now you have at least a guess on what type of insect trout are eating and what stage you may
not get it totally right but at least you have some clues to go on how do you make sure you
have the best fly you probably don't need an exact imitation of the insect trout or feeding gun you
need something that's close enough to fool a trout as it floats by and even in relatively slow water
trout don't have that much time to inspect to fly so as long as it's close and behaving naturally
you have a good chance of fooling a trout they're wary but honestly they aren't that smart
most experienced fly fishers agree that the size of the fly is the most important factor
trout often ignore something that is smaller than their current food and are suspicious of
something that's larger they just want to eat what's safe and has already been identified as
food and anything that falls outside of that box is just debris to them if you can catch a sample
of the insect in question put it on the linear fly box and match it to something in your box
if you only see flies in the air around the water and can't catch a sample pick a fly that's a size
or two smaller than what you think you see flies in the air and on the water always look much
bigger than their true size i can't tell you why but it always fools me next in importance
is shape does the fly have an upright wing or are the wings held close to the body
the profile of a fly can be what triggers trout to feed so pick a fly with an upright wing if you
think the fish are eating mayflies and one with a wing close to the body if you think they're taking
caddis is it a spent mayfly or one that just hatched flies that have just hatched have upright
wings but spent mayfly spinners have wings spread out on the surface and ride low to the water if
you suspect fish are taking in a merger a fly with short wings or just wing stubs and perhaps a shuck
to imitate the nymph skin the insect is trying to wriggle out of might be in order he's chomping
wow that's more like it
get out of that moss get out of that moss
so we have had a lot of trouble catching these fish they got really really snotty and what i
did was i went to a longer tippet and a smaller fly and sometimes that'll do the trick for you
trying to use side pressure here to to lead the fish both ways i hate having a fish that's um
that's straight downstream from me because the fly pulls out more easily there so it's a little tough
at this angle to keep side pressure i'm going to have to eventually bring them straight up to get
them close to the boat but if i get them up here then i can side pressure him right into the net
so he's ready so i'm just going to slide them in and eddies hopefully yeah
going to net them thank you eddie thank you for the great boat positioning you know fishing during
a hatch from a boat the positioning of the boat is absolutely critical and it's not like you're
waiting you can move around you have to put the boat in the right place and stay there and addie
just slid that boat in beautifully right in range enabled us to get a good presentation of the fish
so andy how important do you think color is during a hatch
well i think trying to emulate the flies that you see obviously color pattern
we want to match that to the best of our ability to put it on the water and present it to the fish
as if it belongs there i don't think it's always important that it needs to be an exact color
you know today we're throwing some stuff that has purple on it yeah right yeah and
so flies are black and the flies are black so i don't think it's it's always a must but
we want to be in the in the general area i think to match the hatch
there's a dispute on how well fish can see color or whether it matters and most guides will give
you a similar answer to what addie told me here but hedge your bets and try to match the insect
as closely as you can if fish are taking an insect with a yellow body and cream wings
an imitation with a yellowish body and brownish wings should work okay a fly with an olive body
and dark gray wings might not just try to get the shade as close as you can
the right leader is almost as important as the right fly this is not that difficult but when
fishing hatches with fish close to the surface you want to ensure your fly lands with stealth
you should be using a 9 foot leader at minimum and it's usually better to go to a 12 footer
because when casting to trout you want to keep the thicker fly line as far away as possible
a fly line makes a much bigger splash than a leader i would use the lightest tippet possible
for the size fly you're using so if you're fishing a size 16 fly and the tippet chart says
you can use a 4x 5x or 6x or the old rule of thumb dividing the fly size by 3 to get the tipit size
which would give you 5x i would go with 6x in this case unless the water is really fast and broken
or very dirty or the fish are quite large your fly should be treated with something to help it float
if you're imitating an adult insect oh yeah there we go the best way to do this is to
smear a small amount of fly paste on the fly then when the fly stops floating or after you catch a
fish on it treat the fly with white desiccant powder which retreats the fly and adds a new
coating of silicone you can start right out with a powder if you want but the converse doesn't work
once a fly is wet the silicone paste doesn't adhere to the fly properly