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This is a fly tying column, but I'm not going
to teach any patterns, show any new techniques
or reveal any new materials. Instead, I want
to discuss the idea that a person can design a
new fly and be confident that it will work before
he ever introduces the fly to water. It is about
basic form and principle rather than a detailed
description of a specific pattern.
Some of you have been following my "too simple"
series of fly patterns; and you may wonder why
such simple flies seem to work so well, especially
since they don't take a lot of time or energy to
tie them. Others may wonder why I can have so many
of my own patterns that work, and work well. I
think I need to let some of you in on a little
secret that might change your whole outlook on
fly tying.
It would be a feather in my personal fly tying cap
to be able to tell you I have spent countless hours
developing each pattern, and just as many hours
verifying that each pattern worked exactly the way
I intended it to work, but that would be a lie.
In fact, many of the patterns I have developed were
tied with great confidence that they would work from
the very start. Before I wrapped the first wrap of
thread on the hook, I knew they would catch fish.
I know this sounds like heresy to some of you, but
it's the truth. I was totally confident that the
fly would work before I placed a hook in the vise.
I didn't doubt for even a moment that I had a success
brewing on my hook. That is especially true with my
simple patterns that are so easy to tie. And, if you
are willing, I know you can create a new pattern with
the same confidence. Are you up to the challenge?
Ok, before we go there, I want to discuss with you
some basic things that are universal in fly tying
and fishing those flies. These are solid principles
that you can count on every time you get ready to tie
a fly or cast a fly to a fish. If you let them, they
will transform your fishing and tying abilities to the
point that you'll be able to tie new patterns for
anywhere and fish them successfully with the confidence
that they will work. And, I'm going to defile the myth
that fish are hard to catch unless you have a specific
pattern in your box.
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Rule number 1 - Fish are easy to catch. They have
specific habits and live in a place that makes them
easy targets for the person who knows a few simple
facts about them. The main reason people have
trouble catching fish is that they don't know their
quarry well enough to know how to fish for them.
And, they don't know what fish eat well enough to
tie flies for them.
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Rule number 2 - Simple flies catch a lot more
fish than complex flies do. That statement is
likely to hurt a few feelings, but it is the truth.
Complex flies challenge our skills and design wishes,
but they don't do a thing for the fish. In fact,
complex flies, by their very nature are doomed to
catch fewer fish than simple flies do. The more
specific the pattern, the more likely it is to be
rejected by a fish that is looking for something
that looks like a meal.
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Any fly that looks somewhat like an insect is
fair game to a hungry fish. Most fish suck in
all manner of debris during a day's time, only
to blow it back out of their mouth when they
discover it isn't food. In fast moving water,
they only have a fraction of a second to make
up their mind, if they plan to eat that day.
Anything that looks close and passes into their
feeding lane is likely to get a response from
a fish.
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Simple, generic looking flies like a hare's ear,
are so very productive because they look somewhat
like a lot of insects to a fish. If you examine
a lot of nymphs, you'll quickly discover that most
of them look a lot alike in general, and the only
thing that really separates them from each other
at fist glance is size and color or general shade.
A hare's ear doesn't really look like anything
specifically; but it looks enough like a lot of
things to make it look edible to a fish. The same
holds true with dry flies too. Since most adult
insects on the water have wings that are swept back
over their abdomens, a simple dry fly with a swept
wing (in the right shade and size of course), will
look close enough to fool most fish if it is
presented right.
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Rule number 4 - Most people fail on the water and
ultimately at the vise because they are unwilling
to learn what the fish are feeding on. It is as
simple as using a nymph net to collect a sample
of the insects in the stream, but 90% of the
fishermen I see refuse to collect even a few
samples. They just blindly select a fly by the
principle of "I always use that fly" or "someone
told me that they work." The same holds true as
far as observing the insects on the surface, and
observing their habits.
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One of my favorite baetis nymph patterns is nothing
more than some dark brown (nearly black) punch
embroidery yarn wrapped around a hook. Like I
said; nothing more, no legs, no tail and no
specific thorax. I just sample the stream with
a nymph net to determine the size of the nymphs
and match that size to a yarn fly in my box. It
fools the fish very well, and it doesn't take more
than a minute to tie one of those flies. However,
it only works if there are baetis nymphs moving
along in the water. That's exactly why I use a
nymph net.
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Rule number 5 - Presentation is at least 50% of
the equation; and truthfully, it's probably a
lot higher than that. I can take a simple bunny
emerger or a simple yarn nymph and catch fish if
I can present it in a manner that looks like a
natural insect, and if I present it in the feeding
lane of the fish. Here is where so many fly
fishermen handcuff themselves. Common belief is
that a fly must be presented by drifting that fly
to the fish. Hogwash! Except for mayflies, most
insects are pretty active on and in the water, and
even mayfly nymphs are often pretty active in the
water.
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Caddisflies and stoneflies usually lay their eggs
while flying upstream, pausing only occasionally
to deposit their eggs in the water. That upstream
motion is a key to dry fly success, but most people
still drift their caddis and stonefly imitations
because they don't observe the natural insect
doing its thing. On the other hand, mayflies
lay their eggs while drifting on the water. The
right presentation is the key to success, at least
as much or more than the right pattern is.
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Most nymphs are pretty active when moving through
the water column. If they were dislodged from the
bottom, they are often busy wiggling back toward
the bottom to hide again. If they are in the
process of emerging, they are usually actively
wiggling toward the surface. That twitching,
wiggling motion is so common that many fish
look for food based on motion first and size,
color and shape second. I can only say that
the reason most people are surprised when a
fish hits their fly when it finally begins to
move at the end of a drift; is that those people
have little or no understanding of the habits
of insects and/or fish.
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On the subject of presentation, crayfish and
minnows move. I think that is why a wooly bugger
is so effective if it moves in the water. Fish
look for that movement and zero in on it when
they see it. I guess that's why I shake my head
when I hear of someone drifting a wooly bugger
under a strike indicator. Sure, it might even
get an occasional look, but not nearly as many
looks as it would get if it moved like a minnow
or crayfish. A nymph suspended below an indicator
on a lake is far more effective if there is a chop
on the water. That is because the chop makes the
nymph move. A simple twitch of the fly on calm
water would do the same thing, but most of the
time I can't convince other fishermen to try it.
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Rule number 6 - Any fly, no matter how poorly tied
it looks, will catch fish if it is the right size,
shape and color; and if it is presented properly.
It is a bonus if the fly looks nice, but only
because it looks nice, not because it will catch
more fish. The more exact the imitation is, the
more specific you have to be to match the right
hatch with your fly. The more generic your
imitation is, the more likely it is to look
close enough to something edible to fool a fish,
and the more likely it is to match more than one
hatch.
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Rule number 7 - Learn how to cast. I don't mean
you need to learn how to cast a whole line, unless
the fish you want to catch are that far away. I
mean, learn how to cast your fly to where the fish
are. If the fish are feeding four inches from the
far side of the stream, learn how to cast accurately
to within four inches of the far side of the stream.
Learn how to drop your fly next to that boulder or
under that branch where the fish are feeding. Learn
how to present your fly in the feeding lane of a seam
or the edge of an undercut bank. If you can't get
your fly to where the fish are, you won't have a
lot of really successful days.
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Rule number 8 - Tie flies that match your local
insects. I don't care how pretty your new creation
is, if it won't catch fish because it doesn't match
what the fish are feeding on, you just wasted your
time tying it. This brings us back to the nymph
net and observation thing. You need to know what
the fish are eating if you want the creations of
your vise to be successful. A poorly tied, butt
ugly fly that is the right size, shape and
color/shade will catch a lot more fish than a
beauty of a fly that matches nothing on the water.
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Rule number 9 - Learn the basics before you leap
into the complex. If you never progress beyond
basic flies, you'll be a lot more successful than
the guy who dabbles here and there on his way to
pretty flies, but doesn't understand what those
flies are supposed to imitate. Observation on
the water is equally as important to your fly
tying success as knowing advanced tying tricks,
especially if you don't know what you are trying
to imitate. A person who knows insects and how
they hatch and lay eggs will be far more successful
catching those fish with simple flies, than the guy
who has mastered advanced tying skills but doesn't
have any idea of what his flies are supposed to
imitate. It's simple, learn basic fly tying
techniques and learn the insect, and you'll
catch more fish. If you ignore either of these
principals, you'll be doomed to catch fewer fish.
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Rule number 10 - Never, and I mean NEVER be
afraid to try something new. If you have armed
yourself with a workable knowledge of the insects
and some basic fly tying skills, you are prime to
create some fantastic imitations that will fool
fish. You don't have to know the name of an insect
(in English or Latin); in fact you don't have to
know for certain whether it is a mayfly or a
stonefly. As long as you know what it looks
like, how it behaves, and how to tie something
that looks fairly close to that insect, and you
can present it properly, you'll catch fish. Your
fly doesn't have to look pretty or fancy to work,
but it does have to look like something the fish
are feeding on.
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In case you missed it, my ten rules stress knowing
what the fish are eating more than knowing how to
tie cool looking flies. Nothing about my EZ Nymph
looks cool, but to the fish it looks like food.
At least it does when I fish it at the time when
fish are eating things that look like my EZ Nymph.
Don't be duped into the idea that you must follow
my patterns exactly. In fact, you should never
concern yourself with exact imitations of another
person's patterns unless you are merely trying
to duplicate his efforts. Branch out and use
what others can show you to improve the success
of your own patterns.
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You've made it this far, so now is the time to
throw the worm box away and work on some more
exacting creations of your own. Now is the time
to get past the "what fly catches fish" mentality
and learn WHY that fly catches fish, and
when it catches fish. You can do it if
you try; but you'll never get it done if you
don't start observing what is going on around you.
~ AC
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