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Thread: understanding a hatch

  1. #1
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    Default understanding a hatch

    there has been a lot of talk about winter dryfly fishing on the forum of late. what i've learned from these threads is that there is a common misconception about what this really constitutes -it is not a case of casting dryflies to fish rising to the surface because theres mayflies and who knows what else floating about. in reality one is fishing through a hatch the same as all trout anglers on the famous tailwaters and springcreeks of america and we fish to exactly the same two consistent may hatches as these anglers do.thus you need to fish exactly like these trout anglers do in order to gain success

    as a starting point one needs to understand the basics of a hatch in order to understand how trout/yellowfish feed at this time.
    scott sanches is the first writer i came across that explained it so clearly :

    "A hatch is a propagation migration not unlike other animal movements. The bugs are throwing caution to the wind in an effort to create another generation.As nature dictates, the survival of the species is more important than the survival of the individual. Emergence is a time of transition and vulnerability.At times during this event , insects won't have a full complement of either nymph of adult escape mechanism or camouflage at their disposal.Evolution is at play here. The weak are eliminated; predators eat them . As with migration of mammals or fish, the paths of emmerging insects are fairly predictable : rather than hunt for their food, the trout(yellow) can sit and wait for it to come to them. This happens time and time again in nature. While a 16-inch brown(yellow) waiting for a delicate little mayfly may seem less bloody than wolves waiting for moving caribou , both are basically the same thing -a discovery channel special about predators and prey. Predators go after weak prey before they chase healthy ones.The weak are easier to catch . And crippled insects are just weak or injured prey. if you were a trout (yellow) ,would you go for a pale morning dun (yes, we have exactly the same dun on the vaal)wriggling on the surface, stuck in its nymphal shuck, or a fully emerged dun ready to fly off?Certain charactiristics enable predators to pick out and attack injured prey in preference to surrounding specimens. A lion may look for a limping wildebeest, while a trout(yellow) might look for the profile of a insect struggling in its nymphal shuck. Both signify an easy meal -this is as much efficiency as selectivity. The emergers are vulnerable because they are in an area where fish are feeding and the cripples are particularly vulnerble because they are immobile in the presence of predators."

    i hope this piece wil bring enlightenment.

    herman

  2. #2
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    Default

    A brilliant and enlightening post

    Thank you for sharing,
    It's not in the catching, it's in the learning something new.
    view albums at. http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/album.php?u=659

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by flybum View Post
    Predators go after weak prey before they chase healthy ones.The weak are easier to catch . And crippled insects are just weak or injured prey. if you were a trout (yellow) ,would you go for a pale morning dun (yes, we have exactly the same dun on the vaal)wriggling on the surface, stuck in its nymphal shuck, or a fully emerged dun ready to fly off?Certain charactiristics enable predators to pick out and attack injured prey in preference to surrounding specimens. A lion may look for a limping wildebeest, while a trout(yellow) might look for the profile of a insect struggling in its nymphal shuck. Both signify an easy meal -this is as much efficiency as selectivity. The emergers are vulnerable because they are in an area where fish are feeding and the cripples are particularly vulnerble because they are immobile in the presence of predators."
    I have my doubts if the stages of the nymph really play much of a role in trout selectivity in so much as prey vulnerability is concerned. Any insect in or on the surface, regardless of whether it is still emerging or emerged (but not yet taken to the air), or spent, would be grabbed with equal enthusiasm by any hungry trout. That's my observation anyway.
    "Innocence is a wild trout. But we humans, being complicated, have to pursue innocence in complex ways" - Datus Proper

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by flybum View Post
    then one must assume this theory on which basis emerger , cripple and to a certain extend no-hackles were designed is pie in the sky and these pattern does not provide an edge to the angler. so all stream anglers can toss out the klinkhamers and revert back to only fishing adams irrisistables.

    h
    Yip, I guess that is pretty much what I am saying. The only time I've seen extreme selectivity on the Cape streams is when a particular hatch is coming off. For the rest of the time, the trout remain opportunistic and will grab at anything that looks like a tasty mouthful, provided it is presented in a natural way.
    "Innocence is a wild trout. But we humans, being complicated, have to pursue innocence in complex ways" - Datus Proper

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Shelton View Post
    Yip, I guess that is pretty much what I am saying. The only time I've seen extreme selectivity on the Cape streams is when a particular hatch is coming off. For the rest of the time, the trout remain opportunistic and will grab at anything that looks like a tasty mouthful, provided it is presented in a natural way.
    Yep, as I've said before...on the Cape streams, just tie on a grey parachute adams and go hammer trout. .......

    Let the hate mail begin... hehe

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael View Post
    Yep, as I've said before...on the Cape streams, just tie on a grey parachute adams and go hammer trout. .......

    Let the hate mail begin... hehe
    Or a Royal Wulff. There have been too many days where that is all that I fished fish, and when I lost it, I simply put on another one!
    "Innocence is a wild trout. But we humans, being complicated, have to pursue innocence in complex ways" - Datus Proper

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Shelton View Post
    Or a Royal Wulff. There have been too many days where that is all that I fished fish, and when I lost it, I simply put on another one!
    No worries, I've caught yellows on Royal Wulfs too, and wooly buggers.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael View Post
    Yep, as I've said before...on the Cape streams, just tie on a grey parachute adams and go hammer trout. .......

    Let the hate mail begin... hehe
    Damn, now you okes tell me. I have boxes of tying stuff and quite a few flyboxes full of flies. Gona dump them all
    THE AFRICAN FLY ANGLER

    If you're fly fishing as though you are 'in a contest', and the only objective is to 'catch fish' - you are missing the point .... and that is disappointing

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  9. #9
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    Question

    I have a question...if I may.

    lets say I get to a piece of water that I know holds yellows, and I don't see any hatches(or so small that they don't make the fish selective) and I don't want to drift a nimph, and I am addement that I want to catch a yellow on a dryfly. What would be a good search patern, or how whould you go bout deciding what you gonna use. Terrestrials, stimulators?? Sight fishing I think would be an advantage in these situations, but lets say its one off those days that you don't see rises and have to fish blind, what do you do then or what would you guys recommend?
    Photography Rules!
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  10. #10
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    In my humble opinion blind dry fly fishing for yellows is casting practice. I've fished with a specialist Sm dry fly fisherman and what I've learned is that you have to fish during a hatch and preferably when the yellow are doing a sipping rise and not a splashing rise. You also have to watch the water for a great deal of time to identify target areas where fish rise continuously. Needless to say the better the conditions (wind, pressure,viz, ext.) the better your chances are at hooking up. Size of the fly is much more important than colour. Low light conditions seems to be to the angler's advantage.

    Off the record - I stood there with my picnic piece in my hand while he was pulling out one after the other. 'Jedi'
    Last edited by Nymph+O-; 06-06-08 at 01:25 PM.
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