Trout are Ready for a Terrestrial Insect Feast - Are You?

Warm summer days charge up solar-powered terrestrial insects and put them on the trouts' menu!

With the long summer days and the rise of the mercury in the thermometer, so heats up the summer terrestrial bite! All invertebrates (aka bugs) are cold-blooded, and when the weather is cool or overcast, they don't want to move. It is in the months of June through September that the consistently warm temperatures really get terrestrial insects like ants, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, and cicadas moving. Whether overeager, clumsy or drifted into the water by a gust of wind, terrestrial insects make up a good part of the summer and early fall diet of trout across the US. While grasshoppers, crickets, and cicadas can dominate the terrestrial bits at lower elevations, ants and beetles will consistently produce fish from the highest mountain lake to the lowest drainages in the Appalachian mountains throughout this time period.

These high floating, calorie-rich foods should not be overlooked and deserve a place of honor among your most trusted summer dry fly patterns!