No Hatch
An errant cast while flyfishing does not always spell disaster.
Talking with Tom Laird about a recent flyfishing trip in Montana where the wind was blowing and the fish were not working off a hatch. So often, we talk to fishermen who refer to flies that resembled a hatch but what if there is no hatch. Here's your answer. "This place where we were has no hatch that I know of. I have never seen a hatch occur on these rivers. There is always something floating on the water or going in the water. There are meadows, a lot of bushes, so in July and August if you have a big grasshopper pattern you are golden because they are jumping in the water all the time. There's a lot of bugs in the evening coming off the water and they are feeding off of them but it is one of those streams where it's got brooks, it's got rainbows, it's got brown's, it's got whitefish unit and the competition for food is high but there is a lot of food available. The best cast I ever made was I had a bumblebee on the line and I threw it across the stream, it hit at willow and wrapped around it, and I just gave it a little tug and it unwrapped and dropped on the water and a 2 foot brown came right out and took it as soon as it hit the water. Just bam and I wondered where the heck did that fish come from? They are pretty much opportunistic feeders rather than hatch feeders. The moral to that is that an errant cast is not always a death sentence if you finesse it back out and drop it in the water. It looked just like a bumblebee fell off a twig and dropped into the water and the fish was probably watching it the whole time saying here comes dinner.
