Ugly Fly catches a fish.......

[Plain Old Jim]

I have good news! I just saved a bunch of money switching.....nah. Better than that.

I am an extremely rookie fly tier. I bought a vise and then tied a dozen Becker Lake Special's for Al's bench. Tied nothing since. Some friends got together just to tie. I was shown a couple of weeks ago how to tie a beadhead semi-seal leech. We got together again the other night and I tried to do it on my own. Man I just totally blew it. I forgot about doing the dubbing step.....just blew the whole darn thing. I was so put out with myself. I finished it off and put on some head cement and just quit for the night. Silver Creek has a rep for good fish but very hard to get a strike. I tied on that fly I tied....it is the very first fly I ever tied that I ever tried to fish with. It has to be the ugliest semi-seal leech ever born. I threw it out there and a 19" female hammered it! She was pretty tired when I landed her and thus treated quite gently. I was sorta one foot on the water's edge and other foot up on bank. So, since I usually have trouble getting hook out of net....I just gently laid the net and her behind me up on the flat ground and stepped up there to get her loose. She flopped over one time and laid there...all dirty. I saw the fly already loost about a foot away. My friend said hold it and quickly measured with a tape....19"! Biggest trout I ever caught. I immediately gently picked her up and got her in the water. She gently swam away...she was pretty pooped out. She left caviar on the bank. I was surprised it was orange instead of the red salmon eggs you see in the store. I swear I did not treat her poorly but she still left eggs. Point is....the fly certainly does not have to be tied very perfectly to catch a trout.

I was so concerned about getting her back in the water I didn't get a good look at her to remember her by. She had rolled in the dirt and was covered with it. Clean.....I could have really taken in every second of her beauty forever. However I wanted to get her back in the water. It all happened so fast.

It was a very big day for me. First time I throw in one of MY hand tied flies and get a 19" trout. WOW. What a hoot.

Gem

Nice job! More proof that the aim of creating flies is to entice the fish not the angler.

And good efforts to catch and release

[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 25 February 2006).]

[Gardenfish]

Gem, nice post. I am impressed with your concern about the fish. Good for you.
Most of my flies of the same pattern look different from the one I just finished. I catch fish, so I agree that perfection is of no account unless we have entered a tying contest.

[rgregorchik]

Gem,
Good job! Espically on the C & R. I've had the same experience many times with my own ties. Recently I've developed the habit of carrying a small digital camera in one of my vest pockets. It takes less than a minute to snap off a few pics. The fish gets released quickly enough. And when you catch that "surprise" fish it's great to have a picture to print out and glue into your fishing log book next to the story! Ron

[Marco]

Hey tere POJ,
It's encouraging to hear that ugly, self tied flies DO catch fish. One of these days I too hope to be producing my own of that general description.
There was a member her a while back whose signature was " I tie so that fish would have something to laugh about", MY flies will probably scare em to death.

Mark

------------------
I'd rather be in Wyoming!

[fishyfranky]

Yes POJ, with more experience you can intentionally tie disfigured flys to perfection... I'm still not able to do a Quigley Cripple right

[akalooker]

Plain Old Jim,

Congratulations on that 19" whopper, and on your very first self tied fly, WAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

If you didn't know it already, the Simi-Seal Leech is another one of John Rohmer's awesome creations, and I don't go anywhere without a bunch of them in my box. They also work on many diferrent species of fish, but shuuuush!!!!, we don't want everyone to know all of our secret flies.

If you need a refresher on how to tie it, believe it or not, John submitted that fly as a "Fly of the Week" over 5 years ago.

You can find the tying instructions and photos to help you out by looking on "Fly of the Week", Under "previous flies" and scrolling down to the 4th Quarter of 2000, it's the first fly right at the top of the list.

John showed me this while I visited with him today and took the step-by-step photos for the Arizona Diamond Hair Minnow that has been causing quite a stir on here lately.

These photos will be submitted soon for a "Fly of the Week" consideration.

Thanks for sharing your special fish catch & release with us.

Terry

[Thwack]

PlainOldJim,

Congrats! You should retire that fly...it's customary to keep the first fly you tied that caught a fish somewhere that you won't forget.

The first fly I tied that caught a fish is hanging from a power line over the area I caught that fish. I didn't retire it soon enough but at least I know where to find it...

[Plain Old Jim]

Terry,
I have already printed out John's FOTW and had it by me when I tied the thing. But, everyone was progressing and I thought I knew how to do it and didn't have time to read and go step by step. I didn't even have a velcro to dress it out. It's a pretty goofy looking leech. I might find a way to take a pic and post it just to show a far off it is from what it was supposed to be.

Thanks Thwack. I think I will retire it. Too bad I don't have a pic. She was a beauty. But....I might try to tie another like it.

Terry,
I tied that fly because I had seen it work. It is the...#27 Blood Leech color with some #1 Black mixed in....rolled into the center. That color scheme caught a 27.5 inch rainbow at the big pool by Chris Carlson, a guide, out of Peoria....Phoenix valley. Also that same fly caught the 8.5 pound hog out of Silver Creek right where you park...and I watched him catch it. That fish picture I took down to Sportsman's Warehouse (new Mesa store) and they put it under the glass counter in the fishing department. It is a great fly.

Gem

[white43]

This was a very good mid-winter story to hear. Thanks, Plain Old Jim, for sharing. I'm far from being a real good tyer, but some of those things I tied as a pre-teenager back in Missouri in the 1950s were of sorry fate. Yet they caught fish. Naturally I assumed it was talent besting the best of nature!!!!! Keep at it, for even after all these years it's still a thrill to catch fish on flies I've tied. JGW