FLYMPH FORUM

Bills, thanks to you both for rounding out this look at the potential these white flymphs and soft-hackles have for this hatch.

I tried my luck with a pattern just as Bill Shuck tied his version. But the hatch had already evaporated days ago and I couldn't buy a take. Eric worked his magic with a white flymph he tied for the hatch and found him self in the right place when a massive brown smashed it while it dangled downstream. Wish we had a pic of that beaut. It was an exceptional fish. I'll be eager to fish this hatch again, if the I can be on the water on the right night. This year was tough.


w

As promised, I got a pic of the subtle little white fly flymph that worked for me. It didn't do me any favors last week, but the week before paid off. Anyway, it was with Wayne's prompt to use more grizzly hen hackle that i thought a pale grizzly would be a nice solution.

Snowshoe White Fly Flymph



I've even tied a few more this week, just because I want to have them ready to next year. Hitting that hatch on the right night (it's a two hour drive to get there) has moved up my list of things to nail next season.

w

Nice looking fly!

I find it amazing how much time I spend each year planning and preparing for the white fly hatch versus the amount of time I actually spend fishing it (what -- in reality maybe 3 hours per year?) I spend more time thinking about it than I do for the sulfur hatch, which lasts months. It's just such a fascinating event because the flies themselves are such outliers in the Mayfly order.

I have found another use the white fly patterns, however. A couple of times I've run into an all-white mayfly on the lower part of the Gunpowder that hatches about this time of the year, which are about the same size as E. leukon, but more conventional in appearance (such as they have real legs.) I'm told they're Cream Cahills, but they're smaller than any other Cahill I've seen. At any rate, white fly patterns work great when they're on the water (and the hatch lasts for several daylight hours.)

There are probably other uses for them as well.