Do the fish care

[KOKOEK9 0]

when you go to the shop and buy flies they are works of art, but do the fish care or just the tyer. I have just started but I strive to do my best but I am still clumsy, that is why I won't do dries. Do the fish care if it is a good likeness or do they want museum quality just curious

[DryFlies4Life 0]

It seems unless the fish are really onto a hatch they dont really care, as for dry flys dont be afraid to try tying some up. My best catching dryflys where messes on deer hair and hackle with a hook through them.

[rockworm 0]

I say: tye some dries! How bad can they be? Many people are of the opinion that trout prefer the cripples and failed emergers. There are even patterns with wings and tails all over the place. You could lead the pack.

[KOKOEK9 0]

thanks, I'll try that, you know the books, everything has to done their way and perfect, That is why I like to ask ordinary people who do what is best for them

[williamhj 0]

The fish don't care if they are museum quality, they care if they look edible.

[Crackaig 0]

The flies that you see in the shops are not for catching fish! They are for catching fishermen.

 

Cheers,

C.

[mridenour 0]

I rarely tie a fly that I would like to post a picture of on here. These guys are just too good. But I catch a LOT of fish on my far less than perfect flies. Fishing is mostly about presentation and if you can give the fish something that looks tasty to them they will eat it if you can get it in front of them....usually.

[JSzymczyk 0]

the flies in the shops are works of art?

[utyer 0]

The flies in shops must attract an angler FIRST. The fact that they just may catch a fish is secondary. The same holds true for the books, I never met a fish who could read. There are many reasons to strive to tie better flies, but catching fish isn't one of them. I am a member of the "ugly flies catch more fish" school of fly tying.

 

All these flies (both wets and drys) will and do catch fish for me on a consistent basis. Oh, one more thing, not one of them has a hackle of any kind.

[Christopher K 0]

They don't care, but when we sell you need to catch fishmen, not fish

[mikechell 0]

I once saw a large trout come up to one of my most perfectly tied flies. It was surrounded by a mass of fingerlings that were only a few inches long. As I tried my best to work that fly convincingly, the little fry pulled little flash cards out of their gill flap folds and started comparing them to my fly. Suddenly, one of them started dancing around the big fish and flipping one card in front of it's eyes. The little fish darted towards my fly, only to be smacked aside by the large fish. It used it's pectoral fin and pointed to the one rubber leg that I knew was a fraction of a millimeter out of place.

All the little fish first made little "O's" with their mouths, then started pushing and laughing at the fingerling that'd tried to take the fly. They swam off, but water carries sound well and I could hear their little giggles and laughs for several seconds after they were out of sight.

 

Of course, not all fish schools have such good instructors, so ugly flies will catch less educated fish. The best of fish will, however, make you feel very ashamed for that little imperfection you thought wouldn't matter ... trust me!!!

[Piker20 0]

I agree 'perfect flies' are overrated but learning the techniques in the books to tie properly will help when you expand your tying and make it less annoying to get that wing sitting or hackle wound.

[KOKOEK9 0]

thanks, that makes sense

[GdubyaSmith 0]

The fish don't care if they are museum quality, they care if they look edible.

I agree with that statement 100%

I remember when I first got here I saw someones signature that said something to the effect: "Fly Fishermen...Over-complicating things since....whenever" or something like that.

Fish eat to live so in my opinion it has to look like something they would eat, something they want to kill, or something that just gets them angry enough that it invaded their space and they move it out of their way.

Simply look at a Woolly Worm or Bugger the beauty of that simple fly is in what it does and not it's looks on a Vise. What it imparts in the way of "Motion" on or under the water makes it look "Alive".

What I would really like to see is a comparison of real and fake...from under the water...the fishes view.

I still like that feeling of when I have a take on something I tied...ugly or realistic looking. In the time that fish had to react to it's environment I slipped something in there that fooled it.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

Fish don't write checks fisherman do that is why the people like myself and a few others on here try to tie the perfect flies for shops but if you look in our flyboxes you will see a whole different side of our tying