Tip # 43 – Matching the Hatch for BIG Browns

Posted by on 14 Jun 2010 by fishfinder in Fly Fishing Tips

Every fly fisher has heard the term “Match the Hatch” at one time or another. While its true that many times you are able to get away with using common attractor patterns to catch trout, sometimes the bigger fish are much fussier than their smaller siblings. Because of that, you may find yourself in a situation where you definitely need to match the hatch.

I’m going to share a story about the situation I found myself in while Fly Fishing for Brown Trout one June afternoon.

I had been out for a few hours late afternoon and caught a few decent fish. I had just about hiked back to camp when a boil in the river caught my eye, so I stopped and watched for a few minutes. About 5 minutes later or so, another boil in the same spot. This time I saw what he was eating.

He was grabbing big stoneflys as they were bouncing and skittering on the surface dislodging their eggsacs. They’re well over an inch long to give some perspective to their size. And their double wings make them look even bigger in flight.

Anyways, I watched for a while longer and figured he’d be there when I came back later. So I headed back to camp, and I tied up some of these.

I walked back to that same spot….which was only about a 200 foot walk from the site and watched again. Sure enough, he rose again. I cast about 25 or 30 feet to him, twitch the stimulator carefully as it comes right down his feeding lane and BOOM! There were a number of very interesting words spoken to myself as I chased the bugger downstream. He had me into my backing in about 10 seconds. After a long battle, you wouldn’t believe what happened!!

I Landed him!

Definitely my biggest resident brown to date on the fly!