Match the Hatch... Fact or Fiction?

The varied replies to this subject demonstrate why there are more books written about the minor sport of fly fishing than any other sport. More than football, baseball, soccer, or golf.

I believe it says as much about the individuality of fly fishers as it does about the mystery of fly fishing.

Fred--thanks for a great thread and discussion.

Silver--Here, Here! That fact makes me really happy. It's also great we are able to share our ideas and views. It makes one think all the more.

Mark

Please stop quoting and re-quoting previous posts! It makes all this impossible to follow. You must all have carpal tunnel syndrome by now. :). :)

Now Alanb, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Match the Hatch

How far do we need to go with the artificial to deceive the fish, if that don't open up a can of worms.

Are dry flies more so looked at anatomically so far as representation or subsurface fished nymphs ? Historically they have been.

Is for example a soft hackle anointed with floatant as good as say a dry fly, for sure it is in many cases, l caught whacks of fish doing this, they can be a dead ringer for a emerger and a drowned dun.

Davy

Davy,

Let's try to touch base this week about our summer plans!

I am done working Friday!

Just wanted to say thanks to all that participated in this thread! Lots of great comments and thinking here!

For sure Fred, enjoyed it myself also, some great posts here.

Will call you before too long Aaron, right now we have temps in the high 90s and over 100f, after a days guiding in that l am killed l can tell you..
But the wet wading is great.

Davy.

Trawl the internet, read the mags or books and you will garner enough information to allow you to face most river trout fishing with sufficient techniques to allow you to catch some trout.

There can be no doubt that presenting a fly that is representative of the natural will give you a chance of catching a fair number of fish but not them all. Only time on the water will give you an edge, past experience will catch future fish.

I'll give you an example of this , of where knowledge garnered from reading, listening, talking to others and some water time earned me a few fish on a particular piece of water, and where a chance occurence a year ago meant that last weekend I managed an additional 6 fish that i otherwise would not have caught.

Last season I fished a very flat slow piece of water. Loads of decent fish were taking midge stuck in the surface film. My problem was that many of the fish were the far side of the pool and well below me and my casting was severly restricted by trees. I fished a size 22 midge pattern and nailed 2 fish that I could present downstream on a relatively drag free drift to - a la the text books and common wisdom.

Doing a load of mends and letting out line so that the fly drifted down releatively drag free - more text book stuff, only partially worked as the backcurrents merely kept the fly momentarily static until the mends tightened and the whole lot spun out of control.
I managed a single fish by this method after a half hour of back breaking mending and casting and retrieval of a load of flyline.

On one such drift as the tiny fly dragged horrendously, i dropped the tip of the rod downstream as i reached into my pocket for a ciggie, that movement of the rod killed the drag momentarily, and as the fly started to accelerate again, bang another trout took - lets call it controlled twitching a fly at distance - kinda textbook the twitching bit, doing it downstream at distance is not something i have read before - and certainly not for a size 22 midge (caddis , maybe). A wee lesson learned. That technique earned me 2 fish and I thought, well thats about it, if I flogged away for another half hour I might just manage another 1.

The big lesson was the next 5 fish, all taken on a straight downstream line , between 15 - 20 yards of flyline out. By slowly inching the tiny fly which was now just subsurface back towards me for about 6 inches , then releasing 18-20" of line and letting it drift. I thought to myself , wow this is something new - ( I expect Davy to laugh at this ;D), then it dawned on me , I was really fishing stillwater tactics on a river. Text books would have taught that as well for back eddies on the edge of some pools, but the centre of the stream ?

The flat water close to me in the centre of the pool was still relatively pacy with completely dead water inside but further down the centre of the pool where many fish were smutting the water had what I believe were dead spots, very narrow back eddies (though not obvious looking at the surface) maybe a foot wide and a yard long, just that touch slower than the main flows - and that small spot of water was really significant to the trout. We are all familar with such eddies close to the bank and in riffly water, but i had never realised that such eddies were possible centre stream on flat water.

I fished that same peice of water last weekend, and guess what - I had the exact same experience. I counted about 12 dead or dying midge to every yard of water.

All fish came to the same fly, a size 22 black midge, I was clearly matching the hatch, and any angler doing the same would have caught 2 or 3 trout - easy peasy really. Its the other 6 fish that came to three different tactics, that stand out.

For my tuppence worth, match the hatch YES, but if you want real success dont be afraid to wander off the yellow brick road. ;) If there are fish actively feeding, then they are catchable , you just gotta try every possible tactic in the handbook and a few that aint in it.

Thanks for the post.

In trying to fit your experience into the "Matching the Hatch" paradigm, I am struck by the fact that it was not just an occasional fish that took your fly fished with motion. That fact alone makes me suspicious that you may have been "Matching the Hatch" and the various enhanced retrieves you used to catch the fish was in fact, not only matching the hatch, but "Matching the Behavior" of some of the naturals.

The other possibility is that these were reaction strikes that prey on the aggressive tendencies of fish that are in the hunting mode. You weren't really matching behavior but the motion incited the fish reaction.

I'm asking you, as an observant fly fisher, what you think was going on. Are there any key points of observation that will tell us when this strategy will be productive; is there a systematic strategy to be learned?

In other words, why in your opinion did this work?

This is all pure conjecture and would take many many man hours on such a pool to be more than that, and even then as we all know, you cant prove it anyway. ;)

I dont believe that in the twitch at distance case where the line mending combined with all sorts of currents and backcurrnents left the fly static and then accelerated it was purely a reaction strike.
As I said in my previous post each yard of water contained a dozen or so dead and "dying" midge and no doubt a few emerging as well though I can't say for certain.

I believe the key was the ones that were dying, some of these would make small struggling movements - and I suspect that this trigger may have been enough to fool a few trout. Its impossible to prove and very difficult to replicate. I found that the fly had to twitch from static, in a very small window, these smutters will not move much distance to take a particular fly when theres a full conveyor belt of food within their window. Some often patrol a small section of water hoovering up as they go, so its harder to identify the exact point at which you want the fly to move.
The takes may have been impulsive in a sense that the movement caught the trouts attention, but that movement also matched some of the fly on the water. Reaction strike - maybe and possibly part of the equation , matching the hatch being a major factor.

The straighline downstream I believe matched the hatch as a drowned midge. Beacuse your fly is static just submerged, it will be ignored by most fish though as simply not right, but such is their focus on the volume of food coming their way they are at worst temporarily spooked.

On both occasions I had plucks when the line was straight downstream at the end of the drift, the few plucks last year is what made me experiment and develop the retrieve and drop back method, which I know has been used by nymph fishers as a minor tactic for generations. Because "some" of the fish are on patrol as against sitting static sipping whatever comes their way, my almost static midge when dropped down a foot or so , drops down naturally as a drowned midge, just under or as it stops and rises it may be momentarily mimic one trapped under the meniscus. Impossible to say with any certainty, but it worked for me on that one pool , and presented with similar pools Ill be trying it again ;D

Incidentally, I have had other smutters hell bent on tiny midge take a midge in far from drag free drifts. I guess that they are operating so high in the water column that anything small coming into their window is fair game and somtimes they just instinctively grab it. That lesson by itself has meant that I will fish smutters the far side of the river that other than caddis I would not dream of casting a dry to.

Maybe some of the very experienced guys here might have some ideas or more experience of this or similar.

Ill try and describe the pool a bit better.

The outlet from the pool above was about 15 yards above me and on my side some rocks at the outlet pushed the water to the far side leaving a lot of dead water where i stood and below me.
The pool is about 100 yards long and totally flat water probably 5 - 8 foot deep in the centre and enough mud to trap the titanic.

Some fish were sipping in the dead water, and those within reach were relatively easily caught. By simply casting, leaving static and waiting - by watching and trying to figure out the trouts patrol route if it has one, you can enhance your chances of your fly being spotted by careful placement

I reckon about 20 yards below me the dead water on my side started to be influenced by the main current. This I think is the critical bit. This influence will pull the midge that has built up in the dead water out into the main current. The main body of fish were dead centre between 20 and 30 yards down and I suspect taking the midge pulled by the current from the dead water.

Hope this makes sense !!!