how good does the fly have to be?

[BTflyman]

I have struggled since I started tying flies. I get the point of making the fly to look as good as I like it. can flies be overdown? What do trout really see. Its back to how close do we have to match the "Fly". Do trout realize the difference between three tails as apposed to two? Flash back as apposed to natural? etc....BTY lover of adams, PT and HE.

 

[trowpa]

The answer is...

Yes. And No.

IMO - Sometimes they care, most often they don't. Presentation usually trumps the fly.

I prefer to fish mostly simple and generic "safe" patterns and not worry about small details. But sometimes you need both presentation AND fly to be perfect.

 

[Stevie-B]

What Trowpa said.

You will find as you tie more flies, certain things you do will give you more confidence in the fly. That confidence will allow you to fish the fly with confidence and you will catch fish. So as long as you like the fly, fish it.

 

[Crotalus]

They must not have to be too good since mine catch fish

 

[Deuterium]

+1

 

[McSneek]

I caught fish on the earliest flies I tied. If I looked at those flies now, a lot of them wouldn't make it into my box because I've gotten a lot better over time. Do my flies look exactly like the ones in the magazine pictures, catalogs, tutorials, etc? Heck no! Two tails vs. three matter? I doubt it. An infinite number of fish have been caught with fly patterns that call for a small clump of feather fibers for a tail. The flashback is merely an added attractant that may simulate a wingcase during emergence. If the fly looks "as good as you like it" and you're catchig fish I would say you're doing just fine. Like anything else, you can always improve with added practice. Like the others have said, a lot of it comes down to confidence in the fly you're fishing.

 

[troutpoop]

McSneek summed up my thoughts well. +1

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Seriously. If a piece of green yarn tied to a hook catches trout, I don't know what else can be said!

I do wish I was a better tyer. I'm so clumbsy and shakey.

 

[McSneek]

I am one of the few that never seems to have any luck with the piece of green yarn tied to a hook aka the green weenie.

 

[GreenWeenie]

The answer to your question depends on where you are fishing.

In freestone streams you definitely can get away with almost any subsurface fly provided it is fished to look natural. There is such a wide variety of “stuff” drifting along in a freestone streams that almost anything that drifts natural is fair game. Plus in freestone streams trout generally don’t have the luxury of having a lot of time to decide whether to take or reject – if they are feeding and something drifts by that looks natural, there’s a good chance they are taking it. Observe trout feeding in freestone streams, you will see them take a lot of stuff (especially right off the bottom) that they ultimately spit out.

In spring creeks the fly design is much more important. I’m not saying it has to be perfectly realistic looking (in my opinion many realistic flies fish far inferior to simple flies) but spring creeks typically have a far less diverse yet much more abundant insect population so those trout know exactly what they are looking at and they have the luxury of time. Again, it’s not so much 2 tails versus 3 tails but if the bwo nymphs are size 16 and the tails are 1/4” long and you’re fishing a size 14 or size 16 with 3/4” long tails, both of those stand a good chance of “not looking right” to the trout because those trout have become conditioned to a very specific visual imprint of the natural size 16 bwo nymph because it is so abundant. Another example is if the real flies are swimming right-side up and you’re perfectly realistic looking fly is improperly weighed causing it to swim upside down, those trout will notice something is wrong with that fly and they will not take it. With spring creeks the fly doesn’t need to be exact and have eyes and/or 3 sets of legs or a perfect wing case BUT it needs to strongly resemble the real thing in color, size and proportion and fished to look just like the naturals. This is what separates spring creek fishing from freestone creek fishing.

 

[quillfly]

not and very the first fish i caught on a fly i tied myself was a 18 in rainbow at big springs . the fly was the worst excuse for a march brown nymph i have ever seen even the wingcase was all but split the whole way through . the reallity is in the majority of the fime the look is nowere near the importance of the presentation. that being said if you have gotten better strip down the hooks an pull the trigger again. may not make a difference to the fish but it may to the fishermen using the things .

 

[1hook]

I often wonder this myself. I opt for the more simple general patterns, especially for nymphs. Will I catch less fish than a guy who has the perfect match? I don't know. But what I do know is I was fishing one of the most pressured streams in pa a few weeks ago and caught enough fish to keep me there all day. Caught every single one of those fish on a walts worm. Can't get much more simple or suggestive than that. So If I can catch fish one that stream with a bunch of dubbing wrapped around the hook It leaves me to believe that a perfect match isn't always needed. But If fly tying was just wrapping dubbing on a hook I'd be buying my flys instead of tying them.

 

[troutslammer]

a good fly to use on picky spring creek fish is a clump of hares dub on a hook (crane larvae ) or a ball of adams grey dub (cress bug ) . use whatever sz hook u have and whatever hare dub or adams dub you have !

 

[tulenkot]

It just needs to look buggy or atleast unlike a stick or leaf and drift naturally towards a hungry fish face. A little green yarn tied to a hook helps sometimes too...

 

[FrequentTyer]

I think you have gotten a lot of good advice here. But really I think we all need to start by asking ourselves why are we tying the fly. We all know that it does not save money over buying flys, and that you can catch fish with bait, so why tie at all? The point of confidence in the fly has come up repeatedly, and I think that is the key. I can't confidently fish green yarn on a hook, so I will never catch a fish on that kind of fly. If you can do that, then green yarn on a hook is good enough. I always laugh when I see a statement like "that fly catches fisherman not fish." It instills confidence in the fisherman, and no matter how poorly based it way be, that confidence is more important than the number of tails on your mayfly. So my answer to your question is that the fly has to be good enough for the fisherman fishing it.

 

[Phish_On]

If it looks good to me, it prolly looks good to them.

 

[lv2nymph]

What I would have said has been said.That being said I can tell you If I really don't like the way the fly looks and it makes it in my box I never fish it. I keep a razor blade at the vise for those flies, I
think to a certain point it matters to me how they look.

 

[Foxgap239]

I would say that honestly the best opinion I can give is a combination of everything said above. For most fishing I don't think it matters at all. Watch Ozzie's first video and see how many trout take pieces of debris floating in the stream. In some sitautions where fish are wild and have been caught more times than you've been in trouble with your better half, they need to look good. But really, they need to look good to you! Someone above mentioned "why" we tie, I could not agree more. I think we tie flies to catch fish but I think we tie more to catch us.

 

[just_jon]

Agree with GW that ties for spring creek situations need to be a bit more precise, mostly because those trout have seen it all before and in many cases have a better opportunity to inspect the fly.

God knows that I have caught to really nice fish on some ugly flies in my youth. I attibute that not to stupid fish or skill on my part, but rather to matching the color, size, silhouette and making good presentations. For dries, I'm not sure sure that color really matters that much, but I still try to be faithful to the original.

 

[dryflyguy]

I don't like to fish with a fly that doesn't look exactly like I want it to.
I mean, if I'm gonna drive 3-4 hours to fish somewhere - spending a lot of time and gas money to do so - I sure want to give it my best shot while I'm there.
The confidence thing is a big factor for sure.

For drys, and what the fish see while fishing them - Vince Marinaros book - "In the ring of the rise" - sheds a lot of light on this subject.