This I didn't know

[Dryrod]

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[Scruffy_Fly]

I did learn about that a few years ago so I was a while into this FF thing before I figured that out, too. But what I want to know whether it really makes a difference whether the wings on your dry fly are dun or white or clear. If it does matter when do you used one over the other.

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Dryrod - Did you learn anything about when the wings are dun and when they are clear?
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[Dryrod]

[size 4][font "Garamond"][#008000]I think that sometimes the fly experts gets carried away with their self importance. Like a fish is going to think that it wants a transparent wing today versus a translucent one. Personally I don't think that it really matters. But they will tell us that it does. Heck when matching the hatch hasn't been effective I throw on something that looks pretty and more often than not it works. Go figure.[/#008000][/font][/size]
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[macfly55]

that just tells me the fishies like your taste in flies.. [laugh]
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[Dryrod]

[center][font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Don't tell anyone for its a family secret - I soak my flies in gin.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[macfly55]

LOL>. now we know your secret...:-)

MacFly [cool]
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[Scruffy_Fly]

[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]DryRod writes : "I think that sometimes the fly experts gets carried away with their self importance. Like a fish is going to think that it wants a transparent wing today versus a translucent one. Personally I don't think that it really matters. But they will tell us that it does. Heck when matching the hatch hasn't been effective I throw on something that looks pretty and more often than not it works. Go figure.[/size][/#008000][/font] "
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I agree that I think it does not matter.

I have not matched the hatch on purpose..... So that I can see which fly is mine and it highlights it to the fish.
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[Dryrod]

[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]An article by Oliver Edwards in the 07 winter issue of Fly Tyers discusses the acronym GISS which stands for "general impression, size & shape. It is his interpretation of what the trout sees. And that is to concentrate on the primary trigger - the body silhouette for that is what the trout sees. Naturally water clarity, atmospheric conditions etc also are players.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[Brook]

I'd have to agree, day-in and day-out, that general impression, size & shape thing works. But it's certainly not a new idea. Serious angling authorities have pushed that concept for years.

I have, however, always wondered about the experts who tell me what a trout sees. Having never been a trout, I wouldn't venture a guess. But to project out how our eyesight works is the height of lunacy.

Anyway, back to the giss thing. While it's a great way to procedure, most times, the fact is that trout often do become selective. They key-in on a particular fly and/or the lifestage of that fly.

Over at my website I talk about fishing New York's Au Sable River one time when there were multiple hatches going on. Largish brookies would hit almost anything. But the browns were keyed to a small (20-22) spinner with an orange body.

Being as that's all they would hit, despite there being flies on the water that were more of a mouthful, I would have to say they can easily differentiate.

Brook
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[Scruffy_Fly]

When the fishing is slow or what you are throwing is not working inspite of obvious feeding then it seems that selectivity is very important. One of the confounding things: I have a lot of flies I have tied up that work gang busters for that day then they never seem to work well again even in the same situation where they worked before.

Then on those days that the fly I have on is working exceptionally well I will switch to another pattern just to see if it will do well. It generally does. Then the next fly I try generally works very well. At some point during the day the action will slow but going through those same flies that worked earlier also do no work well.

Then there was the day on the Arkansas river where I had a caddis fly pattern on at the beginning of the caddis fly hatch. It was not working so I decided to add a fly parachute fly that I had gotten off of a danish website which was a renown pattern in europe. It had not worked very well for me in the past. But as soon as I had it on the browns were smacking it for about an hour. Then the action stopped for a while then all of a sudden the Caddis fly was a hot ticket for the a while. Then they started smacking the parchute again. Alas, the switch was thrown again and all action stopped.

Fish they are a fickled bunch. Even more fickled than the fly fishermen.
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[Dryrod]

[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]I think that just about every fly fisherman [generic term] has experienced very similar situations. The first time that I fished the tail water of the snake near Moran, I was dazzled by the size of the hatch. I tried matching the hatch with a variety of flies and nothing. Then I tied on a royal wulff & bingo. It made my day. Go figure.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[Brook]

The thing is, we may think we're matching the hatch. But what the trout see is another matter altogether.

I'm put in mind of when Swisher & Richard's Selective Trout was first published. Don't know how many of you remember that book, but the cover had a series of photos scattered on it. Some of the pix were of live mayflies. Some were of traditional dry flies. And some were of the S&R then new hackleless flies.

Friend Wife was not an angler at the time. She pointed to a mayfly picture and said, "that's what the trout realy eat?"

"Uh, huh," I replied.

"And that (pointing to a traditional dry fly) is what you fish with?"

"Uh, huh," I again replied.

"And the trout think that that (traditional dry) looks like that (real mayfly)?"

"Uh, huh," yet again.

She studies on the photos a little bit, looks at me, looks back at the pix.

"Boy," she exclaimed, "trout must be pretty stupid!"

So, I repeat. Trout sometimes are selective. And sometimes will hit anything that looks like it might be edible. But that nobody has a real clue how they actually see their environment.
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