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After contacting my friend Joe one of the great obsessive fly fisherman today.
The book "Matching the Hatch" was authored by Ernest Schweibert, now deceased Princeton architecture professor.
The title of the book refers to the goal of some fly fisherman to identify the stream insect upon which the trout are currently feeding, prepare an effective imitiation fly of that insect on a miniature hook, and present it in such a way as to inducee the trout to take the fisherman's imitation instead of the live insect.
The word 'hatch' in this context is actually a traditional term, but a misnomer. Whereas we accurately speak of a chicken hatching from an egg, the hatching referred to in this book and those of many predecessors (all the way back to ancient Greece) and subsequent modern authors, should more properly be called emerging.
A stream insect starts with an egg deposited in the water by the adult form. This egg hatches in the stream and the insect larva lives in the stream for a species-specific period of time. After that time the larva exits the water, or in some cases merely rises to the surface film of the stream, splits its 'skin' and an adult insect with wings emerges and flies in to the air to breed and repeat the cycle. The metamorphosis from larva to adult is the emergence or 'hatching' referred to by fly fisherman.
During the emergence period, which can in some cases be timed by season, temperature, time of day and other amazing specifics, the insects emerge en masse and are vulnerable to predation by trout and birds. The birds and trout take advantage of this. If the fly fisherman can effectively 'match the hatch' then he/she can take advantage of the vulnerability of the trout which become 'keyed in' on the specific insect species currently in abundance.
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