John Herzer of Blackfoot River Outfitters samples a Skwala. He claims they are very tasty.
Photo by Tom Rosenbauer
Some people sneer at worms, as if imitating an aquatic worm is so much less pure than imitating a mayfly. You can’t blame the worms for being born in the wrong order of invertebrates, though, and matching the hatch with a worm, to me, is no less fly fishing than imitating some other critter. There are aquatic species of worms that live their entire lives underwater, living below the waterline along mud and clay banks. But I also think trout eat worm flies because they think they are midge larvae. Most of the midge larvae in our streams are smaller than the worm flies we fish, but the size of your imitation does not seem to be as critical subsurface, and I think the fish see the right shape and color of a midge larva and think, “Boy, that’s a big one! I’m going to eat it”. If fish thought that way, which they don’t. It’s probably more like a reflex, where a trout sees something that looks familiar and tasty and it just eats.Written by: Tom Rosenbauer
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