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Given that now I have fully immersed myself in Euro style of nymphing and almost exclusively use this method everywhere I go, I always appreciate how simple the recipes are for these patterns. You have to be fine with losing more flies with this method compared to nymphing with indicators that suspend flies in the water. They need to not only be quick and easy to tie but also be effective.
One example of this would be with Perdigon style of nymphs where there usually is a tail, thread body and a wing case consisting of black nail polish. The body and head then is treated with UV resin and the fly is complete. I have yet to fish one but this seems very primitive compared to most other baetis patterns.
Other Euro style of nymphs usually incorporate some form of tailing material, wire or thread rib, dubbed or thread bodies and spikey dubbing for the abdomen. Compare this to what you might see commercially tied which require much more steps and materials to complete.
I have no doubt that you can mimic most food forms (barring minnow patterns) with dubbing and the use of deer or elk hair. Keep the hair short and you can cover all emerger and adult mayfly patterns. Keep it longer and tie it tented and you have caddis flies covered and even keep it longer yet and now you have your hopper, salmon and stonefly patterns. Change the color of your dubbing and maybe add a wire rib if you ate your Wheaties that day and you can have a box of flies cranked out for any place that holds trout.
I overhead one fly fisherman once say that “It’s probably been a decade since I fished a Hare’s Ear since that pattern is old and the fish have seen it so much that they are trained to not eat it”. I about #$%$ my pants since this simple pattern tied slim or fat can mimic so much of a trout’s daily diet. You can even get more basic and tie a similar pattern called a Walt’s worm and it can still be deadly.
I get that if all fly shops carried were two patterns then they would not have any business and that most if not all fly patterns are designed to catch the fisherman not necessarily the fish.
My question is that have you ever experienced a time where a fish showed preference for patterns that are much more complex? My thought is that if the presentation is the same and all other things are equal then the fish will prefer a fly based on specific triggers for instance if its body is somewhat submerged showing vulnerability vs one that is riding high and dry. As a tier, I want to identify these triggers and incorporate them into my creations.
One example of this would be with Perdigon style of nymphs where there usually is a tail, thread body and a wing case consisting of black nail polish. The body and head then is treated with UV resin and the fly is complete. I have yet to fish one but this seems very primitive compared to most other baetis patterns.
Other Euro style of nymphs usually incorporate some form of tailing material, wire or thread rib, dubbed or thread bodies and spikey dubbing for the abdomen. Compare this to what you might see commercially tied which require much more steps and materials to complete.
I have no doubt that you can mimic most food forms (barring minnow patterns) with dubbing and the use of deer or elk hair. Keep the hair short and you can cover all emerger and adult mayfly patterns. Keep it longer and tie it tented and you have caddis flies covered and even keep it longer yet and now you have your hopper, salmon and stonefly patterns. Change the color of your dubbing and maybe add a wire rib if you ate your Wheaties that day and you can have a box of flies cranked out for any place that holds trout.
I overhead one fly fisherman once say that “It’s probably been a decade since I fished a Hare’s Ear since that pattern is old and the fish have seen it so much that they are trained to not eat it”. I about #$%$ my pants since this simple pattern tied slim or fat can mimic so much of a trout’s daily diet. You can even get more basic and tie a similar pattern called a Walt’s worm and it can still be deadly.
I get that if all fly shops carried were two patterns then they would not have any business and that most if not all fly patterns are designed to catch the fisherman not necessarily the fish.
My question is that have you ever experienced a time where a fish showed preference for patterns that are much more complex? My thought is that if the presentation is the same and all other things are equal then the fish will prefer a fly based on specific triggers for instance if its body is somewhat submerged showing vulnerability vs one that is riding high and dry. As a tier, I want to identify these triggers and incorporate them into my creations.
