Sweet Little Lies

Sweet Little Lies

Martyn White | Thursday, 16 January 2025

I watched a fly tying video the other day and it got me thinking about how easy it is to lie to ourselves about things in fishing, particularly with, but not limited to flies. I'm sure we all do it to a greater or lesser degree, even those of us who think we're rational.

So the video I watched was a guy tying a wet fly and he had moved the tinsel tag. Usually it would be tied round the bend before the tail, but he had decided to tie it in after the tail because the tail obscures the view of the tag when tied in the usual manner. And "it had worked for him". Now I don't doubt that it works, what I doubt is that it makes any difference at all. There is so little difference from a fish eye view especially as the rest of the dressing does much the same job of obscuring the tag as the tail. Given how trout see these flies from below it doesn't matter if the tail makes the tag less visible from above and ultimately the fish is still seeing a small claret and brown object with a little flashy bit at the back. But it works for him. Does it matter, not really I suppose and maybe it generates a bit of confidence which is a good thing. However, I think it also gets in the way of real improvements, especially as it's such a common thing to make these superficial changes and think they matter. As we have no real way of A/B testing these things I don't see it changing any time soon.

Similarly, it's not unusual to hear people confidently describing what has happened several feet underwater 30 yards away. I've seen it on videos, I've read it in magazines and I've had conversations while fishing. Quite recently a guy was telling me how he'd caught a sea bass in the estuary, he was swinging a clouser on a type 3. Nothing special there. But he then proceeded to tell me about how the fish had tracked all the way round and then ate as the fly turned and sped up on the swing. This is possible, but he can't know that's what happened - I asked if he'd seen the fish and he said no, it was too dark but I asked anyway just in case. In fact, knowing the area and having been there in the daytime and at low tide, I'd say there's just as much chance or more that the bass was sitting in structure, as they like to, and only traveled a short distance to eat the fly as it passed by. But there's no real way of knowing. This kind of thing at least has some function. If we know how fish are behaving we can fish more effectively, but there's always a danger that the story we're telling ourselves can make us less efficient. I don't know why he'd created that narrative, perhaps generalising from some other species. But I don't think I'd make such a confident statement about what was going on.