Got silver?

[hankaye]

DUBBN, Howdy;

, , .

Might just do that .....

hank

[John L]

Report of trial of three-wet-fly rig - Two days at the end of October.

The first day I used a rig as much like Dubbn's as I could: the first fly a smaller-than-pea sized apricot colored egg-foam egg, the middle fly an unweighed size 14 muscrat and brown soft hackle, and on point a dull tungsten-bead-headed size 14 PT. I have no splitshot and don't want to buy any, so the egg had some lead under the thread. I caught three fish on the point nymph and then lost the rig when a fish ran under a snag. *@c#ing three fly rigs. So I went just with a bright and dark nymph and caught a few more fish on each and called it a day.

Today I rigged with my favorite tungsten bead head size 14 silvery nymph on top, another unweighed size 14 muscrat and brown in the middle, and another weighed apricot egg on point. Having lost count like happens some days, I have to estimate I caught about twenty mixed browns and rainbows, about equal numbers on my go-to fly and on Dubbn's go-to fly. Only one fish on the egg on point. It was a bright day, with no insects for awhile and then some various size mayflies in the air later.

I suppose some browns are egg laying already but I haven't seen any redds; maybe that accounts for the fishes' unwillingness to bite my eggs?

Dubbn's dull little soft hackle did well; maybe because there are relatively few bright caddis pupae coming up from the bottom now?

My silvery bright fly did well considering its inferior position ?

My fly is something like Egan's http://flyfishingreporter.com/lance-ega ... arrior-fly Somewhere I also read that Egan thinks this fly looks enough like a trout egg to be taken as such.

The fish were hot. I got plenty of jumping fish induced tangles to remind me why I hate three fly rigs.

[letumgo]

Terrific field report, John.

[DUBBN]

Ditto...Great report John!

[John L]

The thread started with "Got silver?", implying that if you don't got it maybe you should. I am still impressed with the day in day out effectiveness of light colored, bright, silvery flies. But this is fishing and I haven't found the one fly so good it always kicks the others' behinds. Today was an example on my town's stretch of the freestone Arkansas River;

I started with my current go to setup: one silver tungsten bead head size 14 much like Eagan's Rainbow Warrior. Bright day, crystal clear low flow, no insects over the water. I caught fish at an acceptable rate up to ten. By that time I was at the head of a pool about 3-6' deep, so, I thought, let's add the dull brass bead head PT from the local fly shop that did so well a while ago. In the clear, deeper water it was sure that when a fish saw one fly it was going to see the other. I caught four fish in a row on the darker, duller PT, which was on the bottom. I changed positions of the flies and caught the next five fish on the faux Rainbow Warrier, now the bottom fly. I went for an even twenty fish as a cutoff for the day and caught the last fish on - the upper fly.

Proving? Since today two previously number one flies were about equally number one, maybe anyone who hasn't got silver is OK. And the bottom fly position on a multi fly rig is, other factors being about equal, the position most likely to get bit, baring exceptions, which probably everybody knows.

[DUBBN]

John, I added some Silver to a few patterns. I will give it a try in the next few weeks. Thanks John. You have given me alot to think about.

[DUBBN]

John, a few patterns I have been working on. I know they are drab by most standards, but they are pretty darn "glitzy" for me.



Partridge and Black


Copper and Black


Partridge and Black variation


Pheasant and Black


Please excuse the tying and photo quality John. I hope you get the general idea of what they look like.

Thanks again for the food for thought.

[Mataura mayfly]

Drab is good!
Round these parts Brown Trout don't do glitz and flash well, subtle drab dull and buggy work good and your offerings show all those qualities, I would fish them without hesitation.

[JohnP]

Excellent patterns, Wayne. Your skills are top notch.

[John L]

DUBBN and Mataura, Hi. This summer and fall the silver tungsten bead head flies I described above, tied on the short shank size 14 hooks I use for almost all flies for the past couple years, outperformed everything else I tried. In the fall as I began to see less caddis and more Baetis, I would occasionally add the smallest flies I had tied, brown thread, epoxy-hump-backed things on short size 16 hooks, and still I caught almost everything on the larger, silvery flies - until today. Today was cold and spit a little rain and hail and, though I caught three or four fish on my usual single, silvery, size 14, the run usually produced more for me, so I added the little brown thread fly - and caught all the next six fish on that. Then it really started to hail and I quit.

I didn't see any flies except a few dust speck size things over the water. Nor did I see rising. All the fish I caught were in soft, shallow water off to the side of riffles. I'll guess that if I were a fish eating very small insects to get through the day, I would get them with the least energy expenditure in soft, shallow water.

Did I mention that I did quite poorly during past winters on this river? During those winters I think I just persisted with my size 14 whatever-I-was-using-during-the-summer flies. I'm still not going to use big wolly buggers or such because I don't like how often I got hung up with big flies in the past. But I am going to try more size 14 dull flies now, and especially smaller flies.

DUBBN, since your freestone water is much like mine, what is working best for you now? Your new flashier flies? Your old duller ones?

I apologize for not putting out the effort to do what it takes to take useful pictures of flies. Maybe I can get my wife working on it.