Keeping it simple a good fishing strategy
The older I get, the more I appreciate keeping fishing tactics simple. Not that there aren’t times when more complicated riggings are appropriate. But why make things more elaborate when it’s not necessary? During a trout fishing weekend late last month this philosophy was reinforced.
Saturday morning found me along one of Western Pennsylvania’s Delayed Harvest, Artificial Lures Only areas, one that had been stocked a couple of weeks prior. This DHALO area receives rainbow trout mostly, and as many of your know, rainbows are fond of eggs. So it’s no surprise that egg patterns had been productive there. As such, I made an egg pattern, more specifically a Glo Bug, my fly of choice to tie to the tippet end. You can’t get much simpler than a Glo Bug, basically a ball of brightly colored yarn attached to the hook.
I’d taken several trout during an earlier outing on the Glo Bug, but wanted to show the fish something else as well. So I tied about a foot-and-a-half of 4x tippet to the bend of the Glo But hook, then searched in my fly box for a good candidate for the dropper. A couple small orange-colored numbers caught my attention. I can’t recall where I’d gotten them, as a couple buddies and I trade flies we’ve tied, and their origin sometimes becomes lost with time. At any rate, the bead-headed fly — which was basically a just a size 14 scud hook, wrapped with tinsel and finished off with a collar of orange dubbing behind the gold bead — looked right.
During the next hour and a half I hooked about 10 nice rainbows, and all but one fell for the orange pattern, before it became a victim of a snag. I refrained from using the last one, wishing to keep as a sample for future ties, which I knocked out later that evening.
The afternoon of the following day my friend Dave Keith and I were on a section of remote stream in Jefferson County, one that’s produced some nice wild brown trout for us the past couple of years. But most of our prior outings had been during the summer and early fall, when the water was warmer, in the high 50s and low 60s. During such conditions the fish are likely to be holding in pocket water and midstream runs, and willing to move to chase down a lure or fly. Wild trout in moving water are easier to catch, as they’re in such areas to feed, and less likely to detect an angler’s movements.
On this day, though, we didn’t expect to catch any browns from the faster stuff, with the water temperature in the 40 degree range. So we concentrated on pools and areas with cut banks. The day was cold, with occasional snow flakes, and the action was slow. The highlight of the trip was a gorgeous wild brown that came out from an undercut bank to inhale a green weenie.
A green weenie! Now there’s a simple but effective fly. On this particular stream it’s accounted for many of the trout we’ve taken. Simply chenille wrapped around a hook, it likely suggests caddis larvae, or some terrestrial bug that’s fallen in the stream.
A spin-off of the green weenie is a killer on brook trout. Native brook trout are known for liking bright colors, pink in particular. One of my most effective patterns when targeting natives is a weenie pattern, only tied with pink chenille rather than green or chartreuse. And I’ve taken some nice wild browns on it as well. Stream-bred brookies also have a fondness for pink or salmon colored Woolly Buggers, yet another simple pattern.
Perhaps one reason simple flies work well is that since they are easy (and economical) to construct, you fish them near the bottom without fear of losing them, which is where trout are much of the time.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
