Book number three, “Long Flies”  in our Fly Fishing book series is coming together rather nicely. Like the other books, it is focused on the topic and the how-to information is developed around the underlying concepts. There are stories to illustrate the technical information as well as color photos and design sheets for the over 130 long flies discussed in the book. This story is one that illustrates the potency of a fly with the all the right stuff.

Nancy and Jason and I had gone to fish the Yellow Breeches and Boiling Spring Creek in south central, Pennsylvania, and we were having a fun day. It was one of those soft, warm mornings in spring when the blue of the sky seems to overwhelm all of nature. The leaves were fresh and new to their work, and flowers just couldn’t seem to show off enough.

In addition, we’d been finding some fish. The world seemed a good and happy place. But then I saw the rainbow. It was holding on the bottom, right in the middle of the stream, with no apparent cover any place in sight. It was if to say, “nah, nah, nah, nahnah nah, you can’t catch me.” No kidding. Mr. Fish. I tried everything I could think of: tiny cressbug imitations, minute midge larvae, tiny mayfly nymphs, and every other little thing that I had in the box. It was obvious the fish was not interested in eating, and was just sitting there oblivious to the world.

I wandered off and went to look at the old, stone, iron furnace that stood nearby. There had been one only a mile and a half from my parents’ home near Cooperstown, in Venango County, Pennsylvania, and when I was very young, we’d stopped and looked at it several times and discussed the iron industry in early colonial times. This one along the banks of the Boiling Spring was in better condition than the one near my parents’ home, and I spent perhaps an hour looking it over carefully. Then I headed back to the creek to fish, specifically to fish for that big, sullen rainbow.

When I got back to its lie, it was till there, plainly visible to everyone that walked past. I’ll bet it had seen ever artificial fly every created. As that thought passed through my mind, I grinned to myself. “I’ll bet it had never seen a Silver Leech; I’ll show it one and see what it does.” The Silver Leech had literally just come off the vise a few days before in a fit of preparatory tying for the trip. It was a modification of the original Strip Leech, which I had tied in black, brown, and olive as leech imitations. For this trip, I had added one in gold and one in silver to mimic baitfish.

The fly plopped into the water a few feet up current from the big trout and began to sink, swimming enticingly as it dove head first for the bottom. The rainbow never hesitated. It blasted off the bottom and inhaled the fly in one seamless movement. I was startled at the suddenness of its action, but I still put the iron to him with serious determination. After a rather exciting period of ripping up and down stream, the 23-inch rainbow came to shore, got unhooked, and returned to its “spot” as if what it had done was an everyday occurrence. I can guarantee it was a not an everyday occurrence for me. But, then again, it happens far more often with long flies than with any other imitation.

The Silver Leech has proven to be a great fish attracting long fly.