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MORE FLY FISHING FABLES
In the world of fly fishing the fly rod has become something akin to a magic wand. I think that Gierach had it right when he coined the phrase "standing in the water waving a stick." It seems to be a well-accepted fact that the fly rod makes the angler, when in fact it's the angler that makes the fly rod.
Neil,
I generally agree with both the spirit and content of your article, but let me share one experience I recently had with you.
I was recently fishing a truly gin-clear spring creek in northern GA (private water) by invitation, and it was about midday and sunny. I was fishing a beetle on a treated leader, but the trout were shying off from my offering in spite of feeding on the surface aggressively under the edges of the trees and the bright sun. There was no hatch visible and the fish were splashing and slashing sporadically, so I was pretty sure they were swatting terrestrials falling into the water from the tree branches above. I started paying very close attention to everything about my presentation.
Lo and behold, I noticed something I had never seen before! Along the bottom of the stream beneath and ahead of my leader was a shadow of a line of circles or "bubbles." These circles got increasingly bigger as they got closer to my rod tip and smaller as they were closer to the fly, and they were arrayed in a slightly less than straight line mimicking the shape in which my leader was laid out on the surface. They were very regularly spaced, with a gap the size of each bubble between them. They were driving the fish absolutely spooky as they would approach the beetle to investigate and then wig out as the shadowy "bubbles" approached along the bottom of the stream. I repeated this for confirmation's sake 3-4 times.
Parafin-based leader grease. Never again! Using it in riffled water later in the day I had no problems at all, but in that slow water at midday it was killing me!!! So there are...as we know...exceptions to every "rule."
Good article, along the line of the old line "Sacred cows make the best burgers." If you catch some of those snipes, the feathers would make some good soft hackles, which I like to fish deep and under dry flies. Both work at time.
While myths and fables serve to prop up fragile psyches, remember too they prop up niche industries.