There’s a common term in fishing called matching the hatch. It originated in the trout streams where fly fishermen would try to fish with the feather and fur fly that best imitated the types of live insects that the fish were feeding on to begin with. It translates to other types of fishing, too. If the smallmouth bass in the Iowa stream are eating crayfish – fish near the bottom with a brown lure. If the largemouths in the Missouri farm pond are eating bluegills – throw a flashy purple and blue spinnerbait. And if the Minnesota northern pike are eating six-inch long yellow perch – well you get the idea.
The photograph above perfectly demonstrates matching the hatch. There were thousands of small perch in the lake we were fishing in, and the pike we were catching grew big by eating them. What I don’t understand is what this little perch was thinking in biting the tail of a lure this big. While he showed me I was on the right track, he wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
Not what I had in mind… I suppose that little perch would probably say the same thing.