Match the Hatch... Fact or Fiction?

[NJFred]

What's your opinion of the Match the Hatch Approach? Do you think anglers who believe in this catch more fish than those that don't?

I'm a huge believer in Matching the Hatch. In fact I believe in yet another level of matching the hatch. Success comes from not only matching the hatch but matching the precise, stage, size, silhouette and color of the natural the fish have keyed into.

This observation comes from years of fishing the very rich and pressured system of the Delaware.

I would also argue that match the hatch and trout selectivity is a unavoidably logical conclusion based upon natural selection and trout behavior. More later!

[kyle]

NJfred,

Nice post, and one I really agree with. I think that matching the hatch with the right fly is a very productive way to fish. As far as size stage color etc. ( I try to focus primarily on color, size, and silouhette) those are all very important things when imitating the insects that the trout are feeding on. However, I do not believe that it is crucial to be spot on exact in your representation of the natural. A little bit of variation is helpful when trying to convince a smart trout to take your fly out of the crowd. So I add little twists in my patterns. As far as stage goes that is a very important part of matching the hatch. I can remember times where in the early stages of a iso hatch there were a lot of emergers and even more duns on the water. But the larger fish keyed in on the emergers only, they woulden't touch a dun. One other key is fly behavior. It may not come into play too much where there is a very large amount of bugs drifting through a riffle but it largely comes into play when fishing flatter water with less bugs on the water. The fish can see the fly coming and how it behaves can sometimes be the deciding factor between a take or a refusal. So in my opinion matching the hatch is important because espcially on pressured fish like you said the fish won't just eat anything even when they are rising very steadily. Imitating the insect closely is critical.

Though I really love to fish dries and find it the most exciting way to fish, since I've learend to Euro nymph I have been focusing less on matching the hatch and searching the whole river for rising fish and more on fishing attractor type flies where the reaction strike or the strike out of curiousity are more important. But like dries, matching the right nymph for the right insect is very helpful.

[AaronJasper]

I will have to ask you the rhetorical question of why does and White Wulff or a usual work so well on that system? Also, why is a rusty spinner so effective even when their are all yellow/sulphur spinners on the water? Why do soft hackles and wet flies work during intense hatches when trout are keyed in on naturals? The answer is that any successful fly has triggers that result in making the trout take your fly.

Let's take the French for an example. They fish on high pressurerd streams and their number one dry fly is an F Fly. They use this for mayfly and caddis fly hatches. The fly is very simple. It's nothing more than a cdc caddis. they change the wing and body color to match the naturals. They rely on excellent presentation skills to catch fish.

I will agree that when fishing glide type water like the Delaware does call for more exact imitations of the hatching insects. However, on other waterways, even those with wild fish, one might achieve some serious oversight if they get to involved with matching the hatch.

The correct answer is that there are times when you need to do it and there are times that you do not. Know when and how is what catches an angler more fish at the end of the day.

[Soft-hackle]

Matching the hatch-Hmmmm. Well I use flies that are closely suggestive of the naturals around. I select a size that comes close to the natural and that looks like the particular type fly present. I believe it is a good practice and helps. However, I believe fly behavior is always important. I know that matching the hatch is not. If it acts like the natural, it will be accepted more readily.

My thought is we will never REALLY match the hatch because I don't know of any natural that has a hook running beneath it.

Mark

[Adam]

The correct answer is that there are times when you need to do it and there are times that you do not.

That is the answer. There are always exceptions when one technique will outproduce another....

I don't care to get that specific anymore...flies like the usual, adams, ausable bomber, stimulator cover my efforts for dry fly fishing...I don't have the time nor the inclination to carry a fly shop's worth of flies every outing. I stay with the old standby's and am focusing on presentation and technique...and if heaven forbid the fish are taking a specific fly that I don't have...I am confident one of you guys on the river next to me will be happy to share.

[NJFred]

[quote author=kyle link=topic=3253.msg24386#msg24386 date=1245439264]
NJfred,

Nice post, and one I really agree with. I think that matching the hatch with the right fly is a very productive way to fish. As far as size stage color etc. ( I try to focus primarily on color, size, and silouhette) those are all very important things when imitating the insects that the trout are feeding on. However, I do not believe that it is crucial to be spot on exact in your representation of the natural. A little bit of variation is helpful when trying to convince a smart trout to take your fly out of the crowd.
[/quote]

Agree and disagree. Disagree....Trout aren't smart. They are dumber than skunks. They have a brain the size of a pea.

Agree... slight variation. Seen times when all they are taking are cripples... they let regular duns float over their heads in traditional variations. Slight changes change the silhouette. Have seen this in a trico spinner fall most recently. Good tie with perpendicular wings failed completely. Closer look at the bugs revieled spinners with wings against body. Bad tie with longer wings trailing along the body crushed them.

[NJFred]

[quote author=Adam link=topic=3253.msg24393#msg24393 date=1245444757]

The correct answer is that there are times when you need to do it and there are times that you do not.

That is the answer. There are always exceptions when one technique will outproduce another....

I don't care to get that specific anymore...flies like the usual, adams, ausable bomber, stimulator cover my efforts for dry fly fishing...I don't have the time nor the inclination to carry a fly shop's worth of flies every outing. I stay with the old standby's and am focusing on presentation and technique...and if heaven forbid the fish are taking a specific fly that I don't have...I am confident one of you guys on the river next to me will be happy to share.
[/quote]

Come with me in July when the Dorthea's get going on the Upper West Branch of the Delaware and trout are rising. Use whatever you want too but not a dorthea imitation. No question a dorthea imitation in my hands will outfish whatever you chose to use (not a nymph fished just below the surface in size to match natural.)

Match the hatch matters less on poor food systems where fish must be more opportunistic.

[NJFred]

[quote author=AaronJasper link=topic=3253.msg24388#msg24388 date=1245442122]
I will have to ask you the rhetorical question of why does and White Wulff or a usual work so well on that system? Also, why is a rusty spinner so effective even when their are all yellow/sulphur spinners on the water?
[/quote]

Aaron... let me respond with a question... Why will trout let Green drakes float overhead while always eating dorthea's?

Trout from time to time will experiment even in rich systems... they have to to dial into the next hatch. They will from time to time try something new. Also with regard to rusty spinners, they will eat them like March Brown spinners because they do have some memory and will eat things that they see from time to time. Rusty spinners are around in some way or other most of the season.

Don't know about your white wulff but I guarantee you that if you fish dries with me and my buddies during the dorthea hatch in July on the upper Delaware we will out fish by a good margin you on top if you fish a white wulff in a size 2 sizes away from the dortheas... to rising fish only. We stick with dorthea imitations including emergers and cripples you a much larger or smaller White Wulff.

[LopatNympher]

I am no expert on this subject but when fishing in water that is very fertile I would think that matching is key to success. However, on less fertile water I believe that trout are less discriminant because of the lack of abundant food. They are geared more to taking what they can get rather than keying in on a specific food source.

[AaronJasper]

I have a fly pattern that will out produce any Dorothea pattern in JULY. It is matching a hatch but not the obvious one. I hope that you were not thinking that I would fish a white wulff during the day? The problem with the guys who fish the Delaware is that they get so miopic in their views on feeding fish.

As for the Green Drake vs smaller sulphers, to me its a matter of hatch duration and numbers. Since the trout have been seeing the sulphers for a longer period of time and their hatching coincides with the Drakes many trout will continue to feed on the smaller mayflies given their abundance. Now as for the spinner fall, that is different as the hatching bugs have ceased. The trout will often times seek out the larger drake spinners because at night the fish become more opportunistic. I have seen this with march browns. The sulpher spinners will greatly out number the march brown spinners but it seems as though the fish don't let one by.

Maybe its not matching the hatch per se, I would like to call it experience.