On Apr 27, 6:59*am, George Cleveland
wrote:
On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:00:03 -0700 (PDT), MajorOz



wrote:
I hesitate to bring this up, figgering that there will be lots of
silly responses, but, I swear, they are serious questions that have
been haunting me for some time.

I have spent most of my life in the Rockies, Cascades, and places
there'bouts. *I have caught trout of all kinds, sizes, and temperments
in an amazing variety of places. *I have never, and don't ever expect
to, fish on "outfitter" waters, as I have my own personal anathema
toward the concept.

I have caught trout on every kind of fly imaginable, but the great
majority were caught on:
1. *Caddis, usually elk hair in sizes from 8 to 14.
2. *Lead wrapped at first, and bead head recently, fuzzy globs
(nymphs, I guess) from size 4 (believe it ! ) up to 14 or so.
3. *Black gnat, grey dun, and Royal Wulff dries, from 12 to 16.
4. *(later on) Wooley buggers and sculpins frim 8 to 12.

In my dotage, I fish mostly tail waters, as I no longer live in the
west. *There are humungous (former world record brown, current state
record brookies, etc) fish there, but seem to feed only on nearly
invisible.......somethings. *Even on the spring fed headwaters, the
same is generally true.
The youngsters, equipped with five grand worth of LLBean stuff, bobber
fish with #22 zebra's almost exclusively, and seem to catch all the
fish. *I stumble across one dummy now and then, but when the wind is
up and I am forced to switch to UL spin tackle, I catch a number of
fish on my small, home made spoons.
And the local hillbillies are dragging them out one after the other on
power bait.

I an not jealous (not much, anyway) of what others do, as I have "done
it, pretty much, all". *But I am "jealous" of what I, myself, used to
do. *I think my leader choices, presentation, etc. are as good as
ever, but they do not like any of the stuff I have used for 60 or so
years. *Zebras are itttttttttt !

If they can suck up power bait or get faked out by my small spoons,
why won't they like a yummy looking wet caddis? *This isn't a case of
"just last week" or temporary choosiness; it has been happening for at
least eight years.

cheers

oz, confused

Sounds a lot like the tailwater I fished in TN. The shop recommended
Zebra midges under bobbers and they did work. But what worked even
better was a size 20 soft hackle wet. If one were to use a bigger
Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle with a bead head, say a #16, then tie the
smaller wet off that on a 9" dropper and then just do a downstream wet
fly *swing over the feeding fish, one might be pleasantly surprised.
It usually takes me a while every year to get my slip strike down but
after I get back in the groove I get my share of fish to hand.
those little flip down magnifier glasses make rigging the small flies
a lot easier.

GeoC

Thank you, George. I will give that a try. I also, since my eye
implants, have been looking for the 3.5 flip downs. I guess I will
just get some on line.

And, thank you to all who have jumped in here. I have quite a bit of
new info to digest among all the @#$%$&&*#$ lawn / garden slavery
due.

cheers

oz