Strawberry yesterday evening

[Joe_Dizzy]

I fished from about 7:45pm to 9:30 yesterday.  Fish started rising at little after 8:00pm.  A size 14 ant was my best fly, though I caught one on a small grey comparadun (size 16, I think).

A couple of notes:

(1) I am converted to two fly rigs, even when using dry flies.  I used to think it didn't really matter if both flies were on top, but I'm becoming convinced that it will increase fish caught.  I've always thought that if you could fish different parts of the water column (for example, with a dry and an emerger), that was worth it.  But I'm expanding my horizons with this.

(2) As other people have mentioned, it looks like we will be able to fly fish strawberry deeper into the summer this year than previous years.  More cool weather is on the way, as well.  

(3) I still have not used a full sinking line.  Last June my best fish were 20 feet down or further.  Am I missing fish during the bright parts of the day?  

(4) The water is extremely clear.  I caught fish with a dry fly this week (a large Chernobyl ant, for example) over deep water, even when no fish were rising.  Maybe they're at the top of the water column, or maybe surface flies are more visible from the depths than in previous years?

Fully with you on 2-fly rigging and highly recommend investing in a 2nd rod w/ full sinking (intermediate) line. Most days I'm splitting time 50/50 on floating and sinking lines, but had quite a few trips where everything comes on the sinking line... especially on fast-sloping reservoirs (like Lost Creek for example).

Normally, once the sun increases in intensity (around 9:30a) the fish pull out to the llittoral zone and will continue feeding in the bottom half of the water column (10-15 ft of water)... creeping along with a 2-fly rig on a sinking line will get these fish.

Odd thing I've noticed on the last couple of trips is that the fish are moving off the banks (like normal), but still feeding near the surface. I believe this is why the Tequila Booby has been so effective for me... it keeps everything withing 2 ft of the surface.

This is a typical 2-fly rig that I use for stillwater angling: