Rather than possibly hijack FISH2XTC's thread I thought I would start a new one.
When I moved out here I lost/threw away/misplaced my seine. I was never great at identifying the insects but at least I knew size, color and shape of whatever it was. I have yet to see someone else using a seine while on the river.
The question that this raises for me is " How do you determine what patterns to fish with on any given day?"
[signature]
i personally flip rocks and use what i see there
[signature]
Me too for the most part. But on rivers, I start off with a sow bug or a scud as they will always be there, and maybe a Black Woolly.
Dries are pretty easy to tell.
[signature]
+1 on the rock roll over. Also, just being very observant has been a huge key for me. I used to get to a body of water and tie on whatever has been sucessful before and away I went.
Now when I get to an area, I roll over a few rocks and just take a few minutes to observe what is going on. Is it sunny or cloudy? Do I see any surface activity going on? How clear is the water?
After that, it is basically is trial and error for me. If I am not catching fish, I will change things up.
[signature]
I usually start with a sow bug and a copper john. From there I observe whats going on around me. If I see big bugs(bigger than midges) coming off but no surface action i'll usually try emergers/pupa. Most of the time when I fish alone I will carry a second rod with a different setup on it so I dont have to re-tie if they start rising. If the fish arent rising usually have a streamer tied on my second rod to rip through a hole if I get no takers on my nymphs, or before!
[signature]
Rolling over rocks ? What kind of enviromental , stream careing fly fisherman are you guys ? [
]
[signature]
Carry a window screen on two dowel rods. Go out into a pretty good riffle and stick your screen in. Do not disturb the bottom above the screen!! Whatever is naturally drifting down is what is on the hatch at that time.
If nothing shows up in the screen, kick the rocks and gravel directly upstream of the screen. Pick whatever bug there is the most of in the screen.
[
]
[signature]