Labor Day Weekend was a success. For those of you that have fished late August and early September you know that a few things are a certainty. Warm/Hot weather, insane Trico hatches on the Reef and you have to work hard for good fish.

The Mile has been a great option these last couple of weeks. Getting on early is key. It has been hot and it can really have the fish sitting down in the middle of the day. The mornings have been good. I had Warren and Jared out for four days of fishing. They are die hard fisherman and love long days and have the patience and skill to stick it out. Jared scored this nice male brown on their last day at the Mile. Fish were eating a lot of bugs. We caught fish on small baetis patterns like the Olive Mayhem, Birdsnest Caddis in Natural and the basic pheasant tail. Worms were on our lines most of the day as well. Clarity was maybe 2 feet but I feel that only helped because it was bright and sunny everyday.

The day we spent on the Reef was good. Yes, the moss is bad and annoying, but if you stay patient and learn to de-moss your rigs you will be rewarded. Be sure to hit the water early for the epic North Platte River Trico hatch. We stalked pods of rising fish in the morning. Its technical dry fly fishing at its best. No matter the outcome, throwing dries to consistently rising fish is what we dream about. We ended up doing pretty well during the rest of the day on hopper/dropper rigs. The pheasant tail, sunken trico and olive mayhem were our best producing flies under the hopper.

• Brad Nicol