Composed by: Peter Stitcher

By aiming to the skies, you can narrow your dry-fly choices significantly.
Photos through orvis.com
Effective fly fishers approach the water like investigators. By collecting ideas along the path, on the streambanks, and from the air, they you can make an informed guess about which fly patterns will work best. It’s constantly amazing to find that there are bugs on the water and in the air since that implies dry flies remain in order. Preferably, you can gather a specimen of the widespread bugs and after that match it to something in your box. However what if the only proof you have is bugs in the air?
Although you will not have the ability to narrow things down to a particular types, the flight patterns of the 3 significant orders of marine bugs– mayflies, caddisflies, and stoneflies– are unique enough that an angler can recognize the kind of pest from as far as 50 feet from the river. These are the important things you require to search for if you wish to match the drys by the method bugs fly.

Like a ballet with 100,000 dancers, the swarm and flight of the mayfly traces an even, elegant wave over the water. Taking a trip very first upstream in a determined up-and-down movement, the private mayfly will then reverse course, backtracking its actions as it fluctuates through the air on its method back downstream. This flight pattern is distinct to the mayflies and need to point you to the parachutes, extended bodies, and mayfly dun and spinner patterns in your fly box.

Simulating the hyper motions of a group of 2nd graders with unlimited access to chocolate and Mountain Dew, the flight of the caddisfly is turmoil in movement. Experiencing the spiral and bounce, cork-screw and fluttering flight of the caddis need to instantly direct your fingers to the part of your fly box dedicated to tufted elk-hair wings, tented turkey-quill wings, and foam bodies.

The stonefly’s 2 sets of long wings churn through the air in a heavy systematic beat, like a chinook helicopter on an objective. Stoneflies do not lose energy dancing or twirling like our other pest orders, however push easy with minor corrections to their course. A few of our stoneflies are so big that the angler will frequently feel the stoneflies in flight before seeing them as they crash land into one’s neck or arms. When you see the straight-forward flight of the stonefly over the river, you can opt for self-confidence to the long-hair wings, foam bodies, and bouncing rubber legs of the dry stonefly patterns in your fly box.
So, the next time you head to the river, keep your eyes on the sky. View how the bugs are flying and pick a dry appropriately.

The author offers a smooch to a substantial rainbow.
Photocourtesy Peter Stitcher
Peter Stitcher is a Marine Biologist and the CFG (Chief Fly Geek) at Ascent Fly Fishing and River Oracle Inc. As a biologist, Peter operates in the evaluation, remediation, and management of prize trout waters throughout the Western US.Hear his interview with Tom Rosenbauer in a 2019 Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast.