WD-40 a good searching pattern?

[McFlyLures 0]

The WD-40 Is a very proven pattern for fishing streams and rivers for trout. It can be used as a BWO Baetis emerger or even a very effective searching pattern. The trout seem to not be able to say no to this fly! Its one of those patterns that just works, and is fairly easy to tie. You only need mallard flank feather, thread, and some type of fine dubbing.

Hook: Umpqua U202 size 18 (but you can use any curved hook in a wide range of sizes).

Wing/Tail: Mallard Flank

Casing: Super Dry Dubbing

Thread: 8/0 brown/olive thread (commonly tied olive, black, brown, and gray)

Music: Sunny, Happiness - Bensound.com

[McFlyLures 0]

So I tied the dubbing ball a bit large... Larger than usual. I haven't been able to fish it yet to see if it works with a larger dubbing ball cause my local river is being blown out for a month... 500cfps to 5,000cfps. It's mucky and dangerous... Anyone have experience with oversized dubbing balls on these flies? Do they work still?

[SilverCreek 0]

I guess I would not say the WD-40 is a "searching" pattern by the criteria I think of for a searching pattern.

A searching pattern should look like a number of different trout foods AND cover a lot of water at different levels; hence, a searching pattern searches the water for fish. A prime example would be a wooly bugger. A wooly bugger covers a lot of water quickly and it can imitate a leech, a minnow, a crayfish, a sculpin, and in small sizes a swimming nymph like a hex nymph and a damsel fly nymph.

Other common searching patterns would be soft hackle wet flies that can be small minnow flies or a number of caddis or mayfly emergers.

A WD-40 is a pretty specific imitation and it is fished dead drift during emergence. If it fished during emergence, then it is not a searching pattern any more than an imitative BWO PT nymph or a BWO parachute would be a "searching pattern". By that criteria all imitative flies are searching patterns; and when all flies are searching patterns, that term loses all significance.

[McFlyLures 0]

 

I guess I would not say the WD-40 is a "searching" pattern by the criteria I think of for a searching pattern.

A searching pattern should look like a number of different trout foods AND cover a lot of water at different levels; hence, a searching pattern searches the water for fish. A prime example would be a wooly bugger. A wooly bugger covers a lot of water quickly and it can imitate a leech, a minnow, a crayfish, a sculpin, and in small sizes a swimming nymph like a hex nymph and a damsel fly nymph.

Other common searching patterns would be soft hackle wet flies that can be small minnow flies or a number of caddis or mayfly emergers.

A WD-40 is a pretty specific imitation and it is fished dead drift during emergence. If it fished during emergence, then it is not a searching pattern any more than an imitative BWO PT nymph or a BWO parachute would be a "searching pattern". By that criteria all imitative flies are searching patterns; and when all flies are searching patterns, that term loses all significance.

 

Thats totally true. However one could argue that trout would hit a WD-40 even without a Baetis hatch? Some people I know fish this at all times, even when the Baetis are not present.

 

So I guess what I mean is, while its not fished quickly or covers tons of water, the fish seem to like this fly even when not "matching" their food source. Sometimes fish won't hit a streamer or any fast moving fly. When needing to nymph, this is probably one of the more easy to catch fish on flies? And therefor you could use it for searching in those instances?

 

But you are totally right about a streamer or even a soft hackle being a much better search pattern in most circumstances.

[jd1983 0]

It imitates midge pupae and baetis nymphs which are almost always available in the water column. Is a zebra midge a searching pattern? A pheasant tail?

[McFlyLures 0]

It imitates midge pupae and baetis nymphs which are almost always available in the water column. Is a zebra midge a searching pattern? A pheasant tail?

lol true that...

 

Just trying to get convo started here. This time it didn't work too well... I usually get much more. Anyway, thanks for the comments!

[retrocarp 0]

[retrocarp 0]

[retrocarp 0]

[prairiedrifter 0]

Everyone seems to be missing one important fact. Big nymphs start as small nymphs. So small mayfly nymphs are available and in the drift all year. I would argue that a wd-40 is a great searching pattern due to this fact.

[Bruce Norikane 0]

Since we're deep diving on the WD-40, here's a short article on it's origin and inventor, Mark Engler

 

and a video of Engler tying his original WD-40:

 

 

[retrocarp 0]

That was cool Bruce ....Thanks

[feathers5 0]

Like he said in the video, anywhere fish are eating midges and baetis, his tie is a good one. I imagine he means in those colors with a chocolate brown dubbing for the thorax. I guess he's using plain mallard flank for the tail and wing case. Not sure what color thread he is using.

 

What is suggests to me is to change colors and it can represent many things. Am I correct?

[McFlyLures 0]

Like he said in the video, anywhere fish are eating midges and baetis, his tie is a good one. I imagine he means in those colors with a chocolate brown dubbing for the thorax. I guess he's using plain mallard flank for the tail and wing case. Not sure what color thread he is using.

 

What is suggests to me is to change colors and it can represent many things. Am I correct?

Well it's quite common tied in black, brown, olive and gray. That doesn't mean you can't tie it in a multitude of other colors.

[prairiedrifter 0]

I've tied them in every color including pink, purple, blue and chartreuse.