I fished Ten Mile again today. I arrived at 2:00 PM and there was no wind, but fish were rising everywhere around me. I, of course, tied on a sheep creek special and had a hit on my first cast. Then, casting for 30 minutes with fish all around me rising and jumping out of the water without a single strike. I switched flies to an ostrich callibaetis and a size 12 herniator, both to no success.
I switched to my nymphing rig had strikes on my first 6 casts. I just couldn’t hook the fish. Then, the wind came up and the fish stopped rising as much. I went back to stripping sheep creek specials because of the chop and the lack of risers. Lo and behold, the “old conditions” held up and I released 30 fish over the next 3 hours. Two fish were 16 inches long and one was 14 inches. All the rest were planters between 10 and 13 inches long.
I have been tying modified sheep creek specials to see if I can not use the hackle in the back of the fly. However, I have noticed that when the sheep creek special gets wet, the hackle shoots out in a star pattern perpendicular to the hook. I imagine that the hackle straitens out on the strip, and reverts to the star pattern on the pause. The fish usually take the fly on the pause.
I’ve tied up a dozen of the flies in the picture above. I did not hackle the fly while adding thick gold ribbing to increase the longevity of the fly in use. I know that to test a variable (no hackle) you keep everything the same and don’t add a new variable (ribbing). Oh well, I left them at home by accident today so I couldn’t test their success rate compared to fish actively taking the standard Sheep Creek Special.
I am tying up another dozen standard Sheep Creek Specials tonight. I have put the variation above into my box so they are always available. The next time I find a pod of fish taking Sheep Creek Specials as if they were candly, I’ll try the variations to see if I find a noticeable difference.
Tight Lines All!