"The Fisherman"

"in their simplest form".....that is part of the subtitle of this blog. It has been my way of fishing from the start and is still the way I do it.

I had tied up some flies last week and was anxious to give them a try. I had planned on fishing them entirely leaving my trusted flies in the box. I arrived at the river and geared up. The fly on the the tippet was the fly I fished last, an elk hair caddis and that was the fly I fished first. The caddis was given ample time to bring some action but failed. Flies were changed, and changed again but the result was the same and although a strike or two occurred I felt it was not happening.

While fishing I took notice of an angler close by who was apparently watching me for some time. The angler was not your typical fisher in both looks and garb but one who has had some success in catching his share.

The look on the fishers face told me that I need to simplify and that all would be well. Looking into the fly box I selected one of the soft hackles I had tied. The light came on and I tied on one of the flies.

Now I'm not going to tell you that I fooled every trout in the river that day, but I will tell you this the day was indeed fruitful. The pure simplicity of these flies is what make them so appealing both to fish and fly fisher.

As I brought my third trout to hand that morning my angler friend seemed to have a smile on his face..."simplicity"....