Go To Dry Flies And Pattern Innovation

[Wildfisher]

Some might also argue that taking a near bog standard parachute dun and bending the hook is hardly innovative, personally I think it is

It's not the bending of the hook that is innovative it's the intellectual process that resulted in the bending of the hook in the same way as adding a red tag to a black spider isn't.   :lol:

[Wildfisher]

Do we know what the guy was thinking when he added the red tag? 

that looks nice?   :lol:

I think we agree, there are innovations and there is handle cranking. Adding a red tag, for me, is the latter. It's been done a million times.  I would argue that Bob's DHE was innovative for one major reason. Zero maintenance.  This is a massive, massive plus for any floating fly.

[alba]

my two go to dries must be size 12 olive para, and a grey duster klink, with badger hackle and white kingpost, great all rounder

[east wind]

At the start of the season for March Browns and Dark Olives I now only use Clydestyle dry spider patterns. Scottish tradition at its best. Other styles I've tried will work on hungry trout but don't come close to the effectiveness, simplicity and versatility of the spiders. I'm happy to use them till the end of April.

Over the last five years of so i have became aware of the DHE, and it has really became a favourite throughout May in a #14 using a couple of shades of olive. If i get it right when casting, the fly usually does the rest, hats off to Bob Wyatt or whoever came up with it.

A couple I think I'll use more in the future are the Parachute Adams, tend to forget about it when trying too hard to match stuff. It helped me late on in Sept last season and already this season when troot were ignoring all my patterns the Adams worked, even when the size was way above what was being taken. It must be the shade and its low profile
Also the CDC & ELK looks promising as a general purpose fly, its been taken during the day this year for sedges or olives no probs and last season did well at night.
So again hats off.

I would love to have a favourite in size below #16 as what i use gives me (with good reason) no confidence and usually only works under cover of darkness.

Oh, and the Magpie Tail another Trad pattern which for me outfishes newer imports July/Aug.

On the issue of innovation in Scotland, yes we are being left standing. In the same way as we are in many other industries that at one time we had a foot in, such as golf club/equipment design and we are supposed to have invented the game.

Mac

[Highlander]

I like east wind find that on occasion a dry spider pattern such as the "Clyde, Badger &......"
can & will out fish on occasion the "modern" patterns.
Having said that there is some good stuff out there.
The American comparaduns in all their guises are excellent for emergers.
Hans (Flytier) took took the Deer Hair Caddis added CDC to suggest legs & turned a good fly into a sometime great fly.
The American Adams whilst not an imitative pattern, is good at what it does "Searching" , as does the Humpy.
Nothing is really innovative more variations on a theme. Big difference see is the emergence of new & innovative materials which whilst not originally intend for fly tier have been seized upon to good use.
Others mileage may vary.
Tight Lines

[deergravy]

Deer Hair emerger is for me, flat out the best general fly you can cast to a rising, feeding fish in most circumstances - river or loch.
In smaller sizes - #16 and below - dirty polly is more effective, being easier to tie in a way that floats perfectly, is visible and can be kept sparse and delicate.
As a general prospecting pattern for lochs, the deer hair sedge/ sedgehog is unsurpassed. (I tie mine as a kind of halfway house between them, three bunches of deer hair starting halfway along the body).
I like rubber legs on these, too, if I'm trying to bring a biggie up from nowhere, my hunch is it makes a difference.

None of these are startlingly new or innovative, yet none are traditional, more a synthesis of proven qualities.
And they work - I do like to tinker with the functionality of dry fly design, but I'm not one to fill my boxes with fanciful pish!

Another pattern I've had success with is a suspender buzzer with the polystyrene ball replaced by a loop of poly yarn heavily anointed with mucilin - the yarn loop sits up proud of the surface, much more so than a ball or chunk of foam. Only the body of the fly is submerged.  Still a suspender buzzer, but an improvement, I think.