I really am amazed at how well the Sheep Creek Special works. I started an experiment to see if an easier to tie version worked just as well. First off I decided to see how long each pattern would take to tie. So, I tied the flies above timing their production. The differences in times were not amazing but significant if tying dozens in a session. The fly on the left, the peacock body ribbed in copper wire took 12:59 to tie, or an average of 2:10 to tie. The middle fly, wrapped body with wing took 14:30, or 2:25 per fly. Fifteen seconds more. The last fly, the Sheep Creek Special too 16:30 to tie, or 2:45 per fly. Thirty-five seconds longer than just the wrapped body and 20 seconds more than the middle fly version. The time just didn’t seem to be significant to me unless one of the simpler versions matched or exceeded the success of the standard Sheep Creek Special.
Don’t be too impressed with my tying speed. Randall Kaufmann, a famous fly tier could tie a standard dry fly including wings in under 1 minutes. Also, half of the flies above were not suitable for commercial sales. I tie fast and fish the “rejects” or “seconds” that I tie.
Two nights ago I fished the Sheep Creek Special and the Peacock Only fly and recorded their times of use on my line. Both flies averaged about 13 fish landed per hour (huge pod of 11 – 13 inch planters) I thought I was clever and created a schedule of 30 minute periods, randomly assigned to the three versions of flies at the top of this post. I wanted to see if there was a statistical advantage to one of the flies.
So, last night I fished 3 hours in 6 thirty minute sessions, two with each pattern. The results are not statistically significant due to the small number of minutes fished. The results were:
Peacock Body: 1 strike, 0 hooked, 0 landed
Wrapped Body with Over-wing: 16 strikes, 5 hooked, 5 landed
Sheep Creek Special: 18 strikes, 14 hooked, 11 landed
Last night the fish were smashing the Sheep Creek Special, hooking themselves 14/18. The Wrapped Over-Wing had almost the same number of strikes, but the fish were not hooking up. The Peacock Body that matched the Sheep Creek Special two nights ago was a bust. I had planned to continue this experiment (yes, a real, designed, and randomized experiment) until each fly had been fished for 10 hours.
I was going crazy fishing an ineffective fly (Peacock Body) when I could have been fish the most productive fly of the night. Fishing an hour with the Wrapped Over-Wing was just as frustrating as the strikes were gentle pokes at the fly. The Sheep Creek Special induced strong attacks and hookups.
So, I spent two hours fishing, for this evening, two less effective flifly patterns. I could have fished the Sheep Creek Special all night and would have had more success. To test this, I fished a 7th session with the Sheep Creek Special (30 minutes) and had 15 strikes, 10 hookups, and landed 6 fish.
If my experiment had any value other than to myself, I would continue. However, I would rather spend my retirement fishing with the most productive fly each session. It could be any one of these flies on any given day / condition. I’ll just keep them all available to figure out what fly is hot per given day.
Tight Lines!!