Newbie Question: How many fly sizes & colors to tie for next season?

Willi wrote:
Larry L wrote:

Now for a more all inclusive discussion than "newbie advice." As I
say
trout eat all sorts of stuff, I'm sure you have watched them sample twigs
and such from the drift. Trout likely "eat" for several reasons,
hunger,
'anger,' 'territory defense,' and yes I'd guess 'curiosity' ... i.e. his
mouth is his major tool to experiment with new things in the drift.

To ME, it makes more sense to concentrate efforts on trying to induce a
'feeding' response than the others .. most of the time, the exceptions
clearly exist ... and, to ME, that implies an effort to suggest food
forms
the fish has seen and eaten recently.

Sure, various Disaster Area Ant patterns will catch 'some' fish,
'sometimes'
lots of them. But, I ask you, Willi, this. Given a hypothetical
situation where you are climbing into a drift boat for a full day during
Salmon Fly time ( a classic big, garish time) and are given a choice ...
take a box of wildly colored foam Disaster Area Ants ... or take a box of
attractors that more closely resemble Salmon Flies ( Stimulators and
such )
.... are YOU really going to take the DAAs ? Or, even if the choice is
between very garish, wildly colored ( no orange :-) DAAs and a box that
holds only #18 Royal Ws, #18 PTs and #18 Brassies ... would YOU choose
the
DAAs over the smaller, more "common food like" ties? Remember your
whole,
long, day of drifting you are stuck with the decision G




I hate fishing from a driftboat and would try and avoid it but if I HAD
to, I'd probably choose some of each. (Unless we were floating Cutthroat
water. Then I'd be sure and stock up on foam flies. I think that Cutts
must like how foam tastes!!) The majority of the flies I tie and fish
are ties I consider "buggy". (I liked your "Disaster Area" Ant pattern
label)

Where I'm coming from in this discussion is that I think that
most beginners should pay more attention to and work harder at better
presentation rather than worrying about having the "right" fly. In
stream and river trout fishing it is VERY unusual when the fish are more
selective than having a fly that is close to the "right" size. Having a
generic Mayfly and Caddis dry and a soft hackle and a nymph in a range
of sizes, IMO is close enough for 99% of the situations you'll
get into IF the fly is presented correctly. What I think a beginner
would be better off doing rather than frequently changing flies is to
concentrate on different ways and better ways of presenting the flies
he's using. (IMO, traditional dead drift tactics are over emphasized and
boring)

There's a young man I've been fishing with quite a bit this year. He's a
pretty accomplished angler and is analytic in his approach like you are.
He studies the air and bushes for insects, nets the surface and deeper
currents, takes stream temps etc. Then he uses this info to chose what
fly he is going to use. If he's not successful, he first choice is to
change flies and try and find that "right" one. I generally will use
whatever, is left on my setup from the last time I was fishing. 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.

Willi



Frankly, Willi, I am beginning to accept the suggestion that you are
actually some kind of unearthly being, hundreds of years old, exerting
an irresistable hypnotic force over the will (hmm... will-i) and the
instinct of fish (and perhaps even dogs). i don't think your uncanny,
other-worldly abilities can be taught or can serve as examples...one has
to sacrifice a virgin or sign a blood script with the devil or something
of that nature to do what you do. it's when you levitate to change the
how and where of presentation that i really get spooked. g

jeff