Trigger Points

[robbiejam]

Hi all, after reading an article in this months Total Flyfisher mag I've started adding trigger points to my flies - mainly as red heads.

Is this the norm? The reason I ask is that I was tying an olive damsel last night and I added a red head, needless to say it looked a bit silly - should I only add the trigger points to flies that suit it?

Just wondered what the general opinion was on it...

Many thanks, Rob.

[gelert]

i personally think they add a little bit extra.ive tied a a few variants on wet flies the last few weeks and had great success.
ive been using glo brite floos as a tag so i don't think you'r limited to just the head area.ive been tying buzzers with just a few turns of glo brite and red holo around the head in stead of the normal folding them back job.

[robbiejam]

Thanks for the reply. Do your trigger points look out of place though?

If I was adding some red to a black buzzer I wouldn't be too concerned as some of the naturals contain red anyway but if you're tying an imitation that has never seen the colour red will the fish still see it as a natural? Would the red make them think it's not food so ignore it or would it make then investigate further?

Thanks again, Rob.

[Eddie O'Neill]

Rob, I've not been tying that long, however one thing I have noticed is that some of the PTN variants I have tied with a red thorax have accounted for quite a few fish. May just be luck but you never know. Definitely worth a try

[Eddie O'Neill]

Originally Posted by Eddie O'Neill

Rob, I've not been tying that long, however one thing I have noticed is that some of the PTN variants I have tied with a red thorax have accounted for quite a few fish. May just be luck but you never know. Definitely worth a try

[robbiejam]

Thanks for that Eddie, I think a test may be in order next time I'm on the water - trying the same flies with an without trigger points!

[marks]

Rob, have not read the article so not sure of the context. It may be just advocating the addition of colour or flash.
To me fly tying is all about trigger points but they don't all have to be 'bling'. Subtle triggers also work.

Anything that triggers a response from the fish should be considered when tying. Rib to give a segmented body, wing buds, breathers etc on buzzers. I add glo-brite to some of mine at the point where the body and thorax meet and it often helps but also often need a less in yer face one.
Legs or marabou to give movement etc. The examples are endless.

It's not only your time at the bench though. Presentation, the shape, profile and how the fly is fished all count and can be the thing that triggers the take. The vertical lift of a buzzer in the water column is well documented. Fish hitting lures through an aggressive response etc. Again many things to think about.

Cheers,
Mark

[Scratch]

A good post from Mark there.... there's much more to it than magic 'triggers'.

Originally Posted by robbiejam

I've started adding trigger points to my flies - mainly as red heads. Is this the norm?

Trust me Robbie, the plain PTN has accounted for many thousands more fish than any hot-spot, 'trigger'-happy variants ever will.

OK, let's think this 'trigger points' business through.. We're talking about providing an extra special visual stimulus to a fly that 'triggers' an irresisitable feeding response in the fish. Shouldn't all our flies do that? How do flies without these so-called 'trigger points' catch fish then? The fly that won't catch fish has yet to be invented, therefore all flies will trigger a response on their day, therefore all flies have 'trigger points'. In my humble opinion, there's far too much made of this 'trigger' points' malarkey. Good flies work consistently well because they are more than the sum of their parts - they are 'holistic' - they work as a whole and the components work as a team. A hot-spot here and a glo-brite tag there may well help your fly get noticed, but the reverse of that coin is that it may well be the reason why your fly gets refused.
Let's take the example of the hot-spot pheasant tail. Does anyone really believe that the red (or whatever) hot-spot is the critical trigger, and that the simple but cleverly suggestive nymph-like profile is just a random vehicle to carry the 'trigger point'? It's all triggers, and yet, no triggers... if ye dig my drift?

Yes, there a several things you can do to a fly to make it more convincing or attractive to a trout in specific situations, but as I mentioned before, be aware that on certain days, hot-spots, flash and the like may well be the reason a fish refuses your fly. My own personal m.o. is, more often than not, to concentrate on giving the fish less reasons to refuse the fly rather than a special reason, or 'trigger' to take it.

Trout are simple creatures, they hump and they eat, but mostly eat... and when they do, they don't take an awful lot of triggering. All sorts of things trigger a response in trout - food-like shapes and forms, movement, colour, silhouettes, contrasts and colour blends. Flies with cunning combinations of the above will do the business more often and in more places than any fly with a special 'trigger point'.

My advice to you Robbie would be to worry less about mystical, magical 'trigger points' and concern yourself with learning to tie as many different types of pattern and mastering as many tying techniques as possible. This will enable you include all the key factors in your tying and combine them to produce effective flies. You will be able to reproduce the flies that you see in in your minds eye, on this forum or in a magazine. The flies will be as you want them and like them to be, which will give you confidence, which will catch you many more fish than any with special 'triggers'.

[roll cast]

Wells aid Scratch, too much is said to make fly tying like some sort of science, although a hotspot is good sometimes but not at the expense of ordinary patterns, more a contingency plan

[robbiejam]

Hi Mark, thanks for the reply.

I see what you mean about more subtle trigger points. I'm gonna try do some real life tests and see if the ones I have tied do better than the ones without the more obvious trigger points.

Rob.