Quote:
Originally Posted by marmalade
Fascinating Phil. Can you send me the PM please? Actually, why not just post it?!
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One of the things I have noticed that is different between how the fish view the fly here to that in Australia is how finicky they are when 'micro' drag sets in on a dry fly. The fish in Australia don't seem to be as worried about this probably because the food chain is probably dominated by terrestrials and caddis.
So, this problem has been a subject of research over the past couple of years.
Obviously, a lot of the problem can be overcome through changing fishing techniques. Take the boys who fish the Clyde for example. They use a pretty long leader and make sure that there is a lot of slack tippet material on the water to achieve a long drag free drift. I also use this technique and it does overcome some of the problems.
The question I asked myself was
'what is the relationship between the way we tie our flies and 'micro drag?'. A bit a..n...l I agree but never the less I have been pondering this on and off over the past couple of years. These are some of things I have discovered though close observation. Others may agree or disagree but that's fishing.
Traditional fly design where the body is produced along the hook shank doesn't help the situation. My close observation is that this type of fly acts a bit like a boat in the current (I am not going to even go close to suggesting that a traditional dry fly sits on the tips of its hackle and tail points - I'll leave that right alone) where the small surface currents can make it behave a lot differently to a natural insect. Add a traditional hackle style to it and you then turn the fly into a 'barge like' construction. The alteration of the design into a parachute does help but you still have a fairly large surface area sitting on the water. If these are tied on standard hooks then you have a 'keel' in the shape of the hook bend.
These days, there are a lot of patterns tied on wide gape hooks similar in shape to 'grub' hooks. The problems I have seen with this style is that on one hand you have an even bigger 'keel' (in the case where the body is detached) or the body under the surface increasing the size of the 'keel' (in the case where a body is made around the gape). Even with this style of hook, there is still a small body and generally the hackle sits above it. My close observation is that the impact of drag on this fly only improves if it has a detached body.
I was fascinated by watching Terenzio Zandri tie his loom flies at the BFFI in 2008. This style has the hook hanging loosely under the fly. I wondered if this could be an answer to reducing drag. I have some of his flies and I tried them early last season. While they did float very well with the body ABOVE the water, the large hackle detracted from reducing the micro drag. I am still fascinated by the flies and I am in the process of learning the tying style because I believe some small changes might produce a great pattern.
I came across the 'Umbrella' pattern quite by accident. It seemed to me that having everything above the water surface and a hook hanging straight down would have the fly acting more like a natural. So I altered a couple of hooks and tied up a pattern using a detached foam body. The result was a vast improvement and the fly acted more natural that anything else I had used. Ulf Hagstrom's 'Killer Mayfly' pattern is similar to the Umbrella style but uses a different hook.
Now I thought about upside down patterns. This is nothing new and when Clarke & Goddard bought out the book showing this pattern I know a lot of people tried them. But they haven't become a 'fly box must have'. A pity really as the technique is great and still used by Roy Christie (he has shown me a small UPD fly he uses). I wanted something that was a pretty simple fly to produce so I started to revert back to the 'Umbrella' style.
I also re-visited Neil Patterson's 'Funnel Dun' technique. I have used this style a lot in the past and really like it. It is similar to an USD pattern.
However, I admit that I am still in the old fashioned school and believe that a hook with the gape down has better hooking power. No doubt, people with have alternative view and experience on this.
So from all of this came this style. I call it 'style' because I also do a caddis pattern with the hook straight down. My observation in its use was that having the hook hanging straight down, there was less micro drag. Having the body sit above the water surface achieved a more realistic presentation. So I am happy with it and have a 'special box' in my vest with just these patterns in it.
As I said, they hook grayling very well, probably because of the way the fly sits and the hook hangs.
But you do need a longer shank hook. I have used a Partridge BIN hook on these and it means I don't need to use the special 'umbrella' hooks that Dave was referring to.
Hope this is helpful.
L'ombra Dun Patterns
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