Heresy! Limit ourselves to only 6 patterns! Interesting premise, Kent, and
one I completely agree with. And, curiously, I find the truth of this
premise becomes clearer and more agreeable the longer I fish. I still find
myself sometimes fascinated by a new pattern or innovation in tying styles -
and on occassion, some of these newcomers even make it onto my list of
regulars - but by and large I now tend to disregard all but a handful of
patterns in my day-to-day fishing, falling back on the others only when the
regulars fail.
I guess the extent of my belief is now most fully demonstrated by the fact
that I'll happily go fishing with a nearly empty fly box, as long as it
contains a handful of each of the half-dozen or so of the flies that have
become my standards. If I'm heading for a local stream, an open patch where
my Royal Wulffs normally lay won't get me to the tying bench, but a few
holes among the rows of elk hair caddis will. If I'm heading for Chopaka,
I'll stay up nights ensuring I've got plenty of Chopaka Emergers - in a
range of body colors and sizes - but I'll leave the Parachute Adams for
spare moments at the lake (which rarely seem to occur). I've not seemed to
find time to replace the rows of scuds that served me so well at Rocky Ford
over the years because I find that Hares Ears work just as well, if not
better, and work many other places to boot.
So here's my list of "stay up and tie" flies (in no particular order):
1) Gold Ribbed Hares Ears: Traditional dressing, but weighted to get down
quick. Sizes 8-18.
2) Elk Hair Caddis: Sizes 10-18, all colors and, hell, all types of hollow
hair (I think I ties as many in deer hair these days as I do elk).
3) Chopaka Emerger: This has become my standard for Calibaetis emergences,
wherever they occur. The trick is getting the correct materials, tied in
the correct proportions, so that the fly lays in the film, with the stalk of
hair, cocked forward, and the body hangin down at a 45 degree angle.
4) Damsel Nymph: Gotta cheat here, because there's no single pattern that
I always use. I am partial to the simpler ties: a little marabou for the
tail and body, a shell-back (critical) and for sure something to simulate
those prominent eyes!
5) Comparadun: Sizes 14-20 and in various body and wing colors. The king
of the hackle-less flies. Like the Chopaka Emerger, selecting the proper
materials and paying close attention to detail and proportion, is the
difference between a worthless piece of flotsam and a stunningly effective
fly.
6) Serendipity: I was introduced to this fly by Ross Merigold, one of the
greatest nymph fishers of all time and veritable "Dean of the Upper
Madison", who used it as his 'bread and butter' fly on the area streams for
nearly 20 years. Ross actually called it the "Green Weenie" and mainly
fished it dressed with a green body and claret head. The first day I fished
this fly I landed over 40 beautiful rainbows and browns on the stretch
between "Two Dollar" and Reynolds bridges, a feat I was able to repeat many
times over the next several years. Until Ross' death in the late-80's, this
fly was virtually unknown. The year following, all the West Yellowstone
shops broke the self-imposed code of silence they had maintained over the
years (out of respect for Ross), and heavily promoted it and it quickly
became "the" fly for summer fishing on the Madison and other area streams.
After a few banner years of continued tremendous fishing, the fly's
effectiveness steadily faded, until it became just another "also ran" among
caddis nymph patterns. I've never seen a clearer demonstration of how well
trout can learn to discriminate a particular pattern from a natural insect.
Doesn't do the magic for me that it used to either, but I always keep a few
in my box just to remind me of Ross and those wonderful days on the Madison.
-Wes
-----Original Message-----
From: Kent Lufkin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 10:27 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: WAFF fly pattern poll
As a Christmas present, my wife gave me a wonderful book titled 'The Longest
Silence - A Life in Fishing' by Thomas McGuane. In the chapter 'Unfounded
Opinions', he writes:
"...I asked the greatest trout fisherman of my era, who is himself an
out-of-control proliferator of equipment and technical doo-dads, what
percentage of his annual catch would remain if he were reduced to Adamses
and Gold-Ribber Hare's Ear nymphs. His answer: "Certainly over ninety
percent." When pressed about the staggering variety of patterns available in
his fly shop, he said, "I don't sell flies to fish."
This admission reminded me of a similar conversation I'd had several years
ago with one of my flyfishing mentors who maintained that he can
successfully fish for trout* anywhere in Washington's fresh waters* with
just six fly patterns.
So here's a question for you: if you could have just six patterns in your
fly box, which would they be?
Please send me your list of 6 (or less if you feel confident!) as an offline
reply to this email by clicking here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
I'll tally your responses and post the top six in the Fly Patterns section
of the new WAFF web site when it debuts in a few weeks.
(* To start out, let's just consider trout patterns for freshwater streams
and lakes - not those for steelhead, salmon, or for searun trout fished in
salt water. If this poll proves popular, we'll do new polls for those
categories later.)
Thanks,
Kent Lufkin
