If the following epiphany or revelation of mine doesn't make you sit up and take notice, either I'm whacko (you can vote later) or there is something to my madness. Many of you have discussed parts of this at length over the years or possibly the entire trail to its logical conclusion. I'm very interested to hear what ALL of you think about this (LURKERS, come out and weigh in).
While searching for info on a pattern, I came upon upon the following article on the demise of Mayflys, the effect on trout diet and how all of this affects our hobby. Of particular disturbance is http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0121_030121_hatchmatch.html
regarding trout chasing non-specific imitations versus imitations of "naturals" such as Mayflys. How many here think it sad that we have digressed away from the need to "match the hatch" VERY SPECIFICALLY in waters we have thought of as sacred almost? Another article spoke of a stream which became devoid of Salmon-Flys in the 60s.
These articles got me to thinking about why we tie what we tie now versus a few or more years ago. The idea of us tying flys with increasing focus on "attractor" traits rather than natural traits hit me like a sledgehammer. Here I am, one who has promoted fly patterns which utilize "traits" of food items rather than focus on imitating specific foods which occur naturally.
Let me put the point out for discussion and have YOU tell me your thoughts. First, I'll state the "Myth" thought of the subject line so you get an idea of what end this took me too. I tried it out on my wife and she reached the conclusion I did before I finished my case.
"Myth Theory on Purpose of Feather-Wire by Earth Dwellers of Second Millenium"
Article, Future Press, Dateline; May 23, 2634: "Professor Theo Gordon, XXXIV published a theory today regarding an alternative explanation of the trinkets found on Earth from the time before the historical "Chicken Virus". Gordon asserted that certain "fishes", especially salmonids (ref; Earth, Nuc/Bio-Haz Era), actually subsisted on invertebrates known as insects based on review of ancient artifacts. Long believed traditional jewelry utilizing curved sharp barbed metal wire indicative of a society which revelled in piercing and tatooing the body, Gordon's hypothesis claims these items were tools used to obtain food (see diagram labeled "Fly Fishing"). Scientists scoffed at such an absurd theory siting historical proof of advanced farming overlapped the dating of Gordon's ritualistic and barbaric samples. Gordon included life-cycle information on all species supposedly interacting but hydrologist Dr. Henk Vershoor, XXXIII indicated water could not have supported insects later that 2009 due to a combination of highly acid Ph levels combined with a toxic brew of chemicals common to all untreated water on the planet.... (end)"
As aquatic food sources such as the Mayfly disappear and other environmental changes occur, fish will need to be maintained artificially and eventually mutate to adjust to man-made environments. The logical conclussion is for many life-forms to be domino-effected and cause all sorts of harm but.... we'll try to stay on-topic regarding Fly Tying.
Consider most of us are familiar with streams which exhibit(ed) somewhat predictable hatches of particular flys within a date range (we sometimes discuss particular visual traits of insects but recently more discussion on general ways to imitate life by new tying techniques, materials or presentation methods seems dominant) yet even certain specific locations on streams I fished for years are producing "mutant" insects. When I got into flyfishing, my mentor admonished me with statements like "the X to Y section of Z Run ALWAYs produces a prolific hatch of #18 Sulfurs which are best imitated with a white wing, yellow dubbing #65 and #17 orange thread.." yet now that same section contains Dorotheas with a cream wing and the size is almost a #16. No, these are not Rotundas, etc... things have changed.
So... are we evolving as tyers with new ideas or has nature been tampered with so much that our tying reflects what we observe and what the fish react to? Consider Great Lakes steelhead, every year they seem to hone in on a new pattern much different that last. Almost all are hatchery fish 2 years or more in an eco-system which evolves unnaturally. What do YOU think? Is it the tyers or environment which drives the newest patterns? What is the future of fly tying?
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