? on dries

[Lurch]

ok here it goes I am a nymph fisherman 99% of the time, and im wanting to get into more dry fly fishin. I did some research on hatch charts for our general area(Ga. Tenn. & N.C.), and also what i could gather from archieves here on NGTO. This is what I have found there are 70 different patterns with 182 different sizes. Are that many dries needed or are some of the hatch charts a little off or too broad on thier choices? some one please shed some light on this and help me out

thanks,
Lurch

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fishin or herpin? I cant make up my mind

[GUTHOOKED]

Lurch, you're making it way too complicated. About the only real hatches that you are going to run into here are caddis, blue wing olives, and midges. Everything else is so sparse as to be inconsequential. There are some other localized hatches, but these three are what you'll run into most of the time. To start with, get some EHC in sizes 14-20, BWO patterns in sizes 18 and smaller, and some small Griffith's gnats. Throw in a few attractor patterns like wulffs, trudes, and humpies, and you've got enough to get started. If you can tell me where you'll be fishing, maybe I can make some further suggestions.

Hope this helps.
Danny

[bingo]

No way you need that many patterns unless you plan to fish every hatch on every stream simultaneously throught the southeast. Many of the hatches listed in these charts are so sparse that the fish rarely key that heavy on them or they are "masked" by another hatch occurring on the water at the same time and the fish either key on the more numerous species Most of the time on smaller freestone streams most trout will hit anything that lands in the water that is of a reasonable size and silhouette provided that the drift is right. Tailwaters are a different matter though. I would advocate picking one or two major rivers a year and learning their hatches throughly to start off with. The majority of what you learn from there will be applicable elsewhere.

In my experience in the south, it is important to learn as much as you can about the 3 or 4 hatches that can constitute major blanket style hatches on most streams. The thicker the hatch, the more picky the fish can get. As they feed more selectively, they key on more specific triggers and the more exacting and "customized" flies designed to imitate certain behaviors or stages of emergence will get bit in favor of more generalized patterns(ie: trailing shucks, air bubble simulation, cripple imitation, high-ride skittering hackle vs low ride more natural hackle)

There are several "super hatches" of various caddis species and what it takes to learn how to fish these effectively varies a great deal from river to river. The Hiwassee has many different species of caddis, any one of which can become the dominant bug in a multi-species hatch. On the Hootch however, there are less species and the bugs don't overlap as much. You can get by with less patterns. Blue-winged olives are probably the most ubiquitous of the mayflies. On any given day, somewhere on the Hootch an olive hatch is happening. On the Hiwassee they can range anwhere from a big 16 to a 28(several different species -- all can be imitated with the same patterns by varing the hook size). The biggest I've seen on the Hootch is an 18 -- usually they are more in the 24 to 26 range. The next most prevalent mayfly on most streams is the sulphur. Again several species can be imitated w/ the same fly in a wide range of hook sizes. Yellow stoneflies are the dominant bug for the greater part of the summer on a lot of freestone streams. You should carry Stimulators in hook sizes from 10 to 16 and (on a few streams -- 18). Midges are everywhere.

There are a number of mayflies that only become important for a short period of time and can usually be imitated with more generalized patterns. Hendricksons, Quill Gordons, March Browns and Light Cahills can be major hatches on some streams and totally absent on others. Isonychias can be important on the Hiwassee, but I hardly ever see them on most of the other streams I fish. Most everything else can usually be imitated with generalized patterns you should have in your box anyway (like Adams). Hope this helps. It ain't as tough as folks make it out to be.

Doh! Looks like I repeated almost everything Guthooked said only he said it better and more succinctly, I guess our posts crossed in cyberspace.




[This message has been edited by bingo (edited 11-16-2003).]

[oyster]

I'll try to be even more brief. Size 12 elk hair caddis for small wild streams, Size 20 parachute adams for rising trout on the Hooch or anyplace you can't see the bugs no matter how close you look, and size 16 parachute adams for anything in between. Of course you can get much more complicated but you can also fish your whole dry-fly life with nothing but a size 16 parachute adams and catch tons of fish if you are doing everything else right. Of course this won't always work but NOTHING in fly-fishing ALWAYS works so you might as well make your life easy and go catch some fish!

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Oyster Fine Bamboo Fly Rods


[This message has been edited by oyster (edited 11-16-2003).]

[Lurch]

tell me if I have it right. To start with bwo 18 and smaller, griffiths gnats, adams or adams para in basically all sizes, and some ehc in 14-20. What colors on the ehc?

thanks, Lurch

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fishin or herpin? I cant make up my mind

[bpal]

Keep it simple.

Bring a size 18 Irresistable Adams,
and a size 14-16 Madam X.

Tweeze and clip each fly to desired specs...

You'll catch fish any place any time, anywhere.

~B



[This message has been edited by bpal (edited 11-18-2003).]

[jeffg]

Since you are just going from being 99% nymph to dries... go the middle route.. start learning how to tie and fish emergers ( essentially dries.. or nymphs with floatant on them). I think fishing caddis emergers and small mayfly emergers for the bwo's are the ticket more so than the true dun of the species. Plus this gives you a chance to fish nymphs before the hatch, emergers when the hatch is just starting, duns during the hatch and then back to emergers when the hatch is over and fish are looking for the non hatched "cripples".
Plus emergers are really a challenge, hard to see, hard to sometimes see the fish take it since its a different take then when they are taking dries.
More importantly, learn emergers so that when you do hit a hatch you can see difference between them rising to emergers and rising to duns.

Back to the topic. Get BWO size 12-24, Adams 12-24, Elk Hair 12-22, and throw in some irrisistable adams or kicks and you got the dry box for the SE ( unless you time the sulphurs in the smokies right)
And parachute or traditional dry is your choice, but parachutes are easier to tie and easier to see in rougher water.

[GUTHOOKED]

The only EHC I carry are tan or gray. Occasionally I might throw an olive one, but the other two will suffice just about any time.