Byron,
Don't know if their footprint is better, but I do know the thorax style is a heck of a lot easier to tie and it catches fish for me. My favorite mayfly pattern is Barr's viz-a-dun:
I usually tie with a biot body to speed things up even more.
Regards,
Scott
Scott,
Tried a thorax style. Thought the hackle was to be sparse and X wrapped? I notice my "wing" fibers are too sparse and don't stand out enough.
Anyway, would this work for a comparison of footprint on water in a plastic bowl?
Thanks,
Byron
I actually liked your other fly, but down this path lies madness, or the recreation of a mayfly with 6 legs touching the water, which is where sparse hackle and that thorax tie come in. As long as that big nasty steel hook hangs down there, and tippet hangs off the front and touches the water, the footprint is going to be less than perfect.
DG
I used to tie the upside down "funnel fly" pattern. That does eliminate the hanging hook................
Been thinking about the premise of this thread.
The answer is obvious. Somewhat like the emperor's new dry fly.
There is no perfect footprint. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say there are many.
If you stand in the Spring Creek during a thick hatch--perhaps Pale Morning Duns in July, for instance at O'Hair's south of Livingston, MT--and if you watch the fish, rather than fish, you will see the fish take any and all arriving dimples. Some are drowned and spent wing. Some have wings upright but are still half trapped in the shuck. Some are on their sides, struggling vigorously. Some have one wing up and the other crumpled stuck to the body. Some dimples are drifting nymphs with wing cases barely split. The fish take them all--all the real ones anyway. Sometimes two fish will race each other to next arriving dimple.
Any and all flies that are approximately the right size and color are as good as any other. If a fish refuses your Sparkle Dun. Switch to a no-hackle or an emerger or to a spent wing. Changing pattern (to any other pattern) as a response to a refusal is what any experienced spring creek guide will tell you to do. That's what they told me when I first started working at the Yellowstone Angler. I heard that from everybody I worked with: Deanna's nephew Tom, from John Green, Paul Rice, Rick Smith, Chuck Tuschmidt, Randy Berry, Rick Smith. Brandt Oswald. Bob Auger. George too for that matter. All of them. It doesn't mean you can't have a few favorite patterns. But you do have to be willing to give up on them periodically. A wide variety of simple patterns in your box is more powerful than a smaller number of complex ones.
Last edited by pittendrigh; 01-09-2012 at 02:26 PM.
Pitt:
I can see your point. Would tend to agree in some situations. However, I have been in situations where you really did have to "match the hatch" to be successful. The reason I enjoy fishing and fly tying is because it CAN be so challenging. I enjoy the challenge and strive to meet the challenge, where necessary. I have seen guys walk away from the river in frustration when the rising trout would take nothing he put on - and he must have tried 8-10 different flies. I don't like walking away.................
Last edited by Byron haugh; 01-09-2012 at 04:01 AM.
I'm not saying the fish aren't selective, during a hatch. I'm stretching the morphological definition of match. A green drake pattern won't do well during a pale morning dun hatch. But any (any) fly the size and color of a pale morning dun can be used effectively. Some might work better than others, but conditions change, from minute to minute. And spring creek fish are wary. They've all been pricked a thousand times. If you do get a refusal you have to change pattern. Else you scratch on the eight ball.
During the evening Sulfur hatches (late summer on the Paradise Valley spring creeks) it is virtually impossible to catch a fish on a dry fly. Unlike blue winged olives and pale morning duns, which ride the surface film for twenty feet or more before flying off, the sulfurs seem to catapult themselves out of the water the instant they reach the surface. There are no drifting naturals and the fish won't take them. You have to fish nymphs or emergers. Or you won't catch any fish. A wide variety of tiny sulfur-colored cylinders work just fine. Perhaps the term should be "match the behavior."
Also, as to John's points about presentation (posted below this one)......sure. Presentation is extremely important. But it isn't the whole story. If you're fishing your favorite sparkling water walker with trailing Zelon shuck and UV microlegs, or what ever, and if you get refused twice by the same regularly rising fish, two dozen perfect presentations after that are good money after bad. Change pattern and then make a good presentation, however, and boom. There you go. Fish on!
Last edited by pittendrigh; 01-09-2012 at 03:23 PM.
It's entirely possible ...
... if not likely, that the problem was not with the particular flies being offered, but with the angler's presentation of them.Originally Posted by Byron haugh
Of course, blaming it on the flies or the fish is easier than taking responsibility for the presentation.
Admittedly, I fish very few hatches ( except for the stoneflies and October caddis ) and run into very few "selective trout" and very rarely fish over trouts that have been in any way "pressured." But fundamentals are fundamentals, and presentation is right up there at the top of the list on what it takes to catch the fishies.
I do agree with Sandy that having a good selection of simple flies probably confers a real advantage over having a good selection of flies designed to catch fishermen, or hobbyist fly tiers.
John
P.S. When I used to ask one of my mentors, Bruce Staples who is a Buzz Buszek award winner, about which fly to use, he would tell me it didn't make much different - just present a good one properly.
The fish are always right.
Four Score and...... I see what you did there.
Good fishing technique trumps all.....wish I had it.
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