"Willi" wrote

.. This
year it would most likely be a caddis dry and a soft hackle dropper -
what I've used this year for 90% of my stream and river fishing. I
generally out fish this young man, not because I have the "right"
fly but because if I am not catching fish, I change how and where I am
presenting the flies instead of changing them.



Several things come to mind .... in no particular order

---
I doubt that I am as pattern oriented as my posts have made you believe ....
if I'm fishing to rising fish ( I'll drive 1000 to find em, went to the
local river today and couldn't work up enough interest to fish without
them ) I will assume my presentation is wrong, rather than my fly until I
have put several drifts over the fish that looked so good I really expected
a rise

---

Exception to above might be if the fish rises in a manner ( rise form ) that
indicates my dry fly should be replaced with a damp one ... I'm a visible
fish addict not a dry fly addict

-----

I, too, believe that presentation far outweighs pattern in importance ...
simply because every fish demands a good presentation, only a few demand the
right fly ( same thing you said relative to selective being rare )

---

I fish for fun and honestly believe that most days I "could" increase my
catch by changing tactics/presentation. Catching is not the most fun part
of my day, most days. I don't mean to imply I believe I could fish "with"
you or other very skilled anglers, just that I very often consciously decide
to keep fishing a method I enjoy when I'm certain other methods would
produce better.

I once met a guy that recited "his numbers" for the last few days and they
were very impressive. I said, "I'm sorry about that." when he finished.
He asked, "Did YOU do better?" unable to believe I was kissing his feet.
"No, not even close. I'm just sorry that you haven't got better reasons to
fish than numbers."

-----

I enjoy the BS about identifying the bugs, seining the water and "matching
the hatch" FOR ITSELF, not just for it's hoped for increase in fish landed.
When a given VISIBLE fish eludes me I will cast without changing flies until
I feel I've shown him good presentations ... then I'll start changing flies,
trying to approach the change analytically not randomly. I end up
catching him more often than not ( although there is no way to say it was
pattern, I may have just finally gotten a good float )

----

the reverse is true, for me, about some tactics. Changing weight on the
leader to meet the requirements of a new slot being nymph fished is the
definition of tedious. If I rig a certain way and am "fishing the water"
there is no way I can conjure up enough enthusiasm to re-rig for new
conditions or to fish with concentration for more than a few minutes

----

Moving to a new area or new fish is generally the "right tactic" when the
current one proves difficult, to catch numbers. But, I almost never move
on if I can see him and he's a decent size for the water. I'm a "one on
one" angler and I don't give a damn if the fish right over there would eat
what/how I'm fishing .... I want THIS one G

----

One main reason I usually fish alone is that my measurements of "good day"
never seem to match those of other anglers. A couple hours of the fishing
I really like and a handful of fish caught is a wonderful day to me. I
have no desire to fish "all day" and when the numbers caught get into the
high teens or a big fish or two has been landed I feel I've "limited out"
for the day.

----

Days happen that were exceptions, but normally I have to SEE my fish to
enjoy trying to catch him. The fact that I therefore know I'm getting
refusals tips the scales towards "pattern" in my thoughts.

I have watched nymphers at say the San Juan stand in one spot and cast over
and over and over and over into the same slot. OBVIOUSLY they are getting
refusals but they don't seem to think of it that way. I often wonder if
they would keep flogging a riser that way.

There is something very different in the mindset that comes after weeks of
fishing to nothing but visible fish that I never experienced back when I
mainly fished small freestones in the Sierra. Mind you I make no claim it
is superior, just different. Even with arthritis that demands pain pills
every day, I'll walk a couple miles looking for fish I can see without
making a cast till I find him, and be content .... I'd be bored to tears
casting to "could be there" water for two miles.

----

Anyway I'm getting too far afield. Just suffice it to say that I'm aware
of most of the things I do wrong ( if numbers are the measure ), don't think
anybody else "should" have my attitudes, and still manage to enjoy my
fishing far more than back when I ALWAYS started with an Adams and if they
didn't eat it I'd switch places to fish.

----

HeHe Flashback !!

My first fly rod trout ate a #12 Adams just above Chittenden Bridge in the
Yellowstone River For years that was the only fly I had any real faith in
and I'd flail away with one forever assuming that any trout anywhere would
eat it and it had to be "drag" that was my problem.

A few years ago I went to Slough Creek and decided to tie some #12 Adams
just for that day. Just for the heck of it I wanted to catch a Yellowstone
Cutt like that first one fly rod fish with that same first fly.

I had a banner day.

Later that week I chatted with John Jurachek and told him how much fun it
had been to go back to the "old pattern" and celebrate 35+ years fishing in
Yellowstone. He asked, " Do you know why that Adams worked so well?"
I said, "Oh yeah, the Gray Drakes were still around." John, "Yep, that's
it It won't work that well much longer this season on Slough Creek"

I like my fishing a whole lot better "thinking" I know why that first fish
in the Yellowstone ate that Adams ... I didn't have a clue then, but now I
know it was Gray Drake time and the guy at the fly shop in Jackson really
did know what was a good pattern to toss when he picked the adams for me.

----

One of the best things about fly fishing is it offers so much variation.
You love your style, I love mine. I bet you lean towards "mine" some days.
One of the first things you posted a few years, that I remember, was a
comment about "olives" really being more gray than olive ... in a paragraph
about how "color don't matter,. presentation do" .. the irony was noticed,
the powers of observation admired.

Some days I love to just swing a soft hackle, Nemes style, and never
consider bugs. I still love small freestones and always have a half dozen
small attractors with me, but my arthritis pain steals most of the pleasure
from the hike so I only do such places a couple times a season.


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