Pete Tyjas revisits the updated and resized 2017 edition of Pat O'Reilly's Matching The Hatch
When it comes to choosing a book to learn about the bugs we see on the river, their environment and flies we can tie to replicate them there is no finer book than Pat O’Reilly’s Matching the Hatch.
I feel I can say this despite the fact it is 20 years since first publication. The good news is that the book has had a slight updating and even better has been resized to a smaller handy size that fits easily into a fishing bag should you need to detect a fly you spot on the river.
As fly anglers I think we owe a duty to our quarry to at least have a basic understanding of the food the trout eat and being able to spot what is hatching when we are on the water. Matching The Hatch makes this a straightforward exercise, breaking down the main orders of insects into easy to understand groups, along with the varying stages each natural goes along with a pattern we can use to replicate it too.
There is also plenty of interesting information contained in the 220 pages that you will find you will dip into from time to time.
I have been using this book for a number of years to show newcomers to fly fishing what the fish are feeding on and how we can detect what is on their menu. This is easy with the numerous photographs and drawings and I feel sure that if you don’t already own this book you’ll be pleased when you have bought it.
There are few books I can think of that are “must-haves” but this is certainly one of them.
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