when can you fish dry fly.

[123chris]

I wanted to know if you can fish dry fly year round and have sucess. I really like to fish dries but I have never really been in a hatch so far in georgia. I did see some trout rise to something on the hooch at the hatchery but did not really see any bugs on the water except a few cream midges.I have been tying nymphs for a few years but am thinking of investing in some necks but want to be able to fish the dry year round.Please let me know if you can fish dry when there is no hatch on the water and have sucess.

[Hooker]

Chris,
I've taken trout on the Hooch year around with a dry fly. It's my humble opinion that trout on the Hooch are not very selective, and matching the hatch is not critical, although I'm sure many will disagree. I've run out of caddis flies many times, and in their place thrown Adams, Cahills, and black ants and never missed a beat.
I read somewhere, that Trout need to eat something every 5 seconds to become focused on it and exclude everthing else. I've never seen Chattahoochee trout exclude anything when the bite was on.
Last Saturday morning the trout were fairly active, and there was a lot of surface activity. I was preoccupied with other things, but I'm sure a Caddis would have taken trout just fine.

Dave

[Flyguy]

Dave is right....Dry fly fishing can be done all year long, but there are certian times of the year that are more productive. Right now the fish are hitting the suface, but dries are not nearlt as effective as the prince dropper. Now in the spring time the caddis hatch is very productive and dries are the fly of choice and and emerger dropper will better your chance qiut a bit. As Dave said the "Match the hatch" theory is not that critical but will help increase you chances at times when the trout are a little more selective. Midges are present on the Hooch all year round and play a part in the trouts diet.

Try a dry with a nymph dropper and this way you not only double you odds, but you have both the top water and sub surface areas covered. This combo works good at any time and at almost any place.



Good Luck,


Flyguy

[superchub]

Was fishing over the weekend and was doing pretty good with the dry!! I have never been able to match the hatch on the hooch....I've always found that when you see the trout rising or whacking your strike indicator try the dry...Hooker and flyguy are right on with their comments.
I call that insect that you see many times hatching on the hooch the inviso-midge fly...its about a size 30 and the trout don't seem to care about it though they do go after other hatchers.
my humble opinion!!

SC

[superchub]

Also, be eclectic with your fly selection as you will often be surprised as to what the trout are taking on any given day!! It sometimes goes against your instinct and logic!
SC

[Rod]

Dos Pesos de meo:

I concur with everything mentioned above. I esp. agree with SC's last post. I've had tremendous days fishing EHC downstream and stripping. When that's not as effective I skate the flies across the surface. I've had my rod pulled from my hand employing the latter technique.

I've found that when its been awhile since a stocking, the fish wise up and eat as they should and a perfect drift is nec. This is when I use FG's technique with great success.

I've posted regarding this before so--regulars, please forgive the redundancy.

123C: I stumbled upon the downstream dry and skate style by accident, when lazily picking up for a new cast. When FF don't miscount the obsurd--you might look funny but you'll out fish folks fishing properly.

Rod
Firm Grasper of the obvious

[BUDMAN]

I've been a hardcore nymph fisherman for a long time now but after going thru several nymphs with no takers I will switch to standard drys if I still get no takers i'll switch to parachute drys. Some days the fish just like to eat off the surface and some days they don't. I think part of the attraction of this sport is trying to figure out what to use to fool old mr trout. Flyguy put forth some excellent advise on using a dry fly as a strike indicator, give it a try you won't be disappointed.