"mdk77" wrote


There is a serious danger to reading these books. I end up wanting to
tie about every pattern they rave about. I just ordered the materials
to tie a soft-hackle army (even some of Hughes "variations" like the
Hare's Ear Spider et. al.). I gotta lay off the books for awhile!


Don't hesitate to tie one or two of anything that strikes your fancy ....
tying is, and should be, fun

My suggestion is to just resist the temptation to tie a bunch ( or every
size and variation ) of any given fly until YOU have tested it on your fish
with YOUR approach


Trust me, I've been there done that on the box full of worthless crap that
was in a book. Not worthless to many other people, just me. Probably
every fly in a decent book will work well someplace at some time, but test
at your place and time before you commit too much box-space, time, and
materials

To my mind, one of the hardest things about Winter is the fact that it's a
time when we want to tie, but it's a crappy time to be tying personally
untested patterns and filling boxes ( except with the tried and true ) ...
it's a frustrating mix

... for instance, I've tied a few of a pattern Littleton suggest to me, and
I have ZERO doubt that it works exceptionally well for Tom and am tempted to
tie up a big supply

.... I also have ZERO doubt that if I sit down and tie 3 dozen I will never
catch a fish on the pattern, BUT if I stop at the three I'll lose the third
one to a big fish ( not the biggest around but he wants one too and nothing
else ) at the begining of the best baetis spinner fall I ever see !! Life
is just like that G