Andy,
I respect your position. I'm just looking at it differently, I guess. Do insects hold a special appeal over other forms of natural food? Specifically, aquatic flying insects? Cause inchworms are indeed insects, just terrestrial. No different than a hopper or a beetle. Do you feel the same about baitfish imitations, such as streamers?
If I'm on the Sewer, and all those bugs are going at the same time. That's fine. I'm cycling between various life forms of caddis, midges, etc. Then I see a sulpher, and a fish gobbles it down. Of course I immediately switch to a sulpher. I assume you would too.
Now, lets say I'm on Clark's Creek. There are various bugs about, and I'm doing the same thing. Now, I see an inchworm descend from a tree onto the water, followed by "plop", a rise and said inchworm dissapears. I'm gonna change to a green weenie, an unweighted one if possible and try to float the thing. I see absolutely no difference between this and matching the sulpher on the sewer.
Likewise, if I'm on Spring Creek, waiting for BWO's to start up on the day. I'm maybe throwin a Hare's Ear or tossin a dry around to the occasional riser while I'm waiting. Then, on the side of a shallow tail out, I see a pod of suckers rooting around. Behind them in the riffle is a semi-circle of nice browns jockeying for position, and occasionally one darts forward to grab something I can't see. I'm gonna change to a sucker spawn and drift it behind those suckers, and not feel the slightest pang of guilt about it.
All of the above have happened to me, and in all cases, I was doing the same thing. Matching the natural food source.
