In Neil Patterson's book, Chalkstream Chronicle, he shares with the reader a period in French angling history where there were people who caught trout daily and sold them (angling professionals) for a living. Interestingly, this practice was only outlawed in the 1960's. He notes that these professionals, by choice, fished with flies as they learned this was the most successful way for them to earn a living (catch trout consistently). He reports they either "succeeded or starved". They tied their own flies and over time what evolved was a variety of highly effective "killing" patterns. He notes that what these flies all had in common was that they were very lightly dressed or had a "feathery lightness" and also a low profile in the water. I assume that the streams they fished were probably flat water creeks. He calls this group of specialized anglers, French Assassins.
The other day I was on a local tailwater river and there was a strong hatch of tiny western olives. I spotted a fairly large fish feeding a couple of feet off of the bank in the slack water where the insects were collecting. The rainbow wasn't eating the olives but was occasionally sipping a larger mayfly. I had a small parachute olive rigged but the fish paid no attention to it. The larger mayfly turned out to be, I think, a Mahogany Dun. It was dark chocolate brown ( a bit reddish) very slender and 3 tails. I had several patterns in my fly box and casted a somewhat heavily dressed size 16 fly to it but with no response. I then put on a very sparsely tied ( just a couple of turns of hackle with bottom clipped: a low rider) same size fly and the fish took it. I got a photo and will post it.
On flat water with selective fish "less on the hook" is often better. Much can be learned from a French Assassin.
Voila!
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| Lower Oldman River Rainbow Trout |
