[Carter Burke]

Match the hatch sadly is an outdated concept.
Once you start fishing out of a boat matching the hatch doesn't matter it's just about throwing some flashy colorful thing long enough to catch a few fish. News flash trout are stupid and they have to eat. The more visible a fly is the more fish that will see it the more fish you catch.

To each their own. I'll take me elk hair my soft hackles my natural colored parachutes , fish them when i know they will work and be happy with what i catch.
I don't like catching random trout just cause my fly was in the water. If i don't know what's going on along the river i don't deserve to catch a fish.

 

[Carter Burke]

Not my first rodeo and I do fish from a boat and catch plenty of fish with flashy colors but your condescension is noted.

There was no condescension.
There is nothing wrong with search fishing. That's just not how i like to fish.
When you are search fishing the pattern matters less.
I prefer fishing hatches that's all.

I also don't use royal wulffs either for the same reason even though it's a great pattern.

 

[Carter Burke]

So if there are no hatches, do you simply not fish?

Well fortunately there are hatches most of the summer. But umm yeah for me no hatches pretty much means no trout fishing.

 

[Carter Burke]

You know this how?

Your being wrong would be more tolerable if you stated it as opinion and not fact.

ok how about people are less concerned these days with matching the hatch than they were back in the 1980s.

Last years number one salmonfly pattern? Purple chubby Chernobyl..

Last years number one parachute pattern purple haze.

If we had had a purple elk hair it would have been our best seller

Best selling bead head? Flashy lightning bugs. From a sales perspective i would have killed for purple copper johns.
Blue prince nymphs did well too.

I think Bozeman would be a pretty good place to judge what people are trout fishing with. Unless of course people were just buying them for show.

 

[Carter Burke]

For me this is a perfect day of Montana trout fishing.

6 am walk along the Madison looking for risers find a few catch one or two by 7 am there are pools full of rising trout to tiny caddis end the morning around 9 with a dozen fish to the fly. Get in the car and run over to Poindexter slough for a couple hours of fishing cripples. Be done at 1 or so. Leisurely drive back to the Madison have a milkshake and a burger in Ennis then head back upstream for a nap. Back on the water around 7 for either some caddis action or a spinner fall. 7-10 more fish. These are usually rhe biggest fish of the day, the 17-20 inchers.

So an average day say 20 fish 12-18 inches every so often some bigger ones.
Most i would think would call that a very good day.

Could i have caught more fish banging the banks alk day on the Madison, probably would i have had more fun? For me, no.