Hatch-less.  More of a brief opinion synopsis than a name, really.  This site was opened as a way to discuss topics that are central to fly fishing culture, yet often overlooked.  There can only be so many sites sharing posts on what shade of grey makes the butt end of a size 16 parachute Adams look most like a Flavalinea.  Hatchless…  fly fishing for the rest of us. 

Who are we?  The founding members of Hatchless live in an immediate area largely devoid of trout.  Our backyard waters are Northern Ohio and Southern Michigan streams that carry water too warm to support resident populations of Salmonids.  BUT… we are 2 hours from the heart of Steelhead Alley and 4 hours from Michigan’s Blue Ribbon Trout Streams.  The Great Lakes surround us.  Our unique location has allowed us all to develop a unique view of the chaos that is fly fishing.  Purists?……. Ha!  Not here.  Maybe what we do here  is best described as “Fusion Fly Fishing” (more on that later). 

This is a community of fly fisher-persons who share a genuine love for the sport and all it’s natural participants.  The Hatchless doors are open to all.  From Tweeds to Brownliners, we welcome you.  Share your true stories and opinions with pride, and read those of others with an open mind.

In addition…

Let’s not forget to explain where the name Hatchless originally came from.
One of the tuggies that is partly responsible for this site seems to think that he knows a thing or two about aquatic insects. Guess what? He’s almost always wrong. Just because he may have read about them in a few books doesn’t make him an entemologist. How do I know? He is me and when it comes to bug chasing, I’m right about .5% of the time.

Seriously though, I can really appreciate the beauty of a hatch in full bloom on the stream. All of us can but WTF? Why do they have to be so fickle? Right place, right time but… name it… wind blowing 1 mph too hard put the spinners back in the trees… it was too cold this afternoon… blah, blah, blah… Whatever the case, if I’m there, the bugs will be two miles up or down stream or on the river I just left to go fish another because the spinner fall should be better. You pick the situation based on YOUR location,not mine. Go ahead and count all your strikes as fish landed because I really don’t give a shit how many fish you caught on whatever. Sound a little bitter? Maybe…

Hatches are cool and all but Jesus, can I catch a break sometime?

It is because of this that I went the way of the streamer. That and I’m told that bigger fish eat bigger flies. The other side of that is that small ones do too. Part of the fun of that is when they do, sometimes you have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. I mean seriously, what business does a 6″ brown have trying to eat a 3″ or 4″ fly?