September 2012

Zingela
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Yellowfish

Clinic Report Back

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FLY FISHING TIPS

mong the many hobbies I enjoy including woodworking, building automatons, and fly fishing, there is a common theme. I most enjoy the process of discovery, learning, and personal improvement. That is what brought me down the path from a young boy catching summer perch in the local pond, to my current status as fly tier and fly fisherman. Along the way I learned from the best including Don Baylor, Al Miller, Gary Borger, Ozzie Ozefovich, Ralph and Lisa Cutter, and more, either in person or via books and video. I also found that some of my great discoveries had been previously discovered numerous times before. This includes the idea of a Trouts Eye View fly tying mirror, which can be shown to have existed as early as 1921 [1], as well as the concepts of color matching by Borger [2] and by Caucci and Nastasi [3], each of whom understood the importance of taking the time to see what the fish sees.

Now, please note that when we talk about the trouts eye view we dont claim to know what trout sees in its mind. Heaven knows, I have been advised about that, many times; You cant know what the trout sees, and you cant know what a trout thinks! So, instead of arguing the subtleties, lets agree on the more important and overarching concept. If we look at two items under the same conditions and from the same perspective, we are more likely to appreciate the important and unimportant similarities and differences between the two items. Thus we define the Trouts Eye View. A DISCOVERY WHILE IMPROVING THE SPENT CADDIS Lets begin with a real example. While the recipe for Spent Caddis generally calls for wings made of mallard drake breast feathers, I recently opted to create a version that incorporates CDC feathers for the wings. When I started using this CDC spent caddis, I experienced more rejections than takes, and thus I decided to take a closer look in order to see what was going wrong.

A CDC spent caddis next to a real caddis. They are both dry at this point, but otherwise they are both as seen from the fishs point of view.

The Trouts Eye View Fly Tying Mirror

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While not perfect, I think that Id take it if I were a trout. The wings may be a bit long for the body, but still, nothing terribly wrong. Next, lets get both of these flies wet, and take another look. Spent Caddis in a Trouts Eye Viewer world, appear darker when wet than they appear when dry. This is common knowledge, and it is why you can easily notice wet spots on an otherwise dry object. Dubbing is no exception; dubbing looks darker when wet. [4] And, while this was somewhat expected, the extent to which the darkening occurred on my fly, as well as the color shift, was rather surprising. So, it was time for a little experiment. First, I prepared something I call dubbing sticks using some bamboo skewers from the kitchen. Around each stick I wrapped two segments of dubbing, such that I could easily compare their color, wet vs. dry. Dubbing sticks, used to compare the effect of moisture on dubbing.

Well, theres your problem; looks like a bad hair day! And just what color is that?!?!

I then wet one dubbing sample from each pair for easy side-by-side viewing. After comparing my dubbing in wet versus dry conditions it became apparent that I really dont need at least two of these colors! That is because, once wet, three of the samples ended up looking brown. Furthermore, wet pale evening dun appears more like dry blue wing olive, and wet blue wing olive verges on black! The darkening and the color shift was far more dramatic than expected. But wait, theres more The same dubbing sticks, comparing them wet versus dry. Not only did all of the colors change, but three of the samples now appear brown!

When I viewed the flies as the trout views them; wet, from below, and on the surface of the water, two problems emerged. First, it became obvious why mallard drake breast feathers are generally used in the recipe, and not CDC. While CDC does a great job of keeping our fly afloat, the unconstrained CDC feathers tend to puff out, looking very little like the spent caddis wings that I was attempting to imitate. It should be noted that while fishing, when I retrieved the fly from the surface of the water in order to inspect it, the wet CDC barbules clung together nicely leaving me with the impression that they were performing as desired. Oh well, so much for the CDC wing experiment. But there was another problem. I knew that the dubbing I had used for the thorax of the fly was a bit too dark, (I was able to see that even when both were dry) but once wet it became obvious that the problem was much worse than I thought. In fact, this was possibly a bigger turn off than the wings the thorax had become a huge dark brown mass. If we are going through the effort of selecting for a tan, olive, or yellow caddis abdomen, then it also seems that we should be reasonably observant of the thorax. And mine was distractingly dark and brown. But why did it look so much worse when wet? THE COLOR OF DUBBING - DRY vs. WET Most things, be they t-shirts, wood, cement, or anything else in this

HINT Take these dubbing sticks to the stream with you. They are an accurate and convenient way to remember the color of the insects in your stream for later duplication back at the fly tying bench.

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WET IS NOT THE SAME AS SUBMERGED Not only is wet different than dry, but there is a noticeable, albeit less dramatic difference between wet and submerged dubbing. While the camera obscures some of the effect, you will find that submerged dubbing looks different than wet dubbing. Again, this should be obvious think of a persons hair when wet, as opposed to when viewed swimming underwater. They look distinctly different in color and in texture. In my case, the submerged dubbing tended to look less buggy and less soft, and more fibrous and wrapped, which is unfortunate. Bugs tend to get defensive and curl up when removed from their natural habitat.

Flying bugs can be even worse. They generally refuse to sit still, and they are easily damaged when handled. If you decide to look at them where they land, you will rarely get the trouts eye view. Instead, you get the fishermans eye view of the back of the fly, or maybe the side at best.

Wet vs. Submerged Dubbing - While the effect is somewhat obscured by the camera, all of the dubbing appeared a shade lighter when submerged, more fibrous, and less natural.

Why is it that so many fly tying patterns are displayed from the fishermans eye view online and in books, instead of the trouts eye view? Look for patterns that show you the working side of the bug.

While the difference between wet and submerged dubbing is interesting, I do not suggest that this fact should significantly impact your fly tying decisions; in fact, quite the contrary. I mean to show that some of the smaller details of fly tying will be lost when your fly hits the water. Its all about spotting the big differences (puffy CDC wings, and brown thoraxs) and allowing the smaller differences pass. A BUG IN THE HAND ISNT A BUG IN THE WATER Lets get back to the bugs. While all of this talk of color shift and the behavior of fibers may be interesting, could it be that we are overthinking things a bit here? Isnt it good enough to pick a bug from the water, have a look at it, and fish something reasonably close? Well, yes, and no. First, on the yes side: Yes, that is exactly what you should do! Pick up a bug, look at it, and fish something similar. Believe it or not, many fishermen choose not to perform this most obvious and basic step. If that includes you, this is where you should start. But, sometimes we can do even better. Take a look at the picture at the top of the page. A bug in the hand (or on a piece of photo paper, which unfortunately was the only photo I bothered to take like this) clearly shows the problem. Most bugs tend to curl up in a ball when removed from their natural habitat.

Furthermore, while it cannot be seen in these photos, subsurface insects are constantly changing their appearance as they move about and interact with other bugs and obstacles. Thus, taking a few minutes to look at the living bug as it swims next to your imitation will allow you to see what the bug looks like most of the time from the most common angles. It also enables you to quickly spot the differences and the similarities, as well as the details that you can ignore.

Looking closely at insects isnt all about recreating them in excruciating detail. Its as much about noticing what the insect looks like most of the time, from the most common angles, and allowing ourselves to ignore some of the more subtle details. With each of these lessons in mind, the photo below shows three examples of artificial caddis larvae in a petri dish next to the real deal. I deliberately tied each pattern a bit differently such that when I returned to the stream to compare them I could more easily discern the best features to match. In the end I opted to use heavy thread for the legs as seen on the fly on the top right, a peacock herl tail, and dubbed gills, as seen on the other two tied flys. I also figured out the correct body size and shape. The live fly can be seen at the bottom of the photo.

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Comparing three tied caddis larvae to the real thing. Its a simple pattern with nothing more than a dubbed body, a peacock herl tail, and heavy thread tied in as legs. When I feel up to it, I also dub some gills of light olive, but after testing both patterns side-by-side on the water I learned

that the dubbed gills tends to be more important to the fisherman than to the fish. The live caddis larva can be seen at the bottom of the photo.

For a caddis larva, the primary features to match are body color, size, and shape, the legs and the tail. The gills look nice, but have proven to be more important to the fisherman than to the fish.

DID IT WORK? Its nice when a story comes together, and this one turned out to be a great example. During my first visit to this fishing location, I had netted some caddis larvae, made a few notes, and then proceeded to fish the closest pattern that I had with me; a simple olive caddis larva that is known to be strong pattern wherever there are caddis. I caught a fair number of fish that day, and by all measures considered it a success. Before my entomology experiment I was told that the olive caddis larva (at centre of picture) was a hot fly for

these waters. That pattern worked ok, but it did not come close to the newer pattern, which is hard to distinguish from the live larvae in this photo.

When I returned the following week with the creations that I described above, I once again put a net into the water to make sure that things hadnt changed much, and then got to work fishing in the exact same spot. The second fish I caught was a 24 rainbow, pulled from the very same water that I had fished the week before, and I have every reason to believe he had been there all along. A fish gets that big by not eating everything that floats by that looks close enough. A fish gets that big because, for whatever reason; smarts, genetics, or just being finicky; that fish behaves in a more selective manner. This is the biggest fish that I have ever caught on this particular stream.

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HOW MUCH OF THIS REALLY MATTERS? The fact is, on any given day you can catch a fish using just about any pattern in your fly box, regardless of how well or how poorly you match the streams inhabitants. In addition, there are very productive fly patterns that bear little resemblance to anything found naturally in a trout stream, and many people find success using standard patterns without any regard to the color when wet or dry, nor to the appearance from below. But there are at least two reasons why you may choose to use these methods, not the least of which is that you will likely catch more fish. Weve all been rejected, either by the trout that looked closely at our nymph the first time it passed, and ignored it from then on, or by the fish that went as far as to practically bump our dry fly with his nose, maybe more than once, and then turned as if to laugh and say, Good one, Mike. You almost had me there. Sometimes good enough simply isnt good enough. Better imitations, better presentations, better approaches to the stream, and a better ability to read the stream are the primary factors that result in consistently catching more fish, and bigger fish. As for the other reason, like many aspects of this sport, much of our enjoyment comes from learning and from discovery. It comes from a better understanding our surroundings, and from getting in tune with the stream and its inhabitants. I know of no better way to do this than to take the time to look closely at what is already in the stream and at what we are offering as an imitation. Some time ago I reached a point where I was no longer interested in pursuing the most fish, or even the biggest fish. These days I delight in catching a specific fish; the one that occasionally darts out from behind a rock to snatch a morsel from the feeding lane, and then immediately returns for cover, or the fish that others have found to be too finicky or smart to catch, or the one that I know to be there even though I have yet to see him. Hes the one making good use of the buffered water in front of that big boulder, protected by that overhanging branch. Yeah, that one. Come here big boy. 3... 2... 1... Got him! Take care, Mike Lang Husband, father, fly fisherman, woodworker, tinkerer, and inventor of the Trouts Eye View fly tying mirror.

You can see more images and live action video online at TroutsEyeView.com

1 - Popular Science - Apr 1921 Luring the Wily Trout: This article by Raymonde G. Doyle describes the efforts of Leo Vaughan, and it specifically mentions all manner of curious tools, includinga tumbler with a mirror at the bottom. I guess Raymonde got there first. The entire article can be found online at books.google.com, or accessed directly via this link: http://tinyurl.com/bl89u5l 2 - Borger Color System by Gary Borger. This booklet included 147 color chips for matching insects. At one time Gudebrod made thread colors to match. 3 - Fly-Tyers Color Guide by Caucci and Nastasi. This color chart was designed to be used with their 4 color dubbing kit, which included yellow, blue, red and white dubbing. 4 - Search the internet for wet dubbing changes color to learn a lot more about this phenomenon, and how people use it to their advantage. Photos - Trouts Eye View