Reason 2 - Understanding The Insects
Most of us, if hungry, would probably not be too picky if given two choices of food. Presented with a hamburger and a chicken sandwich, the average person likely wouldn’t care too much, and might even eat both. However, if the hamburger abruptly slid across the table on its own, none of us would touch it with a 10 foot pole. Trout are the same. They are opportunistic feeders, but their food acts in a certain way, and when we depart too far from the way that the food acts, we might as well be sliding a hamburger across a table and asking someone to eat it. Fly tying allows us to understand the bugs in a way that we cannot understand without it. If the tyer wants a pattern to sink quickly, it needs to be slim and drag free. However, the same insect as an emerger might be better represented by a fly that incorporates less weight, some cdc, a shuck, and other materials that will help it fish higher in the column. At the end of the day, fly tying will help the driven angler to better understand and imitate the insects and other food forms that trout consume, making him or her more effective as a fisherman.