On 2009-09-20 20:28:52 -0400, Todd said:

David LaCourse wrote:
d;o) You haven't been fishing very long, have you. There is a hatch
almost every day. I just walked down to the river and there are bwo
and tan egg laying caddis all over the place. A few fish rising, and
some takes on emergers. After dinner I will tie on a size 20 soft
hackle PT and catch fish. When the light is almost gone I will switch
to a dry tan caddis, size 16

For about 50 years or more. Oh, I am sure things are hatching around
me, but I am never there when it happens. I only get a few hours
every week or two if I finish my rounds early. I fished my river for
three years before I caught a thing. Now, when they are stocked
I catch 18 in two hours. After that, 3 to 4 in and hour and a half.
and 4 or 5 that I do not get the pleasure of meeting. Total
fun at the end of a long day working.

If you are fishing a fertile stream, there is a hatch that will occur
daily, not once or twice a year.

Trout in their feed lies foraging off the drift act
much different than trout feeding off a hatch. Ozzie
has a bunch of great video on the subject in his
"the underwater world of trout: feeding lies".
In the drift, they do not like each other's company.

Huh? I have taken trout and salmon from the same run on both dries and
nymphs. I've never asked the one I caught on the dry how he feels
about the one I caught on the nymph. Perhaps I'll try that today.
Have you ever fished with a dry fly and a trailing nymph? Most on this
forum have. The fish comes up to take the dry but sees the nymph and
takes it instead. The "feeding" lines contain fish that will either
take a nymph OR a dry.

Here is a difference between a "drifter" and a "hatcher":
a "hatcher" would fish a Stone right side up. A "drifter"
would fish it upside down. There is great video of this
in Cutter's "Bugs of the Underworld".

By a "drifter", do you mean nymph fishing? A nympher would fish all
kinds of nymphs besides a stone fly. On the rare occasion that I do
nymph a stone, usually on waters other than my home ones, I fish it in
a dead drift bouncing off the bottom. How can you fish a stone fly as
a "hatcher"? It's a nymph meant to be a sub-surface lure. It's
surface fly would be a stimulator - big and bushey - not the same fly
you would sub-surface.



A tip from a "drifter": do not forget the white nymph.
Nymphs shuck their exoskeletons several times a year as
they grow. Until they readjust, they are cream colored.
If I can not get my trout to pay attention, I switch to
white or cream color. More yummy, less crunch.

(??????)

I meant that a nymph's that have shucked the old skeletons
before their new ones are in place are easier to catch,
eat, and less bran

And you know this how? The only white nymph I fish is a buckskin
caddis, and I fish it simply because it immitates a particular caddis,
not a nymph that has "shucked".


I don't fish for stocked trout, and no, I am not an eliteist.

Not elitist. You are blessed to be close enough to a wild
river. They are like two different fish.

Farm raised fish are easier to catch and taste funny. I always
let wild trout go. Most framed raised ones too. I usually only
keep one if it bleeds out on me.

My wild ones get really, really ****ed when you hook them.
Total fun!

-T

Yup. It is "total fun".

Dave