I would not for a second discount Rene Harrops patterns, tying ability or knowledge of the bugs he studies. That being said, nobody....and I say "nobody" has it all figured out. Everybody knows "their" water better than they know somebody elses. And everybody "thinks" that they're hardest and most selective stetch is by far the hardest of all. But at best, we are all just trying to catch trout.

I would not discount ANY fly pattern or style of patterns as being irrelevant today. I would be foolish to do so in my opinion. Trout eat what trout feel like eating that floats by....and it changes by the hour on a given day. And while certianly some patterns may seem to do better on a particular water than others....or better in general....there are no perfect flies. Nobody can claim anywhere, that any given pattern causes EVERY fish that is feeding at the time, to eat it as it floats by. That fly does not exist. If you fish over 20 fish, and your new pattern catches 6 on the day....hey good deal! That's what we hope for. But there is nothing to say that 30 mintes later, another guy can't come strolling by, tie on a catskill pattern, and catch 6 more.

Having fished on both coasts I can honestly say, there are streams in the northeast that can and do send many a west coast angler back to the truck scratching his head as fish dimple the surface all around them. And on the contrary, a stream like Henry's Fork can be a daunting image and lessen in matching the hatch to the first time Eastern angler. Selective trout are where you find them. It doesn't take a pristine mountain setting.....or decades of flyfishing lineage to make a water difficult.

I fished a little stream here in PA yesterday....crystal clear...never more than about chest deep....full of wild brown trout. It's quite possibly THE most difficult little witch of a water that I have had the privilage of fishing. I had fish take "todays" CDC style patterns....an EHC....and a catskill style BWO trimmed as a spinner. When you start thinking you or anybody else has it ALL figured out....those little brightly colored 8" fish will humble you soon enough.