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Rivers

All riversHatch chartWhite River, ArkansasDavidson RiverPenns CreekLetort Spring RunFarmington RiverPere Marquette RiverNorth Umpqua RiverDeschutes RiverSan Juan RiverFryingpan RiverYellowstone RiverBighorn RiverTraun RiverBeaverkill RiverRío GrandeGreen River below Flaming GorgeRiver WharfeHenry's Fork of the SnakeSoča RiverAu Sable RiverTongariro RiverSouth Platte — Deckers and CheesmanRiver TestMadison River

Insects

Brown troutRainbow troutMountain whitefishBrook troutCutthroat troutSteelheadEuropean graylingMarble troutSea-run brown troutResident brown trout

Techniques

Reading waterMatching a hatchNymphingDry-fly presentationStreamer fishingSwinging a flyCatch and release, done properlyTying flies you will actually fish

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Techniques
White River, ArkansasDavidson RiverPenns CreekLetort Spring RunFarmington RiverPere Marquette RiverNorth Umpqua RiverDeschutes RiverSan Juan RiverFryingpan RiverYellowstone RiverBighorn RiverTraun RiverBeaverkill RiverRío GrandeGreen River below Flaming GorgeRiver WharfeHenry's Fork of the SnakeSoča RiverAu Sable RiverTongariro RiverSouth Platte — Deckers and CheesmanRiver TestMadison River
Brown troutRainbow troutMountain whitefishBrook troutCutthroat troutSteelheadEuropean graylingMarble troutSea-run brown troutResident brown trout
Reading waterMatching a hatchNymphingDry-fly presentationStreamer fishingSwinging a flyCatch and release, done properlyTying flies you will actually fish

Technique · Whenever fish are visibly rising.

Matching a hatch

Working out what the fish are eating, then deciding whether to match it or to break the rules.

By The Fly Desk

Three questions in order

Ask: what stage are they taking (dun, emerger, spinner, pupa)? What size? What colour? In that order, because stage matters most and colour least. A fish taking spinners will ignore a perfect dun of the right size; a fish taking #18 olives will usually take a #16 in the wrong colour before it takes a #12 in the right one.

The net beats the box

The fastest way to answer all three questions is to catch one fish and look at what is in its throat. On a hatch you do not understand, deliberately catch one fish on a general pattern — a Hare's Ear or a Pheasant Tail — and then match exactly what comes out. This is not cheating; it is entomology.

When to ignore the hatch

During a heavy hatch, the biggest fish in the river often refuse to compete in the drift line and instead sit under the emergence, eating the nymphs and emergers that never make it. Fishing a small emerger 30 cm below the surface during a blanket hatch catches the fish everyone else is walking past.

Rivers in the ledger where this applies