A BWO Dry- Size 24 (The Way It Should Be)

 "Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly". - John Gierach

It pays to stop fishing and start observing.  I was a very young man fishing the evening rise on the Squannacook River around Townsend Ma. Trout were rising EVERYWHERE and I got lucky and caught a few BUT I became utterly flummoxed by the behavior of those browns. A cahill type mayfly would come drifting downstream and go totally unmolested by the trout.  Then suddenly a trout would rise where no mayfly existed!!!  "What the F" is this about." Time to figure this out and just observe what was going on. (I was the only one on that section of the river so I knew I wouldn't be giving up my spot)!!

It became obvious that it was a food source (insect) that they were after but I just couldn't see it. So I went a few yards upstream with a wet Cahill and began to swing it over the "rises". All hell broke loose that night and this became my dry fly approach going forward: swing the appropriate wet fly (soft hackle) and when the surface action really takes over switch to a dry.  My dry of choice for freestone evenings has always been a comparadun. It's visible in low light and it wants to float!

Tails You Lose

Check out the fly in the above photo.  It's a size 22 BWO dry tied on a Saber hook, #7051  (very good hooks at a great price).  Notice that there is NO TAIL on this fly and that is because we tie tails to keep the back end of the fly floating. WE DON'T WANT THAT!! We want the fly to mimic the real insect by making it look real: front end poking up through the surface film and the rear end following the front end. Dust this fly up and it will float forever.  That's what I discovered on that Squannacook evening almost 50 years ago.

Saber hook size 20 through 24

Thread - 12/0 brown or olive

Wing - Hareline post wing (medium dun)

Wing Foundation - synthetic dubbing to match wing color.

Ken