Great article from Trout Bitten about “Match the Hatch”.
I think one of the key focal points of this article is “confidence fly’s”. If I’ve learned anything over the past few years picking up this amazing passion and learning from some of the best, it’s truly about fishing with confidence and that starts with the fly’s you are most comfortable with as you approach any stream setting.
Depending on the season I have my “confidence fly’s” ready to go. And anyone that fishes with me knows I carry minimal gear and boxes. In fact, two boxes is about it… granted one of them holds 864 fly’s (trust me not full at all) full of nymphs, dry’s, and yes even some of the dreaded junk 😉 The other is an 18-compartment magnetic box that holds smaller fly’s like size 26 bunny ear midges, quill midges, zebras, etc. But out of all of my fly’s, I always migrate to what gives me confidence.
- Dry’s
- F fly – #14-#20 usually black body with grey and tan wing
- Poly-winged midge – black with white poly wing #14
- NZ CDC Caddis – black body, brown and dun or brown and yellow CDC wing #14
- CDC Trude – lime and royal #14
- Wet Nymphs and Emergers
- Prince nymph #14
- March brown #14
- Hare’s ear #14
- PT CDC emerger #16
- Bunny ear midge #26
- Nymphs and beadheads
- Green Lantern midge #16
- Frenchies with muskrat grey or dark brown bodies, COQ dark pardo tails, UV shrimp pink collar and either lime or red thread hot spot #14 & #16
- Duracell with gold beadhead and UV brown with grey CDC hackle and yellow with tan CDC hackle #14
- Beadhead Prince nymph #14
- Beadhead Hare’s Ear #14
- Lightening Bugs in brown, blue, green and red tinsel with UV dubbing as a collar #14
- The Skunketh Approaches (meaning it’s been a long day and leaving empty handed ain’t happen-en)
- Squirmy #14
Poly-winged Midge
Lime CDC Trude
PT CDC Emerger
March Brown
Lightning Bug
Squirmy
This doesn’t mean I won’t try something new and experiment especially since I like to tie, but I’ve just found for me these fly’s almost always find there way on the end of my tippet.
In regards to matching the hatch as Domenick explains in the attached article, this shouldn’t be excluded as part of your overall strategy. All too often I find myself with a pre-planned approach to my day on the water and have to stop myself once in the stream and focus on what’s going on around me. On a recent trip to the Holston I was having a great day with a double dry rig with an F-fly as my lead fly and about 12 inches off that a poly-winged midge. But as the sun set and in a different section of water, a dun hatch popped, the martini sippers arrived, and it was game-on trying to find the right fly to match the hatch. I changed out fly’s every few minutes and couldn’t catch an itch. Then finally, almost dark out and my buddies heading back to the vehicles, I pulled everything off and attached just a single #20 F-fly with a black body and grey and tan CDC wing and immediately had a pretty brown in the net. And then just like that the hatch was over, the bar closed, and the night fell upon us. So no doubt about it matching the hatch is critical to one’s success.
I’d also add that confidence translates to other aspects of your fly fishing repertoire. A special plug here to Alpharetta Outfitters. I happened to be in the store this week buying some fly tying materials and an older gentlemen who wanted to get into fly fishing was working with Wes discussing rods, reels and lines. Wes took extra special time to talk about confidence and that a $900 rod doesn’t equal fish! In fact, Wes explained that for the beginner it’s about gaining confidence and if he could give any advice at all it would be to make sure you have great line that allows you to cast freely, roll cast beautifully, and place that fly for the perfect drift. Well done Wes… and btw you know that guy will be back dropping some cash because trust has just been established!
Enjoy this great article!
https://troutbitten.com/2019/06/12/you-dont-have-to-match-the-hatch/
Chris Sloan