USD Flies *

[Traditionalist]

Answers to various questions;


Up to now I have only used a couple of hooks, Ordinary Mustad round straight bends. As long as the hook has a round bend and is straight ( not kirbed or reversed), I don?t suppose it matters much.

Extra fine wire would certainly make it easier to float the flies, especially "high floating"duns, but I have never used any. I have no difficulty in floating the ones I use.

The smallest I have used is a size 16. This is about the smallest size fly ( hook!) I use anyway.

There is no need to add a shuck, tails, etc. The tippet serves this purpose, and this also conceals the tippet.

I have ONLY fished with flies using hare fur and a couple of other things. I am sure there are quite a few materials which will work, especially in smaller sizes, ( antron etc) for wings. I see no problem in mixing materials as long as they have the right properties. I have quite a few flies which I dressed with various things, and they look good, but I have not tried them yet. They are merely bench tested, bowl of water etc.

You can use it as a searching pattern and it works very well. I have also used it exclusively for rising fish, irrespective of what they were taking, and my take, and hook up rate increased enormously. However, the waters I fish are limited, and there are rarely situations where the fish are fixated on a particular hatch, so this will have to be tried by somebody else. I assume it will work just as well, but I don?t KNOW that of course.

One may also dress more specific imitations using the same design if one wishes, and I have actually dressed a few, but I have only fished with the hare versions up to now.

I fish heavily pressured waters, and some of the fish are hammered. Conventional flies of varying type and provenance just were not working very well any more. I caught fish on them, but not as often as I would like, and I also got very many refusals, even on what many would consider to be "good" imitations.

This hare fly has solved most of my problems. I get very few refusals, and I also get more hook-ups from the increased number of positive takes. The fish are also better hooked! So I am really pleased with the fly.

For me, it has now worked in many situations where other flies simply have not worked in the past.

It is my personal belief that this is primarily due to the removal of negative triggers.

Taken alone, these "negative triggers" may not be all that important. Fish may well tend to "ignore" hooks, or "ignore" bushy hackles", or "ignore" glinting tippet coming off the head of a conventional fly, or "ignore" the over-large hackle footprint. But all these things together add up to a pretty impressive array of "negatives".

The USD hare has none of them, and I think that is the main reason why it works so well, irrespective of any other considerations, which however are also advantageous.

Quite a number of people have now maintained that I should indeed give this fly a name, although this is something I actually very rarely do. I see no reason not to simply call it the USD Hare.

One last point which I kept meaning to mention, as it was in my original design catalogue, but I have consistently forgotten in these discussions. Getting the hook out of the water is not merely to conceal it, although this was one of my primary targets.

The main reason many flies begin sinking prematurely, is because the hook breaks through the surface film, and this allows water to start wicking up it. Eventually, water creeps further and further up the fly, and it sinks.

This does not happen with the USD hare. Which is another major advantage.

TL
MC