The curious fly tyer, no. 25

The necessity of grey flies – Grey flies are overlooked, under-fished and unappreciated. Bill Logan shows how to tie an easier Humpy to increase the fun and efficacy of his grey flies.

Grey flies aren’t attractive or clever. I’ve never found one that was hard to tie. Overlooked and under-fished, good, basic gray flies are too often unappreciated – until we wish we had them. It always happens on days when fishing should either be easy or is the toughest. I’m not talking about the times when there is a definite hatch going. Lucky enough to be there and wisely prepared, we might very well have to cycle through our arsenal; Nymph, Emerger, Cripple, Dun, Spinner, and back again.

How often have you put on a fly, immediately caught a trout and then found your fly cursed? Change to something new and the curse is lifted. For a single fish. Over and over it happens as the dimples and rings keep appearing. That’s especially challenging fishing but the task is still clearly laid out. It’s up to us to meet it as best we may, all the while amused, perplexed and actually quite fortunate. Long afterwards we’ll wonder what was going on and in our mind’s eye be back on that water.

I want you to think about something: if you have to use the term sort of to describe a fly, it may be one you had better have with you. A fly, which, for instance, is sort of gray, and sort of cream is also sort of both. The very fact that it’s not an exact fit for one thing or another increases the odds of your success when you need to spread your bet. Gray is really a mess of many colors. You can make it lean any way you wish. There’s your clue. Don’t tie solid gray flies. Mix things up a bit! Make sure you have a few little mayfly look-alikes and never, ever, ever be caught without a gray size 16 Elk Hair Caddis. It is hands down the best standard-duty floater ever devised. And as for a chubby fly that will play a whole cast of summer bugs? I choose the Humpy. Old as the hills, you actually get to add just a touch of colour to it!

For the most part, gray flies are too plain to excite admiration. You can tie clever, pretty flies for that and love it when you use them. Keep your fail-safe flies close. There will be hard days ahead but there will be easy ones, too, when you need nothing else. Your simple gray fly will have all the colours in the rainbow snapping at it.

Learn from the pros
I try to keep stocked with several sizes of the Guide Fly Dun. It uses the bag of tricks we talked about last winter (Which Fly Works Best, January 2005 issue). Gold Mylar tinsel underlies the body. The mixed dun/barred dun hackle is tied with two different sized feathers (more about that in a moment). I’ve skipped the wing in favor of a cream-coloured foam-post attached with the last wraps up front. This is a practical, effective fly you can keep track of.

We call such patterns guide flies in the USA. They’re the sort knocked out by those with great need, little time and a never-ending parade of gaping fly boxes to fill. These trusted souls have a tough job. To do it well, clients have to reliably catch fish. So should the rest of us!