Presentaion or Pattern

[Troutstalker55B]

I have a question for you folks and would enjoy your comments. What is more important to you, the presentation or the pattern? It can be moving water or stillwater, but let's talk trout.

Speaking for myself I have to answer this from a perspective of when I starterd, to today. When I started in 1972 I fished the NFFR, the WBFR, and the upper reaches of Trinity river (above the lake). Back then it was all presentation on the "right " water. My flybox only held black, gray, brown, and golden stock river nymphs and Wooley buggers in sizes 6, 8, 12, and 14. My dries were yellow humpys, devil bugs (orange, red, pink, and gray), yellow palmers, and royal coachmans, in the same sizes mentioned above. In this day I would have to say it's still presentation, but depending on the water it's fly first, and at times the fly (a good example would be bank feeders for hoppers on the Madison river - they cant pass up foam and rubber legs but would refuse a Dave's hopper, ect)

What are your thoughts, if any?

Thanks,

Jonny B.

[JT]

There are always going to be exceptions to the rule (like the bank feeders on the Madison), but, in general, presentation seems to be more important than fly pattern. As long as the fly is presented naturally at the level that the fish are feeding, you have a pretty good chance at getting a hook-up, or at least a take.

[FRSam]

That's a tough one Jon...my experience has been it depends on the water you're fishing. Water that sees heavy fishing pressure, whether still or moving, has trout that are more selective, after being tagged once or twice with that hook I think they're a bit more careful about what they'll go after.

I've been on streams where all you had to do was hit the water with something and the fish would be all over it - regardless of what it was. And I've also been on streams where I've emptied my fly box trying to figure out what the heck the fish were taking.

My guess would be if you had two guys standing next to each other fishing a spinner fall hatch using the exact same fly with fish working the guy with the best presentation would take the most fish. But if you gave the guy with the better presentation a hopper to fish in the same situation his number of hook ups would drop off dramatically.

I recall reading in one of Gierach books where he talked about a friend of his who thoroughly enjoyed fishing the selective spring creeks with a big ugly bugger pattern. And he regularly out fished the finesse, match the hatch anglers fishing the same water.

I guess my point of view would be it's a combination of the two - the trout are keying in on what's the easiest, most available natural looking / sounding food form and on heavily fished waters what's least likely to have a hook attached to it.

Pete

[Troutstalker55B]

Thanks JT, and Pete.

This was a big question at the first FFF conclave I went to in MT in 73, All I can say is how things have changed due to fishing pressure. When gold bead heads first came about, I vaccumed the rivers of Nor Cal, I could do no wrong....... 13 years later the beadhead has been seen by way too many trout and had lost the "magic", but still is effective. What about fishing the old flys now? The fish have not seen them for quite some time. I will share this, When fish refuse my pattern I will cut, burn, or mangle wings, tails, and other parts of flys to get a take.

Please keep the comments flowing,

Jonny B.

[Mik]

Presentation in my opinion is 70% of it, okay maybe 75%. You will probably get different answers from everyone depending on what kind of water they fish. I do a ton of back country fishing, where fish are opportunistic. It doesn't matter what I tie on, but if I don't present it right, the fish get spooked. Good question.

[mike N]

I say presentation first and fly selection second.

MN

[dtp916]

Always presentation over imitation.

[bigtj]

In a lot of places you have to have both. On my home river, the Truckee, the fish are usually not very picky, but I have patterns that aren't commercially available that will outfish other similar patterns 3 or 4 to 1. If that doesn't show that pattern is important, I don't know what does. Another example... on some famous spring creeks, like Henry's fork or Silver Creek, you can have the greatest presentation in the world, but if you don't have the right bug under a lot of situations, you are going to get blanked, period. And in a lot of cases, you can get away with a so-so presentation if you have the bug they want. So the way I look at it, you have to have the best bug you can on the end of your line, plus the best presentation you can muster. So why not work on both? Understanding your bugs and your presentation is the key to becoming an expert, learn them well and you will be well served.