Fly Fishing Hatch Charts

Most fly fishing hatch charts you'll find online are generic summaries — a vague grid that says "PMDs: June–August" and leaves you wondering which PMD pattern to tie on, what size actually works, and whether the hatch peaks at noon or dusk on the particular stretch of water where you're standing. We built something different.

Every hatch chart in this collection is researched from the ground up using local fly shop reports, guide service recommendations, and USGS flow data specific to each river. When we say the Green River's cicada hatch peaks in late May on hot, gusty days and that Spinner Fall Guide Service's PMX Cricket is the top pattern, it's because we read John Schiavone's 20 years of guiding notes out of Dutch John, Utah — not because we copied a generic stonefly entry from somebody else's chart.

The goal is to give you the same information a skilled local guide would share over a cup of coffee the morning of your trip: what's hatching right now, what fly to tie on first, what tippet size to run, and what water to target. Except instead of one river, we're doing it for twenty of the most productive trout waters in the American West.

Each river guide is a complete fly fishing reference — not just a simple hatch chart, but a deep resource for planning a trip or making sense of what's happening on the water at any point in the year.

Interactive hatch chart — a visual month-by-month grid showing every significant insect hatch, color-coded by type (mayfly, caddis, stonefly, midge, terrestrial) with peak windows highlighted. You can see at a glance what's active in any given month and how hatches overlap.

"What to fish right now" panel — automatically highlights the hatches active in the current month with top fly pattern picks, hook sizes, and time-of-day notes. No scrolling through tables — the most relevant information surfaces first.

Detailed hatch profiles — for each insect, you get the scientific name, lifecycle description, month range, peak timing, hook size range, water temperature triggers, intensity ratings, and specific tactical notes from guides who fish the hatch every season. This is where you learn that San Juan River midges demand 6X–7X fluorocarbon and dead-drift presentations, or that Deschutes Redsides will ignore your salmonfly dry in favor of a #16 tan caddis even during the salmonfly hatch.

Fly pattern recommendations with shop links — every pattern includes the hook size range, a description of when and how to fish it, and affiliate links to Trident Fly Fishing and AvidMax so you can stock your box before the trip.

12 monthly condition reports — for each month, you get average air and water temps, typical flow (CFS), daylight hours, a narrative conditions summary, and specific tactical recommendations. This tells you not just what is hatching but how to fish it given the conditions you'll actually encounter.

River sections and access — water descriptions, regulations, access points, and characteristics for each distinct section of the river. Whether you're floating the wild-and-scenic canyon on the Deschutes or walk-wading the Railroad Ranch on the Henry's Fork, you'll know what to expect.

Every river in this collection goes through the same deep-research process. We start by identifying the primary local fly shops and guide services — the people who fish the water 200+ days per year and post regular fishing reports. For the Missouri River, that meant reading years of reports from Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, Montana. For the San Juan, it was About Trout Guide Service out of Navajo Dam, New Mexico. For the Deschutes, Fin & Fire Fly Shop in Maupin and The Fly Fishers Place in Sisters, Oregon.

We cross-reference a minimum of 8–13 independent sources per river: local shops, guide services, Orvis fishing reports, regional fishing journalists, state fish and game data, USGS flow records, and published hatch charts from fly manufacturers like Big Y Fly Co and Fulling Mill. Every hatch timing, insect size, and peak window is confirmed by at least two independent sources before it goes into the guide.

The result is a hatch chart that reflects what actually happens on the water — including the insider details that rarely make it into generic references. Things like the Henry's Fork's honey ant hatch that only locals know about, or the fact that San Juan Worms change color seasonally (red/orange in summer, light tan in winter), or that Deschutes trout avoid feeding in open water because of the canyon's dense osprey population.