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We have been getting a bunch of questions as to why we are reporting scuds being highly successful this summer.

  Scuds generally live in the slower water areas of a trout stream (sandy edges, weed beds, in spring heads etc).  On our waters they make up a major part of a trout's diet.
  With the higher water we have had lately we are getting what amounts to a flushing of scuds.  The springs pump out extra water which washes a significant number of scuds into the streams that fish could not normally get to.  Weed beds are uprooted and soft edges are churned up releasing thousands of scuds into feed lanes and stimulating feeding to the point of selectivity.
  This summer we have had an unusual amount of rainfall, each time water comes up scuds get flushed into the system (catastrophic drift).  Think of rainstorms as releasing a huge amount of food, scuds and otherwise, into our waters which the fish will feed on in very low visibility.
  Sure the rains have inhibited dry fly fishing, but if you are willing to toss a scuds in cloudy water you will catch fish!
 
hint: orange scuds are dead scuds, high water events stress many scuds to the point of dying.  Although there are many other scuds in the water, the orange ones do not swim away.