My solution in both cases was a soft hackle in the right colors, fished in the film to those rising Cutthroats. But the selective fish fed only on the predominant insect, ignoring the other species that had been hatching only minutes before. In addition to having to modify my leader and tippet to fish the two different hatches, the day was alternating between clouds and sun about every twenty minutes. When the sun was obscured by clouds, the small insects ceased hatching, and I was treated to large Gray Drakes, Siphlonurus in size #8. When the sun shone, tiny Baetis, #20, suddenly covered the riffle and trout fed avidly. It was October, and the first snowflakes of the year fell gently on my nose and on the water. Some years ago, I was tested by a dual-hatch situation that occured on the Lamar River in Yellowstone Park. This means that as the size of an imitation decreases, the mobility and softness of the materials used increases. So what is a “Floppy Fly?” An insect imitation that appears alive when set in motion by river currents. At the fly shop, we’d “ooh” and “aah.” As impressive as those flies were, they were designed for human wonderment, not the hungry eyes of trout. I remember a young, talented fly tier who delighted in exacting imitations of insects that had bent legs, gossamer wings, properly uplifting tails, and even the correct number of abdominal segments. We often forget that our beautifully tied flies are meant to appear alive, in and on the water. We try to find the stiffest, most web-free hackles for dry flies, and the softest deer or elk hair for Caddis imitations. We use Grouse and Hen neck feathers for soft hackles. We pick Marabou for its ability to wave around and give the impression of a leech. Our fly tying materials vary a great deal in softness. The smaller ones were much stiffer, and therefore more resistant to being animated by water. The larger flies moved a bit in the currents, simulating life. But the way those materials worked in the water was very different. They were all based on the profile we now associate with a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear. Skues, before WWII, a forward-looking Orvis catalog listed what was described as “All Purpose Nymphs” in three basic colors and a variety of sizes. Back when most fly fishers had never heard of nymphs, or Mr.
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