You may have had experience of this. A well used and favourite pattern stops working for you. For me it's the Klinkhamer. I have lost faith in it.
The number of refusals I have had on Klinks over the past few years is staggering. I don't believe I am doing anything different. This is mainly river fishing, I still get some fish on them on lochs.
I can't believe the fish get used to seeing them and "wise-up" - that might be the case on very heavily fished waters but I just don't fish places like that. Could it be using a known pattern too often and in inappropriate circumstances create this impression?
What are your own experiences?
Fred,
Know what you mean, for a long time my most reliable fly was a home-spun sparkle spider with a hint of greenwell for old times sake. It never failed me and some days I wouldn't even change flies, I just knew that it would do well. And then, like yourself, the magic subsided , fish didn't seem interested in it any more. I don't think it has much to do with tactics or presentation. It was great to have lots of faith in my fly, but, and I think this is the trap I wandered into, I think I had TOO MUCH faith in it , and when it started to fail I beat my brain looking for a reason. Eventually, I realised that there was no reason, and even if there was it was nothing to keep me awake. I simply had too much faith in this fly. Time to discover another old-faithfull, how about that black spider in the back row there, yep, thats the one. And I'll use him until his karma dries up, or I develope too much faith in him, no worries, life is too short, try something else.