Easterncaster | Thursday, 26 March 2015
This is story number one on where flies go when they separate from the tippet - a bit like the clichéd missing sock. I say a bit because most do not break off a sock as we do with flies . Has anyone ever broken off a sock?... probably Paul. I don't know what the numbers are but I think it's fair to say, mind you without having a slo-mo video to verify, most socks that go missing do so sans fanfare or notary public.
The Black Ghost streamer is mine - still is, but the emerger with tippet attached is not - well it is now, it wasn't originally. I was stripping said streamer through a favorite run on The Beaver kill and a Brown trout grabbed it. Wonderfully choreographed. I'm such a fine fisherman he said to himself . After a few minutes I netted Mr. Angry Fish.
More choreography - I then performed the traditional rod repositioning shuffle which cleared my hands to free fly from fish. That done, I craddled his honor in the water and waited for him to take his leave which I fully expected to be punctuated by a tail flip baptism. Across my hand I felt the touch of a leader. Huh? I could have sworn that I had removed my fly - being debarbed it slid out easily. Peering down at the fish's jaw I saw no sign of my streamer. A glance off to my right side located it dangling below me, yet I still felt leader. Calling up my inner dentist I inspected again and located a second fly tight to his left mandible, the Hendrickson emerger you see in the photo. Someone else's fly. From my angle it proved a quick operation to pressure the fly backwards - out it came, and off he went.

