FLYMPH FORUM

What a fantastic web-site. I need all the help I can get. I've been learning U.K. traditional wet fly techniques from Davy Wotton. I guide here in Montana and what I'm finding out is Americans are mistaught about how to properly fish traditional wet flies, soft-hackles and flymphs....most just "swing" them down and across. Davy comes out here to fish from his home state of Arkansas...he guides on the White river, and we just exchange ideas when he comes out. I'm not a good lake/reservior angler and Davy shows me some of the U.K. ideas...great information.

Now, what about those coily indicators that anglers are using in Europe? Is it going beyond tradition, or does it really matter? I do a little-bit of tying with Sylvester Nemes and for a lot of folks like him, beadheads are lures, not flies...I guess I like trying it all out and if I like it, I'll stick to it, but then, I'm a huge fan of most European coarse and fly angling methods...they work!

It's an honor to be part of this forum..thank you one and all.

Tight Loops,
Brian Ramsey
Bozeman, MT

Great to have you here, Brian. We'll probably learn much from you. While I've not spoken to Davy in person, I have conversed online with him. He knows his stuff.

Mark

Mark,
Thanks for writing back. This forum seems to be special. Lot's of great information being conveyed here. As far as Davy Wotton, he's a very eccentric artist type. He's multi-talented to-the-max, but isn't really discovered by the American angling public like Kreh, Whitlock, Harvey or a Joe Humphries.... I think Davy may not be well liked in Europe and I'm not sure what from, but the guy has contributed to the industry as a whole the world over on a major level, in many facets of the sport, particularily fly tying. He's had his foot in the door with all major manufacures of fly tying hooks and various other tying products. What ever information you can glean from, it'll improve your fishing to a whole new level that most anglers can't comprehend. And it's not about ego or numbers of fish caught, but simply being in the moment when your fishing, being a predator, but on a more peaceful level. Davy is very good friends with Dave Whitlock and I'm trying to set up a time to fish with them in Arkansas...times are lean across the board if your trying to make a living fly fishing. I first read about Davy Wotton in the back of a Sage rod catalog when I was in my teens in the mid-1980s and I can't believe I got to evenually fish with the guy recently; he's come out to Montana on his vacations from guiding on the White River. When you e-mail him, tell him I say, HI. He just got hammered a few weeks ago from a ice-storm that hit the area.
Tight Loops,
Brian Ramsey

Brian,
I was trying to assist Davy in getting some Greenwell's hen, a hackle that really can't be dyed or faked, really. I referred him to Charlie Collins, who lives about an hour away from me. Unfortunately, Charlie is coming off the tying show season, and did not have any. In addition, Charlie told him there wasn't much "call' for that hackle here in the USA. I am fortunate to have one of Charlie's Greenwell's hen cape and back. It's really beautiful.

I know Davy was having problems with the ice storm and was trying to get things back in order at that point. I surely hope he got things back together and that he found the hackle he was seeking.

Mark

Hi Brian;

Davey can be found hanging out at Troutpredator online: http://www.troutpredator.com/

He definetly is a wealth of knowledge, I have to read some of his posts numerous times to get the complete idea. He's very willing to answer questions there. He kinda reminds me of Mike Connors, another unsung hero of the fly fishing community.

Wayneb

Hey Guys,
Thanks for writing back...I was fishing the lower Madison...by myself, yesterday...I actually got time to myself and fished hard. It was horribly windy, though. The fishing was excellent in the right spots. It pretty much blew everyone off the water. No bugs to speak of, of course, but I had to nymph, which is o.k., but not my favorite way to catch trout. When the midges come out I employ a wet fly technique using a soft hackle called the Reid's Assassin, out of a Syl Nemes book, Two-Centuries of Soft-Hackles. I'm going to be with Sylvester this week to help out with things around his house because he's getting very old to do the heavy things, but he said I could look at some of his old Fishing Gazette magazines, the old great British fishing tabloid of years gone by in the late 1800s, should be great.
Greenwell's Glory...I used it last spring on DePuy's spring creek and it's deadly, even though I didn't have the original color for the hackle. I took my daughter over to the spring creeks last weekend during a minor snow squall and there were midges coming off that were a size #12-14...didn't fish, though, just watched trout with my daughter...I actually learn a lot about trout by just watching them and not fishing to them.
Regards,
Brian Ramsey