Hey KCMark,

I came across some more info that may be useful to you. Sorry I had trouble with the "clickable" URLs, but you can cut and paste in your browser.

For a trout fly fishing organization in KC that might be good to check out, and has a lot of links and info that might be helpful:

http://www.geocities.com/kcmtfa/index.htm

For fishing reports and hatch info on the Roaring River:

http://missouritrout.com/timsflyshop/report.html

For a list of links to Missouri fishing conditions, fishing reports, weather, water flow etc.

http://missouritrout.com/weather.html


Here?s a Hatch Chart for Montauk State Park, Current River with a ton of useful info.

http://www.missouriscenicrivers.com/hatchchart.html

This Montauk Hatch Chart chart will give you a general idea of what might be hatching on the waters you fish during the season, so you can plan a budget to add to all those Adams. (I fish mostly in the Northeast and these hatches, and when they occur, pretty much correspond to the ones I fish, and when I fish in the Adirondacks in upstate NY the hatches occur in the same order, but about 3 weeks later.) Note that the time of day of hatches typically take place are listed too.

Taking the first entry, Little Blue Wing Olives (sizes 16, 18,and 20), you?ll see that they typically start hatching in the early afternoon. Remember they?ll start as Nymphs, go to Emergers, then Duns, then Spinners. The hatch time of early afternoon refers to the Duns.

Searching here at FAOL and doing a Google on Baetis or Blue Wing Olives you?ll see that you can imitate the nymphs with a Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph, or a regular Pheasant Tail Nymph. There are a bunch of Baetis emerger patterns out there (but since you?re just starting out you could use an unweighted Pheasant Tail with some dry fly floatant, or one of your Soft Hackles). For a Blue Wing Olive (BWO) Dun you can use a ?regular? BWO, a BWO Sparkle Dun, BWO Comparadun etc. For the Spinner stage the Rusty Spinner is a great imitation. So for a Baetis Hatch if you get on the water in the late morning before the hatch starts, you could fish a Pheasant Tail Nymph until you start seeing the duns starting to emerge. If the fish aren?t rising and you're not getting any action on the nymphs, switch to a Soft Hackle to imitate the emerger. If fish start rising switch to the BWO dries. And as it gets later in the day if the fish are still rising but you?ve stopped getting hits, look at the water to see if there are spinners? (Baetis spinners often seem to start falling while the Duns are still hatching). Sometimes switching to a Rusty Spinner solves that problem.

Anyway this is a long winded example of how you can put together a plan to fish a whole day for a specific ?hatch? that may only last a little while in any given day. Sometimes you might have days where there is likely to be a hatch of one thing in the morning and another in the afternoon (Or several at the same time time) And by Googling the different hatches you?ll often get info on the types of water they prefer. Baetis and other BWOs are very common countrywide and are one of the most important hatches. They occur in many different sizes and different times throughout the season because they?re actually many different species all imitated by the same patterns. They seem to be especially fond of spring creeks and at the tails of pools.

Also, looking at the chart, you?ll see that the first hatches of the year listed are for the Early Black and Early Brown Stone Flies in March and April so you may want to get some of those first. And since they?re both very dark and have a different profile then mayflies and caddis you?d be wise to pick up a few of each in the sizes listed if you plan to be on the water at that time of year.

Let us know how you make out,and feel free to ask any questions.
Best regards, peregrines[/code]