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Fly Patterns for Trout Water. Nymph and colour patterns for trout fishing.
Fly Patterns and Trout Water It takes keen observation to assess all the finer nuances of fishing which make their contribution to the success of a cast. The differ ences between a successful presentation of a fly, and one which isn't successful, are sometimes so infinitesimal they go unnoticed, even by skilled anglers. Pattern color in reference to the water, method of fishing each must be related to creel trout. One day, on Oregon's McKenzie River, I was struck with the unvarying success of a dry fly fisherman. He was taking those "McKenzie Redsides" with startling regularity, while a number of us other anglers were having but indifferent success. Fishing was centered on a series of deep green pools on this particular day. Here the stream bottom was a bright, almost white sand, interspersed with gray, granite cobblestone and white quartz. The successful angler was using a March Brown size 14 dry fly. He would drop his small dry fly on the bubble-shot surface near the tail of the pool. Then he would pause briefly, pick it up, and shoot it back to almost the exact spot where he had touched the water with his first cast. There was a delicacy to his cast and pick-up which never varied. By sending in a slight roll, as if he actually were beginning a roll cast, his line came off the water without disturb ance, and his fly left the surface with the finesse of a natural. At about the third cast, one of those red-sided McKenzie rainbows would arrow up out of the bright sparkling water to smash his fly with a morale-shattering surface explosion. A dark midge hatch was over this section of the river at this time. During the early morning hours there had been a hatch of small may flies, but just a few scattering may flies lingered over the pools now. What to match? My guess, like that of the successful angler, was the may flies. Trout had shown interest in them for some time. Then, as the hatch tapered off, activity had subsided. The midge hatch presently over the water was only attracting a few "keeper size** trout. I shot my own March Brown pattern out across those pools. Time after time I got a perfect float, picking up my fly without the least disturbance but no luck. I think it was the most frustrating fishing I have ever done. Eventually I reeled in my line, hooked my fly in the keeper ring of my fly rod and walked up to the pool this angler fished. I knew from watching his performance that he was picking up his fly more often than I did, and that he was getting shorter floats. Even from my position 75 feet away I could see he was still using a small dry fly. A March Brown, obviously, for I had seen him take his hat and knock down a natural for closer study. But with all that, I still didn't know why he was taking trout while the rest of us were only indifferently successful Anglers are a democratic lot. When he saw I had quit fishing and was watching him, he motioned me up to his position on a shingle midway of the pool. "Having trouble with the stream?" He asked. "Trouble is an understatement," I said. "I am completely baffled. Here I am using the same dry fly pattern as you are, drop ping it with what I hope is fair dry fly technique, and I have only taken two small trout all morning." He grinned. "Nothing wrong with your technique. Fact is, I was just admiring your curve cast when you put your fly around those rocks in midstream. Ordinarily, it would pay off. But today we have a different hatch of may flies. These are an imago hatch spinners returning to the water to deposit eggs. What you and most of the other anglers have been matching is the sub-imago hatch the nymph coming to the surface from the bottom to break its wing cases and rest for an appreciable length of time on the water before becoming air-borne. "You are matching the time those may flies remain on the surface before becoming air-borne. My matching duplicates the light touch ing of the water this particular may fly achieves in depositing eggs." It seemed a small thing, but it was the difference between suc cessful and unsuccessful presentation, one of the finer nuances of fly fishing which closer observation would have set right for me. Another place where an angler can give careful study to the effect he wants to create with his pattern is the water itself. A fly pattern's appearance changes with the type of water over which it is fished. Its appearance can change drastically even during the course of a drift, regardless of whether you are fishing a wet or dry fly. Angling limitations are manifest in this, and some very important fish-taking technique, too. Those pools on the McKenzie River, with their bright sand and quartz bottom reflecting light, were perfect for a dark pattern fly such as a March Brown. A Brown BiVisible or a Black Gnat pat tern would also have been a good wet or dry fly for that water, assuming that you had either those small dark-bodied may flies or black midges to match. But those same hatches over a dark-bot tomed pool would have called for an entirely different matching to duplicate the color which trout associate with the naturals. An angler must always consider his pattern from the viewpoint of a trout. For example, a Light Cahill or a Zaddach wet fly would not appear the same to a trout watching it from the security of an undercut bank as it would if this trout was directly out in the stream on feeding station. Nor will it appear the same on a dark day as during a bright one. To a trout, the Cahill is not the same fly in early morning and late evening as it appears to be at midday. Let's examine pattern change during a single fished-out cast. Here, for a short distance, is a bright sand bottom reflecting sky light. Farther along there is a dark cobblestone bottom, the current broken by granite boulders. Each bit of this water, due to its different light reception, drastically changes the appearance of our fly pattern. If, due to its matching, the fly pattern proves attractive to trout, it is usually in just one type of water. The pattern cannot complement both dark and bright water with a complete matching of the natural insects it imitates. Naturals, due to their greater transparency, do not undergo great changes in appearance under different water and light conditions. A may fly nymph or adult insect appears to a trout as a may fly nymph or adult under all water conditions. But there must be a constant change of artificial fly patterns to achieve this norm o color. A very good rule for pattern contrast is dark, subdued colors over bright water, lighter colors over dark water. Suppose an angler is successful with a March Brown pattern over bright water, while matching some of the darker colored may flies. As he works along the stream, taking trout, he comes to a section of darker water. Here his successful pattern may well prove a failure because it no longer matches the naturals presently over the water same fly pat tern, same naturals as those over the brighter water. The answer will be found in a lighter pattern such as a dry Light Cahill, or any one of several small light may fly patterns. Notice the type of bottom over which you are successful with a certain type of fly pattern, and your biggest problem of making a creel of trout is solved. If you have been fishing a dry fly success fully, pool after pool, and suddenly your matching goes awry, look for a change in the bottom to set you right. This is just as true of wet flies and nymph patterns as it is of dry flies. One early spring day I fished a clouded, rain-swollen stream immediately after a heavy storm. The water level was 18 inches above normal and the shallows extended several feet beyond the confines of the banks. Nymph Patterns My first offering that day was a Buck Nymph a very dark pat tern. I fished it without success for a half hour. During this time I quite thoroughly covered the coffee-colored pools where I normally took trout when the stream was lower. It was no go. I turned to the shallows beyond the normal confines of the banks. One small trout punched my fly on about the tenth cast I immediately changed my fly pattern. This time I tried a Grumpy, a much lighter-colored fly than the Buck Nymph, and one which was easier seen in the dark, coffee-colored water. I got action at once. This trout was a 14-inch cutthroat. I creeled him, then shot my fly out and across the stream into those fringing shallows. I wanted to see if a pattern of feeding trout was indicated by those first and second fish, or if they were just angler's luck. I took three more trout with my Grumpy Nymph pattern by way of proof that they were actively foraging and bottom grubbing in those flooded areas, normally above stream levels. Then I began to experiment. Could it be that the most attractive thing about that nymph pattern was its light color? I changed to a dark pattern, a Fuzzy Worm. This nymph fly has a full dark body of chenille and is lightly palmered with a dark grey hackle. In nor mally clear water it is a very effective nymph pattern. I sent my fly line out across that rolling brown flood, dropping this pattern directly in the bordering shallows. I fished out my drift carefully, even expectantly, but there was no response. Time after time I got perfect drifts, too. Colour Patterns for Trout Was it color alone which produced? I changed to a Royal Coachman Bucktail. Here is a fly with, enough white in it to be seen even in the darkest water. Again I sent my fly line out across the coffee-colored flood water, dropping my fly in the shallows. First cast there was a slight swirl of brown water, an almost imperceptible tightening of my leader. I set the hook gently, fully convinced I had nothing more than a keeper size trout a conviction which remained only for a second. My leader angled across the stream with a flair of minute spray falling away from it. For ten pulse-tingling minutes I had a dogged battle on my hands. My quarry fought deep, not once breaking the surface. Eventually I worked hi dose in among the alders and slipped my landing net under a 3-pound brown trout. That day I took and released twelve trout in that swollen, mud colored stream. It was something of a record for me on such water. I have been defeated by just such adverse stream conditions in the past, time after time. But by knowing the rule for matching the over-all stream conditions with the proper colored patterns, my fish ing that day was highly successful. Now, when a stream is not producing, I don't blame the weather, water conditions, or the perversity of trout in general. I wonder where I have failed. That is my starting point for getting my fishing back on a paying basis.
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