Looking Buggy

I’ve never been a flyfisher who matched the hatch, that is, identified the insects that were hatching at any one time and that the fish were feeding on, and then tied on a fly that mimicked that insect to fool the trout into taking it. For one thing, the waters I fish don’t seem to have all that many hatches, at least not that I’ve encountered. And even when they do I can’t see what the fish are rising to, and even if I could I wouldn’t know what kind of bug I was looking at. On the one or two occasions a year I do stumble into a hatch, I just tie on whatever’s the easiest for me to see on the water; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But the far majority of the time, I fish nymphs below the surface. And the nymph pattern I use most – probably 80%-90% of the time, any time of the year – is the muskrat nymph, the first fly I learned to tie, and the easiest. It’s simply a #18 to #12 nymph hook, with black thread, dubbed gray muskrat fur body (guard hairs picked out), and a peacock herl thorax. For the past 10 years or so I’ve added a brass bead’s head to add weight and attraction. My understanding is that the fly is used most often in the waters of Pennsylvania. I’ve never seen it in fly bins here in the Midwest, and a few years ago, when I needed a new muskrat pelt I finally found one in a fly shop in St. Louis, where the owner had a large one stowed away in the back, which he just gave to me gratis, having no use for it himself. I’ve since used maybe 10% of the pelt on maybe 100 muskrat nymphs, and will probably die before I can use up even half of the remaining fur. I don’t know if the fly is supposed to imitate any particular insect, but my guess is that it is good at simply “looking buggy,” the primary criterion identified by a cousin of mine who first instructed me in fly tying. I imagine the wispy fur of the body in the drift, the translucent glow of the peacock herl in the sun, the shine of the brass bead’s head work together to look sufficiently buggy. It’s at least worked well for me. And is always a reminder of what may well be a primal truth – that simple is best. Or to quote Thoreau from another context, "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity." Though buggy is good too.