Thomas,
Please disregard my previous post, I hope you accept my apology.
Jimi
John and others-
I am a lurker, as I have confessed before. Mostly, because I don't feel
that I have much to add to the discussions by the time I get to read them. I
mostly the list because I wanted to try my hand at fly swaps, and because
this list was by far the gentlest to newbies and outsiders. Also, I am
always concerned that I do not express myself well in the email format.
Cleary I did a bad job with my earlier post, and rather than belabor the
point-
John, I apologize.
Now I'd like to share my secret go to fly with the list. It works 365 days
per year on a well known and heavily fished stream in central PA (spring
creek, center county). This stream has a high population of cress bugs (not
scuds mind you). Though any scud, shrimp, cress bug pattern will take fish,
the perfect cress bug pattern is a hotly debated topic around here.
Variations include: with or without shell back, dorsal stripe, ribbing, and
color, ect. For me, the object was to find pattern that was effective,
imitative (my personal preference) but easily tied, because to fish cress
bugs effectively on this stream, your apt to loose a few. In addition, I
always have a few to give to out of town guys who don't know the local
traditions yet.
This is certainly not a unique or original pattern, and I make no claims tht
it is my own, other than it is my go to fly on my home water.
Her goes:
Hook; Dai Riki 305 size 18 - 12, but mostly 14 and 16
Thread; Dark brown 6-0
Dubbing; 50/50 mix of Haretron #11 olive and Hairline #24 chocolate brown
dubbed very heavy in a dubbing loop. And wound very tight, just to the
breaking point of the thread, to bury the thread deep into the body.
Pick out the dubbing on both sides with a bodkin, and trim the top and
bottom very severely. With practice you can get this so close that it will
look segmented. Trim the sides so that when viewed from the top the fly
resembles a football (I do fish in the shadow of Penn State after all). Then
color the back bone of the top with a fine tip dark brown marker to
represent the vein.
Who knows, this might even work for bluegills-
Tom Aufiero
