Back when I started to tie flies (back when Nixon was in office) you were NOTHING unless you could tie a fully correct Catskill dry fly and not an easy one either! Try matching and mounting duck quill slips if you want to test your skills or preparing stripped hackle quill for a genuine Variant style as tied by Art Flick. One felt a sense of accomplishment that you felt when you were able to follow the recipe so that the dry fly actually looked like the dry fly in the magazine and didn't sink like a rock or fall apart after the first fish.
Now, was all that honing of tying skills and the adherence to copying some pattern exactly really necessary? Well, unless you are tying for museum collectors the answer is no. The old Catskill flies were not that good to begin with and todays no-hackle patterns do a better job of imitating a mayfly or caddis. There are reasons for this:
1. A simple dubbed body (or thread in small sizes for the body) presents the profile of an insects body better than hackle and top heavy wings can ever do.
2. Catskill Drys, because of all that absorbent material, had to constantly be dried, fluffed up, gooped up or dusted up to make them work.
Thanks to the Comparadun we now have a very sturdy style of fly that is much easier to tie and stands up to abuse better the the older styles. Wing material is now of synthetic material that wants to float and can be shaped into any wing profile that you want.
I still use deer mask for my larger flies (12 to 16) but everything else is synthetic. The emerger pattern to the right has a olive thread body, a small wing of synthetic material positioned just right and it will float all day. Remember, most of the rises that you see are trout hitting an emerger and not an adult insect!
Parachutes - I tie them because they are fun to tie and even look dainty and cute BUT I seldom fish them anymore and I really don't like a 360 circle of hackle fibers anyway. That's just me!
As I write it's 1 degree above zero, 4 degrees below zero when I started to write. Nick Lyons, the great publisher and former writer for Flyfisherman Magazine, once said that there was an off season even if there were some rising trout somewhere in our Northeast but he needed the downtime in the dead of winter to regroup, to re-examine what he was doing and to have that time to plan ahead to balmy times when rivers are calmer, insects are hatching, and trout are really feeding. Fishing at zero is a zero game best left to those who must catch a fish regardless of horrid conditions. This is best left to tailwaters where conditions are, well, predictable! Fishing at 30 degrees can give us rising trout in the right environment. Fishing in the forties can give us great days but none of us will give up those early Spring days when the temperature kisses 50 degrees. That's when it REALLY all starts.
That's two months from now and that's not too far away!!
Ken
13 comments:
So true on what you noted about dry's Ken - so true. Both that "back in the day" everyone wanted to fish and tie those beauties... but when it comes to catching... Those simple bugs look excellent!
The one parachute that I absolutely will not leave home without is a Parachute Adams #14-20. A killer everywhere!
Hibernation,
We used to think that full hackled flies floated better in fast water. Not really so.
Anonymous,
Everyone has a favorite fly. Mine is a simple olive comparadun in a size 16.
Ken
I love the simplicity and efficiency of those flies! I use and have tied some similar bugs for years...but I grew up tying dry flies as a young angler and using chinese necks was an exercise in futility most of the time-and quite frankly an insult to the flies however, the worm turned and I discovered genetic necks(Metz,Hoffman and a few small brands.) I spent a couple years saving up for my first Hoffman Grizzly. Back then that was hands down the best of the best and once I tied with it - I could not go back- I grew up appreciating good hackle even though it was generally out of reach...In my pre-license years my dad would drive me to the Orvis shop in Wayland and we'd ogle the Metz necks-and every now and then(Birthdays or Christmas) I'd get a great suprise present! Everyone but my father and me would think I was crazy wanting chicken feathers but thats how I rolled.
Back to today...the Whiting Bronze and even the Pro grade is so much better than anything I grew up with I cannot pass up hackle or using hackle on my bugs...its my drug of choice. I should mention Collins Hackle Farms too...Charlie Collins is a super guy you can call him up and talk about what you need. Its not as genetically refined but I think the colors are better and it ties just as well as anything Whiting sells and his prices are quite fair-I enjoy tying on his necks. I will not debate whether hackle is good or bad or necessary...lets agree you don't need it to catch fish or tie effective flies but for me tying a handsome or pretty fly is important and as a fly tyer so I still ogle and purchase hackle which I absolutely do not need but love it.
BobT,
I hear you. Rodney Flagg used to tell me how as a young commercial tier he would get first crack whenever a new shipment of Chinese or Indian necks would come in. He thought he was lucky! The first time I saw genetic hackle my eyes popped out of my head!! There's the story that a young chicken farmer from PA named Buck Metz who once loaded a box of HIS necks onto a motorcycle and drove to VT to see Orvis. The Orvis buyer said he would buy all that he could raise!!!!!
I still have my necks but don't use them much anymore except for some classic that I want to tie.
Ken
Ken,
Good topic!
I use the whiting saddle packs that they say can tie a hundred flies. You just buy what you need. I will add that hackle-less flies are taking more space in my fly box.
Ted
When I started fly tying in the early 80's, I cut my teeth tying Catskill dry flies. Though I don't use them much anymore (however, I still like to deploy a Quill Gordon on occasion), I really feel that tying those Catskill flies was excellent practice.
Herm
This time of year especially, Ken, I enjoy tying a few Catskill style flies. I like to concentrate and see how good I can make them and try to leave that little space behind the eye in Catskill fashion. I do fish them once in a while, though not often. I had good success last May during a Hendrickson hatch, but you are right it is hard to keep them floating long.
One fly of this type that I do use often is the Ausable Wulff, most especially when it is getting dark. Those white wings can be followed by my aging eyes in very low light. I can still remember a little sipping hit right at dark last October that I thought was a brookie until the line started stripping out and I had my hands full with a nice rainbow.
Sam
Herm and Sam,
The Catskill style does teach you some basic rules about handling materials. I've always found the wings to be the most difficult.
Ken
Hi Ken, I need a Millers River Fix. It's been since August (?) It is presently running at 642 CFS in Erving and around 250 in S Royalston. Thinking of going Sunday. Do you think slow buggers or nymphs would appeal to the browns this time of year?
Thanks
Harry
Yes, lets hear it for the Comparadun! And the Sparkle Dun, which adds a zelon (or similar) tail/shuck. I often fish out west where my son lives and the fish there see more flies than one can imagine (esp in YNP). Last summer I was fishing on Soda Butte Creek and I had a 19” cutthroat pass up every PMD pattern until I put on a Sparkle Dun (which i was holding in reserve as it was the last in the box). First cast, and he slowly drifts up and immediately grabs the fly.
Lesson re-learned: simple if often better.
Harry,
250 is fishable for the BD but lookout for shelf ice. Also we are due for some hard rain and snow melt today. But Sunday it could be a mess.
Yellowstone,
I tie in a tab of midge flash for my small small duns and emergers. Works really well on the Swift and the Farmie.
Ken
Ken can you send me the guide to the Millers. Love your blogs!
Thanks,
Bob
Success motivates failure educates
D Wayne Lucas
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