Hatches on flowing water

[TimD]

I just finished reading another Gierach book and it seems to me that he is always fishing some sort of hatch on the creeks and rivers down there.

 

Up here, at least where and when I fish, it seem that hatches are a little less reliable. I remember a real big BWO hatch on the Bow, a few Aprils back that was roundly ignored by the trout. Have seen some good BWO, Green Drake and March Brown hatches on Stauffer but the fish didn't get freaky or anything when the hatches came off. More like there was the odd fish here and there taking the flies. Fished the Crow, Oldman, Livingston and Castle for about 10 days this summer, caught a lot of fish on the surface but not because there was any great emergence of adults or anything and did get beat by a nice Chironomid hatch on the Crow a few years back because I didn't have a proper imitation on me. I also met a fascinating hatch of white mayflies on the Livingston back in 2001 where I caught 12 trout while standing in the same spot and both Kelly and I had the swallows grab our flies on the backcast.

 

It seems to me that if I only fished flowing water during hatches then I would not fish near as much as I do. And I know that I don't fish enough as it is. I also quite enjoy prospecting the water never knowing exactly when a fish is going to take a fly. In fact it would be safe to say that I enjoy it just as much as casting to a rising fish during a hatch.

 

I am curious about other peoples experiences on flowing water in Alberta. How much of your fishing is done during those big blanket hatches? How about fishing when there is the odd adult coming off? Or maybe you find that mostly that there isn't any surface activity and you end up mostly prospecting.

 

 

Regards,

 

Tim

[albertabowhunter]

Prospecting.... Hmmm, THe gregg river 2 years ago.... No fish to be found except for one small ripple section...maybe 20 yards long. All they would take were small adams. I tried runs, bends, under cuts(when I could find them). It tried the pools, every place you would think they would be.... It was definately a day of searching....

 

But I finally got in to a little bunch of fish in the 8 - 10 " range. I think I ended up landing about 6. then it was over.

 

Actually, to think of it most of my days on rivers could be considered in this catagory. I dont fish the rivers enough to know them that well, so it is usually a a day of searching and feeding the trees... or as I have come to call it...leaving bread crumbs of where I've been.... just follow the trail of the flies I leave behind.

 

HAve a great day all.

[stonefly]

If I didn't fish to the rhythm of the hatches, I'd spend too much time on the water. Funny, I was just at a show in the US and shared a shuttle to and from the airport with AK and we discussed how we simply picked our time on the water according to the hatches, how we pursue what we enjoy. While the timing of the various hatches are quite different between his & our regions, we surmised that if we didn't time our fishing to what we desired and enjoyed, we weren't as happy. This also leads to needing to spend less time for equal satisfaction as we would have from longer days.

IE - the RDR is less than a block away from home. At given times of the year we time our days to hit the water from a to b o'clock during the day when we know the hatch is on. That way, if the hatch is noon to 4 pm 90% of the time, for example, we get up early to get our office work done from 6 to 10 am and hit the water for the hatch before returning to the office to reply to our replied to emails after 5. Frankly, for Amelia & I, we don't do too much fishing outside hatches as we seek what we enjoy. We specifically fish the Raven, Prairie, Ram, BS, RDR, etc based on the anticipated hatches. Our time on the Bow R in spring has really become more about spending time on the water with friends than simply the act of catching fish. Even at that though, the spring hatch of olives on the Bow is an excellent hatch. While there are not a lot of risers, some of the best mid level emerger fishing can occur at that time.

Cheers.

[Scratch]

Dave - nice to see you about!

 

I agree with the value of fishing the hatches and there is no doubt in my mind - if you can time your outings and plan for the hatches success rates will be much much higher. Timing those hatches however, require that you have enough flexibility in your day to day schedule to fish based on the hatch. For many (dare I say 'almost all') anglers however - they are only able to fish when they are on the water and the 'what' and 'when' of the hatch merely provide.

 

In the absence of planning, the hatch of course is a pretty solid indicator of which flybox to crack first.

[stonefly]

Exactly. If we all had all the time in the world we still wouldn't get perfect day after perfect day of hatches. I tell you though, there have been a few years where things lined up perfectly for a couple months on end. Of course, from Aug 04 to end of 05 the exact opposite was true - save for a few weeks of sanity saving hatches.

Cheers

[TimD]

Dave,

 

I am glad to hear that you figured out how to catch those fish on the olives, the last time I heard you respond to it you seemed pretty frustrated.

 

On the issue of hatches, we need to have a clear definition. I describe it as the "en masse" emergence of the adult form of aquatic insects mostly of the families of stoneflies, mayflies, caddis and chronomids. If I go to Stauffer for a day and see maybe 30 or 40 BWO's come off, I would say that a few BWO's came off while I was fishing Stauffer. If I go and see them popping off all day I would say there was a good hatch of BWO's.

 

If one defines a few bugs popping off the water as a hatch, then we could say that there are hatches on some of the puddles on the roads out here.

 

Regards,

 

Tim

[albertabowhunter]

There was a pile of mayflies on Wabamun this morning.... And there were rises everywhere.... Whitefishs I'm sure....

 

THey disappeared about 10:00.

 

later

[Scratch]

Stonefly -

 

Caught your article in FlyFisherman... Nicely done!

 

Cheers!

[stonefly]

Greg, thanks.

Tim - spring olives on the Bow on the dry, yes it is frustrating at times. Focussing on a different stage of the hatch can often be important. A few years back noticed fish flashing mid level depth while having lunch during the hatch on the Bow and switched things up. Has really helped successes since. The Crow's salmonfly hatch comes to mind as well. Nymphing staging locations for the nymphs is important.

But yeah, defining what we each mean can help for sure. How do we differ in calling a hatch a hatch if the emerger is only an emerger for 20 seconds? Maybe it's wet vs dry fly fishing as the definition?

[TimD]

Dave,

 

I don’t think it is about wet, dry, or a little off the top. The term “hatch” is symbolic of those great ‘super’ hatches where all trout focus on one insect species where the biggest trout in the creek come out of their shorts to whack any reasonable imitation. In that sense it is more of a marketing term than a fishing one.

 

One doesn’t need a hatch to catch a lot of fish on the surface – especially when the water is lowish and fairly clear. Just like the collection of aquatics in water; there is usually some combination of terrestrials, caddis or the odd adult mayfly floating on the surface that fish will take. Trout are cold-blooded and respond to temperature more than food availability and I have seen fairly strong hatches get unmolested by trout in water that is too cold.

 

Quite frankly I have been alarmed at the number of people fishing nymphs when the trout are taking just about anything you present to them on the surface. When I ask people why they aren’t fishing dry they tell me that there isn’t a hatch on so you can’t catch them on the surface. It only takes a few minutes to help them see the light. Sometimes I really think that fly anglers make fishing seem complex when it really isn’t. It is almost like there is an industry of fly fishing obstupefaction.