FLYMPH FORUM

Otter, Howdy;

Should you attempt to dry and sift dubbing in the dryer, and Mrs. O catch you you can always tell her
it looks as if it may be time to feed the motor as they appear to be all run out .......

hank

The silk really is a wonderfully fine material and even on a simple P&O the addition of some VERY lightly touch dubbed orange silk does change the fly quite dramatically. Uselful material , no question - that's the easy bit done, the hard bit is to know when to take advantage of it. I can see it of being use on some slim nymphs and other things as well.

Must get some more colours of silk floss over the coming months and with a bit of luck a waterhen bloa better suited as an imitation of the early spring olives will be ready to try next spring (seems a long way away )

That is the main problem. Various design factors are only really usually of use on a particular fly, although of course one may use various techniques on whole ranges of flies, especially of naturals with similar appearance or behaviour. Finding out which works best for a particular imitation, and under what circumstances, is the hardest part of the exercise. This also depends heavily on how you are going to use the imitation. Having said that, the dubbed silk makes just about all the silk thread bodies more effective.

With regard to testing various designs, it can (will!), take a long time and a lot of effort to find specific designs which work "best", and one can not try them all anyway, so you need some sort of plan when going about it. Some modifications to "tried and tested" patterns may be "improvements", or they may not. You also have to view the pattern in light of what you are trying to imitate, and not just based on some other imitation.

Of course, a lot of this depends on your particular philosophy. You can catch fish on lots of things. Some may well think that going to such lengths to try and "maximise" the efficacy of various flies is not their cup of tea. That's fair enough.

TL
MC

Mike Connor wrote: Of course, a lot of this depends on your particular philosophy. You can catch fish on lots of things. Some may well think that going to such lengths to try and "maximise" the efficacy of various flies is not their cup of tea. That's fair enough.
TL
MC

Very hard for anyone who has limited time on the river to maximise anything or test anything properly - what I find is that even thinking about these things will by itself increase ones knowledge. Tinkering with a pattern and catching a few trout on it even if it isn't an improvement brings some satisfaction in its own right and can enhance one's enjoyment, which after all, is what it's all about.