White Deer Hair Moth By Gary LaFontaine
There are some heavy hatches at night and trout feed selectively on them, keying
on the size and shape of the insects. They also eat of lot of nymphs, taking
them as they drift in the current. But otherwise fish forage very opportunistically
in the dark. They react to the vibrations of anything in or on the water, moving
towards objects instead of waiting for them.
My basic list of night flies would include a top-water swimmer (a slim deer hair
bug or a Creature), a shallow-water,
bulky streamer (a Muddler or crawfish pattern), a stonefly nymph (a Natural Drift
Stone), a big mayfly pattern (a Mess), a big, skating caddisfly pattern (a Dancing Caddis)
and a dry moth imitation.
The Deer Hair Moth has the attributes of a good night fly. It gets soggy, the head
eventually wicking up moisture, and it lands on the surface with an attractive splat.
The pattern is bulky, sitting flush, pushing water with every twitch and sending out
vibrations. The wings, out at an angle, fold up and spring back out as the fly
moves and stops.
This pattern was developed during a crazy summer, a solid seven-week stretch of
night fishing. Bill Seeples and I usually slept during the days, but if we had to
go outside we wore two pairs of sunglasses to protect our night vision. We
traveled to all of the great rivers of the state, including the Madison, Beaverhead,
Missouri, Smith, and Yellowstone. We fished hard every night of that period.
How did we do? We probably would have caught more trout during the same number
of fishing hours in daylight, but the average size of the browns and rainbows was much
larger, roughly 17 inches. We wondered where the fish under 14 inches stayed at
night. They certainly didn’t hit our flies. We caught nearly as many rainbows as browns.
We found enough brutes, trout over 5 pounds, to keep us always alert to the possibility
of trophy fish. Our biggest trout were an 8 1/2 pound brown from the Missouri and
a 9-pound brown from the Beaverhead.
By the third week of our spree the White Deer Hair Moth had evolved through trial
and error to its finished form. It became the main fly from the 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.
part of the night. Over the summer it caught more fish, if not bigger ones, than any
other pattern.
Materials White Deer Hair Moth
Hook: 8-12 (2X long shank, TMC 2312.)
Body Hackle Cream hackle (palmered and clipped).
Body: White closed-cell foam (wrapped).
Head: Cream mink fur (dubbed rough with the guard hairs).
Tying Steps:
- Tie down a strip of foam; let it dangle for the moment.
Originally published June 25, 2001 on Fly Anglers Online by Gary LaFontaine.