Tying off a Parachute Differently

[Silver Creek]

Wow,

As long as the trout eats it, why does it matter what it 'thinks' it is? (I can't get my head around the trout 'thinking' at all.)

I can't even figure out why it matters what it looks like to us.

If it don't work, try a different fly? If it does....

Basics of dry fly selection:

Can I see it on the water is the first priority. Do the trout eat it is the second. There isn't an important third....

Guess it just gives folks something to postulate on.

Buddy

Buddy,

If a fish eats it that is all good; but the best fly fishers, in my view, have a methodology on how to choose the fly to use. When you say, "If it don't work, try a different fly", are we to assume that you do that randomly or is there some way of deciding what fly to choose? If there is a method, how do you chose? Or do you play the fly box lottery hoping to get lucky?

Fly fishing is not random. Fly choice is just like reading the water. I doubt you would recommend that the fly fisher cast randomly hoping that there is a fish in that inch deep water. That is like the the hunter shooting randomly in the woods hoping to hit a deer. I suspect you would recommend that a fly fisher not randomly choose what fly to use but that is what you seem to be implying we should do.

Can you not see that is exactly what your post is suggesting? As long as we can see the fly that should be the only criteria. I missed angler visibility of the fly fly listed under the size, shape, color and behavior criteria of matching the hatch. There are alternative ways of locating the fly.

The reason we are interested in why a fish takes a fly is that it also gives us information why a fish will not take a fly. What a fish thinks a fly represents is important in deciding what fly to use.