The days are shorter, and the wind has a cold bite to it as it surges across the lake forcing a dance of small whitecaps. Geese, high overhead, call to each other on their southerly search for summer. It’s clear from these signs, and many others, that summer has gone for another year and fall has descended. Fishing opportunities abound, and one opportunity not to overlook is your favorite lakes. The trout have moved out of their summer sanctuary of deep cool water back into the shallows where food is more plentiful. They have also put on some weight since spring, and are usually in a feeding mood sensing the long cold winter just around the corner.

There are quite a few options for the lake angler trying to entice trout to a fly this time of year. Leech patterns and the always-useful wooly bugger are good standbys. A fat dragonfly nymph imitation is also a good bet for hungry cruising trout. My attention, however, often turns to three quite different, but very important insects: midges, water boatmen, and damselflies. One or more of these three will almost always find their way into the trout’s stomach during the short days of fall.

Midges
The prolific nature of midges (Order: Diptera - Family: Chironomidae) means they are important throughout the year, and fall is no exception. The species of midge emerging in the fall will be different than those in the spring or summer, and will normally require imitations of a different size and color. This makes it very important for the angler to collect some naturals of the pupae or adults so the correct patterns can be selected. I always keep an eye out for adult midges on the surface or pupae hanging in the surface film. Unless there is a large hatch, however, it can be difficult to find and collect naturals off the surface. Another approach is to spend sometime on the downwind side of the lake where the wave foam has accumulated along the shore and look for the empty pupal shucks or drowned midge adults trapped in the foam. Other insects on the surface of the water will also show up in the foam, which is an excellent natural insect sampler for the angler.

Once I know if midges are emerging and what size and color they are, I can pick an appropriate pattern. Next I must decide how to fish it. The techniques used at other times of year work just as well now. If you’re fishing a pupal imitation you first need decide how deep to fish it. This is critical. Consider the depth of the water where you are fishing. If it is a shallow area of the lake, say two to four feet deep, it is easy to fish your fly from the bottom to the surface. If fish are obviously feeding near the surface, it is also easy to decide to fish your patterns in the film. But in deeper water, with no surface signs of feeding fish, it is a good idea to start by fishing your pupa patterns close to the bottom and slowly retrieve them to the surface.

The key to any midge fishing at any depth is using a slow retrieve – a very slow retrieve! This requires a great deal of discipline and patience, but the experience of catching good numbers of large trout is the best reinforcement I know of. If there is a slight breeze blowing across the surface, one way to fish your pupal patterns slowly is to cast perpendicular to the wind’s direction and just let the breeze move your fly line across the surface. Only retrieve enough line to keep slack out of it so you are in good contact with your fly and can detect a strike and set the hook quickly. This “wind drifting” method can also be used with adult patterns fished on the surface. Stay focused and relaxed, and you’ll find midge fishing as good as everyone says it is!

Waterboatmen
Waterboatmen (family: Corixidae) belong to the order Hemiptera, or true bugs, which includes a variety of aquatic species like the backswimmers, water striders, and water scorpions, as well as many terrestrial insects like stink bugs, plant bugs, toad bugs, and numerous others. Many anglers have read about waterboatmen, but few anglers actually consider them useful to imitate. That could be a mistake, especially in the fall.

Fall is when corixids have reached their adult stage, but unlike most other aquatic insects the adults remain aquatic, diving to the lake or stream bottom to feed just as they did in their juvenile stages. As a result the adults are readily available to cruising fish looking for some tasty morsel to fatten up on before winter.

Corixids will always be most abundant in shallow water ranging from a few inches deep to three or four feet deep. The reason for this shallow water preference is that they feed on the bottom but get their air for breathing from the surface. Most aquatic insects utilize oxygen dissolved in the water just as fish do. Corixids, along with a handful of other aquatic insects, get their oxygen from the air above the water, which they take with them in the form of a bubble when they dive underwater. This bubble acts just like a scuba tank for divers, and only predates the one invented for human divers by a hundred million years or so! The size of the bubble allows the waterboatmen to stay submerged for several minutes before they must rise to the surface and grab another bubble of air. Because of the regular trips from lake bottom to the surface, there is practical limit to the depth they can live in.

While underwater the bubble partly wraps around their body creating a bright silvery reflection. The result is a very visible insect rising to the surface then diving back to the bottom. This makes an easy target for feeding fish, and an obvious imitation for fly fishers. Patterns can be simple dubbed bodies with a pair of legs projecting at right angles to the body. Add a shellback of silver Mylar to imitate the shiny reflection of the bubble. There are a great many species of waterboatmen, so you’ll want to collect some of the naturals from the lake you’re fishing to determine the proper size and general color for your patterns.

Most of us have had the experience of spooking a large trout out of water less than a foot deep while wading along the shore. Those fish could easily be feeding on corixids. Also look for strong swirls at the surface in deeper water. That could be a clear sign that fish are striking at waterboatmen near the surface. Cast a two or three feet in front of cruising fish and let your fly sink a few inches to a couple of feet. A floating line and short strip retrieve will typically impart the right action.

Damselflies
Damselflies are well known to lake anglers as one of the best hatches of the early season. Sometime in May, June or early July large numbers of mature nymphs migrate to shoreline areas where they crawl out and transform to adults. These damsel nymph migrations produce some of the best lake fishing of the year. When the hatches are over most anglers forget about damsel nymphs until the following spring. However, adult damselflies are busy laying eggs all summer. By September and October the eggs have hatched into thousands and thousands of small damselfly nymphs. Just like a hungry fall trout, these young nymphs are busy feeding before the lakes are locked in winter’s cold hand. These small damsel nymphs are not obvious like the migrations of spring, but they are plentiful and available to feeding fish.

While fall is a time to think about damselfly nymphs again, instead of looking for large migrations of mature nymphs, you need to look for small immature nymphs. Pick up some aquatic plants near the shore or sort through some piles of leaves lying on the lake’s bottom. This should tell you how abundant the small damselfly nymphs might be and their general size and color. Both size and color will vary considerably from lake to lake, so it is important to spend a little time searching for the naturals where you’re fishing.

No matter their color, their size will be small. I usually find patterns in 16’s or 14’s about right. They should be tied sparsely, but they will still need some marabou or other soft material to give them enough action in the water. These small patterns are also best when fished slowly. Cast in and around patches of aquatic plants. Let your fly sink slowly two to four feet, and then start a slow retrieve with small subtle twitches. Intersperse your retrieve with pauses allowing the fly to sink a few inches. Strikes will often come while the fly is sinking slowly during a pause in the retrieve. Strikes are generally very gentle so pay close attention to any movement of your line or leader where it goes underwater, or to the slightest sense of resistance to your fly’s movement. On any lake with a good damselfly population, fishing a small damsel nymph slowly around aquatic vegetation has proven to be one of my best fall fishing tactics.

Fall presents anglers with many choices. Midges, waterboatmen and damselflies are three worth remembering as you fish those short glorious days of fall.