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

Russell D. wrote:


Willi, I'd be really interested in what some of these "different ways
and better ways" that you are referring to are. I've always thought that
a drag free dead drift was the key to catching trout.

"different ways" is probably accurate, but "better", I don't know. I
find it more fun.

Although there are some situations where drag can be used to your
advantage like when swinging wet flies or using drag to lift your nymph
toward the surface, usually a drag free drift is the best. However, a
drag free drift doesn't necessarily mean a dead drift. There are a
number of ways to effectively animate your flies.

Think about it, insects move both on and in the water unless they're
dead like spent spinners. Often this motion is a trigger for the trout.
The movements made by energetic insects like caddis and stoneflies are
easier to imitate than the sedate flutter of a mayfly or the hover of a
tiny midge. If you like to catch fish on dries, angler induced movement
will often bring fish to the surface that would ignore a dead drifted
fly.




So, just curious, do you catch more fish with the dry or the dropper?
(Betting the answer is probably, "Yes.")

It depends but in general it's probably 2/3's on the dropper.

Willi

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:28:01 -0600, Willi
wrote:

Russell D. wrote:


Willi, I'd be really interested in what some of these "different ways
and better ways" that you are referring to are. I've always thought that
a drag free dead drift was the key to catching trout.

"different ways" is probably accurate, but "better", I don't know. I
find it more fun.

Although there are some situations where drag can be used to your
advantage like when swinging wet flies or using drag to lift your nymph
toward the surface, usually a drag free drift is the best. However, a
drag free drift doesn't necessarily mean a dead drift. There are a
number of ways to effectively animate your flies.

Think about it, insects move both on and in the water unless they're
dead like spent spinners. Often this motion is a trigger for the trout.
The movements made by energetic insects like caddis and stoneflies are
easier to imitate than the sedate flutter of a mayfly or the hover of a
tiny midge. If you like to catch fish on dries, angler induced movement
will often bring fish to the surface that would ignore a dead drifted
fly.




So, just curious, do you catch more fish with the dry or the dropper?
(Betting the answer is probably, "Yes.")

It depends but in general it's probably 2/3's on the dropper.

Willi

What he said. For several days this past season, while fishing my
favorite stream, I caught more fish on the swing after a dead drift
with a nymph. I was fishing an emerger deep, and when it reached the
end of the drift and the line caused it to swing across and up, the
brookies and salmon would slam it. Also, I have successfully fished
nymphs on a long line drift in the same manner we used to fish wet
flies when I was a kid.

Dave

On Oct 11, 2:26 pm, "Wolfgang" wrote:
"mdk77" wrote in message

ups.com...

Thanks for the advice.

You're welcome.

I am definitely going to take your advice from
"The good news" section of your post. I think a season or two more of
practice will be a huge help. I'll simply tie a wider variety than I
did for this season and go from there. I do notice though that the
flies that "worked" for me didn't make it through the season and I
tied more. The flies that didn't work are still in my boxes and will
probably last me decades........I lost faith in those and simply
couldn't bring myself to fish them after a while.

If your experience follows the normal curve, you'll experiment with tieing
ever more patterns for a few years while at the same time relying more and
more on a few favorites. You will collect an astonishing number of flies
that you will have no faith with, and you will carry them around with you
for the rest of your natural life. This is a sort of penance for taking
pleasure from what is, after all, an unnatural act.

On the other hand, you will learn which patterns produce consistently and
circumstances will conspire to prevent you from ever making/taking enough of
them.

I did have a HORRIBLE experience on vacation. I was fishing on Prince
Edward Island in Canada (in the middle of nowhere) and I had a crazy
hunch that one particular fly would work that day. I hooked a rainbow
that was huge (my heart just about stopped when I saw him). I had him
close enough that I could almost touch him, and he broke my tippet. I
had brought every fly I owned to Canada -- except for THAT pattern. I
really felt sick when other flies simply didn't work that day. I
learned my lesson.

Be prepared for a lifetime of heartbreaks for which the cure is
obvious......and useless.....as conditions will never be the same, and next
time the disaster will result from some other mistake which, in retrospect,
will be seen to have been easily predictable and preventable.

I will NEVER again let myself get down to the last
fly of a given pattern and size. Never.

Heh, heh, heh.

Wolfgang


heh.. my pop always told me, "You ain't never going to catch any fish
with a lure you don't putin the water."
He was master of ever changing and trying new patterns in all sorts of
fishing styles..... probably why as soon as I tie one on I question my
choice everytime. At least it made me an adaptable fisherman, when
nothing seems to be biting, I will sometimes tie on some pretty
ridiculous choices.
This fall though it paid off a few times. In sept. I had a nice
monster brown pick up a big, flashy flashabou looking salt water
monster I had kicking around in my salty box, when everything else
failed.... of course he liked the funny looking fly so much he decided
to keep it, and I can't exactly remember the pattern anymore.