Hatches II: A Complete Guide to the Hatches of North American Trout Streams [Hardcover]

Al Caucci (Author), Bob Nastasi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004 | Series: Hatches II

The twentieth-anniversary edition of Hatches II celebrates the enduring value of this complete guide to fishing the hatches of North American trout streams. Chosen by Trout Unlimited as one of the most important fly-fishing books of the past thrity-five years, Hatches II remains the most complete book on the subject of mayflies and their identification. Hundreds of photographs depict the genera and species of the mayfly in all stages of its development, and the authors provide critical information on mayfly biology, tactics, presentation, and imitation. In fact, the Comparadun style of tying, with variations, remains one of the most important innovations of our time.
Special features of Hatches II include Quick Reference Charts for the East/Midwest and western United States hatches; discussions of the mayfly-trout relationship; stream and lab research; photomacrography; tying instructions; emergence calendars; identification charts; and a valuable phonetic table.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"HATCHES is one of the most informative works of its genre. Its authors have a remarkable ability to succinctly explain the technical aspects of aquatic entomology, but more important the book is unique for its original observations on trout stream insects and their limitations--practical information that we can all put to use."
--A.J. McClane

"HATCHES...has so much more than all the others that it should be the last word on the subject. Al and Bob's book does the trout dirt, by giving the angler so much valuable information."
--Art Flick

From the Back Cover

This updated edition of Hatches celebrates the enduring value of a complete guide to fishing the hatches of North American trout streams. Chosen by Trout Unlimited as one of the most important fly-fishing books of the past thirty-five years, Hatches II remains the most complete book on the subject of mayflies and their identification. Hundreds of photographs depict the genre and species of the mayfly in all stages of its development, and the authors provide critical information on mayfly biology, tactics, presentation, and imitation. In fact, their Comparadun style of tying, with variations, remains one of the most important innovations of our time.
Special features of Hatches II include quick reference charts for the East, Midwest, and western United States hatches; discussions of the mayfly-trout relationship; stream and lab research; photomicrography; tying instructions; emergence calendars; identification charts; and a valuable phonetic table.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592283225
• ISBN-13: 978-1592283224
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you flyfish and/or tie flies this is book is a must, May 6, 2000

By 

Jeffrey D Clark - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hatches II (Bk. 2) (Hardcover)

Caucci and Nastasi provide a detail study and examination of the mayfies of interest to trout flyfishermen in North America. Hatches can be read cover to cover and continue to be used as a reference for years to come. I reference this book at least weekly as I flyfish my way though life.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hatches II, July 20, 2006

By 

Donald C. Zerbst "Zugbugz" (Avondale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hatches II: A Complete Guide to the Hatches of North American Trout Streams (Hardcover)

A beautiful reference book with great info for the fly fisherman. This book could serve as a college entomology reference, so complete is its information. It belongs in the collection of every fly fisherman. The book starts with an introduction to the Mayfly, which gives the neophyte a very detailed overview of the insects and their life cycles. From there, the book moves on to the general hatches for North America, covered in very useful chart form. These charts give times, sizes, imitation guides with names of flies to use. The book moves on to more detailed infomation about the various mayflies, including their characteristics and how to tie the flies that imitate them. The latter part of the book contains a lot of specific info about mayfly imitation and tying which will be helpful in all aspects of fly fishing.

I think if you could have but one book about insects important to fly fishing, this would be the one. It eliminates the guesswork and is simply a great book that I highly recommend.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Fly Fishing references available, May 28, 2008

By 

M. Monko (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hatches II: A Complete Guide to the Hatches of North American Trout Streams (Hardcover)

This book was actually recommended to me by several veteran fly fishermen. I am a relative novice to fly fishing, and I wanted a book that could help me to get to that next level of understanding . . . this is that book. The best thing about this book is that it covers the complete life cycle of aquatic insects in enough detail to make it very understandible. It also nicely ties in the appropriate flys and techniques to most effectively match these life stages.
The biggest surprise for me is that this book is more than just a reference . . . it is a very enjoyable read as well.