old-fashioned

Mostly I've been going through older saltwater books, and picking out patterns that I used to fish.  I've been playing with a few that are new, to me at least. One book I like in particular is Lefty's Saltwater Fly Patterns, published over 30 years ago it's full of flies from as far back as the 1940s. And while there's been a lot of progression in the intervening years,there are still flies in there that are as good or better than anything that has come since. Take the Homer Rhode/Seaducer for example, in my opinion there's nothing better than it at doing what it does. I'd be delighted to be introduced to one, but I can't see it happening. 

 

Others might look a bit weird nowadays, maybe because of materials having fallen from fashion or general aesthetic choices having moved on, but that doesn't mean that they don't catch fish. Dan Blanton's flies might be a good illustration of this, how many people still fish the sar-mul-mac? I don't think it's many.  To tell the truth, I've not fished one for years either. It's deadly but a bit of a convoluted tie, largely because of the materials that were available back when Dan came up with it. And  anyway a bucktail deceiver or smaller Sedotti slammer will do pretty much the same job, with fewer materials needed. 

 

One of the things that I really like about a lot of the flies in the older books is that there tends to be no unnecessary nonsense on them. Probably because of the limits of the material that were available meant that most patterns and certainly any developments, function had to come first. The deceiver was a move away from feathers tied traditionally as wings to give a longer fly that didn't foul, it's failry easy to tie,  fairly durable, doesn't need any hard to get materials -although good bucktail is getting harder to find- and it works great which is why it has such stayng power.  I know a fly has to appeal to the angler to a degree, but for my own box, I'm not a fan of unneccessary embelishments.  If I can tie a fly in 2 minutes and it will work just as well as a ten or fifteen minute tie I'm tying the 2 minute fly, unless there's some other advantage in the longer tie like durability that makes it make more sense to spend the extra time tying it. Surf candies take longer than Brooke's blondes, but the total tying time to keeep a box stocked with blondes would be greater in the long run.  The POD is a variation on Chico's Snapping Shrimp, it's pure simplicity, a bit of dubbing or yarn and a wing of craft fur. You can add weight in the form of bead chain or dumbbells if you want, but tied blind it's an excellent fly for when the fish are in the really skinny stuff it's easy to adjust the colours to suit different bottoms. I timed myself tying it in no great hurry and it took 3 minutes and about 20 seconds, if I was in a real hurry I could use yarn and probably knock nearly a minute off the time.  Although I don't fish it much now, over the years it's caught me bones, assorted snappers  emperors and trevallies as well as carp and smallmouth bass in freshwater and it'll definitely be making a comeback in my box.

 

Not all modern flies have abandoned this, brush flies are wonderful examples of simple no nonsense functionalty. Shaped, I believe, by the pressures of fishing for tiger fish.  They work, they're  versatile, reasonably tough and quick to tie. I'd love to see flytying, especially saltwater and predator flies, trend back towards function and simplicity, it's always better.