John Gaidies never read anything Homer Circle wrote
that he didn't believe.
If he believes the Bible half as much as he believes Circle,
he has a reserved first-class seat on that old glory-bound
train.
For 20 years now, Gaidies has been trying to convince me that
the best bluegill, crappie and sometimes bass fly known to man
is a sinking green spider described by Circle.
Well, if it's such a hot fly, how come you can't find anybody
who sells it or the sinking sponge to make it with? Probably
because if you could buy or make it, sales would fall off on
a lot of other stuff. But, it's not the best bluegill,
crappie and sometimes bass fly there is. I've been trying
to tell Gaidies that just as long as he's been preaching
the green spider gospel according to Uncle Homer.
The best is a black gnat.
And now I know why.
The first time I realized what a terrific fly the black
gnat is, I was fishing bluegill beds in the Lonestar Lakes
near Suffolk, Virginia. Until then, I was sure, just
like most other folk, that only a "poppin' bug" was
suitable for bluegill. That day Gaidies was taking
two or three fish to every one I was tapping with my
poppin' bug. Too proud to ask for a spare green spider
if he had one, I tied on a black gnat. I do believe
if I'd caught one more fish that day, my rod, good as
it is, would have taken a permanent set. The gnat has
been working for me ever since.
One time Ol' Jack Perkinson and I found time to go off
pestering the fish in a small pond near my home. Jack
was flinging everything from beetle-spins to plastic worms
and I started out using a Calcascieu Pigboat. Neither one
of us was doing diddley. Then I switched to a black gnat
and the fish got downright communally. I started taking
crappie, big old bull bream and even some bass so regularly
it looked like they were trying to use my line as a shortcut
to evoluting into land animals.
Then Jack hauled out his fly rod, bummed a gnat off me
and started doing the same thing. After that, I started
wondering what could have made the gnat so magical. The
fly is nothing but black chenille wrapped on a number 12
hook with a narrow white wing and a black hackle - in
other words, a chicken feather - wrapped at the front.
I couldn't recall seeing anything in or on the water that
resembled it, but the fish sure treated it like the piscene
equivalent of JuJubes in a movie house.
So I called Dave Shriver and asked him what the gnat could
be imitating. Dave is an entomologist - a student of
bugs - and I figured he might know. He said he'd do a
little research and call me back.
Dave called back after a little while and said the fish
were likely taking the gnats as culicoides.
"Say what?"
"Midges. They look like mosquitos with fuzzy antennae
and hatch out of the mud around ponds." he said.
"How'd you figure that out so fast?"
"I looked black gnats up in George Herter's old book
on trout flies to see what you were talking about and
then remembered that I'd seen a lot of midges already
this year. The wet weather has hatched them early."
Shriver explained that culicoides are the largest of three
types of midge and aren't strong flyers.
"Probably 25 percent of them drown trying to hatch," he said.
"Since they hatch from spring until fall, they are an
important food for the fish."
There it was, scientific proof that I was right and Gaidies,
for all his Uncle Homerology, should have been listening to me.
Sure, spiders do fall in the water - but not nearly as
many of them drown as midges do.
Of course, Gaidies did catch a citation bluegill on a green
spider, and I've never caught a citation 'gill period, but
that just proves the old adage about blind hogs and acorns - I hope.
~ CN
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