Check Your Surroundings
A recap of a great article from the archives is followed by some sound advice from Dee to help make you a better angler.
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Check Your Surroundings
A recap of a great article from the archives is followed by some sound advice from Dee to help make you a better angler.
I remember that article well. It was good to see it again. I try to go through the archives whenever I can, but there is SO much good stuff there and so little time. Thanks for the reminder!
We were all big fans of Al Campbell, and this article is one of the many reasons why. The article describes the fundamentals of one of the few things I truly believe in where fly fishing is concerned, one of the real constants for me, match the hatch fishing. Yes, fish will take all sorts of things on a given day, but it's a real advantage to know what's hatching, and what they're PROBABLY eating. It's a question of increasing your odds, improving the probabilities. Knowledge is power, and there are no magic flies, no magic bullets, especially with tough fish that are fished over constantly.
I have good success on a lot of days with either ants or beetles, but I've seen hatches where the fish got so selective they wouldn't even look at a beetle. Just when you think you have it all figured out, just when you thought you knew something, it doesn't work. At that point, it's time to look around.
Eric