Fly5 wrote:
Please forgive my lack of knowledge, I have been only fly fishing for two years but somehow have been tying for a few more. It should have been the other way around. I have snagged Sulphurs in the past and yes they had tails, do caddisflies bounce up and down off the water? Unfortunately I am to busy to go back to the stream to observe more activity. I looked at a hatch chart and there really isn't much happening right now. Should I have posted this on the beginner forum?
Yes sir, you're in the right place > great questions that many fly anglers are interested in.
I added a fourth pic in my my post above > the midge.
You now have examples of the four major types of adult aquatic insects that hatch in PA streams.
Mayfly - Caddisfly - Stonefly - Midge
As you can see each insect type has unique characteristics. I suggest you work on just identifying the type of insect on the water rather than the specific genus and species.
The easiest way to relate what you see to fly fishing is to ID the type of fly (let's say mayfly) and size (let's say size 18) and color (I'll say light like in cream, yellow or tan, rather than a specific color since an exact match is rarely important).
Okay, select a light-colored size 18 mayfly from your fly box....and have at it....wait, don't cast yet.
Another piece of the puzzle is the behavior of the insect on the water. Are the flies drifting motionless or active are the wings spent (splayed) on the water or upright? I usually dead-drift a fly first to risers, but sometimes adding a
little movement during the presentation triggers the fish to strike.
It's great that you tie your own flies. My suggestion is to tie all four types of insects in different sizes and in dark to light colors.
Add a section of beetles, ants and maybe a hopper pattern and you should be ready for most hatches on any stream.
One of the most useful books for PA fly anglers I can recommend is the
Pocketguide to Pennsylvania Hatches by Meck and Weamer. It lists and has photos of all major insect hatches found in PA chronologically by hatch time and lists the major PA streams with the hatches, and also offers fly suggestions to hatch the hatch.
You can use that book to help ID insects and tie up the most common hatches for the streams you fish.
Again: Insect type > size > color light or dark > presentation > catch fish
Good luck with your fishing.
