Throughout childhood, my Grandad told stories of his own fishing exploits. Some of these were classic fisherman’s tales, to tease me. Such tales usually resulted in a monster being caught, the magic formula? Strawberries and cream!
Being completely obsessed with all things fishing, I read everything I could lay my hands on when not waterside. So, when reading a number of carp fishing articles in the 1980’s, I was astonished to see huge fish caught on strawberries and cream boilies. I thought, maybe gramps was not winding me up after all!
So where am I going with this and what does it have to do with fly fishing?
The well publicised captures of these carp, caught on strawberry and cream flavoured boiled baits, resulted in many carp anglers using this bait for quite some time.
When the latest hot fly pattern is broadcast in the fly fishing media, exactly the same thing happens.
The irony is however, when everyone uses the same fly/bait, it rapidly becomes a lot less effective. Typically, the people who used it originally, did so to offer the fish something different, to get an edge. Once it becomes the norm, that edge is lost.
Very often by the time most anglers hear about a hot fly pattern, the originators have already moved on to something else!
Think about that, it might just come in handy!
Thanks for reading.
SJY