| I am a sucker when it comes to flies. I
guess being a commercial fly tyer I spend more time at the tying bench than most. I am not
really an inventor of new patterns and it is very rare that I have the inspiration to
create something new. I would rather leave that to those people who are good at it. I
will, however, make a small change to an existing pattern if I think that change will make
an improvement to the fly's ability to catch fish. At present I carry in my fishing vest five fly boxes each containing
something in the region of three hundred flies. That's a total of 1500 flies! Do I need
them all? Well, probably not but there are times when I am sure glad that I have them with
me and would not consider leaving home without. I carry at least a dozen of most patterns
I use regularly. Rather excessive you might say but some get caught in trees or bank-side
vegetation when the casting gets a bit sloppy, nymphs get stuck on boulders and the odd
fly gets broken off in a fish. Also, I am occasionally approached by a friend who wants to
know if I have any more flies that happen to be working well at that particular time and
carrying a dozen or two of each pattern does not leave me with the dilemma of having to
say "sorry I have only got one more"
Having spent the last Swedish winter
based at the Fly and Gun Shop in Lake Taupo, New Zealand, I have had the perfect testing
ground for fly patterns. The back-country rivers of the North Island are gin clear and
they gave me an excellent opportunity to see just how fish react to different patterns. It
is, of course, not always possible to draw concrete conclusions as conditions are
continuously changing and fish do not behave the same everywhere. However, one thing that
is clear is that presentation is probably about 95% of the equation on those rivers, the
first cast is the most important and fly selection at times needs to be careful.
Big fish, which fly?
I will never forget guiding a client and
watching a Brown trout lying deep and feeding hard on nymphs. When we had positioned
ourselves, in order to be able to get a good drag-free drift, I tied on a heavily weighted
hare and copper. My client was not the most accurate of casters and the fly drifted well
to the right of the fish. When he made the next cast it was perfect and the fly drifted
straight in front of the fish but the fish ignored it. At times, in the back-country
rivers, the fish are so spooky that you can only make several casts before they know you
are there and then they often either stop eating and sulk on the bottom or they disappear
downstream. Feeling that the next cast was going to be our last I selected a gold beaded
pheasant tail. My thinking was that the fish might just prefer the slimmer profile of this
fly rather than the hare’s ear he had rejected and in addition, the gold bead might
give more attraction if the cast was not accurate. My client made his next cast and the
fly drifted downstream towards the fish. At this time the fish was still feeding hard and
he moved slightly to his left to intercept the fly. He took one good look at that gold
bead, spooked and disappeared down stream at a good rate of knots. The cast was good, the
drift was drag free and the fish was still feeding when the fly was moving downstream
towards him. There could only have been one thing that caused that fish to spook, the gold
bead on the fly. Bad choice of fly!!
Bead head Pheasant Tail |
Hares Ear |
Royal Wulf |
On another occasion I
stood with a client watching a fish on the far bank, some 35ft away, rising regularly and
taking mayflies. I tied on a parachute Adams and although the cast was going to be
difficult with lots of conflicting currents between us and the fish he made a good cast
and managed to get a drag free drift. The fish ignored the fly. I changed patterns and we
repeated the process time after time with the same result. I changed patterns, he made
good casts and the fish ignored them. After a half-dozen casts and changes of fly the fish
stopped rising. We sat down and ate our lunch, keeping an eye on the spot to see if the
fish would begin rising again. He didn't! As we packed up preparing to move on I asked him
to make one last cast, not knowing if the fish was still there. I tied on a size 10 Royal
Wulff, much bigger and fatter than anything that was on the water at that time. My client
made the cast and the fish came up and ate the fly! Eventually, after a good fight and
some 50 meters downstream, I netted the fish for my client. It was a rainbow trout and it
weighed 8lbs.
Right Fly; Right Time; Right Place
During my time in New Zealand I have been
introduced to a whole new range of patterns that I would like to try here in Sweden but it
means I will need another fly box to carry them in. Those five boxes in my vest will now
become six and I have a few months, until the start of the season, in which to fill them
up. Do I need to carry 1800 flies? Yes, I most certainly do..
Photo and text:
Sean Andrews 2002 ©
Sean Andrews is a professional flytyer. |
