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Sometimes you gotta go against the grain
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| A Brown trout took kindly to the Pink Bling |
On a recent trip to the river expecting some big fish on some big bugs, we weren't disappointed as we arrived on the water to begin the flogging. Bugs were everywhere: caddis, stoneflies, a few mayflies and some nice juicy cicadas. Knowing the bigger fish will often target the bigger meals, I tied on a big chunky cicada pattern and began hucking it into the promising spots. An hour later and only a couple of fish to hand and I tried a stonefly pattern hoping that would be the ticket. Not a bite.
Cheech was having similar results as we switched off throwing different patterns at a very fishy looking seam. Time to change it up. Similar to George Costanza's opposite day, as Jerry puts it, "If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right." So, as these fish obviously didn't care much about our hatch-matching attempts, I figured it was time to do something unconventional and bust out a new favorite: the Blingnobyl Ant. And as we've written previously here and here, the Blingnobyl ant has been a stellar addition to the dry fly arsenal.
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| Another Pink Bling |
The Pink Blingnobyl wasn't going to win any hatch-matching contests yet, it began to immediately produce results. The rest of the day consisted of throwing this gaudy pink attractor pattern into the holding lies and it was topwater carnage.
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| A pile of fresh Blingnobyl Ants |
Granted we've had some great results with this pattern in recent months, but it just goes to show that sometimes you have to shake conventional hatch-matching convention and do something so crazy it might just work. And work it did.
If you missed it the first time around, here's the recipe and the video tutorial:
Material List:
Thread: UTC GSP 100 Red or MFC Premium Thread, Pink 3/0 -- Buy Here --
Under-body: Pearl Cactus Chenille or MFC Lucent Chenille (Small)
Body: Glitter Craft Foam (Pink 2mm) glued to 2mm Fly Tying Foam, Cut to shape
Legs: Rainy's Barred Rubber Legs -- Buy Here --
Indicator: 2mm white fly tying foam -- Buy Here --
I'm excited to tie some of these up. I have a pattern I call "muddy water worm" which is basically a SJW ties with pink micro pearl core braid. It's amazing how well sparklely pink works. I think fish secretly have a sparkle-pizazz side to them that these patterns expose. I've caught some flake over my pink worm pattern, but opinions change once they see how incredibly effective it is when nothing else seems to work. What method/glue do you use to adhere the two foam sheets together?
ReplyDeleteI just use some spray adhesive from Home Depot. Spray one side, smash them together and let 'em dry for a couple of hours...
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