Fish Aren’t Necessarily Hooked On Realism

Realism has been a trend in fly tying for about 20 years.

Before the late Lee Wulff died, the creator of the Royal Wulff was experimenting with molded plastic flies with detail rivaling the Creator’s.

Virginia Splawn, to some degree, has bucked the trend. Many of the flies she sells at Terry Tyed Flys flies still have a rough look. They don’t have the polish of flies you’ll find in upscale fly fishing shops. But in many cases, they have a “bugginess” that is lost in the perfection of sleek modern flies.

Some anglers will turn up their noses at these flies. So will fish.

Just before they eat them.

At Cutthroat Creek recently, I left my rod at camp in order to devote my attention to photographing two fishing buddies as they worked a choice run. Each of them caught several fish on their nifty fly patterns. But then the hole went dead.

One partner waded to shore. “Well, I guess that’s that,” he said.

In a film container in my camera pack was a No. 12 Parachute Adams Splawn had told me to try. It was somewhat plump and bushy. The hackle was not evenly trimmed. A shock of white polypropylene billowed upward from the back of the fly

“That’s the ugliest fly I’ve ever seen,” my buddy said. “I’m done. Take my rod and try it.”

I walked into the hole that had been fished to oblivion for half an hour. I made a few fruitless casts to the fringes of the run before dropping the fly into the better trout-holding water.

To make a fairly short story even shorter, In roughly 15 casts, the ugly fly hook seven cutthroats out of a hole that had already been hammered.

To a fish, it seems, ugly can be better.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo