I have sinned
Well it all started at the annual Kettle creek fishing with my son and some of his friends and their dads at Cross Fork. I got skunked the 1st evening using March brown and BWO dries.
The next morning 38 degrees, I used a bead head Black Stonefly and hit some deep pools and landed 8. I went back for a late breakfast at 10:30 and the report was 12, 16, 9, and so on. My son said he used one of my hares ear fly???s with a split shot and landed 10. I was amazed at how I was low man on the count and felt a great joy for all the others 
.
After breakfast and swapping war stories, I decided to follow my son to his honey hole and lagged well back and watched his routine. He had not noticed me lurking behind him high on the bank. Before he cast his line he would bring it in each time and appear to be adjusting something, Weight, knot on fly, I couldn???t tell. The next thing you know he is landing one fish after another in some fast water and boulders. I was amazed at his ability to detect strikes without an indicator. Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, bam, 5 fish. I sneak up behind him to observe closer and what do you know, the little 32 year old pi$$ pot is tipping my hares ear nymphs with wax worms and mealworms.
I was beside myself, my own son tipping a fly with bait and he wouldn???t let his dad in on his secret.
I slipped away and headed to the car in disgust. The next thing you know I lost control of the steering wheel and some misguided demon directed me to the local fly shop about 6 mile down the road. Phil had a great supply of worms of all shapes and varieties. I asked him about my group of good fellows that I fish with. He said, oh ya they use mealworms mostly and some even use circle hooks so the fish are hooked lightly in the mouth. Well that did it; I thanked him for the info and purched 50 of each in meal and wax worms.
I hit the stream and used a beaded hares ear with you guessed it a meal worm. I played the ripples, the holes and the fast water with large boulders and was in disbelief. I had landed 12 fish in around 2 hours, lost several others and two of my best looking flies.
Tipping a nymph is a license to steal and they kept this secret from me because they assumed I was a purist. Ha it didn???t take me long to break the boredom of a long dry spell with a little tipping of the fly. I was pleased to find out later that that all of them debarbed the hooks.
I can attest that in my second year of fishing trout, this trip was my most productive because of the tipping. I had my usual average without any juice on the tip. And enjoyed every minute.
The nymphs were more productive than the dries; the day temp soared to the high 70??? to low 80???s. The hatches were very brief and it seemed I always picked the wrong dry GGRRR.
#1 Bead head Stonefly #10-12
#2 Bead head Hares ear #12
#3 March Brown Emerger #10
#4 Bead head Caddis Tan #12
Water was crystal clear with good flow and cool.
The usual crowds on the honey holes all week.
I have now confessed to my dreary deed and hate to admit it, if you get bored try tipping with Wax worms or Mealworms. They also had luck with fluorescent Green and Red Salmon eggs.
Old Geezer