Quote Originally Posted by Ed_D View Post
I think it was about 40 years ago (!) that Patrick McManus dealt with this conundrum In one of his stories. He was taking his hard-core-dry-flies-only boss fishing. He was accompanied by one of his childhood friends, IIRC it was Retch Sweeney. The three of them fished hard all day and were smelling The Skunk. Patrick's Boss was getting testy and Mr. McManus was getting panicky. Retch drifted away a bit and suddenly started catching fish on almost every cast. They hollered to him and asked what he was using. He said a #16 Light Cahill. Patrick and Boss immediately changed flies and started catching... nothing. Finally they went over to the now-sheepish Retch and looked at his "fly". It was a bare hook with a glob of worms on it. Patrick was horrified. Patrick's boss looked at Patrick and Patrick looked back. They quietly snipped off their flies, tied on bare hooks, and each accepted a worm from the handful proffered by Retch. They immediately began taking trout. Later on, they commented on how well Retch had matched the hatch...
I remember that! The article was called "Mr. Taggart". Thanks for the memory.