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Minnows + Dace (Notropis / Rhinichthys spp.)
Baitfish, in the drift all year, active in water between 35 and 78°F, and imitated at #2–10. Recorded from the North Carolina mountains, where 1575 North Carolina rivers on this site carry a page.
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- #2–10Hook size
- 35–78°FWater, active
- all yearAvailable
- 1Life stage fished
What it is
Baitfish · Notropis / Rhinichthys spp. · adult
Shiners, chubs, dace and darters: two to four inches, silver or olive-backed, holding in shallows, over gravel and along woody cover in every river in these states.
Shiners, chubs and dace hold in every one of these rivers and are what a brown trout over about sixteen inches is mostly eating. Available every day of the year, which is why streamer fishing has no season.
When it hatches
In the water twelve months a year, which is why the panel in the app ranks it below anything with a season.
peak shoulder not recommended
Water conditions
The band is a water temperature, not an air temperature, and it is the range in which this insect is worth fishing — for a mayfly that is the emergence window; for a scud or a midge it is simply the range trout will still eat one in.
Active from 35°F to 78°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool, warm water — the band crosses 3 of the three breaks the river colours use. Breaks at 58, 64 and 70°F.
Stages
What the insect is doing, and what that means for what you tie on.
| Stage | What it is |
|---|---|
| adult | Available every day of the year. A brown trout past about sixteen inches gets most of its calories here rather than from insects, which is why streamer fishing has no closed season and no hatch chart. |
Matching flies
6 patterns in this book imitate the Minnows + Dace, across its stages. Which one to tie on follows the stage the water temperature says it is in — the app makes that call on a live reading; this page lists the whole set.
- Black Ghost streamer · #4–10 — A classic bucktail for stained water and low light.
- Kreelex streamer · #2–8 — All flash. For coloured water where the fish has to find it before it sees it.
- Mickey Finn streamer · #4–10 — Red and yellow, no pretence at imitation. Works on dropping water after rain.
- Muddler Minnow streamer · #4–10 — Sculpin sunk, hopper skated. Older than the sport's opinions about it.
- Woolly Bugger (Black) streamer · #2–12 — If you could only own one fly. Leech, sculpin, big nymph, all of it.
- Zonker streamer · #2–8 — Rabbit strip that breathes at rest. Deadly on the pause, not on the strip.
Where to find it right now
The rivers with a page here that sit in this insect's regions, with a USGS gauge reporting water temperature. This list is re-ranked against the reading each gauge is sending now and today's date, so it is live — the fallback below it, if the readings do not arrive, is each river's measured July mean.
- Back Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Beaverdam Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Bill Davenport Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Bill White Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Black Fork the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Bridge Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Brier Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Buckwheat Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Bull Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
- Cambric Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 59.3°F
Regional presence
Regions, not collection records. This insect is recorded from the coarse regions below; nobody has surveyed which named river it has been caught on, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- northern lower Michigan MI
- southern lower Michigan MI
- the Upper Peninsula MI
- the Wisconsin driftless WI
- northern Wisconsin WI
- the Virginia mountains VA
- the North Carolina mountains NC
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Catawba River
- Aaron Creek
- Acorn Branch
- Adamcamp Branch
- Aiken Mill Creek
- Alarka Creek
- Alfred Creek
- Allison Creek
- Allmon Creek
- Ammons Branch
- Amos Creek
- Amos Creek
- Anderson Creek
- Anderson Creek
- Anderson Creek
- Anderson Creek
- Andrews Creek
- Anthony Bolick Branch
- Anthony Creek
- Appletree Branch
- Ararat River
- Armstrong Creek
- Arrowhead Branch
- Arrowwood Creek
- and 1551 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Sculpin Cottus spp. · Baitfish · all year
- Black Ant Formicidae · Terrestrial · June–September
- Blackfly Simulium spp. · Midge · April–June
- Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. · Mayfly · March–May and September–November
- Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae · Terrestrial · May–September