Which is more important,fly selection or presentation, is a debate that is heard over and over again. I played with that question last night and here is what happened to me. The scene is a river with trout rising to a caddis hatch. The only place to stand is on a rock that has my back up against a wall (bridge abutment) that has shrubs in front of it. So no back cast possible. It was a roll cast evening, all the way, and a downstream dry fly as well.

I used elk hair caddis flies, size 14 and 16 and even a 12. I used tan, olive and black. I even used one I tied myself that I would not show to a human and only used it to prove a point. It was a fly so poorly tied that I don''t know why I kept it. Any way, here is what I found out. Regardless of fly selection (within reason), that when I had the right placement and the right drift I was catching fish. Not every cast, but a high percentage of them. It did not matter which of the above combinations I used, they all worked. When there was drag on the fly or I was outside of the main current flow where the fish were feeding I had zero takes.

For disclaimers, there has to be a reasonable imitation of something on the water i.e. no #10 hoppers for a midge hatch or damsel fly during an early March Brown hatch. I think that still water fishing might be different because of the time a fish has to inspect the fly. Obviously this test is one of many that has to be repeated, but I found it interesting none the less.

Obviously I need to test my theory again and again, but it seems to support my conclusions from nymphing last year, that using some universal type fly (Pheasant Tail or Gold Ribbed Hares Ear) if presented correctly they will work a reasonable percentage of the time regardless of the time of year.

Needless to say, the right fly with the right drift is always better than an approximate fly with the right drift, or the right fly with a drag.

jed