Jump to content
Fly Tying
Sign in to follow this  
ryveradair

making a hatch chart

Recommended Posts

If your going to use it for your area you can start by taking notes when you fish. Any bugs to see and the stage gets noted. The weather at the time. Time of day and the type of water it came from. I don't always believe some of the printed hatch charts. When I lived near the Savage and North Branch I seen lots of hatches and bugs that I didn't see listed.

 

Kevin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Personally I'd start with one from a fly shop or book, if available. Why reinvent the wheel, unless you are doing it for the challenge. Start there and compare it to what I see on the water. Probably find bugs not listed and you'll notice timing varies from year to year.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I second William's advise. There are charts for just about anywhere. If you are just looking for the information, it's available.

 

If you are actually going to create your own, then observe, observe, observe. When you've observed every day for a year, and notated every hatch seen with dates, times, temperatures, water conditions and lunar tables ... then repeat the whole process for another year. If the first year's data matches the second year, then you have a complete hatch chart for your area. If it doesn't, observe for another year.

 

It's rather easy, if you live on the water.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree that hatch charts exist for most areas. Start with that, and if you find nothing, start with the general area hatch charts. There are thousands of species of bugs that you may find in any given stream, lake, or pond not everything you find will be an important source of food. Chances are that you will find a lot of insects and other things in stream samples that may or may not be important If you can find a chart for the areas you want, the significant hatches will be there.

 

Collecting samples day by day, will give you a snapshot of what is hatching, but the actual hatch dates will vary from year to year. Cold winters and springs will delay early hatches, warm weather will advance the dates a bit. One thing that won't change is the order of the hatches. If one insect species is hatching ahead of another, then that won't change unless the water drastically changes in some way. You can use the fact that hatch x is underway to eliminate previous hatches and anticipate the next hatches.

 

One good reason to collect your own samples, is that bugs are NOT the same. Homo sapiens is ONE species, and there is a vast difference in the way we all look. Insects of one species are much more similar, but there will be small differences in the exact color of a given species from stream to stream. There is no one color that is the exact match for every insect of any given species. It will help to see just what the exact shades of the nymphs are. Then tie your flies to match those variations. Remember in tying nymphs that you need to see what your imitation looks like wet, to judge how close it is to the natural. In duns and spinners (floating flies,) the fish see the under side back-lit by the sun or bright sky. You should judge your imitation by looking up at it against bright background lighting.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...