Another Good Hatch Clue: Spider Webs

July 14, 2005 By: Marshall Cutchin

In this piece about small trout water fishing in Michigan, Eric Sharp astutely points out that one of the best ways to find out what kind of bugs are coming off is to lean over a bridge rail and look the spider webs. “This time the spider webs held small caddis flies with dark bodies and tan wings (No. 18) and midges that ranged from about a No. 20 to almost microscopic. I could see a couple of fish rising languidly upstream, so for fun I extended the leader to a 7X tippet and tied on a No. 24 Tricorythodes pattern, the smallest fly in my vest.” In the Detroit Free Press.