essential patterns for michigan

[flytyer166 0]

i am just starting to fish with the flies that i make and im looking at fly hatch charts and im wondering if all the flies on the hatch charts should be in my fly box. what are some essentials?

[Johny Utah 0]

i am just starting to fish with the flies that i make and im looking at fly hatch charts and im wondering if all the flies on the hatch charts should be in my fly box. what are some essentials?

 

 

 

Caddis. Caddis. Caddis. The hatch charts are a bit helpful but are extremely generalized, which makes them practically worthless.

 

What really matters is what type of water you will be fishing and what time of the year. If your fishing a riffle in freestone then i would be armed with bwo, and caddis. If your fishing in any slack, i would be armed with midges.

 

So your absolute basic, is caddis, MIDGE, and bwo. All the rest come and go quite quickly.

[flytyer166 0]

i am just starting to fish with the flies that i make and im looking at fly hatch charts and im wondering if all the flies on the hatch charts should be in my fly box. what are some essentials?

 

 

 

Caddis. Caddis. Caddis. The hatch charts are a bit helpful but are extremely generalized, which makes them practically worthless.

 

What really matters is what type of water you will be fishing and what time of the year. If your fishing a riffle in freestone then i would be armed with bwo, and caddis. If your fishing in any slack, i would be armed with midges.

 

So your absolute basic, is caddis, MIDGE, and bwo. All the rest come and go quite quickly.

what about stonflies?

 

[Johny Utah 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

[flytyer166 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

so it matters what i fish with depending on the water?

[Johny Utah 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

so it matters what i fish with depending on the water?

 

 

exactly

[flytyer166 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

so it matters what i fish with depending on the water?

 

 

exactly

i got a lotta stuff to learn.

[boynabubble 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

so it matters what i fish with depending on the water?

 

Yes it does. Very much so. Every stream is different and you will not always find the same bugs in different streams. Time of year, stream type, stream size, water depth, water temp, flow rate, stream bed composition, vegetation, etc., etc., etc., all determine what insects you will find in a stream. Of course you don't need to know all this to get an idea of what flies to use. Check under rocks. Use a kick seine if you have one, but you can observe the insects you find in each stream and put the flies to match in your box.

 

 

I mentioned streams but this applies to stillwater too.

[Johny Utah 0]

Omg how could i forget stones. YES of course stones. But only if the waters clean and has a good flow ie lots of oxygen.

 

see the real key to the whole bug thing is knowing where you can find them so you dont waste time fishing a pattern that doesnt belong there. Ie stone fly in slow slack flats.

so it matters what i fish with depending on the water?

 

 

exactly

i got a lotta stuff to learn.

 

That's the great thing about fly fishing and tying, always something to learn!!!!!! :yahoo:

[Johny Utah 0]

I would look into Kelly Galoup flies for sure. He did a lot of fishing in Michigan and a lot of his patterns where designed for there.

[mdraft1 0]

Caddis, Adams, Blue wing olives, woolly buggers, PT nymphs, Czech nymphs, ants, hoppers, north country spiders...

[Johny Utah 0]

Get a throat pump(stomach pump) and you can learn exactly what they are eating. Plus you can design your own flies to match the hatch. I like that part :yahoo:

[utyer 0]

The following links (both similar hatch chart for Michigan.) One lists over 50 different bugs, the second list is about 30. The second list is color coded and list the mahor hatches in bold or red.

 

http://www.trailstotrout.com/mihatch.html

 

http://www.westmichiganflyfishing.com/page24

 

As SOME point on a SPECIFIC body of water, any ONE of these patterns MAY become essential for a short period of time.

 

All you need to figure out is at where and when your customers plan on fishing your flies. Then you may have some idea of what they might need. Narrowing your list down to the 30 or so most important hatches is only part of the problem.

 

If you look at the links, you will see a wide range of hatch dates for any given bug. These dates will need to be adjusted for the different areas of the state, and for the specific weather conditions leading up to the time the hatches are supposed to occur.

 

You should learn as much as you can about all these food items. What type of water they live in, and where in the water they live. Some insects are crawling nymphs, some are burrowing, some are clingers, and some are swimming. Some insects crawl out of the water to hatch, and others hatch by assending the water column and hatching at the surface.

 

There is a lot to learn about the waters and insects, but the more you learn the better you will be able to understand some of the complexities you and your customers will face as they are fishing.

 

Before you begin to study all these insect hatches, you need to identify your customers. I seem to remember that you sell through some local shops. These shops are your vendors. Your customers are the people who are buying the flies from the shops. Are these customers fishing the local lakes for warm water fish? Are they fishing the rivers and streams? Are they serious fly anglers arriving to meet specific hatches, or families on vacation just out for a little casual fishing. Find out about these customers and what they are doing in your local shops.

 

Thats only a start, as "Johny Utah" said, there's always something more to learn.

 

I suggest a trip to the local library. When you have run out of books there, then ask for inter library loans for other books.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

might be a bit specific on where your fishing myself and quite a few others on here fish the area so we might be able to narrow it down a bit for you

[Jordon W 0]

I was in the same boat you were and someone gave me this advice...

 

 

If I only had four flies they would be:

· Caddis - Dry - See what color your caddis are on your river to insure that they imitate correctly.

· Blue Wing Olive - Dry - A standby.

· Pheasant tail (preferably bead head if I need to get them down and flashback for visibility).

· Beadhead or regular hare's ear - Tungsten bead helps it get down if the current is swift.

After that, I would have:

· Sulphurs - no substitutions work when they are hitting.

· Zebra Midges - Midges occur all year long and they especially are effective in winter.

 

Have a few in different sizes and see what sizes and maybe tie a few different colors and see what also works. The advice was also given to make to make sure you have a few size 18 even 20 tied up for many fishermen fish hatches with to large of flies.

 

Hope this helps you start out with a few basic patterns that have been know deadly all around the world!