Back to basics

[midlander]

After the season ended I dumped my stuff in the cupboard under the stairs and pretty much forgot about it. Well, I've now got round to prising the fly box lids open and I'm undergoing a sort of severe revisionism. I've got sh1te in there that never got used and looks pretty much the same as the next thing, the next "eureka" pattern. One thing I noted was that my spiders were sorely under utilised this season. For one reason or another I just left them sitting. Once a significant part of my collection it seems to have dwindled and fallen into obscurity.

In the early nineties all my stuff, including flies got nicked. Which killed my fishing for a couple of years as I just couldn't face replacing all those flies. Years of work. Anyway, I got back into tying and one of the first things I tied was this quill spider pattern. It had worked well from the mid 80s and for the first season back in the boat it was never off my cast...



Like most folks, I have a tendency to revise my boxes each year and tweak/update patterns. The above pattern has been through more than it's fair share of revisions, it's lead pretty much directly to most of my subsequent spidery pulling patterns..

The Brown Stewart style held sway for a while..



Which then gave rise to various coloured versions of this type of thing..



And even informed my choices where Diawl Bachs are concerned, with my preference for the Diawl Copyn..



And my current revisionism has led me to my entry for the Duck Fly swap..



The only thing that's not currently in my box is the original pattern from the top of the page. What an erse!

The thing is, the top fly worked throughout the season in just about every hatch going and yet it's been dropped by evolution. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that are we collectively, as tiers, guilty of constantly moving forward with ever more derivative patterns and forgetting the quintessentially deadly patterns of the past at our own peril? I for one am working through a process of simplifying my collection and sorting out the true gems from the inevitable, if oh so inventive - at the time, dross.

What do you lads think?

[A. Fluker]

A delightful selection. I particularly like the second one 'Brown Stewart' style. I also like your entry for the duck fly swap and look forward to seeing them in the swap.

[Watersplatter]

Whilst I did not have my flies nicked some erswipe picked them up from the floor at Lockwood beck carpark and never handed them in, approx 800-900 flies a solid winters tying and the remnants of previous years efforts, I'm still struggling to regain enthusiasm to start tying again, I even got some buzzers off Rob as a last resort .
Seeing these patterns and others are beginning to sow seeds to get my erse into gear and start tying again.

All the best to everyone for the New year.

I apologise if this deters from this thread

[mayflyjunky]

Originally Posted by midlander

The thing is, the top fly worked throughout the season in just about every hatch going and yet it's been dropped by evolution. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that are we collectively, as tiers, guilty of constantly moving forward with ever more derivative patterns and forgetting the quintessentially deadly patterns of the past at our own peril? I for one am working through a process of simplifying my collection and sorting out the true gems from the inevitable, if oh so inventive - at the time, dross.

What do you lads think?

I think it's because the majority of time these deadly patterns are also very, very simple patterns, you only have to look at the flies you posted Alex, from top to bottom, with the top looking like the simplest and as you say your self the most deadly.
But we have to keep adding new materials and trying to improve on prefection and for some reason we cant/wont accept these simple patterns are as good as the particular fly is going to get.

The best example I seen was this year on Lough Melvin, during the Garrison open a friend of mine who was struggling to qualify put on a Bruiser and low and behold he caught enough fish in the last 2 hours to place him 7th out of about 100 anglers!!!
I didn't even own a bloody Bruiser, but I did have deadly looking bumbles that are about as intricate as a fully dressed salmon fly and about as useless as tits on a bull.

It was a bloody good lesson.

[stevekale]

My biggest issue is, having only been at this for a year and a half, when I peruse my fly boxes I see all the stuff I tied 6 months or so ago and realise that it is complete cr@p. Even though they work, they just look awful in the box. I really should just throw them all out and start again!

[guest21]

Originally Posted by stevekale

My biggest issue is, having only been at this for a year and a half,

Imagine looking at a fly box from 40 years ago .... and people complain about the quality of hooks today! Interestingly though some of the patterns I used then I still have a lot of faith in - Iven's Black & Peacock Spider, Green & Yellow Nymph, the sedge pupa with the green mono body and partridge hackle - excellent.

[Wee Jimmy]

Originally Posted by midlander

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that are we collectively, as tiers, guilty of constantly moving forward with ever more derivative patterns and forgetting the quintessentially deadly patterns of the past at our own peril?

I would say that we definitely are Alex,but it wouldny make sense not to try to improve our patterns with the latest of modern materials available to us.....its fun and keeps things fresh and interesting,especially when we come up with a cracker from time to time......
It does seem a wee bit of a shame though that perfectly acceptable patterns will be lost amongst the flood of variants, as we attempt to make improvements on them.

I like to have a wee tweak as much as the next guy but I have not forgotten several old favourites that I know will do the job for me in different fishing situations and I find them just as effective as they always were.

On the other side of that coin, I've also spoken to people who believe that they can no longer catch on flies that were once effective for them...hence their particular need for constant development and upgrading.

I suspect that a lot will depend on where we are doing the bulk of our fishing.For example, busy reservoirs with a lot of C&R taking place will possibly require a different mind-set regarding fly patterns compared to those of us who spend our time on lighter fished waters.