Keep it simple is an often used phrase that we can apply to many aspects of fly fishing. This month Keith Passant looks at fly fishing and uses this logic.
I have been fishing for probably fifty years and fly-fishing for the last thirty. During that time I have gone through all the stages you can imagine: the net made from old curtains and a garden cane to the carbon fibre whizzbang up to date rods reels and lines. I have enjoyed every minute of it and to be honest some more than others.
However we have a tendency in my view to over complicate matters when we fish, yet we hear people using the mantra of KISS. Keep It Simple Something!! So what do they mean by that? How simple do we need to keep it? When I look at the plethora of equipment that is available it becomes easy to see how you can become bogged down with “stuff” for fishing. As game anglers we defend our fishing method to anyone who says “I couldn’t sit on a river bank all day” by saying we move around and don’t get time to get bored. Now that implies we are a mobile little lot but if that’s the case why do we carry a bag and a fly-vest with lots of pockets full of “stuff” around. Surely using the KISS mantra we should have a rod, reel, line, leaders and tippet and a few flies. Net, floatant sinkant and away we go.
Wonderful if we do that but the security blanket of just in case pops in and we take the extra fly box "just in case", the twenty spools of tippet etc., etc., all “just in case”.
Well if you must you must but I really am trying to get away from carrying all the “stuff” I don’t really need for my personal fishing. I completely understand when there is a need to carry extras, for example if you are miles from the car or more likely (as some of our contributors do), guiding clients.
These days I am applying that KISS thing to the fly tying I do too. So how KISS are the flies I tie? Well I have a few patterns that I like to use and my current thing is to get flies that suit both stillwaters and rivers. There are already a few patterns I use that have effectively stood the test of time. Not patterns I came up with by any stretch of the imagination but flies like the Black Pennell, Black and Peacock spider, Red Tag. Plus a myriad more. So what have I got for you in this issue?
Well yet again I am hoping what I show you here will get your own creative juices flowing. None of the flies have a huge list of materials. What they are effectively is a generic style of fly that can be used in most water courses.
The first picture is of a small selection of material that can produce a wide range of patterns. In
the list there is some synthetic dubbing, a couple of hen capes, Pearsall’s silks in a couple of colours, CDC and some partridge feathers. The hooks I have used are Fulling Mill and Veniard barbless. Really nice hooks to use and they won’t break the bank.
So onward and upward and first off the vice is a Partridge and Orange. A classic spider pattern and one it’s easy to get wrong. Just because the materials list is fairly small our “just in case” syndrome kicks in and we end up over dressing the fly. Too much thread, too many turns of hackle and the fly just "looks" wrong. Here is how I tie the fly. Note the emphasis on how I tie the fly.
As opposed to the conventional start position behind the eye of the hook I start the thread opposite the point of the hook. This creates a slim profile as there is only one layer of thread not the down and back double layer.
Tie in the hackle by the tip of the feather.
Hackle wound ONE turn to produce the following effect.
Nothing to it is there? The hook is a 14 and when wet looks like this.
The fly can be tied in just about any colour thread/feather combo but this is the classic. Another point here is the use of real un-waxed silk from Pearsalls. The colour changes when it takes on water as can be seen in the photos. Variants have evolved of course. A fuller hackled fly using more turns of feather is known, funnily enough by our brothers across the puddle, as the American P & O. The fly can occasionally be seen with a gold rib too. Ideally it fishes as an emerger or nymph and works well in spinner falls of olives. Colour variants include yellow and green.
Another no frills fly I tie is a simple cdc pattern. Again I use Pearsall silk, this time in primrose. Its origins I suppose are in the Greenwell's Glory. I use primrose silk but wax the thread on this one with a cobblers wax substitute. What that does is turn the silk olive in colour as you can see below.
Having run the thread from behind the eye to the point of the hook I then rib the fly in open turns using the tying silk as the rib. A smidgen of synthetic hare's ear is added as a thorax at this point prior to an olive cdc feather being tied in by the point. A couple of turns and that’s the fly done. The thorax stops the hackle fibre collapsing when wet. It works a treat in hatches of olives. See below.
A small nymph pattern I use is basically a version of a flymph but tied spider style.
The bead is tungsten 1.5mm and a small Greenwell’s hen hackle is tied in and a couple of turns wrapped.
With all these flies weight can be added and the simplest method for that is to use a heavier hook. One of the best is the old Kamasan B175. Solid as a rock and only a tad lighter. Sprite wet fly hooks, Fulling Mill Competition Heavyweight and Veniard Osprey Wet fly hooks are all great spider and flymph hooks too but you no doubt have your favourites.
As you can see the KISS (what DOES that second “S” stand for ?) principle is in full flow here. A couple of easily available materials and a host of patterns come to the vice. One pattern that is not mine but has served me magnificently is this final offering. It’s a fly a friend of mine gave me many moons ago. Dave is an American gentleman and when I went to visit him he gave me this fly to try. It is called Al’s Rat and is just brown thread and muskrat fur. I have had fish on it when nothing else works and it’s good down to a 32. Yes I said a 32 so you can imagine how long that takes to tie. The best brown I have had from one of the Bristol reservoirs came to a 32 fished as a single fly!!! The top fly in the photo is a 14 and the lower a 30.
So there you have a couple of ideas to try. My thoughts are just that, my thoughts. What I do hope is that they inspire you to Keep It Simple but don’t be Stupid about it.
Tight lines and tighter threads.