Alternative Flies

The winds are positively howling, as the Catskills are battered by another dangerous cold weather advisory, and I am continuing down the rabbit hole of tying alternative dry flies. The Drowned Hendrickson above provides evidence that I’ve been here before, but I have enjoyed a new concentration in this area as this long, cold winter continues to overcome the best efforts of my old furnace.

Primarily, it was two thousand twenty-five’s decided lack of mayflies that has caused my attentions to turn. If there aren’t many bugs, the happy-go-lucky fly fisher might suppose that trout would be eager to eat most anything cast upon the waters, but if anything, our wild Catskill brownies proved even more difficult and selective than usual. While I am hoping for improved hatches in twenty-six, I have been preoccupied with producing some very different flies for my chosen regimen of surface fishing.

That Drowned Hendrickson was a forerunner to an expanding group of CDC soft hackles, and I have also combined that concept with the soft hackled dry flies previously expounded upon.

The concepts are sound, promoted by longevity as well as the newest studies and opinions regarding vulnerable flies featured in Mr. Hayes’ and Mr. Stazicker’s recent work.

If mayflies prove to be scarce again this season, something that could easily happen, it stands to reason that a trout which is less likely to rise for floating duns he has not been seeing regularly, might be significantly more likely to tip up and sip a fly struggling in the surface film. It certainly cannot hurt to offer these in the forms of imitations of the mayflies of the season, rather than fishing purely generic patterns.

The new series of Transitional Duns that I have produced this winter follow the same reasoning. When fly hatches are lean and sporadic, many trout are less likely to rise to a dun imitation, even a very good one. My Transitionals are designed to ride awash, while still displaying the trigger of an emergent set of wings.

Fishing of course, is still two months away. I have plenty of time to continue filling a fly box with an array of new ideas, as I work to pass all of those frigid days while retaining my sanity!