Matching the Hatch

To a fisherman, nothing is more important than matching the hatch when you fish. But what happens when there are no hatch to match? This is exactly what happened to me this weekend when I went up to catskill to fish.

There were some brown caddis were around the water but not significant amount to be called hatch. So I immediately tied size 14 brown caddis to end of my fishing line and began fishing. Since the water was crystal clear, I was able to see trouts going after my fly and rejecting it once they got near the fly. After being rejected numerous times , I've asked fellow anglers but they all told me that they couldn't match the hatch either. Only handful of fish were being netted out of apporx. 10 anglers around the pool.

Funny thing was fish were rising everywhere. I even saw a fish rising a few feet away from me. I must have gone through 30 different types and sizes of fly.

When I was about to give up and headed home, a local old timer came up to me and told me to use copper john dropper tied to a stimulator. He told me times like this, it is better to stimulate their instinct by using dropper method. Guess what? It worked. I was able to catch three significant size trouts.

Thanks old timer!