imitation of the mayfly I was apparently chasing to the Arctic.”

4. A Green Drake Video vault (excuse the product placement): Green Drake Buffet from Gilbert Rowley with some great video work; the classic “Going Green” on the Metolius River from Catch Magazine; the Green Drake, or the Ephemera danica, is the largest mayfly in Sweden.

5. Fish in the rain.

6. Swing a big prince nymph through broken water before the hatch. 

7. Some western subspecies of drakes come off at night–fish them with an H&L Variant.

8. Big fish will often eat your drake pattern three or four times before giving up–so, stay cool, rest the fish and try again.

9. Everyone should experience Idaho’s Henry’s Fork emergence, at least once in their life. 

Product Buzz

We review the old-school Manley 6.5-inch Teflon Super Pliers, Toadfish Line Nippers and the Sea Run Cases Norfork Classic Expedition Rod and Reel Travel Case. Joe Cermele of Field & Stream weighs in about the best ways to choose a fly reel. Hatch Magazine reviews the Sage SALT R8 fly rod: “SALT R8 is a comfortable casting rod that, so long as your technique is solid, won’t wear you out after a day spent casting.” MidCurrent tests the Rising Lunker Net: “The Rising Lunker’s aluminum body and rugged construction means you could drop it off a cliff and it will still look as nice as the day you bought it.”

Fly-fishing News

Millhouse Podcast talks with Drew Moret, highly acclaimed skiff guide and son of fishing legend, Sandy Moret: “In tarpon fishing, something humbles you every day.” Rolf Nylinder and his Norwegian fly crew travel to South Africa and Lesotho, hunting for the Clanwilliam yellowfish. Emilie Björkman, a salmon fly fisher from northern Sweden, heads to the Maldives and Indian Ocean for giant trevally. Don’t forget the PMD mayfly: “The PMD might be the most important mayfly there is when it comes to trout fishing.” From Epic Fly Rods, “Three Dropper Rigs Every Fly Fisherman Should Know.”

Recent Press

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