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Materials
You have probably heard the old adage, "dark day, dark fly." In part that comes from the fact that in poor or fading light dark flies are easier to see. That is how it affects the fisherperson. But it also affects the fish. In poor light colors begin to fade and, when seen from below (as the fish sees), flies are seen primarily in silhouette. Color thus becomes less important. Two important hatches here in Montana (where I am writing this) are the flavilinea and the epeorus. Both have olive bodies and gray wings, but the epeorus is much lighter in color and a size smaller (16). Often the hatches overlap and are on the water when the light is poor. It is not difficult to prove to yourself at such a time that size matters, but color does not. I fish both hatches with a sparkle dun, but use flies with varying color bodies. Olive, gray, brown, even black will all work equally well. For the fun of it I have even tried red (red is one of the first colors to fade in poor light). It didn't matter. But switch size and you can be out of business in a hurry. So the message is that the brighter the light the more you need to think about the color of your materials.
Techniques
Do you ever fish weighted nymphs? And also un-weighted ones? When they are sitting in your fly box, how do you tell the difference? On big slugs it may be obvious, but on small patterns it is not obvious at all. A simple way to keep them straight is to tie all the weighted ones of a given pattern with a different color thread than those without weight. The result is a different color head on the two types of flies. Since the color of a head makes little difference to the fish, the problem is solved. At least that is true if you remember which color is which!
Tools and Equipment
Do you use a Materelli whip finisher? For my money it beats any other type by a country mile. It also beats whip finishing by hand: it is faster and more accurate. There are a few flies that are easier to finish by hand, but we need not get into that. If the Materelli is your tool here is a little trick to make it more useful. At the bottom end, just below the lower ball on the handle, is a short tab. File a tiny "V" in the tab, working from both sides so that the result is a sharp notch in the end of the handle. Then when you've tied off a fly, just push the V notch against the thread to cut it off. It will go up tight to the head of the fly and give you a neat cutoff without having to lay down the whip finisher and go at it with scissors.
Dick
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