Quote Originally Posted by Buddy Sanders View Post
I get that we do all this introspection and discussion about the minutiae of stuff like this to spend time and intellect in our chosen way. It's fun, kills time, and makes us feel good about what we believe.

But I often wonder if we are seriously overthinking all of this.

We have no clue what trout see. We don't even know with certainty if a trout's brain perceives shapes and colors as ours does.

Things like light levels, surface turbulence and water clarity all effect what can be seen. Light refraction through water itself, and the whole reflective issues with the surface of the water make any level of certainty about how a particular dry fly 'looks' from below impossible.

Our only accurate method of figuring this out is success. What works and what does not work on the fish.

We've all caught trout on something that seemed absolutely inappropriate for the conditions, and for all of us there have been times when we've been certain we've got it figured out and had no success at all.

All I can say is that I have no clue as to what any fish 'sees' or what it 'believes' my flies to be. I don't really care anyway. I just know that when I figure out what works and I can catch a few fish, I'm happy. If I can't figure it out and i don't catch a few fish, then I'm still happy because I got to go fishing.

Buddy
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