Waterbloa

[Otter]

Whilst reding skue's The way of a trout he referred that there is only 5 specific undercovert hackles on each wing that will work on waterhen bloa.

Anyone know if this is true , if so which 5

[Otter]

Largely agree with that Mike, it is so difficult to prove anything in fly fishing because to test one pattern or technique over another is largely impossible as you can never recreate the same dynamics. Without a time machine I'm afraid that for your average angler it may mean a lifetime of fishing say once or twice a week to establish on their own any real credible facts and those facts will still be "unproven"

The difficulty for the average angler then is to how to arm himself with knowledge that is closer to the world of fact than the world of fiction. I have a sneaky feeling that the majority of angling writers more often than not make the facts match their theories, make loose observations , repeat old dogmas without question or worse take old dogmas , glitx it up a bit and present as something new for new is what their public expect.

Thanks for your opinion on the waterhen hackles.... I hope a few trout grab my bloas next spring and god knows one of the trout may just have taken it as a LDO

[Hans Weilenmann]

Mike,

Good links!

I loved this statement:

MOST NOVICE ANGLERS think that the only hard part of fly fishing is learning how to cast: once you've figured out the old “10 and 2,” the logic goes, the rest just falls into place. It's a comforting little myth — and it helps some people to justify buying a $700 fly rod

I know too many people with too many $700 fly rods. Heck, with the rate of inflation some of my old wooden sticks might even qualify

Cheers,
Hans W

[Otter]

See here; "Ex mortua manu" http://www.archive.org/stream/wayoftrou ... 2/mode/2up

This is in my opinion Skues' most important book in regard to wet fly fishing, and anybody who wants to dress or fish wet flies will profit considerably by reading it carefully. Far more so than by reading the multitude of books now on offer with hundreds or even thousands of fly patterns in them. In my opinion many of these are completely divorced from reality in any case. Most certainly from "my" reality!

Whatever, I do hope you do well with your waterhen bloas, you almost certainly will, simply because you thought about it and tried to gain information beforehand. The actual mechanics of it may take a little while, but the more you enjoy something the easier you find it and the greater your progress................

I haven't read it fully yet, and from a first read it will take a half dozen reads to take in half of what he discusses. He comes accross as an extremely clever and courageous man. He more than raised his head above the parapet but very cleverly laid many traps within his writings to catch those that know nought but profess to know it all - they would come unstuck I suspect very quickly were they to be over critical of this book and the techniques that he offers to the readers.

One thing that strikes me as I embark on learning the secrets of tying and fishing spiders is the necessity for restraint and to a degree the need to leave aside all previous experiences.

My river angling to date has been a 2 tracked affair, one track learning my local river, its moods , where and when trout can be expected to be found and the other track being the basic learning of the fly life, finding , tying and testing patterns that work. To that end I have enough knowledge that I would say I am no longer a beginner. I have a small number of patterns, dries, emergers and spent that I am confident in and am happy that they work when they should work - not necessarily the best possible but good enough for my requirements. For the dry/surface emerger work, be my thoughts right or wrong I firmly believe that a small number of profiles is all that one needs for most circumstances and that colouration etc in dries does not need to be all that precise and that other factors such as presentation are way more important. This area will always be a work in progress but it will no longer be a pressure situation as I have flies that for the most part work and any improvement in those would be a bonus rather than an absolute necessity.

I took up nymphing in earnest last season and so the pressure was on full blast, armed with a very basic selection of nymphs, mainly weighted I had a very sucessful campaign and concluded that basic nymphs will take a lot of fish and big fish at that. However a very serious gap in my armoury was exposed, how to deal with trout during a rise that were taking just subsurface and the taking of more wary trout that required more precise imitations and that are not attracted by the glint of a gold bead.

For that reason I will be taking a few tried and trusted spider patterns, researching them and tying them to the best of my ability and completely ignoring at this stage the urge that all fly tiers have and that is to take a pattern and play with materials to place their own stamp on the pattern. I have little interest in casting an arbitrary teams of spiders hoping that some trout may grab hold - I can do that more effectively french nymphing - by effective targeting with specific spider patterns I will at least place myself in a position where lessons can be learned and knowledge gained the correct way - on the water and not from a book.