How Can I Tell What Hatch Is Going On?

[jah]

Fellas-

I fish alot on the Current River and I am new to the site. I've trolled through the discussion board, and I cannot find these questions (maybe I missed it):

1. How can I tell what hatch is going on? Trico, Mayfly, Caddis, Stonefly, etc?? I try and capture the bugs, but they seem so small to me that I cannot tell even when I do get one. Is there an easy formula?

2. Let's say I figure out what is hatching, what are the go-to flies for each??

Thanks for your help! I'm really trying to learn this stuff because I enjoy it so much....

[Gavin]

You really need to look at the bug and study up on them a bit.......Caddis usually look like little moths dancing on the bushes..Mayflies look like a pair of wings with long tails in the air or little sailboats on the suface... Stoneflies look kinda like caddis flies but they are more elongated. Clumsy fliers too........Trico's or BWO's...They are both little tiny mayflies, but the BWO's are usually a bit bigger. Just toss something little and mayfly like when you see them and youll usually do OK....Spiderwebs on the river bank often tell many tales.

If your looking for a good reference....Swisher & Richard's wrote a book called Selective Trout, which has some great info on Mayflies. Caddisflies by Gary LaFontaine is the fisherman's bible on Caddis. Cheers.

[fishinwrench]

Here's something to keep you busy for awhile Careful though, that entomology business is addictive and some guys get all tweeked out on it without realizing how much info is truly useful in angling. Have fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tVZAxO6hMw...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V2_aWmjpow...feature=related

[Mike Davis]

You can also go to troutnut.com. That's about an in-depth site as you'll probably need for awhile.

Mike

[Gavin]

Come to think of it...Al put some info on the Ozark Fly Fishers site.

http://www.ozarkflyfishers.org/bugs/insects.html

[Phil Lilley]

I have a question. Here's the section on the Caddis -

In the caddis family, the longest underwater stage is the larva, unlike the mayfly. A caddis larva essentially looks like a maggot, with a soft, often off-white body with no legs on it, usually a dark head, and with a couple of short short legs right behind the head that it uses to hold on to rocks with. Some caddis species have green, even bright green bodies, and are often called "green rockworms". In many caddis species the larva build cases out of sand, pebbles, sticks, and other debris, and the only thing that ever sticks out of the case is their head. Others are free-living. Both cased and non-cased caddis larva occasionally become loose and available to fish for food, and I'm sure they are softer and tastier than other nypmhs :-), so trout will often readily take a caddis larva pattern. When ready to become an adult, the larva essentially cacoon themselves like moths or butterflies, and go through a pupal stage. During this time they are of no importance to fisherman. At the time of hatching, though, the pupa crawls out, and swims for the surface so it can hatch to an adult. This is a very important stage for fisherman, and emerger fishing in a caddis hatch can be very good. Caddis adults only have one stage. The adults have short bodies that are completely hidden (from above) by tent-shaped wings (not dome tents, but the old A-frame tents), no tails, and very long, pronounced antennae. Caddis adults often skitter (or "motorboat") across the surface as they are drying and waiting to fly off -- even more often on lakes. In depositing eggs, most caddis species swim below the water, and so offer wet-fly imitation to be effective. They do not tend to die near or on the water, unless eaten by a fish, of course.

During this time they are of no importance to fisherman.

Why is this? I'd think this is the stage we'd use a zebra midge.

[Gavin]

Phil, I think that the premise behind Al B's comments has something to do with how available that stage of the caddis is to the fish, and the ability to imitate that stage of the insect with a drifting fly....

Free swimming caddis larva, and those larva that carry their cases move around a bit so they are more available to fish....not so much for the net spinning larva because they usually live in crevices in and under rocks, probably not as available to the fish.... Those caddis larva that attach their cases to rocks are available (and sometimes you see fish scraping them off rocks) but youd have to glue your imitation to a rock to imitate them (not practical to imitate)...Same with a caddis larva in a pupal case. When they are pupating they are usually glued to a rock or a stick or something...available but not practical to imitate. Once they pupate, come out of the case to emerge into adults, you can imitate them with a drifting fly again.

As for a Z midge....I think they can look like many things...caddis larva, scuds, midge pupa, or just something small and edible. A proven fish catcher, dont leave home without some in your box. Cheers.

[Phil Lilley]

Thanks - I understand. now.