If you’re watching this video, you’re most likely very familiar with the Drifthook Fly Fishing System. You feel confident with your fly box and the seasonal hatch chart, and you want to be able to even more closely match what’s in the water that you’re fishing. You’re ready to take it to the next level.
You can be almost as successful using the seasonal hatch chart with the fly boxes as you can with the system I'm about to show you, but if you're ready to be as precise as possible, this is the way to go. Before we dive into how to use a bug seine to sample the water, let's recap our major orders of insects and their stages so you can be familiar with them as you’re sifting through your newly found aquatic insects.
For this lesson, we’ll be discussing the Nymph and Emerger stages, as these will be the specimens that you will be gathering with your seine. The five orders of flies in our program can be simplified into these groups.
- Midges
- Mayflies
- Caddis
- Stoneflies
- Annelids/Worms
- Eggs
The following video will show illustrations of each stage of these orders and will help you to recognize them easily on the water and how to use a bug seine to gather samples.
About the Author
Matthew Bernhardt, a third-generation Coloradan, grew up at the forefront of the state’s fly-fishing revolution, enjoying time on the water, side by side with experienced guides and lifelong anglers.
By combining his passion for fly-fishing with input from other experienced fly-fishers and guides and his fine arts degree from Colorado State University, Matthew spent five years carefully developing the Drifthook Fly Fishing System, built to help every angler catch more trout.
When he’s not spending time with his wonderful family, you’ll find him out on the water catching MONSTER trout, and he anxiously looks forward to the day when his kids are old enough to join him there.
