New fly tying season: what to work on?

Tom Littleton wrote:
"spittendrigh" wrote in message
...

So what do you think the
most important,
still-outstanding and unresolved design problems are?
What the most important fish foods that don't have a satisfactory
imitation yet? If you could close your eyes and say the magic words,
presto, what would you like to see in the fly bins next year?





A great set of questions, Sandy. I am about to start up the season, as well,
so a fine time to ponder(unfortunately the next 60 dozen or so are
established designs, for me, but I still do some thinking, from time to
time).
Unresolved design issues? Geez, probably every design can be improved
somehow....it's just that we haven't figured it out yet.

What foods aren't satisfactorily imitated? Algae and plankton have few, if
any imitations, and some fish eat them.....


You say that in jest but one of my things this Summer was to catch a
grass carp on a fly. There's a small pond just down the street that has
some HUGE 20 to 30 pound grass carp. I fished for them probably about a
dozen times, usually for about 15 minutes when I end up spooking them.
In the small shallow pond, you spook one and they all get spooked.
They're plant eaters, and it's hard to imitate plants with a fly (at
least for me). The one guy I know that is reasonably successful, chums
them with grass clippings. Once they're feeding he throws out a fly with
some strands of green floss tied to it. I don't want to chum the fish.
I know some people have caught them on nymphs, but I've made some great
presentations to actively feeding fish with no results. Common carp are
easy but these grassies are tough!

Willi