Fly Fishing Techniques – Matching The Hatch

There are very many fly fishing techniques and it is an angler’s obsession to understand them all however one method that is a must to learn and will help save the day from being a blank bag is matching the hatch.

Matching the hatch is in a nutshell matching the hatching insects at the time you are on the river, lake or whatever fishing destination you find yourself in. This involves waterside observations and a basic understanding of the main groups of insects both aquatic and riverbank varieties. Once you have got to your location have a good look at the waterside vegetation and see if there are any swarms of flying insects. If you notice any try to capture a few to take in the size, shape and colour. These are the three main entities that you need to imitate with your flies.

Next you need to take a sample of the water near the bank and also scan for insects floating or struggling in the water. It is also advisable to watch the water and see if the fish are feeding on anything coming to the surface.

Once you have taken in the action and collected a few insects it’s time to try and get as close a fly from your box to the real life insect as possible. During your recon you should have noticed the actions of the insects before fish took them. You will now have to imitate this action when fishing as it’s not so much the size and shape but replicating the real insect habits’ that will produce the most fish.

Here are a few categories of creature that you will need to copy in order to be matching the hatch adequately. These are up-winged flies, sedge flies, stoneflies, flat-winged flies, dragonflies, beetles, small fishes, other creepy-crawlies. These insects go through various stages in there development from larvae to nymphs and pupa to fully adult stages. It is important to note the stages of insect you have found for instance if you plan to come back you can expect to find the next stage. Some insect however go through their life cycle very quickly growing from a larva to an adult in only one day. Here they may mate and then die again leaving a large number of spent fly floating on the water. It is on days like this you can watch fish eat at their leisure taken their fill of food and it can be the most frustrating trying to get the right match to make a catch.

I hope you have picked up a thing or two from this guide and in working through it will prove to have many more successful days fly fishing on the water catching your favourite fish.