It's rainy and cold and not much to do but tie flies for next year and think about fishing. I tried an experimental foam and hairwing dragon fly looking thing - sort of. It's not too pretty but then fish aren't too smart. A couple of years ago a fishing buddy and I were up on Caddo Lake in East Texas. We were kayaking along, catching a few on underwater lures. There was a bass tournement so places were a bit like a freeway. We rounded a cypress island and I saw a dragon fly hovering over the water and, bloop!, a big red ear jumped out of the water and got him. I told James "Those guys in the bass boat didn't see that". He agreed. I said, "You know they really don't care either". "Nope." Anyway I switched over to a popper and started catching them one after the other.

I grew up in Arkansas. I was a teenager flyfishing a stock pond in the hot summer time and not really catching anything. Cows were in the pond up to about their bellies trying to stay cool. Flies were buzzing around them. I started watching and perch were jumping out of the water and grabbing flies off and near the cows' bellies. That was in the 60's, the only time I ever saw it happen and it's still one of the coolest things I've seen fishing. Come to think of it, when I was a was a real youngster of about 8 to 10 around Delight, AR ,a buddy and I used to swat house flies for bait (too hot and dry to find worms) and fish for little perch on the Little Wolf Creek with hooks of about 16 size. We caught a lot of little perch and I suppose you could argue we were fly fishing then. Hmmmmm... Maybe I should try to tie something like a house fly.

Like I said, it's cold and raining and ....

Doug

Doug

The belly fly hatch is a great story!
Taking ones time and observing is a vital piece of fishing technology that all too many anglers (self included) leave out. Taking a few minutes to observe what is going on in, under and on the water and starting from there.

Some black dubbing and some krystal flash could make a decent housefly pattern.

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RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
northtexasonthefly@attbi.com

Black dubbing and Krystal Flash could work. I've been thinking about a pattern for a short, fat bodied fly like a house fly. Black dubbing for the body and a little Krystal Flash for the wings would do it. Thanks, Doug

something like that would get tore up by the bluegills!

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RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
northtexasonthefly@attbi.com