When I think of the history of fly tying and the constant pursuit of more
effective fly patterns, I often think of it as the search for the silver bullet. If we could just tweak the pattern a bit, change the color, substitute this or add a little of that, we will discover that silver bullet fly and then just tie the hell out of them. If you look at an older manuscript like Bergman’s “Trout”, look at the fly bins in a shop or page through the catalogs of the major commercial fly suppliers you see it in a big way. The process often results in dozens of fly patterns that have the same form but look just slightly different from the other variations. The styles of flies change over the course of time, but the search for the ever-elusive silver bullet fly never finds its answer. I’m as guilty of this as many, and more than likely have more guilt than many others. When my friends and I fish together, there is often a time in the day when we take a break and look at what each other has been tying lately in our searches for the silver bullet. That’s really not a bad pursuit in life compared to other pursuits, and maybe if I just …….. Till next time ….. www.ramsayflies.com
