S C O T T S O M M E R L AT T E
F LY F I S H I N G
Controlling the Fly As of late, several of my customers have made note of and questioned the process I go through every time I get ready to tie a fly on the end of a leader. Actually, it was more a matter of them making fun of me taking a fly out of the box, looking it over and then putting it back in the box. Then, choosing another, and yet another before finally tying the fly onto the leader only to cut the fly off and then tie another knot. “Is it really necessary?” one of them recently asked. I answered with a definitive- yes. Do not get me wrong, there are days that you can lob whatever you want out there and a fish will just choke it down. However, the fish are not always in a feeding frenzy. Remember, most of the fish that we pursue with a fly rod are in fact opportunistic feeders, especially those that we chase on a regular basis here in Texas. In other words, when presenting a fly to a fish that is not actively feeding, it is very important that everything is perfect. Everything from the color of the fly all the way down to the knot I choose to connect the 64 | June 2014
fly to the leader factors into my choices. Having written about choosing the right fly before, I will not beat that dead horse again, other than to say- some days it is very important to “match the hatch” in not only profile, but also size and color. But there is much more to it than that. First, lets talk about the fly before it makes it into your fly box. There is what seems like thousands of patterns to pick from which in all reality, are just all variations of about 6 or 7 basic patterns. And, the variant in each of these flies is usually the material in which they are tied. The use of the different materials can in some cases be the difference between catching fish and not catching fish. The reason for this is because- the action and sink-rate of a fly can be controlled by the amount and types of materials in which it is tied. It is important to realize that the bulkier a fly is tied, the slower it will sink and, as a rule, synthetic hairs or fibers sink faster than natural