I started my days fishing with dries and trying to bring one to the top. After an unsuccessful morning, and needing to kill time before the evenings fishing, I decided to tie a couple of classics in hand while sitting in camp.
I knocked the 1/0 Jock scott out in about an hour (probably would have been done sooner, but trying to find a cotinga feather that has blown off of a camp table and into the bush is almost impossible, but I found the little bugger....) It's tied with all the "real" materials (crow, chatterer, toucan). I will say this about those materials. The Indian crow, along with the toppings absolutely GLOW in the water when the sun shown on them. The cotinga (cayana) washed out to a pale, almost white lavender after a few minutes. I had previously thought that only kingfisher was supposed to do this, but I swear this cotinga washed out. It did regain its color, like kingfisher will when dry. I fished this fly through some very clear water, and it recieved very little interest from the fish, even little ones.
The next fly I tied was a #2 "Garibaldi" fly (as tied by Malloch in Hodgson's book). It is a topping wing fly, and presented some tying challenges in order to be a viable, fishing fly. (lots of wax) But, the effort was well rewarded in having a fly that absolutely came alive in the water. This pattern attracted fish in every run it was fished through (all small, but still getting alot of attention). The hackle came off after a 10" cutthroat thrashed it. The herl head didn't even last that long, but the toppings... oh my. The jay also looked amazing in the water. I plan on fishing alot more topping winged flies, the fish sure notice them.
I wish I had taken a "before" shot of them, but I was more interested in going fishing at the time. I hadn't really put any effort into fishing the classics before now, but plan to alot more in the future.
Aaron
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