Fly Fishing and Insect Exploration

Yellow May, A Simple Way

The little stream is gurgling, calmly and elevating at the same time, right next to me. The sound of nature is activating all my senses and is contributing to my inner balance. You might call it “Mindfull” or “Zen” depending on your generation. I just call it ( part of) fishing…

Yellow May, A Simple Way

Background and thoughts

The little stream is gurgling, calmly and elevating at the same time, right next to me. The sound of nature is activating all my senses and is contributing to my inner balance. You might call it “Mindfull” or “Zen” depending on your generation. I just call it ( part of) fishing. I am sitting on my knees, fiddling with my camera, in the attempt to “shoot” a picture of the beautiful and all yellow mayfly, Heptagenia Sulphurea. I can`t help it, when something this special catches my eye. I have to take a picture, and put the experience, together with my camera, back in my pocket. Feels like saving something for later, and make the moment last for a bit longer I guess. Some odd fishing trip, you might think, but the thing is, I am trying to finish this article with a few nice pictures, while I am half way keeping an eye on the water, not to miss out on a rising brownie. There is a lot going on along my little stream, and it is not always easy to stay focused on more than one thing at a time, although I regularly give it a try.

Actually I feel like I’m not really the one deciding what to pay attention to. It’s as if I’m watching the stream, even though I’m still experimenting with angles and light conditions around the beautiful mayfly…..and then suddenly, I see something familiar in the corner of my eye. A deep and calm ring on the surface of the stream, the kind of rise that normally reveals a sizeable fish, that gets the whole body “going”. Finally a “real” fish I just get to think before “the old boy” is off, and back on the river bed. I feel like holding my breath, while I’m waiting, first with a certain optimism, which gradually takes more and more shape, of something that reminds me more of realism. I’m having trouble giving up the seemingly nice brownie, but I have to go, if I want to reach the last good hot-spots, before it gets too cold for the mayflies to stay on their wings.

Yellow May, A Simple Way

Further up-stream, there are now also Mayfly spinners, that blend in with the Yellow May. There are not too many of them, but nevertheless, I have a slight doubt, if my somewhat smaller Heptagenia Sulphurea, at the end of my tippet, is the right fly. But it’s rarely the size that matters, and especially not on the first day of the mayfly season. Moderate Danica quantities can not compete on this day, with good quantities of Yellow May, as the fish have known for a week’s time, and luckily later in the evening, my pocket philosophy gets confirmed. I stick to my fly choice and continue the stroll to the next promising lie.

My local knowledge sometimes helps me to strategically position me, to have a good overview. Nevertheless, it is again in the corner of my eye something happens. Just in the perreference of my field of vision, there is one of the serious rising brownies, revealing itself in the water mirror, that once again gets my old fly-fishing-body on overtime. The pulse rises slightly, as I put a few feather-light throws over the lie of the fish. In the third throw, my Yellow May imitation is inhaled and it takes me no more than approx. 2 seconds before I find out that it is a pretty good fish that I have hooked. I make sure to fight the fish brief and firmly, to prevent it from getting unnessaserily exhausted, although it’s a very strong fish. I go out into the stream, in the low “backwater”, just behind the deep pool where the beautiful 45cm brownie took my fly. Here it is possible, in the first place, to get the fish in the net without it leaving its element. Under normal circumstances, I say goodbye to the fish by releasing it again. But this exact fish becomes the subject of a foto-model compromise, and I do what may be called a gentle photo session: Well prepared, fast and in a wet net. The fish did not agree on this, but now I have a brownie picture, which hopefully adds a little visual life to this article.

Yellow May, A Simple Way

Yellow May or Heptagenia Sulphurea is an important fly to me. It is a prelude to the Danica season. A fly I’m waiting for, a mental benchmark of a kind, and a sure reminder of high season and good things to come. This beauty of a fly, is in a way starting up the beauty of fishing in my little local stream. It`s in my consciousness in a completely different way compared to many other flies. For example, I am always noting the date of the year’s first Yellow May, which often appears a week before the Danica, and again in September. Yellow May has a constant and long season, almost twice as long as the Danica`s hatching period, and it is even constant, seen over a day’s fishing, as it hatches most of the day. As a general rule, the hatching is not so powerful, but on the other hand, they go on for hours and hours, it`s a so called trickle hatch, and it is usually taking place in the open and fast water (this is not so important on small streams). As Yellow may nymphs is already hatching on the river bed, and therefor is ready to fly, virtually as they reach the surface of the river, there are some who mistakenly assume that you can not fish your Yellow May fly “dead drift”. I have even come across this assumption in a respectable and popular English fly fishing magazine. All I can say:,,Don`t believe everything you read” and as a matter of fact, not even in this article. I can never be sure, if my words are received as I intended to, and in it self, there is not enough room for details and precission in a four page article, so fill in the gaps with your own knowledge and opinion. But it`s definitely a good idea to fish your duns as emergers, like the Oliver Edwards method with a yellow version of a Klinkhamer, but claiming that it is not possible to fish the Yellow May “dead drift”, that’s what I would call “Fake news”. I always fish “dead drift” with Yellow May Duns, and it works perfectly.

The most “die hard”, and famous myth of the “Yellow May”, that is still alive and going strong, must definately be the allegation that the fish will not eat the fly because it tastes nasty. I surprisingly often meet fly fishermen, who question the Yellow May`s ability to catch fish. This misunderstanding is derived from the Southern English chalk streams, where the fly in question is not very common, and since the trout learns what is safe and good to eat, by getting used to a fair number of flies passing by, it is almost obvious that “the party” never gets started. To express this in a slightly funny way, the Southern English trout is not educated enough (read educated trout), in sulfur-yellow mayflies with a body size of about 8-10 mm. Many fly fishermen, along the chalkstreams in England, simply thought that the flies were inedible, although in fact, the fly does not attract enough attention in sparse numbers. My experience with “Yellow May” is quite the opposite of those in Southern England, as it contributes to some of the best fishing of the season, and is tempting very good fish to get to the surface, in my little local stream.

Fly tying by Michael Olesen

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Yellow May, A Simple Way

Yellow May

The yellow may fishing is also a little special, in the sense that you can often just fish with a dun imitation all day and evening as well. It makes sense because the fish are interested in taking the all yellow dun, all day and not at least because the hatching period is very long. Often I prefer to fish with a spinner imitation late in the evening, but I only do this because it feels right to serve spinners as “midnight snack”. Males and females are very alike in the dun stage, they are almost completely sulfur yellow, both wings, body, tails and legs. But in the spinner stage there is a big difference between the sterner and weaker sex. The female has retained her yellow body color, with almost completely clear wings.

On the other hand, the male makes a little of a magic trick and gets a completely brown body in his spinner stage. I have often been tempted to tie some males, for my fly box, as they are very different in color, but I gave up this a long time ago, as I almost never see them on the water. Perhaps there are a few unfortunate specimens that by accident make a crash-landing, on a day of fresh wind. But whatever flies you prefer to tie for your fly box, or how you choose to fish your creations, it may be a good idea to bring a handful of Yellow May flies along, when you visit your river in may, June, July and again in september, even if there are Danica`s in the air. It is certainly the circumstances that determine how effective a given mayfly imitation is.

The Flies

Yellow May is what I would call a big mayfly, and therefore I could easily argue in favor of tying my flies richer in detail, than is actually the case, but it is not necessary. I tie my Yellow May imitations as sparsely as it can be done, not to make them pretty, but because I like them natural and as insect-like as possible. I aim for the fly to sit deep in the water film, as it is more visible to the fish. This can be done by not making the body too bushy and cutting the traditionally wound hackles on the underside of the flies. I prefer to treat my flies with a floatant, rather than overdress these, to achieve floatability. There is of course a room for the size, shape, color, silhouette and impression of the fly, not to be exactly “spot on”. Many flies catch fish in May, where the fish are still on the “hungry side” of the season. I personally like to fish with a fly that looks right, and maybe in some cases it’s important, even during the month of May. You never know?

When I tie the rather large dry flies, a hook dilemma may occur. Yellow may duns and spinners are, for example, appropriate to tie on a standard dry-fly hook size 10, but I always tie them on a size 12, as it is relatively much lighter than a size 10. It may be of great importance, when you like me would like to dress my flies sparsely. It is simply not possible to produce such dries, if the hook wire is too hefty. “Partridge Ideal dry” is absolutely perfect, although they are a little more expensive than many other hooks on the market. Semperfli foam is perfect for spent spinners, as it is only holding a little air, and therefor sitting deep in the water film, and sometimes under. At the same time this foam it is rather bright and shiny, which makes it more visible to the fish, in the late hours when sunlight is fading.

No Hackle Yellow May - Tying Guide

Have fun tying and fishing with the “No Hackle Yellow May”

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