Flavor of the day

[fishhead]

I have had some great days with this fly in the past and for some reason I haven't fished it for about 2 years. After I lost the last of them I just kinda forgot about this fly, then I came across another fly that reminded me of this one and I went straight to my vise to twist one up. It's funny how I could just forget about any fly that worked so well for me in the past. It's crazy and it's got me thinking what other patterns are locked away in my head somewhere just waiting to be rediscovered?

Hook: came from my box of miscellaneous hooks that were from when I first started tying and stripped the hooks bare again so I don't remember what it is but its a klinkhamer style and I think it's a size 16 but the brand, I have no clue.
Thread: danvilles Orange size 6/0
Tail: barred mallard flank
Body: it's a scud style gray with multi colors mixed in
Rib: light pink vinyl
Thorax: pink and orange mix
Hackle: partridge

[swellcat]

Kind of a hot-spotter, isn't it, with a nice, sparse, well-marked hackle. Body taper is steep, but no more so than when folks use beads as thoraxes.

A local lake has an hatch at the moment of very young silverside fry; I suspect this fly would work.

[fishhead]

The dubbing for the body has a lot of bright colors mixed in and then the thorax is very bright so it's definitely a hot spotter. I have used different hooks for this fly but I always use a hook with a longish shank. I have no clue what mr trout thinks he is eating when he goes for this fly, but what I do know is that this pattern just flat out works.

[hankaye]

fishhead, Howdy;

Kind of like the Larval or Alevin http://scienceeverywherealltime.blogspo ... cycle.html , stage of a fishes
life http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/lessons ... ife-cycle/
Right between Egg and Fry (but closer to egg), it would show some of the shape of the Fry and still have
the egg sack attached for the food source. Interesting concept. Also kinda Tupish ... sorta ...

hank

[William Anderson]

I can tell you the March Browns were around, not exactly coming off but if we saw any bugs they were small caddis or big MB's. We caught fish on #12 partridge and hare flymphs, some twist bodied MB soft hackles, etc, but the emerger they sold at the Slate Run fly shop was designed by Nick Nicklas (I believe that his name) and it was a brighter than expected body with a partridge hackle and included a smaller dyed yellow rooster hackle behind the partridge and a salmon colored ostrich herl prominent in the thorax. An ugly pattern for sure, but I bought a couple and sure enough it worked a couple times on Penns even though there were almost no rises. It doesn't seem entomologically sound, but your pattern would have been perfect. I came back and tied a handful of various MB flymphs with brighter bodies and reddish thoraxes. They worked spot on. I will say on Kettle Creek I saw two risers on the far bank and put one of these brighter flymphs a few feet ahead with a reach mend and a dead drift and took two nice Browns back to back. The next day on Pine Creek the same thing. A couple hit the flies on the swing but the two nicest of the day took the flies just after they hit the water on an upstream cast.

All that to say I would have a lot of confidence putting this fly in front of difficult trout. Nice composition. Please post a result when you get a chance to try this one out.

[fishhead]

I enjoyed reading your post William, thank you for sharing your experience. This pattern has worked really well for me in the past and I am excited to try it out again since it was somehow removed from my fly box and never replenished. It really got me wondering what other patterns I had fished and done well with that I have just somehow forgotten about. I'm always trying to come up with new patterns so maybe I should try and document my experiences so I don't forget about flies that I shouldn't forget about.