I recently ventured over to Central Oregon to fish some favorite lakes. I had fished them before so I had a fair understanding of the insects and ‘planned’ accordingly. Weather was perfect, some of the insects were there and to some degree the fish cooperated according to my plan.
I had tied up some Rufus Woolly Bugger patterns and anticipated that pronounced marabou wing enticingly fluttering on the decent. It caught fish, but not as I had figured. I retrieved it much like I do other Buggers and envisioned the draw/drop and how the wing and tail would pulse. Yet, I expected more from it. A black Elk Hair Caddis was a successful evening pattern along the edges, but it seemed to match the amount of Caddis I saw, which were less than I figured. No Hex hatch, no Callibaetis, Scuds didn’t produce once, nothing to small nymphs slowly worked along the weeds.
No, dare I say it…I resisted, honest I did, but the two silly flies below were magical…absurdly magical..and I could not match their success with any of my other usually powerful standbys (like the Little Fort Leech or the Kaufmann Dragon). So, I gave into what was the catnip…two green marabou laden patterns that were fished until they were shredded.
So, from prior experiences I formed a comfortable, likely plan of action with a nice dose of experimentation/anticipation. Things were not turning out according to my plan, but I adapted back to some dependables and it worked…this time.