Boatman Season

The ice has finally come off the Delaney Buttes, which means some monster fish coming in shallow to eat! There’s several food items on the menu this time of year such as leeches, chironimids, crayfish, and baitfish, but one fly that a lot of people overlook is the water boatman. Boatman are a small oval shaped insect about ¼ to ½ inch long, and have a pair of prominent legs towards the front of their body. They also have a pair of wings on their back, and they usually fly at night and travel to different bodies of water. To breathe, they swim to the surface and grab a small bubble of air, and keep it on their back creating a shiny appearance. They usually have a mottled olive, brown, or black back with a lighter colored underside.

In terms of fishing boatman flies, there’s several ways to fish them. Stripping a leech with a boatman behind it is one of my go to techniques. Fishing with short erratic strips imitates the boatman swimming its way along, and can trigger some vicious strikes! Stripping a single boatman on an intermediate line with the same retrieve is another great way to present these flies. Fishing under an indicator with a boatman is a great way to catch some fish as well. This works especially well when fish start going deep in the late spring, and can be hard to reach by stripping. Certain times of the year, especially around ice off and in the fall, fish key into boatman in a major way. There’s times when fishing them could make or break the day, so make sure to have some in your box!

Written by: Rob Stout