"Tailwaters are what Thomas McGuane called the great theme parks of American fly fishing with their more or less stable water temperatures and articially inflated populations of insects and fish. They are irresistible for all kinds of reasons, but all of those trout breed the peculiarly postmodern sense that anything short of a 20 fish day is a bust, so when things are slow there's the temptation to lie about numbers or to vaguely allow tht you are getting your share." - John Gierach
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Back in the "old days" the BWO was tied with hackle point wings, split hackle fiber tails and with the best blue dun hackle that you could find. Yes, it worked but it hadn't evolved into the fly that we have today. First, it represented the "Dun" stage of the insect which is the stage that is of the least interest to the trout. You may see a trout rising over and over but you will not see a steady parade of adult mayflies disappearing into the trout's mouth. What you see is a steady stream of EMERGERS, stuck in or just below the surface. This is the "easy pickings" stage that the trout want and the modern fly provides.
Hook - use any light wire curved caddis hook. I tie mostly size 14 through 26.
Tail - NO TAIL! The rear end of this fly is usually tied with nothing but thread in the appropriate color (olive in this case) and is designed to sink below the surface.
The Wing - It's not really a wing at this stage but it is ready to pop through the surface. You want a material that floats well and is very durable. It will keep the fly on or near the surface and that material is the finest post yarn material you can find. Post yarn beats CDC every day.
Thorax - I use some fine rabbit to build up the fly a bit and to add some contrast to the fly (I use natural rabbit)
Use this style of tying for all of your mayfly presentations.
Tie Some Flies!!
Ken
5 comments:
Its funny how over the last 20 or 30 years super simple patterns, particularly with small flies work much better, are easier to see and float like a cork. My BWO of choice is utilizing snowshoe hare fibers blended into a dubbing then carded by finger to get the fibers back in alignment; the blending evenly distributes the guard hares and the underfur through out the dubbing( in this case wing material). Tie the carded clump in like a spinner wing and post it up with thread and a little fine dubbing. It's originator was Jim Cannon from Blue Quill Angler...you can google Cannon Bunny Dun. Similar to yours really-I am guessing the poly works as good maybe better, the Snowshoe fiber does hold a thin smear of floatant really well and it's easily redressed after a fish just blot with a towel and dust it up with Shamizaki or Frog's Fanny...I do like a little fur and feather on any fly I tie for the most part. FWIW my favorite nymph on any tailwater is still brown beaver fur on a size 20-22 hook..."developed" by me on the Swift in the late 80's LOL....Hope that '23 brings us all a lot of fun times chasing finned friends.
I like the Cannon Bunny Dun and small Soft hackles for most Olives. BTW I just finished reading Wyatt's book and am staring at all the overstuffed fly boxes I carry. Hmmm!
BobT,
Good to hear from you. I like the poly wing because it works well with the floating dusts that are out there. I haven't used the pastes in years.
Anonymous,
Wyatt will change your life!!
Ken
Apologies for an off topic post but I'd love to hear what folks think. I ran into an old friend at the Marlboro show. He's worked for a number of fly rod companies and I asked his thoughts on euro nymphing. "Oh, you mean stationary trolling? Well, it's certainly opened up the market. Now we can sell rods to people who can't cast." He was joking, of course. Sort of.
Ondine,
I tend to agree with your friend. Euro nymphing became the "next big thing" which expanded the market by inventing a style of fly fishing or should I say "reinventing"!!!
Ken
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