THE HATCH: BASIC ENTOMOLOGY AND TYPES OF WATER SOURCES.
In the fly-fishing world of anglers, you will often hear the phrase "match the hatch". What is this? This is a common term or lingo among fly-fishing anglers in the trout and salmon world. It is the imitation of natural insects using artificial flies to trick your prey. Trout will hone in on certain insects when they feed based on the availability of the hatch. When they do this, they will ignore everything else. Therefore, knowing to match the hatch is so important in angling worlds.
Learning basic entomology will help to gain your quandary, but you must also know the tributary you are fishing in as well. The water you fish plays just as significant a role in trout behavior as the entomology. Cold spring-fed waters can abound in trout food, the supply can be in various stages of their life cycles. There can be more than one hatch occurring. So with that, you can conclude that knowing the hatch, life cycle, and the water will play key roles in how to land your catch.
Trout feed sub-surface just beneath the water 90% of the time. You could say they are a predictable species to a fault. Anglers mimic those hatches by matching the aquatic insects with their flies in the current life cycle, such as larvae, pupae, and nymph stages. Sample taking can help you determine the hatch and is an easy process. This can be one of the most effective ways to match the hatch.
Taking samples of the stream, river, lake, or creek is always a good idea to learn the current hatch and life cycle of the food they are feeding. Sampling areas that are well-oxygenated, shallow, and with gravel beds is always the best option. This is part of learning the body of water types, sections, and parts, which equals the sum of its parts. Insects prefer different water, not all areas of water are the same. They have preferences based on the types of water and the insect. They prefer different water and substrates, however, you'll find riffles, pools, and headwater runs hold many varieties of trout foods for you to analyze.
The easiest way to sample the stream, creek, lake, or river is to simply pick up submerged rocks and look at the insects found to cling to the underside. Most rocks will have many insects crawling on them. Just examine them closely. That is the hatch. You must then determine what life cycle they are in. If you do not know what it is, there are a few ways to determine it. One way that I use is by utilizing an app called "SEEK" by iNaturalists. You can also use Google search picture match, entomology book, or by its size, color, and profile. These are all good starting points for learning the hatch. I would suggest purchasing "THE BUG BOOK: A FLY FISHER'S GUIDE TO TROUT STREAM INSECTS". This book is very effective in learning the different hatches.
You do that for each insect you find. However, even if you find more of one insect than the others, that does not mean that is what they are honed in on. You can use as well a second method called seining. Seining is a net and a very effective tool, a net such as a small net for aquariums. You can get an inexpensive sein or pay more with the same outcomes. Personally, I use an SCI FLY SEINE from Amazon that costs just 9.99 dollars.
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