Buying Flies at your fishing destination

[Byron haugh]

There was a post here a while back asking the question: Do you ever buy flies? Most said they never do. I indicated I always end up buying some of the "local" patterns at my fishing destination.

This July, I was in the Yellowstone area fishing with some guys on the Henry's Fork. The hatch activity was slowing down each day. The bugs (and thus the rises) were somewhat sporadic and happened only at certain times of the day.

Towards the end of our trip, the spinner fall of large Brown Drakes (or Gray Drakes - hard to tell) happened at about 8PM. On the morning of our last day, I bought a couple Brown Drake spinners of a rather unusual nature. They were tied with hot spots and they looked like they might work.

That night at about 8PM, the spinner fall started and was even lighter than previous days. I put on the fly I had purchased that morning and cast to the location of a rather "strong" rise. I immediately hooked and landed a nice fat rainbow of about 18 inches.

Here's my thought: That fly was pricey (over $2). But, what was catching, fighting, and landing that rainbow in fairly heavy water worth - especially when I had paid so much to travel there and stay there? I always figure local patterns can often be the best. Next time I go, I will have tied some of these.

The fly still has my leader attached!!!!