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.
Reply With Quote