Read the Water. Match the Hatch.

Pale Morning Dun

Summer’s marquee mayfly. Pale yellow-olive duns bring the most technical dry-fly fishing of the year — fish see thousands and get famously picky about stage and drift. The West has two PMD taxa; this is the smaller, later one (formerly E. inermis). The larger, earlier PMD is E. dorothea infrequens.

Crawler nymphs are clumsy drifters. A Pheasant Tail behind a stonefly nymph is the standard summer rig.

PMDs struggle badly in the film. Picky fish eating "duns" are almost always eating cripples.

Steady, rhythmic rises in tailouts. Downstream reach casts beat drag on flat water.

Rusty spinner falls at first light can be heavier than the hatch itself.