What if someone came up with ‘the’ fly? The ONE, the fly that caught trout everywhere under just about all conditions. Something versatile enough and easy enough to tie that anyone could use it successfully regardless of where they fished.
I know it’s probably not possible.
But, what if it was?
I know it’s a long shot, and I’m not asking if it’s possilbe, or even likely. That discussion would be a bit too subjective, even for me.
So a hypothetical here. The ONE fly exists. You have the skills to tie it. It works on your waters and it works so much of the time and so well for your style of fishing that it convinces you that it is, truly, the ONE.
My question is:
If it existed, would you use it?
Would you basically give up your other flies to fish the one that always worked? Would it lessen your enjoyment of fishing?
How about fly tying. Our hypothetical fly is all you need to catch fish. Would you tie only that fly and not bother with others? Would that take some of the enjoyment out of fly tying for you?
the very first fly that was ever tied was the “ONE” and since then, fly tyers have been fooling around with that original recipe and still havent come up with the next “ONE”.
I know I would get bored and would generally fish other flies most of the time. I would probably fish the “one” on rare occasions though. I know this because on many occasions, after catching a few fish, I’ll often change flies to try something else. It’s like, once you think you’ve “solved it for the day”, wheres the fun? I admit, catching fish is fun, I enjoy the tug on the line, I can get frustrated with myself if I go for long periods on good looking water without a strike, but in the end, I really like trying to work out what will catch fish, and I’m curious to find out how many different ways one can catch fish (nymph, wet, dry, etc) on the same water, and with how many different patterns. The “one” would end up being set aside as a “I know this works, how about …” type thing. If I was getting no hits, I might use it to ensure there were fish around though.
I was fishing in YNP last year and came upon, what turned out to be, a nice cutt-bow feeding under an overhanging willow. I tried 5 different flies before I even got any interest, then had to change size 2 more times before it took. That was about the best 30 minutes fishing I’ve had in a long time, a heck of a lot more fun than if I tossed the “One” fly and hooked it right away.
About the most I can tie of any one fly at a sitting before I need to change things up is 2 dozen, so “No”. Anyway, what would I do with all the stuff I have now?
So far, on this fly pattern, I have caught bluegill, redear, warmouth and green bream, plus bass, catfish, gar, shad, rainbow trout, brook trout, crappie and white (sand) bass. Kinda sorta qualifies as THE ONE, huh?
It can be tied in many colors and sizes, and I would bet a large version would work for muskie and pike.
Hmmmm. I use a pattern (I didn’t originate it, though) that sure seems to catch a LOT of fish for me. It is a subsurface pattern. Sometimes, it sure it fun to catch fish with topwater flies…so…no, I wouldn’t use the “ONE” fly all the time.
For me it’s an all black seal fur leech tied on a size 10 hook with a small bunch of rabbit fur for the tail and a red glass bead head. I think the only species I haven’t caught on this pattern is grass carp and that’s only a matter of time.
Caught trout on every water I have fished with a wooley bugger. Can’t say that about other flies.
Does it work every time? No. But it works most of the time.
Not to mention I have caught:
Largemouth bass, rock bass,crappie, blue gill, catfish, steelhead, and drum on them too.
I think a wooly bugger wouild fit the bill,as long as you could change sizes and colors and weighting.
Trout
A size 16 on a heavy hook in appropriate color could suggest a nymph .
A light wire unweighted in the appropriate size cold suggest an emerger.
As a regular bugger it could suggest a minnow.
In still water using a type 2 full sinking line an unweighted slim version in apropriate size & color could be a damsel nymph or a leech.
Saltwater
An orange or tan size 4 to 6 could suggest a shrimp
a white size 1 could suggest a mullet
A slim red size 1 with undersize hackle and long tail could suggest a cinder worm
a thick bodied white bugger with oversize hackle might suggest the wider bodied
I would fish it occasionaly, sometimes you just want to catch fish, (opening day, fishing with a child etc) Most of the time I would rather try and fail than have a sure shot.
That pretty much sums up my feelings as well. I can think of at least one fly that will take trout under pretty much any conditions on my local stream, but I seldom fish it. I want to see what else works.
I’ll pull it out if I want to get a kid hooked up with a fish, though.
:lol:you cant use the one fly cause fly whraths will come after you and try to kill you. but if you use it when your safe you and you go invivable and the fish go nuts
the you start hording it and calling it my pressious:tieone:
I may be wrong but I think many of you are missing the point. The question is what you would do if the pattern existed. I would continue to tie . Maybe try to find “the one” for saltwater or bass.
The truth is I could catch enough fish with live or fresh bait but chose to fish with fly tackle.
Fred
P.S. What if “the one” was a nymph ? I would have to try to find a dry that was as good. If I had a preference I would fish dry.
Yeah, i know what you mean…how many people head to the water with full dress salmon flies? How many people tie em?
I also agree about the dry. There is something infinitely rewarding about getting a take on the top that makes it worth trying, even when your chances of success are slim. Then again, I’ve had days where a para-adams WAS the ONE FLY. Outproducing buggers, nymphs, etc. (It didn’t hurt that I was fishing it during the ONE HATCH of isonychias that managed to get trout doing funny things in their gorging…had one nearly beach itself chasing my fly to shore after a drift! :D).
I tied them by the dozens to the exclusion of all else, and rarely fished anything but it.
At the time, many of the places I was fishing included some pretty heavily fished trout waters, and not only was I catching lots of fish with the fly, but I was often catching an almost obscene number of fish, including many of what I suspect were the biggest fish in the stream - one right after another. There were many days when I felt like a vacuum cleaner going down the stream fishing this fly. (No, it wasn’t a wooly bugger!)
Gradually, however, my success rates with this fly declined. Someone else developed a pattern that was quite close to mine, that fly became widely used, and I think the fish wisened up to the pattern somewhat. So over time I got away from fishing just this one pattern.
However, while it lasted I rarely fished anything else - but I don’t know if I would still do the same today. I just don’t know. In the 45 years since that time, I’ve been there and done that sort of thing. Today, I get more enjoyment from taking others fishing, helping put them on fish, and on some days just sitting beside the river and watching the day flow by.
