| THE Question |
|
|
| Monday, 12 June 2006 | |
 You are on an island with your fly rod. You can only bring one fly. What would you bring? This question was probably posed to Sir Izaak Walton himself in the beginning of fly fishing and has been around for a very long time. It is the ultimate hypothetical and philosophical question. No one can answer this question with certainty. Why do I bring this up? I need to think about the question for a specific reason… a one-fly contest. The rules are: (1) One fly. You loose the fly to a fish, you’re done. You break off in a tree, you’re done. Your fly comes apart after a few fish, you’re done. The fish don’t like your fly; you can’t change flies, so you’re done. Some would think this to be the answer to THE Question. Unfortunately, a one fly contest opens the flood gates for more questions. I plan to fish in the Dr. Bud Priddy Memorial One Fly Contest on May 20 on the Nueces River. The money raised from the contest goes to the Alamo Fly Fishers' conservation efforts on the Nueces and other rivers in the area. The categories are for the largest Guadalupe Bass, largest perch (Texan for bream), and the most total fish caught (any and all species). So, now to the point. What the heck am I going to do? What fly do I choose? Do I target larger bass with larger flies, removing the probability of smaller fish hitting the fly? Do I go with a known bream pattern to target the smaller fish? What fly will be durable enough to survive all day? A nymph, a popper, a dry fly or a streamer? Will it be sunny, windy, cloudy, raining or partly cloudy? I have narrowed down the choices in my mind. An olive woolly bugger, a foam rubber-legged fly, a Clouser minnow, bream killer or a midge emerger. An olive woolly bugger is a good choice in almost any water. Tied with flash in the tail or down the sides, it has taken large numbers of trout, bass and bream for me in the past. It is durable, effective and a good choice for almost any condition. A foam rubber-legged fly is also another top pick of mine. I tie a version similar to a foam spider with an elk hair wing and a marabou tail. I then take a sharpie pen and color it to mimic a frog or just put spots all over the foam. I have taken numerous bass and bream with this fly. Being foam, it is fairly durable, but on occasion after several fish, the rubber-legs pull out. Even without the legs, it is still very effective. A foam bug will be a good choice to fish topwater. A Clouser minnow pattern usually tied in chartreuse and white had done well for me in the past. I have taken lots of smallmouth and large bream with a Clouser. It is very durable, but will limit my catch to larger fish and has a bad tendency to get hung on rocks in shallow water. Still, it too, would be a good choice. A bream killer, as most know, is one of the best patterns to target bass and bream. It worked exceptionally well for me at the Palmer House outing last May in Mississippi. I caught and released lots of large bass and bream using a bream killer. It is a durable pattern but can only be fished wet. If the situation calls for a dry, I am out of luck. It does sink slowly, unlike a Clouser and has those rubber legs “twitching” as it falls within the water column. A midge emerger would also be a good fly. The Alex midge I tie is a slow sinking fly that doesn’t spook fish. When fishing them in tandem, I often get two bream at a time. It is a great fly, but very small in size. It must be fished with fine tippet, so the possibility of a break off is ever present. Being small in size may also limit the larger bass hitting this small offering. I will wait and see what weather and river conditions I am facing. This will probably be the determining factor. I want to get a look at the river to see if it is deep or shallow. I want to know if the river has long, flat pools or lots of riffles. In the meantime, I will ponder THE ultimate fly fishing question…"If I only had one fly…" -Robert Prytula |
|
| Last Updated ( Monday, 12 June 2006 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|