There have been a few threads recently regarding matching materials, hooks etc..

I have been taking part in a really interesting discussion about colour descriptions. Someone else was panicking to find a hook that matched a particular recipe.

It seems that some of us fly tyers have become so paranoid about matching a pattern exactly that actually catching fish has become second.

I have to admit that I often become paranoid about matching my local flylife. Trying wherever possible to make a fly as close as possible to the originals. However when I get it wrong, the fish don't really seem to mind. I do not catch many more fish when I produce a fly with the correct number of legs, that exact shade of olive, or using that particular shade of thread that only comes from the belly of a Yak bread in the foothills of the Kyber Pass!!

I wonder when Sawyer tied his killer bug, he spent weeks negotiating with Chadwicks for that exact shade of yarn. I think it was exactly the shade of yarn that his wife had in her sewing box after darning his socks!! Recently in the UK small cards of the original Chadwicks 477 wool have sold for over ?75!! I tie them with grey wool and catch fish. Maybe if I have that exact colour I would catch much bigger and better fish......

Does it all really matter??? Maybe I should give up fishing and just tie flies? Maybe I should just wrap a bit of fluff on a hook and catch fish instead?? Perhaps there is a middle ground, maybe not!!!!!!!