Personally I try to match the hatch on trout streams. When I started identifying the aquatic insect hatches in Virginia in the early seventies Art Flick was kind enough to help me. I’d pack the flies in vials of alcohol solution and send them up to him at West Kill, New York then we would write back and forth about each insect. I kept (and still do) extensive notes on the dates, stream conditions, water temperatures and specific streams of each hatch. With the help of two college text books I became comfortable with my identifications. Much later I incorporated this into my books Virginia Blue Ribbon Streams and Trout Fishing in the Shenandoah National Park.
Along the way I’ve expanded my stream notes on the hatches to include the Rockies, Smokies, Catskills, Adirondacks, PA, MD & WV.
I’ve found that there is much more to be gained from this understanding than simply which fly to use to match each hatch. For example, the locations in the streams where the specific nymphs live, where and how they emerge is very helpful in fishing my nymphs before the duns are thick on the stream.
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