My First Purple Adams

[flyman 3]

byron we use spun fur for the body not a egg stack, i use the olive adams more than any of them. i have use a pink body and did great at at certain time of the year. penns creek, pine cr, lackawaxen river, loyalsock ck lots of fun. fishing heavy white water i use three hacke grizzly, brown, lt. ginger. flyman 3

[Byron haugh]

Thanks fly an. Got any pics? Would like to see.
No sense not giving the fish what they seem to like the most

[Byron haugh]

Steven:
Actually, it's not grizzly. It is Coq de Leon fibers. I guess we could call it a Purple de Leon? Or maybe a Ponce de Leon???

[Byron haugh]

The "sacrilege Adams"




And yet another!!!!!!

[tigfly]

I may be wrong (as usual) but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original Adams may also have been tied with the wings either low or swept back. That would support its reputation as a good caddis imitation.

[Byron haugh]

I read the opposite - that the wings were canted forward. I'm wondering if Halladay perhaps understood that the trout first sees the wings before any other part of the fly when drifting towards it?

[Allan]

Maybe, just maybe, Halladay wasn't a very good fly tyer and didn't know how tye the wings one way or the other? Or, maybe, just maybe, Halladay was an inventive tyer and tyed the wings of his Adams' in a few different ways? Hell, Herm Christian is quoted as saying that Theodore Gordon tyed the Bumblepuppy in numerous ways. Gordon himself wrote that he tyed his fly (the Quill Gordon) using various shade quills for the body. So, unless Mr. Halladay put his pattern recipe down in writing, we can only surmise the effect(s) he was going for.

Oh, and Byron, in answer to your question: I gave you my only answer. The Adams, whether some fly fishers think of it as a caddis or others consider it a mayfly isn't important. The fish think of it as FOOD and take it fairly regularly regardless of what may or may not be on the water. Therefore, I will not challenge the most important entity to judge the question. I give you Mr. Trout The most trustworthy judge in fly fishing!

Allan

[Byron haugh]

Well, I guess we could always fall back on "the trout is the judge". However, the bit of science attached to the avocation of fly fishing suggests some insight into predetermining what Mr. Trout might be interested in. That is why we learn about entomology and apply our education/experience from entomology to the art of fly tying. That is why we tie and use different imitations of the different aquatic and terrestrial insects and their stages and try to apply them appropriately to the stream and weather conditions. We may keep a fishing diary or a mental fishing diary. We may rely on hatch charts published for our favorite streams. We may seine the stream. We may simply observe the actions of the trout.
But, the bottom line is that we try to adequately present an imitation of a food source to Mr. Trout for his final determination. Few would offer a caddis if Mr. Trout demonstrates that he is concentrating on hatching/hatched PMD subimagos. Few would offer a PMD subimago imitation to an obvious splashy set of rises to escaping caddis pupa or ovipositiong caddis.
So, I guess that we use flies that we think have the best chance of pleasing Mr. Trout. To do so requires that we "have a plan" out there on the water with our fly selections - IMHO.

[Uncle Jesse]

John Quincy Adams beginning at a young age (16) spent considerable time in the courts of Europe and Russia. My minds eye pictured him at a high court function or a gala in purple knee pants. Maybe you could call it a John Quincy Adams.

I have every intention of giving it a try. I used to catch too many LMB on purple plastic worms not to try it.

[Steven]

Bryon,

Yikes! I did not know that. My only recollection of the Adamms', aside from Presidents John and John Quincy, is that they were a family tv series with characters like Gomez, Morticia, Uncle fester, LURCH, Grandmamma, Wednesday, Pugsley and Thing.

Allan

Addams with two "d's." I'd say call your fly The Addams but I think somebody already thought of that!


Allan,
Surely you can do better than that!!!![/QUOTE]