|
Earlier this week, JC took me out for breakfast and a trip
down to a neighboring town for groceries. As we drove from
the restaurant's parking lot we both noticed a 'bird' hanging
outside the local bird supply store. You know, where you buy
feeders, feed, books and bird-related goodies. We said
something to each other about how neat the 'bird' was and
drove on.
On the way back, JC took a turn which wasn't going to take
us home. I didn't say anything until we drove back into
the parking lot where we had seen the 'bird.' He popped
into the store and then back to the car.
"I can't decide," he said. "They've got too many."
We both went into the store and indeed, they had several more.
Some more ornate in their decoration, and others just different.
It took very little discussion. We bought the first one we had
seen hanging outside the store. It now hangs outside out back
door. My grandmother would have called it a whirligig, but
nothing whirls.
The design/engineering is very clever, and the neck is
constructed so it can turn from side to side as well as
up and down. We haven't named it yet - but it reminds
us both of a blue heron. And even more so as dusk falls
and the silhouette appears to be a heron landing unsteadily
on a branch. If you've ever heard one vocalize at dusk,
it sounds like something prehistoric.
It is the perception, an impression.
We have some very interesting conversations here, and the
whole 'impression/perception' thing grew into talking about
flies. If they are very realistic, or attractors, or just
impressions what makes them work? Add that to an article
by Joe Hyde here on FAOL last week where he reported:
"One man had disembarked and was standing on the exact spot
Rick had occupied; he was throwing his minnow/bobber rig
into the same water Rick and I had fished. This water, we
knew, was thick with crappie but the minnow/bobber guy
couldn't buy a bite. In fact, for almost ten minutes
after Rick left he still wasn't having any luck. Evidence
that today, in the crappie's opinion, Rick's flies fresh
off his tying vice were trumping live minnows fresh from
the bait shop. This made an impression on me."
Obviously, it made an impression on the fish too.
There are people who are very anal about how live minnows
should be used. Which direction the hook has to go through
the minnow, how far down in the minnow body and so on. And
maybe the minnows had been sitting in the sun too long so
the water they were in kept the minnows alive but not very
lively. Maybe the minnows were the wrong color or size.
Who knows?
But, Rick's flies did work. Perhaps because they had a
material on them which moved better and presented a better
'life form' impressions which the fish keyed on. Perception
is everything.
Rick Zeiger does a Quote of the Day, which appears in the
Warmwater section of our Bulletin Board. I've noticed
he often quotes from a book by Ken Abrames, A Perfect
Fish - Illusion in Fly Tying. We reviewed it back
in June of 1999. It is a fascinating book, one which every
fly tier should read regardless of what type of fly you tie.
Why?
We offer a Fly of the Week for our readers, and with
a few exceptions, the flies are patterns with step-by-step
instructions. We have occasionally offered a specific method
which may be new to our readers, but usually it is no more
than a pattern to follow.
The late Al Campbell firmly believed and encouraged folks to
come up with their own patterns, create flies "outside the
box" which are meant to fool their local fish. And it makes
sense that if a fly you come up with works for you, it will
probably work in other places too.
Ken Abrames goes a step further. While his flies are primarily
for east coast stripers, the basis is to create flies which the
fish sees as food. Not necessarily an exact copy (or copy at
all) of the baitfish found in his region. For saltwater or
stream use, the fish is moving, the water is moving, and the
fly itself is moving. So the fish never sees a 'static' fly.
It can't. What it sees is an impression or it has a perception
that the fly is food.
If you look at the photos in the
Flies Only section, you will see that except when the fly
is directly overhead (where the fish can't take it) the fish
never sees what the actual fly looks like. If the fish have
been heavily fished, they certainly can be pickier. But that
may not be the fly at all, but rather how the fly floats. If
there is any drag at all, it just doesn't look right. I don't
recall who the author is, but someone called it 'microdrag.'
(Doug Swisher maybe.)
We will never know exactly what the fish see, not that various
authors haven't tried. We don't have the same eye as fish, nor
do we precisely know how what they 'see' is interrupted by their
brain. Theories abound. And unless we could transplant a fish's
eye in a human, and put the human underwater moving as a fish moves,
it isn't likely we will ever know.
It is all perception. Just an impression. Just like the silly
bird hanging outside our backdoor. ~ The LadyFisher
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
|
