I like the two hackles.

Ron Eagle Elk wrote:Is there something besides horsehair lines and leaders? Am I behind the times or something?

REE

Yeah, silkworm gut works too, but it unfortunately sinks.

Floating wets worked in the past, and they still work. One more trick in the repertoire.

Beautifully done. Ron, you said "float". I thought that was a forbidden word on this site. :D Where did you get the idea that wet flies, especially soft hackles, can't float? In the days of horse hair lines/leaders they didn't have much choice but to float. (I tie my snipe and purples on ...

Roadkill mentioned the Trico hatch. Here's an interesting example where the dun changes so quickly to a spinner, that most of the time, the trout are feeding upon spinners rather than duns. Are these minute differences in appearance THAT important? If they are, I'm doing something wrong. And yet, I...

redietz ... but the semantic discussion is great even coast to coast and would even be better at waters edge after a good day over the fish. Renegades have been a favorite of mine in fly boxes (and tin Bandaid or Prince Albert cans) for over 50 years. I'd love to have stream side discussions with a...

Roadkill - I think we're probably about 99% in agreement, especially about experience, but I've been tweaking you a bit. And although I agree about the "right fly" I think goes as much to presentation as anything; as I said, I've yet to be able to float a beadhead. Some flies are going to ...

... rather than grease up my flymph. I OTOH, catch a significant number of fish doing just that. I won't sink my dry flies in the water column and expect them to perform as well as my flymphs imitating insects swimming well underwater. I do that, too. You really should try a sunken Elk Hair Caddis ...

Not palmered, but do the the name Cochy-Bondhu ring a familiar bell?

That's got to be a killer pattern.

During my favorite fly(October caddis) hatch period I have spent entire days fishing a 3 fly rig of Pupa, Emerger, and Adult. I have often seen a decided stage preference change over the course of the day and all three of these flies were similar in size and color. I am also a believer in cripples ...

So when it comes to situations such as this who is to say what's really the answer? Is there an answer? Are we making more out of it than it really is? Do we over-think this pastime of ours making it more complicated than it is? Question 1: Only the trout know the answer for sure, and they're not t...