Too Many Flies Too Much Overconfidence

[fadeaway263]

You have to be confident in the fly you fish. You peruse your fly boxes as if you were picking out a fine wine. This is it...this will definitely work. So you tie on a PITA 22 Midge. Trim the tippet and congratulate yourself on your selection until 30 unproductive minutes later you cut it off and have to constrain yourself from not throwing the fly away as you return it to the fly box. I have so many flies I don't know what half of them are. Yes English Prof Walt's Worm and a San Juan Red [not tan, purple or pink] when the water is up with rain. An occasional Prince or Wooly Burger and my nymphing days just got less complicated!

 

[afishinado]

fadeaway263 wrote:
You have to be confident in the fly you fish. You peruse your fly boxes as if you were picking out a fine wine. This is it...this will definitely work. So you tie on a PITA 22 Midge. Trim the tippet and congratulate yourself on your selection until 30 unproductive minutes later you cut it off and have to constrain yourself from not throwing the fly away as you return it to the fly box. I have so many flies I don't know what half of them are. Yes English Prof Walt's Worm and a San Juan Red [not tan, purple or pink] when the water is up with rain. An occasional Prince or Wooly Burger and my nymphing days just got less complicated!

Good post, Fade.

FFers, especially beginning FFers are way too focused on choosing the "right" fly to use on the stream.

The fact of the matter, is most times the fly choice is secondary to both the presentation as well as selecting the best place to fish (the stream itself or the individual water types and/or high probability places that hold fish).

I do try to match the hatch (because it's fun and makes me feel smart), but most of the fish I catch are with common fly patterns that have proven themselves over time. Seldom are the fish locked into a certain insect or certain pattern and ignore all others.

I'll put my money on a generic hares ear or pheasant tail down deep, or an adams or ant on top, fished with a good drift in good spot; as opposed to the "right" fly poorly presented in a poor holding area of the stream.

Just go back and search any thread from a newbie asking about posting "your favorite pattern" of flies. You will find dozens of different flies mentioned....and they all catch fish. And notice, most of them are the common and proven patterns.

The long and short of it is your time will be better spent working on your technique and water reading abilities as opposed to buying hundreds of different flies to find the "right" fly that will surely slay them.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

What works in one local is not a guarentee to work in another local. I found this out with one of my home made nymphs earlier this year. Fishings in PA vs fishing in MO.

 

[Fishidiot]

afishinado wrote:
Good post, Fade.

FFers, especially beginning FFers are way too focused on choosing the "right" fly to use on the stream.

The fact of the matter, is most times the fly choice is secondary to both the presentation as well as selecting the best place to fish (the stream itself or the individual water types and/or high probability places that hold fish).

I do try to match the hatch (because it's fun and makes me feel smart), but most of the fish I catch are with common fly patterns that have proven themselves over time. Seldom are the fish locked into a certain insect or certain pattern and ignore all others.

I'll put my money on a generic hares ear or pheasant tail down deep, or an adams or ant on top, fished with a good drift in good spot; as opposed to the "right" fly poorly presented in a poor holding area of the stream.

Just go back and search any thread from a newbie asking about posting "your favorite pattern" of flies. You will find dozens of different flies mentioned....and they all catch fish. And notice, most of them are the common and proven patterns.

The long and short of it is your time will be better spent working on your technique and water reading abilities as opposed to buying hundreds of different flies to find the "right" fly that will surely slay them.

I'll second this. ^
Personally, I carry a lot of flies and tend to like patterns that are precise imitators. Nevertheless, most of the time, and esp. for beginners, the above advice is spot-on.

 

[pcray1231]

Agree as well. Especially in hatch matching situations, I do think fish begin to key on something. Though it's usually presentation related, meaning at the right place in the water column or surface film. For dries, does it need to be on top? In the film? Just below the film? For nymphs, are they tumbling free in the current, or swimming? Even in these special situations it's not about the appearance of the fly, but more about the characteristics it imparts to presentation.

For the other 90% of the time, yeah, they're just being opportunistic, and while good presentation is always helpful, I don't even think presentation is all that important beyond simply getting it deep enough or close enough to be in the ball game. It's simply being in the right place at the right time. And putting yourself there is a skill.

 

[JackM]

If you intend to catch fish and catch as many as possible, it helps to feed them what they are eating. If I knew a trout was taking Green Drake nymphs and caught him on a #18 Prince, I would feel cheap.

Entomology can be made simple, in terms of the fly angler, but some consideration of it must be given. Are there insects active or in the drift? What kinds? Are they hatching? Do trout seem to be feeding? Where do they seem to be feeding?

Trout are "cold-blooded." Or more precisely, their body temperature shadows the environment. They function worse at high temps, but also at low. Once the ambient and consistent water temps reach the mid 40's, the trout experience a reduced metabolism. True, oxygen is more plentiful but not forage. Besides minnows, you mostly have nymphs under or on rocks, and a few that became dislodged. Hatches are almost exclusively midges and little black stoneflies, and possibly BWO's.

In small freestones (native brookie streams), a well drifted dry fly can catch fish any day of the years, but it may not be the "best" bait you can offer.

 

[krayfish2]

I was just asked by another forum member "what flies should I load up on for 2016?". He didn't believe me at first when I told him 4 (maybe 5) nymph patterns in my entire collection of junk. They are in several different sizes but it's still a limited selection of patterns. Seems to be working as I catch several fish each year.

 

[dano]

Overconfidence isn't a bad thing.
It's usually gained from many successful days.
So fadeaway263, you have to be doing something right as far as presenting the fly.

 

[csoult]

Confidence is key to everything in life

 

[dc410]

csoult wrote:
Confidence is key to everything in life

I do agree a lot with csoult on this. Any fly will become more and more effective for you as you continue to gain more confidence in it. As you fish it more and find the right technique to fish the fly under certain conditions you will catch more fish producing even more confidence. However, over my many years of flyfishing my confidence flies have changed many times by tying and fishing new patterns. I carry a lot of different flies - many that hardly if ever have seen the water. I do like fishing tandem rigs with nymphs or wet flies or the old dry/dropper rig. I always have one of my confidence flies on one of these rigs but it's a great opportunity to try some of those different patterns in your box as well. You may just start the process of gaining confidence in your newly developing "go to" fly.