Don?t throw away that mistake Fish it!

If I screw up a fly, I rarely throw it away or salvage it out, i.e., save the hook, etc., instead I use it to fish those places that require the perfect cast or approach to avoid the brush or logs on the far bank that always seem to hold all the fish. Having a few flies in your fly box that you don?t mind losing sometimes emboldens you to try to cast to those almost impossible lies and possibly improving your casting. Additionally it just may catch fish.
One of my biggest mistakes was an effort to tie an Elk Hair Caddis for my first ever trip out west. I used the wrong hair, it flared badly on me, and an oversized hook and in general it had a poor Elk Hair Caddis silhouette.
This fly turned out to be my most productive fly on this trip. Why, because I had not tied any Hoppers, just the ninety patterns that all my friends recommended, another story another time, and Hoppers were the fly that were most productive.
In desperation to get in on the good ?Hopper? fishing I looked for the closest fly resembling a Hopper and it was ?My Mistake?. It worked and worked well.
The pattern is now a standard in my fly box, tied the same way as the original, the only difference is I gave it a more honorable name, instead of ?Mistake? I have named it the ?HopCad?.