Didn’t want to ‘hijack’ my own thread…and this may deserve it’s own, anyway…
Herefishy had great question:
“Brings up a question - do the “latest and greatest” flies hot off the Umpqua or MFC vises catch more fish? Do fish get tired of the “old reliables”? Or do you just keep catching the same fish with the same flies?”
My answer is ‘yes’ new flies catch more fish and ‘yes’ you can keep catching the same fish with the same old flies.
Here’s how I see it, from a fly tyers perspective. I don’t buy flies, but I tie LOTS of them.
When I tie flies, I’m not just tying by ‘rote’ to fill my boxes. I don’t always tie the same patterns that may have worked in the past, nor do I ignor what has been succcessful.
I look at what I want a fly to ‘do’ and I try to optomize that fly so that it does that particular ‘job’ as well as I can make it do so.
When I come across new materials, I look at them to see if they can enhance existing flies, or help me create new ones to fill a percieved need or niche in my arsenal. Sometimes I come up with a ‘better’ option for a certain fly, and end up replacing it, sometimes I come up with a ‘modification’ that I believe in, and thus tie all successive fles of that type with the ‘new’ modification (just came up with a significant change to a muddler that I really like…).
Thus, I know that my flies are constantly evolving. Are the new ones ‘better’? Of course they are. That’s the point. Will they catch more fish? I have to think so, otherwise, why do it? Who decides? For me, I do. Until, of course, the fish tell me different ;).
I have some older tying/pattern books, and I can see the same process occuring with some of these. Even the same ‘book’ by the same author, just a new ‘edition’ can show drastic changes in fly selections.
Are you ‘outgunned’ if you don’t have the ‘latest and greatest’ flies? I doubt it. We are talking about FISH here. They aren’t that smart.
Buddy